D'Arblay, AJB
NAME: Arblay, Alexandre Jean Baptiste d'
ACHIEVEMENTS: Chief of Staff to Lafayette.
NICKNAME/ALIAS: Chevalier d'Anceny.
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: 13th May 1753, France.
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: 3rd May 1818, Bath, England. Aged 65.
DISCIPLINE: Soldier.
FIELD: Military.
LANGUAGE: French.
PARENTS: Father, M. d'Arblay. Mother, Mme. Bazille.
SIBLINGS: One brother: name unknown
SPOUSE: Fanny Burney
CHILDREN: One son, Alexander.
EDUCATION: Unknown.
MAJOR WORKS: None.
LIFE AND TIMES:
D'Arblay was on guard the night of Louis XVI's abortive flight to Austria on June 20th 1791. The King and Queen were caught at Varennes and brought back to Paris. D'Arblay narrowly escaped being massacred by the mob.
When France declared war on Austria in 1792, d'Arblay was made second-in-command to Lafayette*. He and Lafayette were taken prisoner by the rebel republican soldiers in their own army and then rescued by the Austrians.
He then went to the Netherlands to England, with nothing but the clothes he wore and the money in his pocket. In England he went to Mickleham, Surrey., where Juniper Hall had been let to a group of progressive French refugees known as the Constitutionalists. Headed by Talleyrand* and the Comte de Mirabeau, they had led a movement for constitutional reform, but had been ousted by the revolutionary parties.
Among the residents of Juniper Hall was de Stael*, writer and wife of the Swedish ambassador to France, who had saved the lives of some of her aristocratic friends by allowing them her husband's diplomatic coach to transport them out of Paris. De Stael’s lover, the Count de Narbonne, was also among the refugees, collectively known as the "Juniper Colony." Talleyrand, a former lover of de Stael, was an occasional visitor.
One of the local families on visiting terms with the Juniper Colony was British MP William Lock and his wife, whose neighbor was Susannah Phillips, the sister of Fanny Burney*, already well known for her two novels "Evelina" and "Cecilia". When Fanny Burney came to visit her sister in January 1793 she met d'Arblay.
D'Arblay was a tall man with a slim figure and good looks, and his personality was gentle, sensitive and rather reserved. The refugees received notice that unless they returned to France within three months, all of their property would be forfeit and those who returned later would face the death penalty. D'Arblay felt his lack of means very keenly.
He later met Fanny in March 1793, in London, when he told her of his plan to set up a French troop of horses to defend the English coast in the event of an invasion by the French. Apart from anything else, this would mean employment for d'Arblay, so he sent his memo to John Villiers, the MP for Dartmouth, who was an acquaintance of Narbonne. He also sent his proposals to Pitt*, the Prime Minister. He got no reply and his plan came to nothing.
After this meeting, Fanny wrote in French to d'Arblay, offering him a loan of one hundred pounds, and declaring her love for him. D’Arblay responded positively. Fanny's father, Dr. Burney, was highly suspicious but soon gave way after he met d'Arblay and discovered that they shared a mutual love of books.
On 28th July 1793, D’Arblay and Fanny married at Mickleham church. They lived in rooms in a farmhouse and then in a rented cottage near Mickleham, where, still unemployed, d'Arblay discovered he had a passion for gardening. In December 1794, their son, Alexander, was born and his wife wrote another novel. From the proceeds of her book they were able to build themselves a house nearby.
In October D’Arblay went to France, where he visited Lafayette and sought an audience with Napoleon*.
In 1802, Fanny became known as the author of "Cecilia", which had been translated in French in 1783 and was a great success. The peace treaty with Britain, the Peace of Amiens, had been signed on 25 March and others from Juniper Hall returned to Paris. Napoleon was elected First Consul for life, and some stability returned to Paris. At this time, d'Arblay was anxious to make his home in France and took his wife and son to Joigny to meet relatives. With a small amount of money from his family they bought a house at Passy, just outside Paris.
D’Arblay received his meager army pension and on retirement was made Adjutant-General. In 1803 Anglo-French hostilities broke out again and the D’Arblay’s were trapped in France. His wife had no means of getting her English pension so in 1805, d'Arblay accepted a post at the Ministry of the Interior.
Following the fall of Napoleon, in 1814 he was offered a commission in the Royal Guard of King Louis XVII. The following year, they heard of Napoleon's escape from Elba in 1815 and Fanny left with their child, managing to reach the safety of Brussels.
D'Arblay rode to the Champs de Mars to join the Royal Guard and the rest of the army, only to find that most of the French soldiers had deserted to join Napoleon. The King fled to Lille, and d'Arblay rode for over twenty-four hours in pouring rain and arrived at Ypres, just across the border in Belgium, ill with fever.
He later received a summons from the King from Ghent and was given the job of rounding up deserters from Napoleon's army and getting them back into the royalist army. He was also given the title of Comte, and sent to Treves.
D'Arblay had signed a Proclamation of Loyalty to Louis XVIII which meant that if Napoleon was not defeated and he was captured he would face execution. He remained in Treves during the battle of Waterloo and received news about the battle in letters from his wife. They eventually returned to their apartment in Paris, and then in October 1815 traveled to England and settled in Bath, where d'Arblay rented a plot and began to garden once again. In August 1816 and in June 1817 he returned to Paris for a few weeks but achieved nothing
He returned to England in October 1817, seriously ill and died in May 1818.
ASSESSMENT: Best known for having married Fanny Burney, the English novelist.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None
ONELINER: Alexandre d’Arblay, husband of writer Fanny Burney
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Chisholm, Kate, Fanny Burney, Her Life, Chatto & Windus, London, 1998.
Kelly, Linda, Juniper Hall, Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd., London, 1991.
Weiner, Margery, The French Exiles, 1789-1815, John Murray, London, 1960.