The French Revolution is a complex part of history, with richly detailed records left to us today. Sometimes in my research, I found myself almost overwhelmed by the incredible amount of information available. While I tried to include as much as possible, some details had to be glossed over or slightly altered in light of plot or characterization.
One of these changes is that I have portrayed a simplified version of Marie Antoinette’s household, which was very large and included a complicated hierarchy. I have limited the arc of the story to a few key members of it. While it is implied that Giselle and Geneviève are not the only tirewomen, they frequently appear to be working alone; in reality they would have been part of a larger group of household women and ladies-in-waiting.
Both Giselle and Geneviève are fictional, although one of the queen’s tirewomen really did suspect the plan to flee to Varennes and was dismissed a day before the escape occurred. In Madame Campan’s memoirs, she is only named as R——. I gave this bit of history to Geneviève.
As Giselle is fictional, so too are her parents. Her uncle Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, however, is a real figure, as is his daughter, Eugénie. De Beaumarchais had several sisters whose lives are not well documented, so I forged the family link by making Giselle’s mother one of them. As soon as I read of de Beaumarchais’s connection with the Secret du Roi, I knew I wanted my main character to be part of his family.
Léon is also a fictional character, but his trade as a watchmaker is a real one, and his initial support for the revolution is also fitting for a person of the time period. Léon probably joined the national guard earlier than someone of his ideology would have. In October of 1791 active citizens were obliged to join the national guard for maintenance of law and order. In the summer of 1792, the fundamental character of the guard changed, becoming more pro-revolutionary. Given this shift, it’s possible that someone like Léon would not have joined until obligated. However, I wanted Léon to be a member of the national guard for the Massacre of the Champ de Mars in July of 1791, and since its commander, the Marquis de Lafayette, had a strong reputation for his involvement in the American Revolution, it seemed plausible that Léon would be drawn to his leadership.
I also took a liberty with Madame Campan’s movements. In late May of 1790 she was sent to the Auvergne, in the south of France, to undertake tasks for the queen. She did not return to Paris until August of 1791, and was thus not present for the June flight to Varennes, and did not hear a full account of the ill-fated journey from Marie Antoinette until August. I have omitted this and kept Madame Campan in the loop, since she is a central character with a deep emotional connection to the queen.
Perhaps anticipating a wild portrayal of Marie Antoinette drinking champagne and dancing all night, some readers might be surprised by my more understated depiction of her. I was too, for when I entered my research, I fully expected to encounter the flighty queen. However, much of her reputation as a party girl stems from her time as dauphine, before she became a mother. By the time the revolution began, Marie Antoinette was thirty-four, and while she lacked the political and economic skills to aid the revolution or the societal issues that provoked it, she was always a caring person and appears to have been sincerely troubled by the outbreak of the revolution. From my research, I believe it had a somber effect on her behavior.
During the revolution, the government changed many times, going through several different names. Any errors in the naming conventions, or indeed any other factual errors, are entirely my own.