The Woman Behind Talleyrand

Meet the last — and probably greatest — love of Talleyrand’s life

Dorothea by Catherine-Caroline Thévenin, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Princess Dorothea of Courland was born in 1793, daughter of the last Duchess of Courland. Her father is a matter of dispute — a running theme in this story. Ostensibly it was Peter Biron, the senile 69-year-old Duke of Courland. But it could just as easily have been Count Alexander Batowski, her mother’s lover.

Despite being born a princess of Courland, Dorothea didn’t grow up there. When her father sold Courland to Catherine the Great for two million rubles, he established a lavish court at his Prussian estate, Sagan.¹ There, Dorothea watched her older sisters make less-than-stellar marriages, each desperate to escape the loveless home life created by their selfish mother. Wilhelmina, for example, married a penniless French count…then cheated on him with her mother’s latest lover.

Dorothea von Medem by Friedrich Hartmann Barisien, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Dorothea’s tyrannical governess made her life hell, whipping her and forcing her to “run naked in the icy cold of a Prussian winter.” ² As a result, she was sad, withdrawn, and frequently sick.

Dorothea later said, “I remember so perfectly how I…