by Jean-Jacques COURTEY, Doctor in Economic Geography, Ph. D
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With this new article, we are going to take you into the secret meanders of the French Revolution. We will go further than usually, by following the steps of our hero, the Baron Jean de Batz (1754 - 1822) in his extraordinary journey.
And this will lead us to cross Mademoiselle Lenormand (1772 - 1843), the famous Seer, and another Visionary who provoked the final fall of Robespierre (1758 - 1794)...and his regime of Terror, Catherine Théot (1716 -1794). So sit well in your seat not to feel shaken up, and get ready to meet the unsaid !
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Marie-Anne Lenormand was recognized in her time as the greatest clairvoyant of Europe. She was coming from Normandy (Alençon), where she was born and had received an excellent education. She is said to have practised astrology in England, where she made a little fortune around 1788-1789. She had often met the Baron de Batz at the residence of the Count D'Armeval de la Saussotte, who gave her a home and a job of reader in Paris afterwards. She is said to have predicted the fall of French Monarchy and anti-clerical measures. She found the Count a nice man, but he was subsequently arrested in 1793 as a member of the "Carnation conspiracy" to free the Queen from the Conciergerie Jail - that De Batz was accused of. She wasn't arrested because she was helped by D'Armeval to narrowly escape, just before the entrance of the guards in his house. After that, she was trained by a fortune teller called Louise Gilbert (a cousin of her mother) with the Etteila tarot and ordinary cards. With her teachings, she had been able to develop scenography. And she opened her own practice of Seer rue de Tournon. But, the fact is she had already made herself known for her psychic gifts when she was only 9, in the Royal Abbey of the Benedictine Ladies of Alençon !
Catherine Théot about her was clearly a strange visionary : she had predicted "the Storming of the Bastille" for ...1789, and was proclaiming herself the new "Mother of God" ! Her case was rather weird. But in a de-Christianized France, she was able to make some important Revolutionaries her devoted followers in the area of "la Contrescarpe" in Paris. And among them, you could even find the top one...Robespierre himself ! From behind, she lead him to reach the peak of his power on June 8th, 1794, with the "Feast of the Supreme Being". However, he was far too much appearing like the Sovereign Pontiff of a new religion replacing Christianity, and dedicated to himself. Meanwhile, a silent competition of power had started between the Committee of General Safety lead by Marc-Guillaume Vadier (1736 - 1828) and the Committee of Public Salute that Robespierre was leading from the Tuileries Palace.The Baron de Batz who secretly fueled their rivalry, was of course aware of this.
In between, from Spring 1794 a group of around sixty people had been arrested as Royalist supporters of the Baron de Batz. They were accused to be the members of the "Foreign Conjuring" against the Convention and the Commitees (Committee of Public Salute and Committee of General Safety). In fact, they were just ordinary French people fighting to recover freedom in their homeland. And they didn't have especially personal connections with the British Secret Services. De Batz had of course some exchanges with them, but he was acting personally as he ever did as the last Chief of the Black Cabinet of the King Louis XVI (1754 - 1793 ?) - so then his last Chief of French Secret Services.
The annoying and very painful thing for him was the second arrest of his beloved girlfriend, Marie-Madeleine de Grandmaison (1761 - 1794), a beautiful opera singer of the Italian Comedy in Paris. She had been arrested because of her very close relationship with him. De Batz' head had been put at a price for 300.000 French pounds by Robespierre himself. But this time, she didn't tell where the Baron wasn't anymore to mislead the Revolutionaries (Le Havre) : she firmly refused to say where he was hiding to the "losers who were interrogating her" and depriving her of food, according to her own challenging words. And she preferred dying under the guillotine rather than betraying her beloved hero "Jean" (Jean de Batz). Unhappily, it's what happened on June 17th, 1794, when she was dressed with a red robe (a "scarlet robe"), like the other sacrificial victims. Jean de Batz saw this awful "Red Mass" and felt like vomiting !
And this caused him a deep sadness and suffering. In his mind, "Marie" had to become his wife. That was the very reason he had bought a new residence in the center of France, in Chadieu (Puy-de-Dôme). He wanted to marry her and establish over there to live happily their shared passion. So he became too very angry. He wanted to revenge her as well as all those victims ; and he was more determined than ever to finish with Robespierre, the hypocritical despot of a fake virtue, and his whole clique of bloody bullies. He swore to himself this infamous man and his proximate supporters would be quickly guillotined themselves. And it's exactly what happened 41 days after, on July 28th, 1794 - Thermidor 10th, Year II ! By a funny twist of history, he used one of his trump cards : Melle Lenormand, the seer of a very discrete consultant... Maximilien de Robespierre !
Robespierre who was extremely superstitious visited, once again, the cabinet of Marie-Anne Lenormand, situated "rue de Tournon" in Paris. There, him who was scared to draw a 9 of Spade in his cards, just fell on it. Did Mademoiselle Lenormand - who was a devoted Royalist - suggest him to choose this card, or even did she choose this card for him ? We will never know precisely ! But the fact is that it meant "Death" for Robespierre and his followers, and he knew it even before the seer gave her interpretation. He was pale and sick when he left her. Psychologically, he was shaken and weakened, because he had strongly believed in his glorious and unique destiny. He tried then to reassure himself by thinking about Catherine Théot, who strongly supported him as the "New Messiah" !
