About

The daughter of Guy Joseph de Donnissan, born at Versailles and married in 1791 to the marquis de Lescure, she was in Paris for the journées of June and August 1792 and joined the insurrection with her husband the following year. She crossed the Loire with the army after Cholet, pregnant and walking beside the litter carrying her mortally wounded husband, and endured the march to Granville and the rout at Savenay, where she was separated from her father. All three of her daughters died. Remarried in 1802 to Louis de La Rochejaquelein, she wrote the memoirs, first printed in 1814 and condensed for publication by Prosper de Barante, which became the founding narrative of the Vendée and shaped its literature for two centuries.