Françoise, duchesse de Praslin
| Fanny, Duchess de Praslin | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Françoise Altarice Rosalba Sebastiani April 14, 1807 Constantinople |
| Died | August 17, 1847 (aged 40) Paris, France |
| Cause of death | murder |
| Title | Duchess |
| Spouse(s) | Charles de Choiseul-Praslin 1824–1847 (her death) |
Francoise, Duchess de Choiseul-Praslin (April 14, 1807 - August 17, 1847) was a French duchess and heiress who was found murdered. Her husband, Duke Charles de Praslin was believed guilty for her death and committed suicide while awaiting trial days later on August 24, 1847. These events in 1847 contributed to the French Revolution of 1848.
Her birth name was Françoise Altarice Rosalba Sébastiani. Her nickname was "Fanny". She was the daughter of Antoinette Jeanne (née Franquetot 1778–1807) and Horace Sébastiani (1771–1851), a French politician and army general. She was born in Constantinople where her father was stationed. Her mother died while giving birth to her. Her family was very wealthy and her father was a peer in Corsica.
She married the Duke at age 17 in 1824 and had as many as 10 children with him, with many miscarriages. After going through several governesses for their children, they hired a woman named Henriette Deluzy. Deluzy spent six years with the family, and it was a public scandal when it was widely reported the Duke and Deluzy were lovers, which infuriated the Duchess. The Duchess fired Deluzy in June 1847, which sent their household into a tailspin. The Duchess felt she was being estranged from her children and her husband had lost interest in her. She was no longer thin and beautiful like she was when they first married when she was 17. She was now nearing 40 years old and was over-weight from her many childbirths. She threatened to divorce the Duke after he refused to fire Deluzy himself, which would mean that her family's money would go with her, leaving him much less wealthy. However that was not such an issue since his own father the 4th Duc Charles Laure had left him a sizeable fortune amounting to well over nine million francs. She had announced her plans to wrest the children from him by declaring him unfit to have custody of the children because of his supposed adultery. The Duc was first and foremost an utterly devoted father and that he could not bear. It was widely understood that that was what propelled him to take this step. In those days divorce would have severely hampered his daughters chances of brilliant matches and thus in an attempt to dispel one scandal he propitiated the worst of its kind by resorting to murder
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