Hamelin, Fortunée (1776-1851)

Hamelin, Fortunée

SOCIALITE (FRANCE)

BORN 25 Mar 1776, Saint-Domingue - DIED 29 Apr 1851, Paris
BIRTH NAME Lormier-Lagrave, Jeanne Geneviève Fortunée
GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Père Lachaise, Rue du Repos 16 (division 11, chemin Talma, 1ère ligne)

Fortunée Hamelin was a creole of mixed-race. She was the daughter of the wealthy sugar plantation owner Jean Lormier Lagrave. She grew up in Santa Domingo until her father sent her to France in 1788 together with her mother. The idea was that her chances of marrying a rich man were better in France than on Santa Domingo. She attended a border school and after her mother selected the rich son a tax farmer, Antoine-Romain Hamelin (1770-1855) and she married him in Paris on 10 July 1792 when she as fourteen years old. Her father died in 1794 on a ship bound for America that went down.

In Italy she gave birth to her first child Édouard in 1797 and there she met Joséphine de Beauharnais and Laure Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély (1776-1857), who both became her friends. She also met Napoleon Bonaparte and he fascinated her. In 1798 her daughter Léontine was born. She started taking lovers and her friendship with Joséphine attracted influential people to her salon. The future general François Fournier-Sarlovèze (1772-1827) became her lover. Later she would never forgive him that he sided with the Bourbons in 1814. Another lover was the diplomat Count Casimir de Montrond (1769-1843). She succeeded Madame Tallien as the lover of the rich banker Gabriel Ouvrard. Their affair went very well until Ouvrard was arrested at her home by Fouché for Embezzlement. He went to prison for five years.

She hated the return of the Bourbons in 1814 and longed for 'her emperor'. She distributed posters with proclamations by Napoleon in Paris and he found a letter from her at the Tuileries Palace after his return to Paris. After the Second Restoration it was made clear to her that she should leave Paris immediately. She went to Brussels where she met Benjamin Constant and followed his advice to rent a private mansion and open a salon. There she was visited by Cambacérès, Barras and the painter David.

In 1817 she was allowed to return to Paris. She started another salon where Talleyrand and Flahaut visited her. She was a known Bonapartist, and she was watched by the secret police. The Ministry of Police approached her to provide reports and information that she would obtain from her visitors and relations. They paid her well, but her information was of little use. She continued to maintain her contacts with the bonaparte family and she destested king Louis-Philippe who had come to power in 1830. She was enthousiastic about the Revolution of 1848, but she died in 1851 before she could witness that Louis Napoleon Bonaparte became Napoleon III.

Related persons
• was visited by Barras, Paul, vicomte de
• was a friend of Beauharnais, Joséphine de
• was visited by Cambacérès, Jean Jacques Régis de, duc de Parma
• knew Constant de Rebecque, Benjamin
• was visited by David, Jacques-Louis
• was visited by Flahaut de la Billarderie, Charles de
• admired Napoleon I Bonaparte

Images
The grave of Jeanne Fortunée Hamelin at Père Lachaise, Paris. Picture by Androom (07 Nov 2024)	The grave of Jeanne Fortunée Hamelin at Père Lachaise, Paris. Picture by Androom (07 Nov 2024)