Revival History

Born Anne-Josèphe Terwagne in Marcourt, Rendeux in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium, Théroigne was far from royalty. She was born in 1767 to peasant parents, the middle child of three.  Her mother died when she was five years old and Anne-Josèphe was passed back and forth between a couple of aunts and her father and his new wife.  None of these homes were particularly kind to her, through a series of misadventures including being hired as a governess and then ditched at a tavern, young Anne-Josèphe found herself in the employ of a woman named Madame Colbert.  Madame Colbert hired Anne-Josèphe to be the governess of her children, and took the sixteen year old peasant girl on a tour of the European capitals, where she studied opera.  In London, she hooked up with, or was abducted by (accounts differ), a young English nobleman, who taught her an appreciation of the good life.  Eventually, they parted ways in Paris after he left her with 200,000 livres.  Th...

Théroigne de Méricourt Born Anne-Josèphe Terwagne in Marcourt, Rendeux in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium, Théroigne was far from royalty. She was born in 1767 to peasant parents, the middle child of three.  Her mother died when she was five years old and Anne-Josèphe was passed back and forth between a couple of aunts and her father and his new wife.  None of these homes were particularly kind to her, through a series of misadventures including being hired as a governess and then ditched at a tavern, young Anne-Josèphe found herself in the employ of a woman named Madame Colbert.  Madame Colbert hired Anne-Josèphe to be the governess of her children, and took the sixteen year old peasant girl on a tour of the European capitals, where she studied opera.  In London, she hooked up with, or was abducted by (accounts differ), a young English nobleman, who taught her an appreciation of the good life.  Eventually, they parted ways in Paris after he left her with 2...