![\"File:Elisabeth](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/e\/e1\/Elisabeth_Vig%C3%A9e-Lebrun_-_Portrait_of_Madame_de_Sta%C3%ABl_as_Corinne_on_Cape_Misenum_-_WGA25074.jpg\/689px-Elisabeth_Vig%C3%A9e-Lebrun_-_Portrait_of_Madame_de_Sta%C3%ABl_as_Corinne_on_Cape_Misenum_-_WGA25074.jpg\")
<\/b><\/p>\n<\/b><\/p>\n
Anne Louise Germaine de Sta\u00ebl-Holstein<\/b>\u00a0(French:\u00a0<\/small>[stal]<\/a><\/span>; n\u00e9e\u00a0Necker<\/b>; 22 April 1766\u00a0\u2013 14 July 1817), commonly known as\u00a0Madame de Sta\u00ebl<\/b>, was a French woman of letters of\u00a0Genevan<\/a>\u00a0origin whose lifetime overlapped with the events of the\u00a0French Revolution<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Napoleonic era<\/a>. For many years she lived as an exile under the\u00a0Reign of Terror<\/a>\u00a0and under Napoleonic persecution. Known as a witty and brilliant conversationalist, often dressed in flashy and revealing outfits, she participated actively in the political and intellectual life of her times. She was present at the first opening of the\u00a0Estates General<\/a>\u00a0and at the\u00a0Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen<\/a>.[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Her intellectual collaboration with\u00a0Benjamin Constant<\/a>\u00a0between 1795 and 1811 made them one of the most celebrated intellectual couples of their time. Together, they developed an early and influential critique of political absolutism, directed both against revolutionary terror and against the emerging authoritarianism of Napoleon. They discovered sooner than others the tyrannical character and designs of Napoleon.[2]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In 1814 one of her contemporaries observed that “there are three great powers struggling against Napoleon for the soul of Europe: England, Russia, and Madame de Sta\u00ebl”.[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Her works, both novels and\u00a0travel literature<\/a>, with an emphasis on passion, individuality and oppositional politics made their mark on European\u00a0Romanticism<\/a>. At the same time, her writings articulated a liberal vision that combined emotional sensibility with constitutional restraint, setting her apart from both Jacobin radicalism and imperial centralism.<\/p>\n Germaine (or\u00a0Minette<\/i>) was the only child of the prominent Genevan banker and statesman\u00a0Jacques Necker<\/a>, who was the\u00a0Director-General of Finance\u00a0<\/a>under King\u00a0Louis XVI of France<\/a>. Her mother was\u00a0Suzanne Curchod<\/a>, also of Swiss birth, who hosted in\u00a0Rue de la Chauss\u00e9e-d’Antin<\/a>\u00a0one of the most popular\u00a0salons<\/a>\u00a0of Paris.[4]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Mme Necker wanted to educate her daughter according to the principles of\u00a0Jean-Jacques Rousseau<\/a>\u00a0and to endow her with the intellectual education and\u00a0Calvinist<\/a>\u00a0discipline instilled in her by her pastor father.[5]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0On Friday she habitually brought Germaine as a young child to sit at her feet in her salon, where the guests took pleasure in stimulating the brilliant child.[6]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0At the age of thirteen, she read Montesquieu, Shakespeare, Rousseau and Dante.[7]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0This exposure occasioned a nervous breakdown in adolescence, but the seeds of a literary vocation had been sown.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Her father “… is remembered today for taking the unprecedented step in 1781 of making public the country\u2019s budget, a novelty in an\u00a0absolute monarchy<\/a>\u00a0where the state of finances had always been kept a secret.”[8]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Leading to his dismissal in May, the family eventually took up residence in 1784 at\u00a0Ch\u00e2teau Coppet<\/a>, an estate her father purchased on\u00a0Lake Geneva<\/a>. The family returned to the Paris region in 1785, and Mlle Necker continued to write miscellaneous works, including the three-act romantic drama\u00a0Sophie<\/i>\u00a0(1786) and the five-act tragedy,\u00a0Jeanne Grey<\/i>\u00a0(1787).<\/p>\n In 1788, she published\u00a0Letters on the works and character of J.J. Rousseau<\/i>.