Mme. Campan

Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan (1752–1822), born Genet, was a French courtier and educator. The daughter of a foreign office clerk, she became a reader to the daughters of Louis XV at fifteen and later first lady of the bedchamber to Marie Antoinette, whom she served until the fall of the monarchy in 1792 and narrowly survived. Under the Directory she opened a school for girls at Saint-Germain-en-Laye that educated Napoleon's stepdaughter Hortense, and Napoleon made her head of the school at Écouen for daughters of members of the Legion of Honor. Her Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, published after her death, remain a major source for the queen's private life.