Maurille de Sombreuil, also referred to as Marie-Maurille de Sombreuil or Mademoiselle de Sombreuil (1767 – 15 May 1823), was a French and daughter of Charles François de Virot de Sombreuil. Sombreuil and her father were imprisoned at Prison de l'Abbaye during the September Massacres in 1792, and her father was almost executed by the crowd. According to legend, Sombreuil made a deal with the to drink a glass of blood in exchange for her father's life. Other versions of the story say that she merely drank a glass of wine stained with blood. Still, she became known as the or "the heroine of the glass of blood", and the legend of her bravery inspired poetry and art.

During the Reign of Terror in 1793, Sombreuil's father and brother Stanislas were arrested. Accused of counter-revolutionary activity, they were convicted alongside 52 other defendants and guillotined while being made to wear the , or red robe, of "assassins". Without the support of her family, Sombreuil struggled financially and ultimately had to sell her family's . She married her cousin Count Charles de Villelume, an émigré, and lived in exile in England and Germany until they were eventually able to return to France. After she died, her heart was transferred to the Musée de l'Armée in Les Invalides and displayed in a funeral urn.

Biography

Early life

Maurille de Sombreuil was born in the autumn of 1767 at in Bonnac-la-Côte. She was baptized as Jeanne-Jacques-Marie-Anne-Françoise on 14 February 1768. However, her family preferred to call her Maurille, after her godfather. Her father Charles François de Virot de Sombreuil was a general under Louis XVI and governor of in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, and her mother was Marie-Magdeleine des Flottes de Leychoisier. She had two younger brothers: (born 1768) and Charles Eugène (born 1770).

Heroine of the glass of blood (1792)

On 16 August 1792, Sombreuil's father Charles François de Virot was arrested for participating in the defense of Tuileries Palace and imprisoned in the Prison de l'Abbaye. Fearing for the health of her elderly father, she requested and was granted permission to be jailed alongside him. A legendized portrayal of Sombreuil's ordeal, The Female Revolutionary Plutarch, asserts that Jean-Paul Marat wrote on her petition: "Confine this aristocratical fanatic with her aristocratical father."

Sombreuil and her father remained in the Prison de l'Abbaye until the September Massacres began on 2 September and crowds started seizing prisoners and executing them. When Sombreuil's father was brought forward to be condemned, she threw herself at the crowds' feet and begged them to spare him. One account states that, at the moment she intervened, her father was going to be transferred to La Force Prison, while another claims that she blocked her father from the crowds' swords and was wounded during the struggle.

According to legend, a man in the crowd held out a glass of blood and agreed to spare her father if she drank it. As soon as she drank the contents of the glass, the legend says that the crowd cheered and dropped their weapons. Thereafter, she was referred to as "" or "the heroine of the glass of blood", and her story inspired artists and writers, including Jacques Delille and Victor Hugo.

However, Sombreuil said that the story of the glass of blood was an exaggeration. Rather than drink a glass of blood, she was asked to drink a glass of wine and toast "the health of the nation". In his biography of Sombreuil, Duchemin wrote that her version of events would vary from drinking a glass full of blood or one full of wine. Moreover, one of her direct descendants said that story of the glass of blood was understood within the family to be a legend. Duchemin also quoted the grandson of someone who knew Sombreuil in 1799 as saying that Sombreuil believed it was , or "a glass of wine stained with blood" but was never certain what she had been asked to drink.

After returning home from prison, Sombreuil was overwhelmed by a () that lasted for several days, in which she convulsed and bit her tongue so hard that her mouth filled with blood. Her biographers Christophe and Duchemin assert she had epilepsy. Her father summoned a celebrity doctor named Philippe-Jean Pelletan from Hôtel-Dieu to treat her, but Pelletan's prognosis was that she would live with the condition for the rest of her life. In her letters, the painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun said that Sombreuil also suffered from vomiting episodes at the mere sight of something red.

Imprisonment and marriage

The Law of Suspects passed on 17 September 1793 and allowed for the arrest of several categories of suspected enemies of the Revolution, including and "those who, by their conduct, relations or language spoken or written, [had] shown themselves partisans of tyranny or federalism and enemies of liberty". Sombreuil and her family were likely targeted because her youngest brother, Charles, was considered an and had taken up arms to fight alongside the Prussians and against the Revolutionary government in Mayenne. Her eldest brother, Stanislas, was arrested on the same day the law passed, and then Sombreuil and her father were arrested a few days later on 20 September. Stanislas and her father were ultimately imprisoned in La Force Prison together.

Sombreuil wrote a plea to the , Fouquier-Tinville, and asked for mercy for Stanislas and her father, but Duchemin notes that their guilt had already been decided in advance. On 17 June 1794, the Revolutionary Tribunal prosecuted 54 total suspects, including Sombreuil's father, eldest brother, and other figures like Cécile Renault and Madame de Sainte-Amaranthe. They were all quickly convicted. By decree of the Convention, they were guillotined wearing the , or red robe, of "assassins". The judgement against her father and brother read:

Sombreuil, herself detained in Port-Libre prison, was released on 23 August 1794. Her property, including her family's Leychoisier estate, had been confiscated by law after her family was prosecuted by the Tribunal. With her health significantly deteriorated, she was ().

In May 1795, Sombreuil applied to the government to restore her assets, but the process was very difficult. The matter of her inheritance was further complicated by her youngest brother, Charles, who was an fighting against the Republic, and, therefore, his portion of the estate was forfeit to the government. On 28 September 1795, two weeks after Charles died, a ruling was reached. Her biographer Robert Christophe writes that she received two-thirds of the Leychoisier estate, though the official decree said she retained one-third of her father's estate and one-half of Stanislas' share of the same. In the ruling, the government also admitted that her father and eldest brother had been () by the Revolutionary Tribunal of 2 Prairial, Year II. The decree also acknowledged her () and courage back in September 1792, when she saved her father's life.

Sometime after this, her cousin Count Charles de Villelume proposed to her. The exact date of their wedding is unknown. Her biographer Duchemin writes that there are competing versions of the story of their marriage. In one version, the Count traveled to France to marry Sombreuil in a secret , or dark underground, ceremony; as an , he risked being arrested by the revolutionary authorities. Records indicate that she was married by the time she sold Château de Leychoisier in 1797, in an effort to ease her financial struggles.

Exile and death

Sombreuil lived in exile in London and then in Germany with her husband. Both Sombreuil and her husband later returned to France, and she died on 15 May 1823 in Avignon. She is buried at . In 1851, her heart was transferred to the in Les Invalides, where it remains on display in a funeral urn.

Legacy

Rose

A with shades of white or salmon is named after Mademoiselle de Sombreuil.

Art

Walter William Ouless portrayed Sombreuil and her father walking out of Prison de l'Abbaye in his painting Scene from the French Revolution. Jean Duplessis-Bertaux engraved a scene showing Sombreuil defending her father, captioned with two lines from Legouvé's poem: ().

Poetry

Victor Hugo wrote "La Mort de Mademoiselle de Sombreuil" in his Odes et Ballades. Gabriel-Marie Legouvé dedicated a stanza to Sombreuil in . Jacques Delille referenced Sombreuil's legend in La Pitié, Chant III, verse 13.

Notes

References Citations

Bibliography

External links