Maria Caterina Brignole and Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé - Dating, Gossip, News, Photos list. Help us build our profile of Maria Caterina Brignole and Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé!
Login
to add information, pictures and relationships, join in discussions and get credit for your contributions.
Maria Caterina lived in Matignon, were she spent her days with the Prince de Condé, and seldom took part in the balls and court life. Honoré became more and more jealous, and demanded that she write down her thoughts for him.
In the meantime the Prince of Condé's wife, Charlotte Élisabeth Godefride de Rohan, whom he had married in 1753, died in 1760, and as time passed his relationship with Maria Caterina became more serious.
By 1769 she had begun to set up a home in the Hôtel de Lassay, an annex of the Prince of Condé's primary residence in Paris, the Palais-Bourbon. In 1770 her jealous spouse ordered the borders of Monaco closed in an attempt to prevent her from escaping. That same night, she went out on the balcony and did not return. It was discovered that she had managed to cross into France and had travelled all the way to Le Mans to the southwest of Paris where she had taken refuge in a nearby convent. Eventually she was able to return to Paris.
Due to Maria Caterina's illicit position as Condé's mistress the new French queen, the self-righteous, 18-year-old Marie Antoinette, offended the Prince of Condé by treating Maria Caterina poorly at court. But around that time (1774) Condé and Maria Caterina began the construction of the Hôtel de Monaco, to be her permanent home in Paris. It was in the rue Saint-Dominique, near the Palais Bourbon, and was completed in 1777. Honoré finally realized his relationship with Maria Caterina was completely finished and turned his attention to his own lovers. Maria Caterina wrote to her spouse that the marriage could be summarised by three words: greed, bravery, and jealousy.
Maria lived with Condé in France until the French revolution, when the couple left for Germany and then Great Britain. In 1795 Honoré died, and on 24 October 1798 she and Condé were married in London. The prince was the leader of the emigrant Condé army, and she used her great fortune to help finance the exiled French community's army.
She died in Wimbledon.