Catherine Grand
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Catherine Noele Grand née Worlée, later Catherine Noele Grand de Talleyrand-Périgord, Princesse de Bénévent (1762 - 10 December 1834) was the wife of George Francis Grand, an officer of the British Civil Service in Calcutta They separated after a scandal, and were later divorced. She was first the mistress, and after the divorce the wife, of French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, the first Prime Minister of France, during 1802 - 1834.
Catherine Grand was the daughter of an official in the French colony of Pondicherry. Upon moving to Chandernagore, she was married to George Grand. After a brief affair with Sir Philip Francis, deputy of Warren Hastings, early in her marriage, she fell out with her husband and settled in London. By 1783, Madame Grand had become a prostitute in Paris, although she returned to Britain just before the French Revolution in 1789. In 1794 she returned to France and attracted the attention of French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, whom she lived together with until 1802, when Napoleon Bonaparte pressured Talleyrand to marry her. After marriage the two gradually drifted apart. Madame Talleyrand began living alone, although her husband eventually gave her enough money to live luxuriously in London. For the last few years of her life she returned to Paris, dying there on 10 December 1834.
During her life, Catherine Grand was known for her striking Nordic beauty,[1] as well as her ingenuous public comments.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/18wa/hod_50.135.2.htm retrieved on 10 August 2007
- ^ http://www.batguano.com/catno12.html retrieved on 10 August 2007