[12]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0This fervid\u00a0panegyric<\/a>, at first written for a limited number of friends – in which she accused his housekeeper\u00a0Therese Levasseur<\/a>\u00a0having been unfaithful – she demonstrated evident talent, but little in the way of critical discernment. De Sta\u00ebl was at this time enthusiastic about a mixture of Rousseau’s ideas about love and\u00a0Montesquieu<\/a>\u00a0in politics. On 4 and 5 May 1789 she joined the meetings of the\u00a0Estates-General<\/a>\u00a0in Versailles, where she met with the young\u00a0Mathieu de Montmorency<\/a>. Her father had instigated the assembling, doubling the number of deputies from the\u00a0Third Estate<\/a>. He terribly miscalculated his address at the Estates-General: his speech lasted for hours, and while those present expected a reforming policy to save the nation from bankruptcy, he gave them like a school teacher many financial data. This approach had serious repercussions on Necker’s reputation leading to his resignation on 11 July, and prompted\u00a0Camille Desmoulins<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0storming of the Bastille<\/a>. Her parents left France on the same day in unpopularity and disgrace. Accompanied by their son-in-law, they escaped to Switzerland. Necker had lost half his fortune introducing\u00a0assignats<\/a>, invested in the public treasury.[13]<\/a><\/sup>[14]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n The increasing disturbances caused by the Revolution made her privileges as the consort of an ambassador very important safeguards. Germaine held a salon in the Swedish embassy, where she gave “coalition dinners”, that was frequented by moderates as\u00a0Talleyrand<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0De Narbonne<\/a>, monarchists (Feuillants<\/a>) as\u00a0Antoine Barnave<\/a>,\u00a0Charles Lameth<\/a>\u00a0and his brothers\u00a0Alexandre<\/a>\u00a0and Th\u00e9odore, the\u00a0Comte de Clermont-Tonnerre<\/a>,\u00a0Pierre Victor, baron Malouet<\/a>, the poet\u00a0Abb\u00e9 Delille<\/a>, Thomas Jefferson, the one-legged\u00a0Minister Plenipotentiary<\/a>\u00a0to France\u00a0Gouverneur Morris<\/a>, the leftish\u00a0Paul Barras<\/a>\u00a0and the radical\u00a0Condorcets<\/a>. “The issue of leadership, or rather lack of it, was central to Sta\u00ebl’s preoccupations at this stage of her political reflection. The death of\u00a0Comte de Mirabeau<\/a>, a royalist, she experienced as a sign of great political disorientation and uncertainty. He was the only man with necessary charisma, energy, and prestige to keep the revolutionary movement on the path of\u00a0constitutional reform<\/a>.”[15]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n After the\u00a0French legislative election, 1791<\/a>\u00a0was held, and the\u00a0French Constitution of 1791<\/a>\u00a0was announced in the\u00a0National Assembly<\/a>, she resigned from a political career and decided not to be re-eligible. “Fine arts and letters will occupy my leisure.”[16]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Though, in the succession of\u00a0Comte de Montmorin<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0Minister of Foreign Affairs<\/a>, and the appointment of Narbonne as\u00a0minister of War<\/a>\u00a0she played an important role and became the centre of the stage.[17]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Marie Antoinette<\/a>\u00a0wrote to\u00a0Hans Axel Fersen<\/a>: “Count Louis de Narbonne is finally Minister of War, since yesterday; what a glory for Mme de Sta\u00ebl and what a joy for her to have the whole army, all to herself.”[18]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In the year 1792 the\u00a0French Legislative Assembly<\/a>\u00a0saw an unprecedented turnover of ministers,\u00a0six ministers of the interior<\/a>,\u00a0seven ministers of foreign affairs<\/a>, and\u00a0nine ministers of war<\/a>.[19]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0On\u00a010 August 1792<\/a>\u00a0Clermont-Tonnere was thrown out of a window and trampled to death. De Sta\u00ebl offered Malouet a plan to escape for the royal family.[20]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0She helped De Narbonne, dismissed for plotting, to hide under the altar in the chapel of the Swedish embassy, and then lectured the\u00a0sans-culottes<\/a>\u00a0in the hall.[21]<\/a><\/sup>[22]<\/a><\/sup>[23]<\/a><\/sup>[7]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n On Sunday 2 September, the day the\u00a0September massacres<\/a>\u00a0of 1792 began, she fled her self in the style of an ambassadress. Her carriage was stopped and the crowd forced her to go to the\u00a0Paris town hall<\/a>, where\u00a0Robespierre\u00a0<\/a>presided.[24]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Robespierre, as well as Marat were militant deputies “…who had got from the Legislative, extensive police powers to detain, interrogate and incarcerate suspects without anything resembling due process of law.”[25]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In the evening she was conveyed home, escorted by the procurator\u00a0Louis Pierre Manuel<\/a>. The next day the commissioner to the\u00a0Commune of Paris<\/a>\u00a0Jean-Lambert Tallien<\/a>\u00a0arrived with a new passport and accompanied her behind a\u00a0barrier<\/a>.