Hello to all history lovers and curious, welcome to my channel, today I bring you the life of Françoise Sébastiani, affectionately known by her friends and family as Fanny. She was a French noblewoman who became Duchess of Praslin, but would sadly go down in history not only because of her well-known beauty and her great fortune, but also because she was the victim of a terrible murder that shocked the French society of the epoch. This biography is made at the request of María Celeste Perez, Carlos Damian Caballero, Liz del Rosario and Joseph Alterni.
Françoise Altarice Rosalba Sébastiani was born on April 14, 1807 in the city of Constantinople, in the Ottoman Empire, currently in Turkey. She was the only child born to the marriage formed by the French politician and soldier Horace Sébastiani and his first wife, Antoinette Jeanne Françoise de Franquetot de Coigny. The couple was in the city of Constantinople when Françoise was born, because her father was holding a position as a diplomat, but her mother would end up dying during her birth.
The girl would be affectionately called Fanny after her deceased mother, being called that way by her friends and family. Shortly after she was born, her father returned to French lands and she would be placed under the care of her grandmother, who would shower her with all kinds of attention and whims, becoming her favorite granddaughter. Fanny would grow up in an environment full of affection where she would be the center of all attention, being pampered by both her grandmother and her father, who pampered her absolutely everything.
Fanny descended from a very well-positioned family that had a good fortune, her paternal grandfather, Joseph-Marie Sebastiani had managed to amass a good fortune thanks to his work as a tailor and craftsman, in addition to his father's positions as a military man, politician and diplomat notably improved the family economy. Through her mother's way she was also descended from notable people, great-granddaughter of the Marshal of France François-Henri de Franquetot de Coingny. Given the good position of her family, the girl would be educated in a Parisian school for well-positioned ladies in society where they were trained to be true ladies and thus find a good marriage, there she would receive a strict Catholic education, in addition to learning literature, mathematics , languages, history, art and music.
Françoise would not take too long to be invited to some parties and evenings where she went with the hope of finding a good marriage and during one of these balls she met the nobleman Charles Theobald de Choiseul-Praslin, who at that time only carried the title of Marquis de Praslin. Said marquis was considered a very handsome young man and Fanny soon fell in love with him, even betting with other ladies who could seduce Charles Theobald and become his wife. Fanny was really convinced of becoming the wife of the Marquis de Praslin and tried to capture his attention however she could, she even confessed to her own father the idea of marrying Charles Theobald, something that would be accepted with pleasure by General Sebastiani who was not capable of denying his daughter anything and he only wanted to see her happy, so marriage negotiations between the two families soon began , what's more, his future father-in-law the Duke of Praslin was quite enthusiastic about such a marriage because Fanny would deliver a large dowry .
On October 18, 1824, the wedding between Françoise and Charles Theobald took place, by then she was 17 years old at the time of the union and he was 19. That wedding was the great sensation among the French aristocracy, because both were rich and belonged to good families, in addition to being considered as two attractive young men who were deeply in love with each other. The newlyweds would settle on the ground floor of the Hotel Sébastiani, while Fanny's father resided on the first floor.
It is known that father and daughter were always very close and did not want to be separated even after Françoise became a married woman, for this reason they would continue to live in the same residence although on different floors, although every night the married couple dined with General Sébastiani on the first floor of the residence. Fanny would be described by her contemporaries as a woman of great beauty who possessed remarkable charm and an enviable figure, although what stood out the most about her was the deep love she felt for her husband. The marquise would also be seen as an overly temperamental woman who suffered from serious mood swings and who developed an overly obsessive love for her husband, seeking his affection and company at all times.
The Marquises of Praslin had 10 children together, although Fanny also suffered a few miscarriages throughout their marriage, but all those pregnancies caused her to end up losing much of her well- known beauty and figure, becoming a sickly woman who suffered greatly overweight. As she gained weight, her husband stopped showing interest in her and avoided her presence, even after the birth of their last child, the marquis decided that he would never share the bed with his wife again, since he disliked her physical appearance. As Charles Theobald 's dislike for his wife increased , Fanny would become more obsessive with him, hounding him at all times and demanding affection, something that caused the marquess to reject her even more.
The fact that her husband left the marital bed caused Fanny to develop a series of obsessive jealousies and became even more mentally unstable. As her husband practically ignored her and avoided her presence, she sent him long love letters where she showed her husband all those feelings that she still felt towards him, but also her jealousy, her obsession and her frustration at not being loved or wanted. for this one.
In those writings, Fanny reproached her husband for his behavior and his coldness, although later she repented and would apologize to him as well as beg for a little love and understanding, but all those daily writings would only affect the bad relationship that already existed more . between the couple It is known that as her marriage cooled and broke up, the marquise began to lead a series of discussions both in private and in public where she showed her great outbursts of jealousy and anger that caught both her family and her family by surprise. servants or members of French high society.
