Claudine guerin de tencin biography of william
Claudine-Alexandrine Guérin de Tencin was a French author and literary patroness whose associations with celebrated writers and political....
One of the most fascinating biographies of Claudine Alexandrine.
Claudine Guérin de Tencin
French salonist and author
Claudine Alexandrine Guérin de Tencin, Baroness of Saint-Martin-de-Ré (27 April 1682[1] – 4 December 1749) was a French salonist and author.
She was the mother of Jean le Rond d'Alembert, who later became a prominent mathematician, philosophe and contributor to the Encyclopédie, though she left him on the steps of the Saint-Jean-le-Rond de Paris [Wikidata] church a few days after his birth in November 1717.
Early life
Claudine was born in Grenoble, France where her father, Antoine Guérin, sieur de Tencin, was president of the parlement. Claudine was brought up at a convent near Grenoble and, at the wish of her parents, took the veil but broke her vows and succeeded, in 1712, in gaining formal permission from Pope Clement XI for her secularisation.
She is reputed to have had a liaison, while still formally a nun, with the Irish exile soldier Arthur Dillon.
Life as a socialite
She joined