Pauline, marquise de Simiane (1674–1737)

Pauline de Simiane was born in Paris, France, to Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné, comtesse de Grignan, and her husband François Adhémar de Monteil, comte de Grignan. Her mother was the daughter and principal correspondent of the famous Madame de Sévigné. Pauline's childhood was immortalized in their voluminous letters. In 1688, when she was 14, Pauline's mother wanted her to become a nun, as her older sister Marie-Blanche had done. Madame de Sévigné intervened and convinced her daughter to keep the child with her at the Château de Grignan in southeastern France. In 1695, Pauline was married to Louis de Simiane, marquis d'Esparron, known as the marquis de Simiane, an officer and gentleman of the duc d'Orléans, with whom she had three children. She was named a lady-in-waiting to the duchesse d'Orléans. They remained at court until her husband succeeded her father as lieutenant-general of Provence, where they settled permanently. The marquise de Simiane played an important role in editing and publishing some of the massive correspondence of her mother and grandmother. In 1725, 29 years after the death of Madame de Sévigné, some of the letters began to appear in unauthorized editions, full of errors. Furious, Madame de Simiane decided to take things into her own hands. She edited and published 614 of the letters in 1734-1737. In 1873, Charles Capmas, a professor of law, discovered at an antique dealer in Dijon some 319 handwritten copies of letters from Madame de Sévigné to her daughter -- nearly half of the letters to Madame de Grignan that we know today. Pauline had entrusted them to the son of Roger de Bussy-Rabutin, the memoirist and cousin of Madame de Sévigné and a frequent correspondent of hers.