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{{short description|French woman famous for her connection to several deaths}} |
{{short description|French woman famous for her connection to several deaths}} |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} |
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{{Infobox person |
{{Infobox person |
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|name = Marguerite Steinheil |
|name = Marguerite Steinheil |
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|image = Steinheil explains herself in court.jpg| |
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|caption = Mme Steinheil and her lawyer by Antony Aubin |
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|birth_name = Marguerite Jeanne Japy |
|birth_name = Marguerite Jeanne Japy |
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|birth_date = 16 April |
|birth_date = 16 April 1867 |
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|birth_place = [[Beaucourt]], France |
|birth_place = [[Beaucourt]], France |
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|death_date = {{ |
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1954|7|17|1869|4|16|df=yes}} |
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|death_place = [[Hove]], England |
|death_place = [[Hove]], England |
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|spouse = {{Marriage|Adolphe Steinheil|9 July 1890|31 May 1908|end=d.}}{{Marriage|[[Robert Scarlett, 6th Baron Abinger|Robert Scarlett]]|26 June 1917|10 June 1927|end=d.}} |
|spouse = {{plainlist| |
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* {{Marriage|Adolphe Steinheil|9 July 1890|31 May 1908|end=d.}} |
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* {{Marriage|[[Robert Scarlett, 6th Baron Abinger|Robert Scarlett]]|26 June 1917|10 June 1927|end=d.}} |
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}} |
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|children = 1 (daughter) |
|children = 1 (daughter) |
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}} |
}} |
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'''Marguerite Jeanne''' "'''Meg'''" '''Japy Steinheil, Baroness Abinger''' (16 April 1869 – 17 July 1954) was a |
'''Marguerite Jeanne''' "'''Meg'''" '''Japy Steinheil, Baroness Abinger''' (16 April 1869 – 17 July 1954) was a French woman known for her many love affairs with important men. She was present at the death of [[President of France|President]] [[Félix Faure]], who was rumoured to have died after having a seizure while allegedly having sex with her. She was later tried for the murders of her husband and mother, but was acquitted.<ref>Le Petit Journal, Nov. 2, 1909. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k618795t/f5.item</ref> |
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==Early life== |
==Early life== |
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Steinheil was born Marguerite Jeanne Japy in [[Beaucourt]], in the [[Territoire de Belfort]], to a rich, industrial family, the daughter of |
Steinheil was born Marguerite Jeanne Japy in [[Beaucourt]], in the [[Territoire de Belfort]], to a rich, industrial family, the daughter of Émilie (Rau) and Édouard Japy.<ref name="DudleySteinheil1960">{{cite book|author1=Ernest Dudley|author2=Marguerite Steinheil|title=The Scarlett widow|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TrE1AAAAIAAJ&q=Eduard+Japy+Emilie+Rau|year=1960|publisher=F. Muller}}</ref> She married the French painter {{ill|Adolphe Steinheil|fr|Adolphe Steinheil}}, son of painter [[Louis Charles Auguste Steinheil]], in July 1890. She became a prominent figure in [[Paris]]ian society, and her [[Salon (gathering)|salon]] was frequented by men of eminence in French political and social circles, including [[Charles Gounod]], [[Ferdinand de Lesseps]], [[René Lalique]], [[Jules Massenet]], [[François Coppée]], [[Émile Zola]], and [[Pierre Loti]]. |
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==Mistress of President Félix Faure== |
==Mistress of President Félix Faure== |
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In 1897, she was introduced, at [[Chamonix]], to President [[Félix Faure]], who was giving an official contract to Adolphe Steinheil. Because of this, Faure came often to their home on the {{lang|fr|Impasse Ronsin|italic=no}}. |
In 1897, she was introduced, at [[Chamonix]], to President [[Félix Faure]], who was giving an official contract to Adolphe Steinheil. Because of this, Faure came often to their home on the {{lang|fr|[[Impasse Ronsin]]|italic=no}}. |
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Shortly afterward Marguerite became Faure's mistress and was regularly ushered into the {{lang|fr|salon bleu}} in the private quarters of the presidential [[Élysée Palace]]. |
Shortly afterward Marguerite became Faure's mistress and was regularly ushered into the {{lang|fr|salon bleu}} in the private quarters of the presidential [[Élysée Palace]]. |
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On 16 February 1899, Félix Faure called Marguerite by telephone, asking her to come to the palace at the end of the afternoon. |
