Her father was a diplomat, ambassador, archaeologist and prominent agrarian, president of the traditional and conservative Société des agriculteurs de France.

[3] The Marquise de Mac Mahon supported a public school near her château where the students were taught by nuns, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny.

These nuns were expelled in August 1902, under an anti-clerical policy against schools run by religious congregations, passed into law of 1 July 1901 by the government of Émile Combes.

[6] She gave regular lectures and spoke at royalist congresses and meetings, alongside supporters of the Orleanist monarchist world, most of them men[7] who professed to hate the French Republic.

[9] From 1903, she chaired the Œuvre Notre-Dame de France, a charity founded in the name of the Duchess of Orléans, Archduchess Maria Dorothea of Austria, which distributed clothes to the poor in winter.

[10] The report in the Catholic newspaper L'Univers noted: "Mme la marquise de Mac Mahon, who has always shown remarkable courage and composure, refused to leave her place of honour in front of the main gate.

Her attendance at conferences built wider networks and led her to meet the leaders of the French royalist movement, Action Française (AF), including Charles Maurras and Henri Vaugeois.

He justified de Mac Mahon's commitment to the AF, despite the criticism of some of the bishops and other Catholics who had rallied to support the French Republic at the request of Pope Leo XIII.

[18] In 1910–1911, the AF went through a crisis; it was temporarily disowned by the Orléanist pretender and the new head of the Duke of Orléans' political bureau, Henri de Larègle, turned out to be hostile to the organisation.

[21] From then on, she was the leader of the Dames and Jeunes filles d'AF (Ladies and Young Girls of the AF), leading them in parades on Joan of Arc's feast day.