Today we celebrate love, and, although I'm not a great admirer of the day of St. Valentino, I thought I'd dedicate a post to a large love story, the one between the Queen of France Marie Antoinette and the handsome Swedish count Axel von Fersen, Hans.
Contrary to popular belief, their was not a simple affair made of stolen moments, but a true love story based on a deep relationship that accompanied them throughout their lives.
There is no clear evidence that they were lovers in every respect, but it certainly was that both give a special importance in this romantic relationship, which never really allowed him to not be divided, despite the distance that separated them very often.
Their first meeting occurred on the night of January 30, 1774, at a masked ball.
The young Fersen, who at that time was completing his education as a gentleman taking a Grand Tour (very fashionable at the time) with the major European capitals, had just arrived in Paris.
Born September 4, 1755 she was two months older than Marie Antoinette, was the son of a noblewoman and the first sergeant of the Swedish Army, 'the richest man in Sweden', was fluent in five languages, and it seems was a man of extraordinary beauty: tall and slender, had deep blue eyes topped by thick dark eyebrows, and always vaguely melancholy air, which induced the Duke of Lévis to compare it to a hero of romance, but, because of the extraordinary good looks, he earned the nickname 'The picture' , the picture, the Duchess of Denvoshire, Georgiana, and that of 'Apollo' by Leonard, the Queen's hairdresser. The Fersen January 30, 1774 went to the masquerade ball held at a theater in Paris, arriving there at one o'clock at night. Among the large crowd found himself talking at length with a charming lady from her face uncovered, without having the slightest suspicion that it was the Dauphin of France Marie Antoinette, as noted in his private journal: 'The dolphin spoke to me a long time without I knew who it was, when it was recognized all the gathered around and she retired to a stage three in the morning, I left the dance '.
This first brief meeting and then we can not know what impression they had respect for each other Marie Antoinette and Fersen, but certainly, at least in the Queen must have been significant given that four years later, acknowledging the crowd at Versailles that was presented, she will greet with enthusiasm and joy.
record of that meeting Fersen: 'The Queen, who is charming, when he saw me he said: Ah, it's an old acquaintance! The other members of royal family I do not say a word. '
Later, in a letter to his father, returns to talk about her: 'It's the most beautiful and most delicious princess who knows!'
In 1778, therefore, they feel the sympathy and interest for each other is significant and is explored in the course of various parties, despite their months in which Marie Antoinette was still taking her first pregnancy, which is the true focus of his thoughts.
It was not until 1780 that we can talk of what will become the initial phase of their relationship, but will begin with a separation. It 'just that, in fact, the year in which the handsome Swedish count takes leave from France and his Queen to move overseas to fight the French troops for independence in the New World.
During this time the link between Fersen and the queen is strong, and although it involves no affair, began to raise more than a suspicion among the members of the court, as you can guess from the words of the Swedish 'I confess I can not believe it ... I saw the signs too unmistakable to doubt '. He expressed himself as writing to his sovereign, adding that the benign behavior of Marie Antoinette against Fersen gave no room for doubt. This attitude seems Fersen confirm the same in a letter to his father 'It's a beautiful princess. Has always treated me with great kindness, since the Baron spoke, I look for even more. Almost always walks with me to the dance and theater. Her kindness has aroused the jealousy of the younger courtiers, who can not understand why a foreigner is treated better than them '.
From these words it is easy to deduce that Fersen's departure can be attributed, in addition to the desire to bring prestige to his military career, also a subtle need to get away from Versailles and the hornet's nest of rumors that the attendance of the Queen and the Count is causing beautiful.
We do not know what goes through the mind of Fersen the sake of this posting, but the Queen is said to have wept when he took his leave. And writing to his mother on the dispatch of French troops is expressed in these terms: 'May God grant them to arrive safely!' .
It's easy to assume who was in his thoughts at that time.
Fersen was far from France for three years, and when we returned at the end of June 1783, the Queen was pregnant again, but a pregnancy that will end with a bad abortion in November.
In recent years, the earl had evaluated several occasions to marry, and it was always marriages of convenience, designed to achieve a good gain, nothing to do with love.
But in 1783 he wrote to his sister, puts an end to all doubt. 'I can not stay with the only person I want, the only one who really loves me, so I do not want to be with anyone.' Referring to his course
Toinette, his 'Josephine', 'Elle'.
Fersen remained in France until Sept. 20, then return in February next year, and it was during this period that historians agree on the beginning of a hypothetical physical relationship between the count and the Queen. Report which, however, thanks in part to the legendary reserve of the count, in part because of the destruction, posthumously after his death, all his correspondence, there is no evidence.
In 1784, Marie Antoinette found herself pregnant again and this time it was theoretically possible to assume that the child could be of Count Fersen, for the first time since the dates coincided. It 'is unlikely to believe in such a case, especially since the King never had to question the paternity of the child, a sign that his sporadic visits to the night wife continued.