On 16 February 1899, Félix Faure called Marguerite by telephone, asking her to come to the palace at the end of the afternoon. Shortly after her arrival, servants were rung for, and they found the president lying on the couch while Marguerite Steinheil adjusted her disordered clothing. Faure died several hours later. |
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Unverified legend has it that she was performing [[oral sex]] on him when he suffered a fatal stroke, his convulsed hands tangled in her hair. This was not officially announced, but rumours started spreading immediately, although for several years it was believed that his partner at the time of his death was actress [[Cécile Sorel]].<ref>Armand Lanoux wrote a book about her affair with Faure, {{lang|fr|Madame Steinheil ou la Connaissance du président}} (1983). This title is a pun on {{lang|fr|connaissance}} meaning both 'consciousness' and 'acquaintance'. The priest who came to give last rites to Félix Faure when he died allegedly asked a police officer whether the president still "had his consciousness/acquaintance", to which the police officer replied "no, she left through the back door".</ref> |
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==={{lang|fr|Femme du monde}}=== |
==={{lang|fr|Femme du monde}}=== |
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The archetypal ''[[demimondaine]]'', after the death of Félix Faure, Marguerite Steinheil became the mistress of many other famous men. |
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In her {{lang|fr|Mémoires}}, she records how she and her spouse received a mysterious German guest, who bought back from them each of the pearls of a collar given to her by Faure ({{lang|fr|le collier présidentiel}}, as it became known in the press) and who reclaimed a manuscript of the president's memoirs which he had entrusted to Marguerite. |
In her {{lang|fr|Mémoires}}, she records how she and her spouse received a mysterious German guest, who bought back from them each of the pearls of a collar given to her by Faure ({{lang|fr|le collier présidentiel}}, as it became known in the press) and who reclaimed a manuscript of the president's memoirs which he had entrusted to Marguerite. |
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In February 1908, she met the powerful industrialist Maurice Borderel, also from the Ardennes, and soon became his lover. |
In February 1908, she met the powerful industrialist [[Maurice Borderel]], also from the Ardennes, and soon became his lover. |
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=={{lang|fr|L'affaire Steinheil}}== |
=={{lang|fr|L'affaire Steinheil}}== |
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On 31 May 1908, Marguerite's mother and husband were found dead in their residence in the {{lang|fr|Impasse Ronsin|italic=no}}, off the {{lang|fr|[[Rue de Vaugirard]]|italic=no}}. Both had died of suffocation by strangulation.<ref>{{cite news |work=Le Petit Parisien |date=November 1, 1909 |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k563412m/f1.item |title=La tragédie del'Impasse Ronsin : M<sup>me</sup> Steinheil au seuil de la Cour d'Assises |page=1 }}</ref> Marguerite was found gagged and bound to a bed. She initially said that she had been tied up by four black-robed strangers, three men and a woman. Some newspapers speculated that they had come to her house in search of |
On 31 May 1908, Marguerite's mother and husband were found dead in their residence in the {{lang|fr|Impasse Ronsin|italic=no}}, off the {{lang|fr|[[Rue de Vaugirard]]|italic=no}}. Both had died of suffocation by strangulation.<ref>{{cite news |work=Le Petit Parisien |date=November 1, 1909 |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k563412m/f1.item |title=La tragédie del'Impasse Ronsin : M<sup>me</sup> Steinheil au seuil de la Cour d'Assises |page=1 }}</ref> Marguerite was found gagged and bound to a bed. She initially said that she had been tied up by four black-robed strangers, three men and a woman. Some newspapers speculated that they had come to her house in search of secret documents which Faure had entrusted to her keeping, possibly relating to the [[Dreyfus affair]]. |
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The police immediately regarded her as a suspect in the killings but had no hard evidence and made a pretence of abandoning the investigation. But Steinheil herself would not let the affair rest. She made an attempt to frame her manservant, Rémy Couillard, by concealing a small pearl which she affirmed had been stolen at the time of the murder in a pocketbook belonging to Couillard; after that fabrication was discovered, she blamed Alexandre Wolff, the son of her old housekeeper, but he was able to establish an alibi. She was arrested in November 1908 and taken to [[Saint-Lazare Prison]]. The crime created a sensation in Paris. It was revealed that she had had a great number of admirers, including even King [[Sisowath of Cambodia]]. Opponents of the government tried to make political capital of the affair, the anti-Semitic {{lang|fr|[[Libre Parole]]}} even charging her with having poisoned President Faure. A sensational trial finally ended in her acquittal on 14 November 1909, although the judge called her stories "tissues of lies". |
