Louise Antoinette Lannes, Duchess of Montebello

Who was Louise Antoinette Lannes, Duchess of Montebello?

Louise Antoinette Lannes, Duchess of Montebello was a French courtier, Mistress of the Robes to Empress Marie Louise of France. She was the daughter of senator and financier François Scholastique, Count of Guéhéneuc. She was the sister of general Charles Louis Joseph Olivier, Count of Guéhéneuc.

On September 16, 1800, age 18 at Dornes she married general Jean Lannes, being his second wife. They had five children: four sons and one daughter named Joséphine. After the death of Jean Lannes, the eldest son Napoléon succeeded in his titles and three others who used the courtesy title of baron.

The Duchess of Montebello enjoyed a great deal of respect in the contemporary Parisian high society as a role model of aristocratic femininity. She was appointed dame d'honneur to Empress Marie Louise by Napoleon I, a position she kept from 1810 until the fall of Napoleon in 1814.