Louise Élisabeth de Croÿ

Louise-Élisabeth de Croÿ (Louise Élisabeth Félicité Françoise Armande Anne Marie Jeanne Joséphine; 11 June 1749 – 15 May 1832) was a French noblewoman and courtier, as the Marquise of Tourzel.

They enjoyed a happy marriage for twenty years, in which Louise Élisabeth bore six children; her husband was, however, killed in a hunting accident in 1786.

[1] She was a staunch supporter of the House of Bourbon, and had this motto engraved on a ring she refused to part with: Lord, save the King, the Dauphin, and his sister!.

[3] Marie Antoinette appointed Louise Élisabeth to the newly vacant post, with particular attention to be paid to the dauphin, Louis-Charles.

[7] Louise Élisabeth and her daughter were advised by their rescuer, a "Monsieur Hardi", to leave Paris because Pauline had escaped the prison illegally and was in danger of arrest, and they left for the countryside, where they lived incognito in Vincennes and at the property of her son in Abondant outside of Dreux.

[4] Several times over the coming decades, Louise Élisabeth was accosted by various men pretending to be "Louis XVII of France".

Louise-Élisabeth de Tourzel has been featured in several novels about the French royal family, including the Marie Antoinette romances by Alexandre Dumas.