The police immediately regarded her as a suspect in the killings but had no hard evidence and made a pretence of abandoning the investigation. But Steinheil herself would not let the affair rest. She made an attempt to frame her manservant, Rémy Couillard, by concealing a small pearl which she affirmed had been stolen at the time of the murder in a pocketbook belonging to Couillard; after that fabrication was discovered, she blamed Alexandre Wolff, the son of her old housekeeper, but he was able to establish an alibi. She was arrested in November 1908 and taken to [[Saint-Lazare Prison]]. |
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The crime created a sensation in Paris. It was revealed that she had had a great number of admirers, including even King [[Sisowath of Cambodia]]. Opponents of the government tried to make political capital of the affair, the anti-Semitic {{lang|fr|[[Libre Parole]]}} even charging her with having poisoned President Faure. A sensational trial finally ended in her acquittal on 14 November 1909, although the judge called her stories "tissues of lies". |
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==Later life== |
==Later life== |
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After the trial she |
After the trial she moved to [[London]], where she was known as Mme de Serignac. She wrote ''My Memoirs'' in 1912. On 26 June 1917, she married [[Robert Scarlett, 6th Baron Abinger]], who died in 1927. She lived at 24 [[Adelaide Crescent]] in [[Hove]] from that year and died in a nursing home in the town on 17 July 1954.<ref name="EncH&Pv1p16">{{Harvnb|Middleton|2002|loc=Vol. 1, p. 16.}}</ref> |
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== In popular culture == |
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* Steinheil is one of the main characters in the French TV drama, ''[[Paris Police 1900]]'', which premiered in 2021 on [[Canal+ (French TV channel)|Canal+]] in France and [[BBC Four]] in the UK. She is played by [[Evelyne Brochu]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allocine.fr/article/fichearticle_gen_carticle=18696525.html|title=Paris Police 1900: que vaut la nouvelle série historique de Canal+ se déroulant à la Belle Epoque ?| author=Reeb, Lucie |date = 8 February 2021|access-date = 6 November 2021|website=[[AlloCiné]]}}</ref> |
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* The French television film ''The President's Mistress'' (''La maîtresse du président'', 2009) is a dramatized version of their relationship where Steinheil is played by Brazilian actress [[Cristiana Reali]]. |
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==References== |
==References== |
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==Sources== |
==Sources== |
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*[[Alain Decaux]] : ''Les assassins'', Perrin. |
*[[Alain Decaux]] : ''Les assassins'', Perrin. |
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*[[ |
*[[Armand Lanoux]] : ''Madame Steinheil ou la Connaissance du président'' (1983). |
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* |
*{{ill|Christian Siméon|fr|Christian Siméon}}, dramaturge : ''La Priapée des Écrevisses ou l'Affaire Steinheil''. |
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*Pierre Darmon, historien : ''Marguerite Steinheil, ingénue criminelle?'' (Perrin, 1996). |
*Pierre Darmon, historien : ''Marguerite Steinheil, ingénue criminelle?'' (Perrin, 1996). |
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*[[ |
*[[Jacques Neirynck]] : ''Le crime du prince de Galles'', (2007) |
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*{{cite book|last=Middleton|first=Judy|title=The Encyclopaedia of Hove & Portslade|year=2002|publisher=Brighton & Hove Libraries|location=Brighton}}<!-- No ISBN available --> |
*{{cite book|last=Middleton|first=Judy|title=The Encyclopaedia of Hove & Portslade|year=2002|publisher=Brighton & Hove Libraries|location=Brighton}}<!-- No ISBN available --> |
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*[https://archive.today/20130121014336/http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=76090 Footage of Marguerite Steinheil's wedding to 6th Baron Abinger in 1917] |
*[https://archive.today/20130121014336/http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=76090 Footage of Marguerite Steinheil's wedding to 6th Baron Abinger in 1917] |
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*{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Steinheil, Marguerite|year=1920 |short=x}} |
*{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Steinheil, Marguerite|year=1920 |short=x}} |
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* {{Gutenberg author | id= |
* {{Gutenberg author | id=38818| name=Marguerite Steinheil}} |
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* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Marguerite Steinheil}} |
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Marguerite Steinheil}} |