In 1841 her husband's father, Duke Charles Felix de Choiseul-Praslin, died, so the couple became the new Dukes of Praslin. The couple's new position did not improve their family or marital situation, in addition, the great outbursts and sudden mood swings that Fanny suffered would worry her husband too much, who began to fear for the safety of his own children, so after many marital discussions, he finally convinced Fanny to sign a document prohibiting her from being alone with her children and only allowing her to be with her offspring when a governess was present. With the signing of such a document, Charles Theobald began to look for a governess who could take care of the family situation if it got too out of control, which is how Henriette Deluzy arrived at the Hôtel Sébastiani and began to serve the Dukes of Praslin.
Henriette was a young woman who had been orphaned at a young age and had become a governess to earn a living in an honest way, in addition to attracting attention for her charm, beauty and intelligence, although she also had a reputation for being somewhat bossy. and to feel superior to the other servants of the dukes. After the governess's arrival, Charles Theobald would begin to spend too much time away from the Hotel Sébastiani to focus on renovating and decorating the Vaux-le-Vicomte castle, a castle that had belonged to his family and had been admired by Louis XIV himself .
of France, it is even said that such a castle inspired the monarch to create the famous Palace of Versailles. The continuous absences of her husband caused Fanny to feel very lonely, in addition, she could not freely relate to her children, because she could only be with them a few hours a day and always in the company of the governess. For six years, Henriette served as governess to the Dukes of Praslin, but her presence would not be well accepted by Fanny, who always felt great suspicion towards her because Henriette had quickly won the affection of the children of the dukes and treated them as if they were her own children, even having the freedom to take all kind of decisions about the upbringing and education of those children without counting on the Duchess at all, besides that she behaved as if she were the authentic lady of the house.
Fanny would feel completely displaced by the governess of her children, something that would further affect her mental instability. She would see how her husband and the governess spent a lot of time together and had a close relationship, even on one occasion, Charles Theobald and Henriette traveled to Italian lands in the company of the children of the dukes, while Fanny was left alone in the city of Paris. That trip to Italy caused certain rumors to arise among the upper echelons of Paris and such gossip would not take too long to reach the ears of the Duchess, who believed each and every one of those rumors, so they would end up suffering a great attack of jealousy and would end up firing the governess, as well as threatening her husband with a divorce, something that could affect the Praslin family quite a bit.
The Duke of Praslin was not willing to divorce his wife even though he no longer loved her, a divorce would be a big scandal and could affect the Praslin family socially, and Fanny was willing to take custody of her children from her husband , something that she could easily achieve as she was a very rich woman and because of the power that her father General Sébastiani had, who had an important weight in both the military and French politics. That divorce could also cause his children to not be able to get good marriages in the face of such a scandal, what's more, at that time the commitment of several of his daughters to well-positioned men was being negotiated and the Duke of Praslin was not willing to lose such marriages. Another reason why Charles Theobald refused to part with his wife is because if the couple separated, Fanny could claim her large dowry, which had been used to renovate and decorate the famous Vaux-le-Vicomte castle.
The Duke of Praslin was a wealthy man and had inherited a large family fortune from his late father, but despite this, he was unwilling to return a single coin of her dowry to his wife. On August 17, 1857, the Praslin family returned to the Hotel Sébastiani in the middle of the night after having been traveling, intending to spend a single night at their habitual residence before traveling again to other properties owned by the couple and where they planned to spend several weeks of that hot summer. As usual, the Dukes of Praslin retired to their respective rooms, since they had not shared the same room for some years and slept in joint rooms, but in the middle of the morning on August 18, the sound of the church bell the duchess's room and her desperate screams woke up the servants who went to their mistress's room, but it was locked with a latch.
After trying to force the door, it opened unexpectedly, being opened by the duke himself who presented the blood-stained clothes. The servants entered the room and found the duchess badly injured on the floor in a large pool of blood. Several servants tried as the duke ordered medical help to be sought, after which Charles Theobald retired to his own chambers where he would wash up and change his clothes.
When the doctors arrived at the dukes' house, they found that the duchess had had her throat slit, so there was nothing they could do for her life, thus Fanny died several hours after being attacked in the middle of the night while she was sleeping. After raising the alarm, the authorities quickly moved to the Hôtel Sébastiani where they examined both the body of the deceased duchess and the crime scene, thus finding some furniture and personal belongings thrown on the floors, in addition to the bed being completely messed up and the room smelling of gunpowder, shortly after finding the hole left by a bullet in the duchess's dressing table. The investigators also noticed that Fanny showed signs of a struggle by having injuries in different parts of her body, thus presenting bruises and cuts, especially on her arms, so everything indicated that the duchess had fought for her life despite having been attacked while she was sleeping.
, also presented the amputation of a finger, something that could have been possible while she was struggling with her assailant, the mutilation taking place when she tried to avoid being slit. While the authorities were examining the room, they found a small trail of blood leading from the duchess's room to her husband's, thus discovering in the duke's room some blood-stained clothing that they had tried to burn in the room's fireplace. In addition , Charles Theobald also had a series of bruises and bites that he had tried to hide, which could correspond to a struggle.