[26]<\/a><\/sup>[27]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n In 1797 Constant and De Sta\u00ebl lived in the remains of the Abbey of Herivaux.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n After her flight from Paris Germaine moved to\u00a0Rolle<\/a>\u00a0where Albert was born. She was surrounded by De Montmorency and the\u00a0Marquis de Jaucourt<\/a>.[28]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In January 1793, she made a four months visit to England to live with her lover, the\u00a0Comte de Narbonne<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Juniper Hall<\/a>. (Since 1 February France and Great Britain were at war.) Within a few weeks she got pregnant, apparently one of the reasons she caused a scandal in England. According to\u00a0Fanny Burney<\/a>,\u00a0her\u00a0father<\/a>\u00a0urged his daughter to avoid De Sta\u00ebl and the group of French\u00a0\u00c9migres<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Surrey<\/a>.[1]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0She met with\u00a0Horace Walpole<\/a>,\u00a0James Mackintosh<\/a>,\u00a0Lord Sheffield<\/a>, a friend of Edward Gibbon, and\u00a0Lord Loughborough<\/a>, the new\u00a0Lord Chancellor<\/a>.[1]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0De Sta\u00ebl was not favourably impressed by the conditions of women in English society.[1]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Personal freedom was evidently as important to her as abstract political liberties.[29]<\/a><\/sup> In the summer of 1793, she returned to Coppet Castle perhaps while De Narbonne stopped loving her. She wrote a biased depiction of the character of\u00a0\u00a0the queen<\/a>, named “Reflections on the Trial”. For De Sta\u00ebl France had to follow England’s example from absolute to limited royalty.[30]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Living in\u00a0Jouxtens-M\u00e9zery<\/a>, Germaine was visited by\u00a0Adolph Ribbing<\/a>\u00a0in July 1793.[7]<\/a><\/sup>[28]<\/a><\/sup>Count Ribbing was living in exile, after being sentenced for taking part in a conspiracy to murder the Swedish king\u00a0Gustav III<\/a>. Under his influence it seems she converted more to\u00a0Republicanism<\/a>?[28]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0At the same time, Germaine helped several monarchists to escape from France. Late 1793 her parents moved to\u00a0Beaulieu Castle<\/a>. In September 1794 she was visited by the divorced Benjamin Constant. In May 1795 she moved with her new “colleague” to Paris.[31]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0De Sta\u00ebl had rejected the idea of the right of resistance – which had been introduced by the\u00a0French Constitution of 1793<\/a>, but removed from the\u00a0Constitution of 1795<\/a>.[32]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In 1796 she published\u00a0Sur l’influence des passions<\/i>, in which she praised suicide; a book that attracted the attention of the German authors\u00a0Schiller<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Goethe<\/a>.[33]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Germaine had also an obsession with French politics,[34]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0and reopened her salon. It was during these years that Mme de Sta\u00ebl was of chief political importance. For a time she was conspicuous in the motley and eccentric society of the mid-1790s. On the\u00a013 Vend\u00e9miaire<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0Comit\u00e9 de salut public<\/a>\u00a0ordered her to leave Paris after accusations of politicking and locked up Constant for one night.[35]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Germaine spent that autumn in\u00a0Forges-les-Eaux<\/a>, a spa. She was trusted by neither side and a threat to political stability.[36]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The couple moved to\u00a0Ormesson-sur-Marne<\/a>\u00a0where they lived with Montmorency. In Summer 1796 Constant founded “Cercle constitutionnel” in\u00a0Luzarches<\/a>; De Sta\u00ebl supported him.[37]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In May 1797 she was back in Paris and eight months pregnant. She succeeded in getting Talleyrand from the list of \u00c9migr\u00e9s and in July in his appointment as minister of Foreign Affairs.[38]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Since the\u00a0coup of 18 Fructidor<\/a>\u00a0anyone wishing to restore the monarchy or the\u00a0French Constitution of 1793<\/a>\u00a0would be shot without a trial.[39]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Germaine moved to\u00a0Saint-Ouen<\/a>, on her father’s estate and became friends with the beautiful and rich\u00a0Juliette R\u00e9camier<\/a>\u00a0to whom she sold the parental house in the Rue de la Chauss\u00e9e-d’Antin.