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* [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1912-04-28/ed-1/seq-19/#date1=1912&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=14+April&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=6&state=&date2=1912&proxtext=april+14&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=10 ''New York Tribune'']; Sunday April 28, 1912 "Memoirs of Fascinating Mme. Steinheil Abound in Mystery and Adventure" |
* [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1912-04-28/ed-1/seq-19/#date1=1912&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=14+April&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=6&state=&date2=1912&proxtext=april+14&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=10 ''New York Tribune'']; Sunday April 28, 1912 "Memoirs of Fascinating Mme. Steinheil Abound in Mystery and Adventure" |
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[[Category:1954 deaths]] |
[[Category:1954 deaths]] |
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[[Category:French expatriates in the United Kingdom]] |
[[Category:French expatriates in the United Kingdom]] |
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[[Category:French memoirists]] |
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[[Category:French salon-holders]] |
[[Category:French salon-holders]] |
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[[Category:Mistresses]] |
[[Category:Mistresses]] |
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[[Category:People from |
[[Category:People from the Territoire de Belfort]] |
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[[Category:People of the French Third Republic]] |
[[Category:People of the French Third Republic]] |
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[[Category:French women memoirists]] |
[[Category:French women memoirists]] |
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[[Category:British baronesses|Abinger]] |
[[Category:British baronesses|Abinger]] |
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[[Category:People acquitted of murder]] |
[[Category:People acquitted of murder]] |
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[[Category:Scarlett family|Marguerite]] |
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[[Category:20th-century French women writers]] |
[[Category:20th-century French women writers]] |
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[[Category:20th-century memoirists]] |
[[Category:20th-century French memoirists]] |
Latest revision as of 04:21, 8 December 2024
Marguerite Steinheil | |
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Born | Marguerite Jeanne Japy 16 April 1867 Beaucourt, France |
Died | 17 July 1954 Hove, England | (aged 85)
Spouses | |
Children | 1 (daughter) |
Marguerite Jeanne "Meg" Japy Steinheil, Baroness Abinger (16 April 1869 – 17 July 1954) was a French woman known for her many love affairs with important men. She was present at the death of President Félix Faure, who was rumoured to have died after having a seizure while allegedly having sex with her. She was later tried for the murders of her husband and mother, but was acquitted.[1]
Early life
[edit]Steinheil was born Marguerite Jeanne Japy in Beaucourt, in the Territoire de Belfort, to a rich, industrial family, the daughter of Émilie (Rau) and Édouard Japy.[2] She married the French painter Adolphe Steinheil , son of painter Louis Charles Auguste Steinheil, in July 1890. She became a prominent figure in Parisian society, and her salon was frequented by men of eminence in French political and social circles, including Charles Gounod, Ferdinand de Lesseps, René Lalique, Jules Massenet, François Coppée, Émile Zola, and Pierre Loti.
Mistress of President Félix Faure
[edit]In 1897, she was introduced, at Chamonix, to President Félix Faure, who was giving an official contract to Adolphe Steinheil. Because of this, Faure came often to their home on the Impasse Ronsin.
Shortly afterward Marguerite became Faure's mistress and was regularly ushered into the salon bleu in the private quarters of the presidential Élysée Palace.
On 16 February 1899, Félix Faure called Marguerite by telephone, asking her to come to the palace at the end of the afternoon. Shortly after her arrival, servants were rung for, and they found the president lying on the couch while Marguerite Steinheil adjusted her disordered clothing. Faure died several hours later.
Unverified legend has it that she was performing oral sex on him when he suffered a fatal stroke, his convulsed hands tangled in her hair. This was not officially announced, but rumours started spreading immediately, although for several years it was believed that his partner at the time of his death was actress Cécile Sorel.[3]
Femme du monde
[edit]The archetypal demimondaine, after the death of Félix Faure, Marguerite Steinheil became the mistress of many other famous men.
In her Mémoires, she records how she and her spouse received a mysterious German guest, who bought back from them each of the pearls of a collar given to her by Faure (le collier présidentiel, as it became known in the press) and who reclaimed a manuscript of the president's memoirs which he had entrusted to Marguerite.