It was also discovered that in one of the duchess's hands there were some hairs that she had managed to pull out of her attacker and these coincided with the color and length of the duke's hair. Faced with such evidence, the Duke of Praslin would find himself cornered by the authorities and would end up giving an alleged version of the events where he claimed that he heard noises in his wife's room in the middle of the night, so he went there to see what was happening, finding himself like this with a subject who had slipped through one of the windows and who was assaulting his wife. According to the duke's version, he fired the weapon he was carrying with him, but it missed, then he struggled with his wife's assailant, thus explaining why he also showed signs of a struggle.
After the struggle, the assailant managed to flee through the window through which he had supposedly entered. After this, the duke tried to help his badly injured wife, thus staining his clothes with blood and fearing that his children would see his bloody clothes, he decided change clothes and burn the one that was stained with blood in the fireplace. The authorities examined the duke's firearm, thus discovering that it had actually been fired, although they also found traces of blood, skin, and hair that matched those of the duchess, who also had severe head injuries, which would fit with the blows she might have received with the butt of her husband's pistol.
The version that the duke gave about the alleged mysterious assailant failed to convince the authorities, so that same August 18 he was placed under house arrest and would be closely watched by both the authorities and his servants, but several hours later, he would be transferred to the Luxembourg Palace in Paris where he would have to wait there until his trial was held, although by then, French society was somewhat in turmoil due to the political and social changes that were taking place in France at that time and that would end up leading to in the second French republic. Due to an oversight by the guards, the Duke of Praslin tried to take his own life that same day by taking several vials of arsenic and laudanum that he carried among his belongings, but it would be discovered by his servants and he was quickly treated by several doctors who managed to wash his stomach. , although traces of the poison remained in his body, something that caused him excruciating pain and long agony, thus dying just six days after Fanny's murder.
Some say that the duke was the true murderer of his wife and that he took his own life just to avoid a conviction, while others blindly believe his version of events and that he was innocent, but that he decided to take his own life after having lived in first person the appalling crime of his wife. According to some rumors of the time, Charles Theobald did not die of poisoning and his death was faked, being helped by his powerful friends to flee France, thus settling in Nicaragua where he lived under a false identity and where he rebuilt his life with another woman. thus having several more children.
Both the authorities and the French press began to investigate that murder that caused a great commotion among French society, thus trying to find some light in the case, even different suspects were considered, including the governess Henriette, who for months was subjected to a series of interrogations and she was too affected by the death of her former lord the Duke of Praslin, something that would show that there was enough affection between them or perhaps that she was in love with him, thus proving that there could be a sentimental motive to commit such a terrible murder, but since they failed to discover any evidence that incriminated the governess, she would end up being released, something that allowed her to leave France and settle in the United States where she began to work as a teacher in a school for girls, also she started a completely new life where she got married to a presbyterian reverend and started a very comfortable life. Fashion in the United States where she would become a very popular woman who would move between different social circles in New York City. Fanny died at the age of 40 at her home in Paris and her death caused a great commotion among the society of her time, even her murder would be followed for a long time by the press and inspired some novels.
Some say that the murder of the Duchess was one of the events that fueled the future revolution of 1848 and that it would end up causing the abdication of King Louis Philippe I of France, since his crime took place at a very difficult time for the French crown due to to the fact that by then the discontent of the people was increasing considerably, but some consider that such a statement is somewhat exaggerated. Fanny was a woman who possibly suffered from some mental problems, something notable given the excessive and obsessive love she felt towards her husband, becoming a woman who was carried away at all times by all these feelings she felt, passion, love, anger and jealousy. In the letters that she sent to her husband, you can appreciate all these mood swings that she suffered, showing herself in the same writing as a woman deeply in love, although later hurt and repentant.
Some historians who have studied the case of the Duchess of Praslin in depth believe that she may have been a nymphomaniac and that she continually needed her husband's affection, but the duke became too cold and distant a man over the years, causing this. that Fanny would become even more mentally unstable. It is not known who exactly was behind the murder of the duchess, since there are too many versions of what happened that night at the Hôtel Sébastiani, the story being distorted over the years, in addition to rumors and the press, but it is very possible that her husband took her life to avoid the scandal of the divorce or at least that he was somehow involved, although the governess Henritte could also have been part of the plot or was aware of it, either collaborating with the duke or with the mysterious assailant, because the governess also had her reasons, in this case sentimental.
Well friends, we reached the end of the life of Françoise Sébastiani, I hope you liked this story and I hope that all of you who asked me to make a video about her also, as always, thank you for all the support the channel receives, a thousand Thank you for watching the videos that I am making and thank you from the bottom of my heart for being part of BioPic Channel, today I would like to know what you thought of this story and if other noblemen who were victims of terrible murders, I would also like to congratulate FimmRoss on his birthday and send an affectionate greeting to Emelia Constantino, and with this I say goodbye, until next time!
