Valentine de Riquet Comtesse de Caraman-Chimay

http://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00059742&tree=LEO

BIOGRAPHY Daughter of Joseph de Riquet, Prince de Chimay et de Caraman, and Emilie Pellapra, Marie Henriette Valentine de Riquet, Comtesse de Caraman-Chimay, was born 15 February 1839 at Menars, Lord-et-Cher. Valentine married Prince Paul de Bauffremont on 18 April 1861 at Chimay. Paul was a professional soldier and later a general in the French Army, who led the ill-fated cavalry charge at the Battle of Sedan in 1870. Valentine hated garrison life and soon fell out of love with her husband, who turned out to be mean, selfish, quick-tempered and chronically unfaithful.

Valentine had a strong character, immense energy, a sharp wit and a gift for manipulating people. Men found her attractive, prominent among her admirers was a handsome Roumanian officer serving in the French Army. His name was George Bibesco, heir to the Hospodar of Valachia.

Bauffremont continued to ill-treat his wife physically; he also tried to prevent her from seeing their two little daughters. Divorce did not exist in France in those days and separation had to be granted in an ecclesiastical court. In the 1870 Franco-German War, both Bauffremont and Bibesco became prisoners of war in Germany, but their hostilities resumed once both men returned home. Bauffremont and Bibesco fought a celebrated duel which resulted in the lover being sent to the Conciergerie prison for a time. Finally, two years later, Valentine managed to obtain the longed-for legal separation and custody of her two daughters.

Determined to marry Bibesco, which she could not do in France, she transferred her residence to Saxe-Altenburg in Protestant Germany, where divorce was legally accepted. The divorce took place in 1874, and Valentine and George Bibesco married 24 October 1875 in Berlin. Bauffremont promptly instituted a case for the arrest of his 'bigamous wife' and petitioned the courts for the custody of his daughters. Menars, the Caraman-Chimay property, which she loved and which was to be passed on to her daughters, had to be sold to pay the lawyers. She emerged from the turmoil, having twice changed nationality and religion, duly married to her lover, her spirit intact and her joie de vivre undiminished. She settled with him in the old Bibesco family palace in Bucharest, where she produced three more children.

The 'affair Bauffremont' provided great copy for newspapers all over Europe. Every detail of the scandal was avidly scrutinized and enjoyed; poor Valentine was much condemned and turned into a social pariah. To her distress, her name was dropped from the _Almanach de Gotha._ The case became a classic in the annals of international jurisdiction.

It took Valentine a long time to adjust to life in Roumania. On a visit to the Sultan in Constantinople, her husband died 22 May 1902. As Dowager Princess, firmly anchored in the haven of the Greek Orthodox church and endowed with the respectability of old age, she became a merciless critic of the vagaries of the young.

Valentine died 25 August 1914 in Sinaia, Roumania. Her son, Prince George Valentine Bisbesco married Marthe Lahovary in 1902. Marthe became renowned as the author Princess Marthe Bibesco.