Princesses of the Blood and Sisters in Masonry
about the subject quite frequently , for on the inside back cover of a journal the duchess kept during the 1790s were pasted small booklets , one of which was on friendship . It was carefully hand copied and had marks for passages of particular meaning to her . 38
Charity and friendship were , then , the two pillars of women ’ s freemasonry that the Duchess de Chartres would have found attractive . She was not a mystic like the Duchess de Bourbon or a fan of the Enlightenment like the Princess de Lamballe . She was intensely religious , a devout Catholic all her life . She was familiar with the philosophes and with the mystic leaders , but her guidance came from priests , bishops and archbishops . She was not a political democrat nor a misfit at Court . The Duchess de Chartres had in her life , however , a variable that her sisters-in-law did not enjoy , a relatively happy marriage during the 1770 ’ s and 1780 ’ s , and her attraction to freemasonry came primarily from this direction . In the anonymous Vie secrete de Louise-Marie-Adelaide de Bourbon Penthièvre , Duchesse d ’ Orléans , the author wrote that “ her husband was a God for her . When he was gone , her soul , burdened by a painful melancholy , was closed to feelings of joy and pleasure .” 39 She had loved the duke the first time she met him , according to the accounts of the day . The Baron de Besenval described their meeting :
She had seen him only once at the home of Mme . de Modène , I believe , where the Duke of Chartres had given her his arm to lead her to her carriage . Returning to her convent , she said that she would never marry another , and she never ceased since then saying the same thing . 40
For years after they married , the duchess was blind to the faults of her husband , so obvious to others at Court . Even the King had warned her father , the Duke de Penthièvre , of the Duke de Chartres ’ s bad reputation . 41 Like many other men of the Court , the Duke de Chartres had numerous affairs , only two of which came to the attention of his wife . These two hurt her very deeply , however . One was with Mme . de Genlis , the governess of her children , the other with Mme . de Buffon , wife of Georges-Louis-Marie Leclerc de Buffon . In part these infidelities led eventually to the separation of the Duke and Duchess de Chartres , then d ’ Orléans , in 1791 . Before the Duchess de Chartres discovered her husband ’ s infidelities , however , she was the perfect wife and mother and apparently blissfully happy in her married life . Her entrance into masonry was , as was probably the case with many women in France , because her husband wished it . He had been Grand Master of French freemasonry for several years and the lodges of adoption had become an important part of the masonic structure . His insistence that his wife become a mason is significant . If masonic historians had long portrayed the lodges of adoption as institutions formed to mollify angry women , toys thrown to the women by the harassed brethren , and if in the early years there might have been some truth to that claim , it was never the entire story . By the 1770 ’ s and 1780 ’ s , the lodges of adoption had evolved into significant political and social organizations , illustrated by the fact that the most powerful man in French freemasonry , the Duke de Chartres , insisted that his wife join the organization . The private secretary of the Duchess de Char-
38
Collection of the House of Orléans , 300 AP III 3 , A . N .
39
Vie secrete , p . 29 40 M . le Baron de Besenval , Mémoires ( Paris : Buisson , 1805 ), p . 351 .
41
Oberkirch , 1:259 13