Princesses of the Blood and Sisters in Masonry
courage during a raging fire that broke out in the middle of the night at the Hôtel de Toulouse , where she lived with the Duke de Penthièvre , so struck people that at least two of them mentioned it in prominently in their memoires . 28 They were impressed with the way she stayed in the center of the disorder , ordering people out of the house and refusing to leave herself until everyone was out and the fire brigade had arrived .
The deep sense of friendship and loyalty that the masonic rituals taught so effectively combined with the princess ’ s individuality , courage and refusal to bow to Court pressures help clarify her relationship to the Queen , which has for so long baffled her biographers . The devotion she showed to the Queen during the most violent years of the Revolution only makes sense with that combination and in the context of her commitment to masonic ideals . She insisted on staying with the Queen when everyone else had deserted the royal family despite warnings from many people , including the Queen , that she was putting her life in danger by staying in France , despite the fact that she had fallen from favor many years before , despite the fact that she had refused to give grand balls and succumb to other Court pressures . She was not the Queen ’ s lackey nor a willing irritant to the Queen ; she was , rather , a strong individual who called on her independent nature , her courage , and her sense of loyalty and friendship in the fateful decision she made to stay and face the terrible death she did , in fact , suffer .
The Duchess de Chartres was the third princess of the blood to link her name prominently with freemasonry . Louise-Marie-Adelaide de Bourbon Penthièvre was the daughter of the Duke de Penthièvre and Marie-Thérèse-Félicité d ’ Est , and sister of the Prince de Lamballe . She married the Duke de Chartres in April 1769 at the age of sixteen and became the Duchess d ’ Orléans in 1785 after the death of the Duke d ’ Orléans , father of the Duke de Chartres . The Duchess de Chartres became a freemason in 1777 . In certain areas , specifically her desire for close friendship with other women and her devotion to charity , she had much in common with her sistersin-law , the Duchess de Bourbon and the Princess de Lamballe ; and in those two areas she most certainly derived great benefit from her masonic association .
If the Duchess de Bourbon and the Princess de Lamballe were dedicated to charitable works , the Duchess de Chartres could be described as obsessed with helping the less fortunate . She charged her hairdresser , M . Regnol , with looking everywhere for indigent families . While he arranged her hair every day he reported on the poor he had found the night before and took appropriate sums from her to them . 29 She went herself on trips both around her city residence and into the country to seek out the old , the orphaned , and large , poor families . If she happened to travel farther from home , to other cities or provinces , even to foreign countries , she followed the same practice . 30 She was particularly sensitive to the needs of poor women . When a drunk once asked her for charity as she descended from her carriage , she ignored him but had her servants find out the condition of the man ’ s wife and children . When they reported to her that the family was in great
28
Fortaire , p . 159 , and Mme . Guénard , Mémoires historiques de Marie-Thérèse-Louise de Carignan , Princesse de Lamballe , 4 vols . ( Paris : Lerouge , 1801 ) 3:26 .
29
E . Delille , Journal de la vie de SAS Madame la D . sse d ’ Orleans , Douairière ( Paris : Blaise , 1822 ), p . 17 .
30
Ibid ., pp . 20 and 35-6
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