In February 1908, she met the powerful industrialist Maurice Borderel, also from the Ardennes, and soon became his lover.
L'affaire Steinheil
[edit]On 31 May 1908, Marguerite's mother and husband were found dead in their residence in the Impasse Ronsin, off the Rue de Vaugirard. Both had died of suffocation by strangulation.[4] Marguerite was found gagged and bound to a bed. She initially said that she had been tied up by four black-robed strangers, three men and a woman. Some newspapers speculated that they had come to her house in search of secret documents which Faure had entrusted to her keeping, possibly relating to the Dreyfus affair.
The police immediately regarded her as a suspect in the killings but had no hard evidence and made a pretence of abandoning the investigation. But Steinheil herself would not let the affair rest. She made an attempt to frame her manservant, Rémy Couillard, by concealing a small pearl which she affirmed had been stolen at the time of the murder in a pocketbook belonging to Couillard; after that fabrication was discovered, she blamed Alexandre Wolff, the son of her old housekeeper, but he was able to establish an alibi. She was arrested in November 1908 and taken to Saint-Lazare Prison.
The crime created a sensation in Paris. It was revealed that she had had a great number of admirers, including even King Sisowath of Cambodia. Opponents of the government tried to make political capital of the affair, the anti-Semitic Libre Parole even charging her with having poisoned President Faure. A sensational trial finally ended in her acquittal on 14 November 1909, although the judge called her stories "tissues of lies".
Later life
[edit]After the trial she moved to London, where she was known as Mme de Serignac. She wrote My Memoirs in 1912. On 26 June 1917, she married Robert Scarlett, 6th Baron Abinger, who died in 1927. She lived at 24 Adelaide Crescent in Hove from that year and died in a nursing home in the town on 17 July 1954.[5]
In popular culture
[edit]- Steinheil is one of the main characters in the French TV drama, Paris Police 1900, which premiered in 2021 on Canal+ in France and BBC Four in the UK. She is played by Evelyne Brochu.[6]
- The French television film The President's Mistress (La maîtresse du président, 2009) is a dramatized version of their relationship where Steinheil is played by Brazilian actress Cristiana Reali.
References
[edit]- ^ Le Petit Journal, Nov. 2, 1909. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k618795t/f5.item
- ^ Ernest Dudley; Marguerite Steinheil (1960). The Scarlett widow. F. Muller.
- ^ Armand Lanoux wrote a book about her affair with Faure, Madame Steinheil ou la Connaissance du président (1983). This title is a pun on connaissance meaning both 'consciousness' and 'acquaintance'. The priest who came to give last rites to Félix Faure when he died allegedly asked a police officer whether the president still "had his consciousness/acquaintance", to which the police officer replied "no, she left through the back door".
- ^ "La tragédie del'Impasse Ronsin : Mme Steinheil au seuil de la Cour d'Assises". Le Petit Parisien. 1 November 1909. p. 1.
- ^ Middleton 2002, Vol. 1, p. 16.
- ^ Reeb, Lucie (8 February 2021). "Paris Police 1900: que vaut la nouvelle série historique de Canal+ se déroulant à la Belle Epoque ?". AlloCiné. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
Sources
[edit]- Alain Decaux : Les assassins, Perrin.
- Armand Lanoux : Madame Steinheil ou la Connaissance du président (1983).
- Christian Siméon , dramaturge : La Priapée des Écrevisses ou l'Affaire Steinheil.
- Pierre Darmon, historien : Marguerite Steinheil, ingénue criminelle? (Perrin, 1996).
- Jacques Neirynck : Le crime du prince de Galles, (2007)
- Middleton, Judy (2002). The Encyclopaedia of Hove & Portslade. Brighton: Brighton & Hove Libraries.
External links
[edit]- Footage of Marguerite Steinheil's wedding to 6th Baron Abinger in 1917
- Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. .
- Works by Marguerite Steinheil at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Marguerite Steinheil at the Internet Archive
- New York Tribune; Sunday April 28, 1912 "Memoirs of Fascinating Mme. Steinheil Abound in Mystery and Adventure"
- 1869 births
- 1954 deaths
- French expatriates in the United Kingdom
- French salon-holders
- Mistresses
- People from the Territoire de Belfort
- People of the French Third Republic
- French women memoirists
- British baronesses
- People acquitted of murder
- Scarlett family
- 20th-century French women writers
- 20th-century French memoirists