Francoise Stainville

Francoise-Thérèse de Choiseul-Stainville

Francoise-Thérèse, the Princesse de Monaco, was born a Frenchwoman in 1767. She had the misfortune of being in the country during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, and was arrested and promptly condemned to death in 1794.

While awaiting execution she falsely declared herself to be pregnant in order to secure a short reprieve. During this time she cut her own hair and sent the locks along with a letter to her two young daughters. She then announced to her jailers that she was in fact not with child, but had lied in order to arrange for the only legacy she had left for her children (her hair) to be untouched by the executioner.

She was beheaded the following day along with forty-six others on 9 Thermidor, which was the day before Robespierre's Tribunal was overthrown. She was among the last group of people to be sent to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror.