Marie REGNAULT, known as Régine de Montille
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Courtesan of the Second Empire.
Claudine Marie Regnault took the name Régine de Montille in Paris and lived as a sought-after courtesan, her fortune resting on the allowances of her lovers. A republican, she followed the funeral procession of Victor Noir, took the side of the Commune and nursed the wounded under the shelling. She was killed at home in March 1887, with her chambermaid and the maid's nine-year-old child.
The story
Claudine Marie Regnault was born in 1847 at Châlons-en-Champagne. In Paris, under the name Régine de Montille, she led the life of a sought-after courtesan: her fortune, in securities and jewels, came from the allowances her lovers paid her. It is those jewels that would have her killed, and that would catch her killer.
She lived through the century's political upheavals as a republican: she followed the funeral of Victor Noir, the journalist shot by a cousin of the emperor whose burial, in 1870, turned into a demonstration, took the Commune's side against Versailles, and nursed the wounded at the fort of Issy-les-Moulineaux under the shelling.
She lived at 17, rue Montaigne — today rue Jean-Mermoz — with her chambermaid, Annette Gremeret, and the maid's daughter, Marie-Louise, aged nine. All three were killed on 17 March 1887.
The investigation led to Henri Pranzini, an adventurer born in Alexandria, arrested in Marseille six days later: he was paying girls with the stolen jewels. Condemned to death, he was executed on 31 August 1887, having never admitted the facts.
She joined in Division 41 her sister Louise Regnault (1849-1886), a schoolmistress and a Communard. The stone says she died on 18 June 1887: that is the date of her transfer to Père-Lachaise, three months after the crime.
On site, do not miss
The two sisters under the same surname — Louise and Marie Regnault — and the date engraved for Marie, 18 June 1887, which is that of her transfer to the cemetery and not that of her death. Nothing on the stone recalls the name of Régine de Montille.
Visitors' questions
Where is Régine de Montille's grave?
In Division 41 of Père-Lachaise, Avenue Transversale No. 2, third row. The plot carries the name Regnault, the one on her papers, and not the one Paris knew her by. She lies there with her sister Louise.
Edmond du Sommerard, Division 41What was the rue Montaigne affair?
The triple murder of 17 March 1887 at 17, rue Montaigne, where Marie Regnault lived with her maid and the maid's daughter. The case held the French press for more than a month and sent Henri Pranzini to the scaffold, executed on 31 August 1887.
Volney, Division 41Was Régine de Montille a Communard?
She took the Commune's side. A republican from the funeral of Victor Noir in 1870, she nursed the wounded at the fort of Issy-les-Moulineaux under the bombardment. Her sister Louise, a schoolmistress, supported the Commune as well.
Victor NoirWhat is written on her grave?
Two names and two dates: “Louise REGNAULT décédée le 28 février 1886. Marie REGNAULT décédée le 18 juin 1887.” The second date is not the date of her death, 17 March, but the date her body was moved to Père-Lachaise.
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