Unhappily for him, the scandal of "the Catherine Théot case" broke out on Thermidor 9th, Year II : at the tribune of the Convention, Robespierre was accused to prepare a coup d'Etat in order to become the Regent of France. He would have installed Louis XVII as a temporary puppet King, and become his Regent by marrying his prisoner sister, Madame Royale (1778 -1851), putting then an end to the Revolution. Thereafter, he would have attempted to create his own dynasty, with his future descendance. This was in substance the shocking accusation of Barère (Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac more precisely, 1755 - 1841). As a matter of fact, in between Catherine Théot had been arrested with all her accomplices (except her "Unknown Superior") and interrogated, under the order of his friend Vadier. And as the Rapporteur of the Committee of Public Salute to the Convention, he didn't like the idea of imagining Robespierre kissing her chin as an adept - according to this new rite !
The rest of the story is known : after an awful day in the Convention where he was insulted with the cries "Down with the tyrant !", Robespierre went finally to the Commune of Paris to take refuge. And there, he was arrested by the gendarme Charles-André Merda (1770 - 1812), with a serious injury to his jaw and his chin due to a gun shot. He could neither talk nor eat anymore. And the day after he was guillotined with his brother and his most proximate supporters. The dangerous rule Robespierre introduced on June 10th, 1794, by cancelling all the rights of the suspects (to initiate the "Great Terror" after "Terror"), was then used against all the Robespierrists to definitively get rid of them. It was the Historical Turn of the Revolution. Everybody was fed up and wanted to forget this hypocritical, cupid, and indignous tyranny of thugs, just bringing horror, unhapiness and death, with misleading promises. And in this very strange atmosphere of liberation, you could find French people saying openly : we want the King and bread ! But the King didn't want to come back in such a cruel and unfair country, not yet !
The epilog of our story of the day is coming naturally. De Batz is known for his two bold operations of rescue of King Louis XVI (Morning of the icy January 21st, 1793, along the 52 rue Beauregard in Paris, with a shelter rue de Cléry) and Queen Marie-Antoinette (Night of August 30th, 1793, near the way out of the Conciergerie Jail, with another shelter Quai des Grands Augustins). So you can see his shelters in Paris were always nearby...and left quickly after. And what is paradoxical, is that we know about those special operations only because of his Revolutionary accusators themselves. He himself never admitted to have organized such Impossible Missions...to make most likely the now private life of his "Royal protégés" respected !
And with this ultimate strike, his strategy was finally victorious. Robespierre and his proximate supporters of the Committee of Public Salute would never again sit irreverently in the Bedroom of Queen Marie-Antoinette (1755 - 1793 ?) in the Tuileries Palace. This odious and humiliating sacrilege had finally ceased. For the Baron de Batz, it was a great and miraculous victory ! He was the only one who made fear of the King's surviving power among the Revolutionaries !
About the awful executions of June 17th, 1794, when his beloved girlfriend Marie-Madeleine de Grandmaison was guillotined with many other people accused to be his accomplices, De Batz published in 1795 a pamphlet untitled "The De Batz conjuring and the day of Sixty". He declared to be innocent of any conjuring, and charged in his turn the now dead regime lead by Robespierre of unnecessary cruelty and unfairness for the criminal and public sacrifice of those sixty innocent victims, among many others !
He even added - in a rather challenging manner -, that since August 10th, 1792 (the day the Tuileries palace was assaulted), and during all the period of Terror which followed, he didn't do much ! And he confessed with phlegm feeling annoyed about "this almost stupid inactivity" ! He really did his best to live like a simple "bourgeois", in a country his accusators - who had been guillotined in between for most of them - made so chaotic, so miserable and so poor !
About Louis XVII (1785 - 1860), he was safe in England (in Northumberland more precisely). He had been transported over there by the bold Count of Courtenay and his elegant and daredevil assistant from the British Secret Services, Miss Barett. They had returned alive and victorious after their formidable escape together from the Temple Jail of Paris (January 19th, 1794). And he was living joyously in an embellished Manor House among flowers, and a very nice English girl of his age he was fond of : she was always calling him Charlie, rather than Louis-Charles, and drawing loving hearts with this new short name !
Following this historical check-mate to Robespierre and his regime of Terror, Jean de Batz had rendered justice to the memory of his beloved girlfriend Marie-Madeleine de Grandmaison. And happily for him, he could find again love with another gorgeous woman, Michelle "Désirée" Thilorier or de Thilorier (1771 - 1851). And after a few more adventures due to his bold temper, or to the impressive political changes which happened afterwards in France, he was finally able to marry her in 1808 (under the Consulate). Then, he established definitively with his happy spouse in his opulent castle of Chadieu !
