Catherine Noël Worlée (also spelled Werlée) was born in the Danish possession of Tranquebar. She had both French and Danish heritage.[1] Both her parents were French Catholics: her father Pierre Werlée was a French Indian colonial official stationed at nearby Pondicherry, and her mother was Laurence Alleigne, daughter of a colonial armourer.[2] Pierre was the son of Adam Werlée and Marie Bodeveuc.[3] Laurence was his second wife: in 1744, at the age of 23, he had married Marguerite da Silva, who was aged 14.[4] Marguerite died after having borne him four children, Catherine's step-siblings.[3]
At the time of Catherine's birth, her father was held as a prisoner of the Third Carnatic War by the British. After his release the family settled in Chandernagore. She was poorly educated, but excelled at art, dance, and etiquette.
Catherine met her first husband, George Grand, at Ghiretta House Engraving by James Moffat, Calcutta, 1800
First marriage
Catherine met George François Grand, a British colonial clerk of French-Swiss Huguenot descent stationed at Calcutta, at a ball at Ghiretta House, situated upon the banks of the Hooghly. Also spelled Ghyretti House, it was considered "one of the finest buildings in India".[5] It served as the country house of the French Governors of Chandernagore.
George Grand was born sometime after 1750, the son of Jean Jacques Grand, a merchant from Lausanne, Switzerland, and his wife Françoise Elizabeth Le Clerc de Virly. He was educated in Lausanne and apprenticed in London, before joining a military cadetship in Bengal in 1766.[6] He achieved the rank of captain before resigning from military service in March 1773 owing to illness and returned to England. In 1775, Grand obtained a writership (a writer being a clerk attached to the East India Company) and sailed again for India, arriving in Bengal via Madras in June 1776.[7] His diary, published in 1814, provides much information about their marriage.[8]
Despite George being nearly twice Catherine's age, they were married in a Catholic ceremony in Chandernagore on 10 July 1777,[9] followed by a Protestant ceremony a few hours later.[10] Exquisitely beautiful and very charming, the new Mrs Grand was well-received by the English ton of Calcutta. The newly-weds took up residence in a house near Alipore and seemed to have had a happy first year of married life.[11]
Affair with Philip Francis
Mrs Grand caught the attention of British colonial official Philip Francis, member of the Supreme Council of Bengal, who was discovered trying to seduce her at her home on the night of 8 December 1778 by her servants.[12] The scandal caused Catherine's husband to send her back to live with her family in Chandernagore, and successfully sued Francis for adultery, receiving 50,000 rupees in damages on 6 March, 1779.[13] Catherine became Francis's mistress soon after.[14]
On 17 August, 1780, Francis was seriously injured in a duel with his political rival Warren Hastings and decided to leave India. They embarked on separate ships in December 1780[15] — Catherine to Paris to live with her relatives and Francis to London — although they planned to meet later on the Continent.[16] Once aboard, Catherine began an affair with fellow passenger Thomas Lewin, a handsome and courteous colonial official from Madras (later father of Harriet Grote). Their ship was diverted to Cádiz, and the pair arrived together in London by a different ship in the summer of 1781.
Life in Europe
In 1782 Mrs Grand and Lewin moved to Paris; their affair ended amicably soon after. Mrs Grand restarted her relationship with Phillip Francis, who would rendezvous with her in Paris and Spa several times.
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun painted Catherine's portrait in 1783, which was exhibited at the Parisian Salon of the Royal Academy the same year as no. 117, one of at least ten portraits Le Brun submitted.[17] The oval painting shows Madame Grand holding a musical score. Her pose, and in particular her eyes, have been compared to Domenichino's Saint Cecilia (1618).[17] It was favorably received, one of the reviewers remarking on its "bewitching sensuality" ("volupté enchanteresse").[18]
Madame Grand had the kind of beauty which is the rarest and most admired in Europe. She was tall and slight, with that languor in her carriage peculiar to creole ladies; her eyes were well open and affectionate, her features delicate, her golden hair playing in numberless curls, set off a forehead as white as a lily.
Catherine fled to Britain in 1792 during the French Revolution, but returned to Paris in 1797. in 1798 she was arrested on suspicion of being a foreign agent, but was released upon the intervention of French Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand.[18] In a letter to Paul Barras, Talleyrand describes her as "an Indian, very beautiful, very idle, one of the laziest women I have ever known." [17]
Second marriage
Catherine painted by François Gérard between 1804-1805, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Catherine's marriage to George François Grand was annulled in 1798 in absentia[20] and she became Talleyrand's mistress in the same year. The scandal of Talleyrand, a secularized former bishop, living together with his concubine[21] caused Napoleon Bonaparte to issue Talleyrand an ultimatum — either marry Catherine or give her up. Concerned that he meant to abandon her, Catherine forced herself into a diplomatic dinner being hosted by Talleyrand and declared their engagement — Talleyrand was too surprised to contradict her. They were married in a quiet ceremony at Neuilly on 9 September, 1802; Napoleon and his wife Joséphine signed their marriage contract.[22] Elaborate negotiations with the Papal States were required before the former bishop was allowed to marry. Despite his many infidelities, Talleyrand admired her beauty, her docile nature, and her gracious hosting at their homes at Hôtel de Galliffet and Château de Valençay.[23][24]
At a reception at the Tuileries, Napoleon is alleged to have remarked, "I hope that the good conduct of citoyen Talleyrand will cause the fickleness of Madame Grand to be forgotten." Catherine responded by saying, "In that respect, I cannot do better than to follow the example of citoyenne [Josephine] Bonaparte".[25] The implied rebuke ensured that Catherine was rarely invited to Napoleon's court.[26]
After marriage, their relationship cooled considerably. When Talleyrand was made Prince of Benevento in 1806, Catherine became a princess of Napoleon's First French Empire. In 1808, Napoleon placed the Spanish royal family in the custody of Talleyrand; Catherine was believed to have had a relationship with the Spanish Duke of San Carlos. Catherine was with her husband when they welcomed Tsar Alexander I of Russia to Paris upon Napoleon's downfall in 1814.
Separation and death
From the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Talleyrand took the much younger Duchess of Dino as his mistress and Catherine was banished to London. She eventually returned to France in 1817, and settled into a life of quiet luxury from the income she received from Talleyrand and her own ventures. In her later years, Catherine grew excessively fat and vain of her rank of princess.[27] She died in Paris on 10 December 1835, and was buried at Montparnasse Cemetery.
^Sources variously report her date of birth as 21 November 1761 or 1762; the 1762 date reported by Lehuraux in "Echoes of Old Chandernagore" (1908) is used in this article.
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