Amy Brown Freeman
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Amy Brown Freeman (8 April 1783-7 May 1876) was the first wife of Charles Ferdinand, Duc de Berry ( 24 January 1778-14 February 1820), younger son of King Charles X of France and Marie Thérèse of Savoy.
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[edit] Life
Amy was born Amy Brown on 8 April 1783 in Maidstone, Kent ,England to John L. Brown and Anne Deacon. Sometime before 1804, she married a Mr. Freeman by whom she had a son, John, born 5 December 1804. Nothing is recorded of her husband or his subsequent fate.
[edit] The Duc de Berry
She met the Charles Ferdinand,Duc de Berry in London after the Bourbon royal family was exiled to England in 1801 but the precise date is unknown. In 1806, Amy married Charles Ferdinand. They had two daughters :Charlotte Marie Augustine de Bourbon, Comtesse d'Issoudun (13 July 1808-13 July 1886 and Louise Marie Charlotte, Comtesse de Vierzon, Baronne de Charette. (29 December 1809- 26 December 1891). In 1814 upon the duke's return to France, he was constrained to divorce Amy for political reasons. He subsequently married Caroline Ferdinande Louise (5 November 1798-17 April 1870) eldest daughter of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies. On 14 February 1820 the duke was assassinated by a saddler, Louis Pierre Louvel ; on his deathbed, the duke asked to see Amy and his daughters, entrusting them to the royal family. Amy's son by her first marriage,John Freeman died 26 August 1866, and Amy herself died on 7 May 1876 at the age of ninety-three at the Chateau de La Contrie, France. Through her daughter the Baronne de Charette, Amy is the ancestress of Hervé de Charette (30 July 1938) the French Foreign Minister from 1995-1997
[edit] Sources
- http://www.thepeerage.com.
- The French Royal Family: A Genealogy by Francois Velde.