Meanwhile, in France the discontent of the people was increasing and the decreasing popularity of the sovereign. We were increasingly spreading obscene libels on his person, together with epithets and insults that accused her of being a spendthrift, silly, without an idea in mind except lust and obscene to the members of his court.
Count Fersen, who returned to France May 10, 1785, did not fail to notice the coolness with which Marie Antoinette was greeted at the entrance to Paris 'Not a single cheer. The total silence '.
years are difficult years of conflict and confrontation that never cease to throw mud on the now unpopular Queen, dragged further down by the scandal of the necklace, the horrible scam hatched against him that had shaken the last glimmer of credibility he enjoyed.
E 'in recent years that the friendship and affection of Count Fersen become more solid and important: he is its support and its fixed point in a world that never ceases to accuse. In recent years, the earl also plays role as an ambassador between France and Sweden, be sure to write long letters and encouraged during periods of absence.
Fersen was its most devoted knight and his valuable political ally.
his soul mate.
And if it is true that the pretty sure the count was not denied female company, having always had many lovers, the only object of his devotion was always and only Marie Antoinette.
'You can not help but praise the Queen, if you understand his desire to do good and the goodness of his heart'.
In 1789, shortly before the riots of October that led to removal of the royal family from Versailles, Fersen had moved near the court, to be with the Queen. He was then among the members of the procession left the palace and moved to the Tuileries, to justify its presence as a particular member of the Queen's private circle. Fersen sold the house and the horses he had bought Versailles and moved to Paris, where he could be closer to 'Elle' and go to visit her.
Contrary to popular opinion, he considered a victim Marie Antoinette. Heroine mistreated, misjudged, sensitive, suffering and full of goodness, and was its most ardent supporter and closest confidant.
was also one of the staunchest proponents of an escape plan that would allow the royal family to flee, and contribute actively with huge sums of money and risking his own life.
Fersen paid five thousand livres for the six-seater sedan with which he had to flee the royal family, even improvising coachman.
was the night of June 19, 1790. Now at first placed , as agreed, the Count had left the company.
do not know what were his feelings at that moment, but is supposed to be the feelings of a man who indulges in an uncertain destiny of the woman he loved, hoping to see you again soon safe and sound.
Unfortunately, the flight of the royal family after the day ended disastrously in Varennes, with the capture of the latter which were promptly brought back to Paris. Since then
Fersen, a refugee in Belgium, Marie Antoinette will review one and only time, returning to Paris in disguise and secretly sneak into the Tuileries.
The count for this extreme act, almost bordering on heroism, could certainly life, because he is banned from Paris. Would be found to meet certain death.
Marie Antoinette tries in every way to stop them: 'It is absolutely impossible for you to come here at this time: it would bring into play our happiness, and if I say so, we must believe me, for I have a burning desire to see you. '
But the count does not collect: 'I live only to serve'.
was on 11 February when Fersen, under cover of darkness, stealthily crept into the Tuileries, and unmindful of the soldiers hate the Parisians against him.
Of this there is evidence that the night they spent together, as shown by two laconic words pinned on the intimate journal of Count:
'remains the' .
was the last time you saw before the guillotine, fierce children of the revolution, demanded the most illustrious and coveted among the heads: that's sweet Toinette.
Shortly before the end of Marie Antoinette commissioned his good friend, the Count de Jarjayes (which inspired the character of the manga heroine Lady Oscar, and the great Alexandre Dumas in his 'The Knight of Maison Rouge') Fersen to deliver a seal with the motto, in Italian, 'All of you guide me' , along with the phrase from Rousseau's Nouvelle Heloise 'Our souls are touched at every point ... The destiny can truly separate us but never divide us.' . Unfortunately, the Count de Jarjayes managed to complete the mission just a few months after the death of the sovereign, which occurred October 16, 1789.
Fersen never recovered from the death of his beloved. He received the news Oct. 20, remaining completely stunned. For the rest of his life was celebrated Oct. 16 as a day of mourning. No woman ever replaced
Marie Antoinette in her heart.
'The one that I lived and because I never ceased to love her, nor could I even for a moment, and I would have sacrificed everything, well I feel at this moment. I loved her so much, so I would have given a thousand lives, is no more. God, it hit me so much? As I deserved your anger? It is no longer alive. My pain is at its peak and I do not know how he can still exist, I do not know how to hold my torment is extreme, that nothing can ever erase: I have always in my mind, and will be only to cry ... because I'm not dead next to her and for her that on June 20? '
Fersen survived seventeen years to the death of his beloved Toinette, until the day in which, wrongly accused of the murder of the heir to the Swedish throne, was chased by the crowd jumped on the chest, breaking through the heart.
death was a tragic and horrible, in which the fate, ironic, mocking, had once again put his paw.
fact, it was June 20.
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