<\/p>\n De Sta\u00ebl completed the initial part of her first most substantial contribution to political and constitutional theory, “Of present circumstances that can end the Revolution, and of the principles that must found the republic of France”.[8]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0On 6 December 1797 at Talleyrand’s office and 3 January 1798 during a ball she met with Napoleon. She made clear she did not agree with his planned\u00a0French invasion of Switzerland<\/a>. He showed no interest and would not read her letters.[40]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Both personal and political reasons threw her into opposition to\u00a0Napoleon Bonaparte<\/a>, in August 1802 elected as\u00a0first consul\u00a0<\/a>for life. For De Sta\u00ebl Napoleon started to resemble\u00a0Machiavelli<\/a>; for Napoleon J.J. Rousseau was the cause of the French Revolution.[41]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0It culminated when Jacques Necker had published his “Last Views on Politics and Finance” and his daughter “De la litt\u00e9rature consid\u00e9r\u00e9e dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales”. It was her first philosophical approach to Europe, that dealt with such important factors as nationality, history and social institutions.[42]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Napoleon started a campaign against this publication. He did not like her\u00a0cultural determinism<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0generalizations<\/a>, in which she stated that “an artist must be of his own time”.[43]<\/a><\/sup>[44]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0For him a woman should stick to knitting.[45]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0He said about her, according to the Memoirs of\u00a0Madame de R\u00e9musat<\/a>, that she “teaches people to think who never thought before, or who had forgotten how to think.”\n\n\n\nContents<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Childhood<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/8\/8c\/Carmontelle_-_Germaine_Necker.JPG\/200px-Carmontelle_-_Germaine_Necker.JPG\")
<\/a>\nMarriage<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/7\/71\/Paris_H%C3%B4tel_de_Salm-Dyck_42.JPG\/200px-Paris_H%C3%B4tel_de_Salm-Dyck_42.JPG\")
<\/a>\nAt the age of eleven, Germaine offered her mother to marry\u00a0Edward Gibbon<\/a>, so he would always be around.[9]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In 1783\u00a0William Pitt the Younger<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Comte de Guibert<\/a>, whose conversation was the most far-ranging, spirited and fertile she had ever known.[10]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Germaine’s parents became impatient. Finally, a marriage was arranged with Baron\u00a0Erik Magnus Sta\u00ebl von Holstein<\/a>, an attach\u00e9 of the\u00a0Swedish legation to France<\/a>. It took place on 14 January 1786 in the Swedish embassy at 97,\u00a0Rue du Bac<\/a>; Germaine was 20, her husband 37. On the whole, the marriage seems to have been acceptable to both parties, although neither seems to have had any or little affection for the other. The baron, a gambler, obtained great benefits as he received 80,000\u00a0pounds<\/a>\u00a0and was confirmed as lifetime ambassador to Paris, although his wife was almost certainly the more effective envoy.[11]<\/a><\/sup><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRevolutionary activities<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/9\/91\/Estatesgeneral.jpg\/200px-Estatesgeneral.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/b\/b7\/Siege_et_prise_du_Chateau_des_Tuileries_cph.3b49398.jpg\/200px-Siege_et_prise_du_Chateau_des_Tuileries_cph.3b49398.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n“Dix Ao\u00fbt 1792. Siege et prise du Chateau des Tuileries”: French soldiers and citizens storming the Tuileries to get the royal family and end the monarchy.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSalons at Coppet and Paris<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/8\/8a\/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Coppet_%282%29.jpg\/200px-Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Coppet_%282%29.jpg\")
<\/a>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/1\/1e\/Luzarches_-_Herivaux_13.jpg\/200px-Luzarches_-_Herivaux_13.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n![\"Juniper](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/b\/b0\/Juniper_Hall_Plaque_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1397178.jpg\/200px-Juniper_Hall_Plaque_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1397178.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nConflict with Napoleon<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/6\/6c\/Bonaparte_premier_Consul_G%C3%A9rard_Chantilly.jpg\/200px-Bonaparte_premier_Consul_G%C3%A9rard_Chantilly.jpg\")
<\/a>