Le Château de Saulxures de Nancy

In the 18th century this was the home of the Counts de Rutant. It was built in the 1730s during the reign of Louis XV by Count Claude-Marcel de Rutant, Captain of the Cuirassiers, Major of the Regiment to the Guards of SAR the Duke of Lorraine. His granddaughter, Charlotte de Rutant, aged 22, was arrested here on 24th April 1793 and guillotined in Paris on 5th October 1793 despite petitions by the inhabitants of Saulxures and Pulnoy. The park was designed by Louis le Nesle, known as “Gervais”, nephew of André Le Nôtre, who also worked at the Château de Lunéville. In 1866, at celebrations to mark the annexation of Lorraine to France, Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, was received here by Countess Adeline de Rutant.

In 1942 the house was occupied by German troops who removed all the furniture and turned it into a fuel depot, manned by two hundred firemen, to defend the airfield at Essey-lès-Nancy. On 26th September 1944, the Sixth American Army commanded by Major General Grow established  a command post here until 8th November 1944. In this period General Patton came to stay and the cellars of the castle were used as meeting rooms. Like many other houses in the war the house, its outbuildings and park suffered much damage. Nicole de Pardieu, owner at the time, did not succeed in getting compensation and the challenge of restoring the house and estate fell to her great-nephew, Pierre de Valence, in 1962; a task continued by his son, Amaury de Valence, in 1988. Today Saulxures is a major player in terms of management of farmland and forestry and the house is available for events, attracting some 4,000 visitors a year. (www.chateau-de-saulxures.fr)

Charlotte de Rutant was brought up here with her sister, Augustine. The story of her arrest and execution was told here in 2016 by my cousin, Francis Plowden. Augustine married George “Punch” Bryan of Jenkinstown, Co Kilkenny, and is my great, great, great, great grandmother. 

Mrs Murphy, in the Journal of the Kilkenny Archeological Society, recounts the background to their marriage. George Bryan, born in 1770, had been sent to school in Liege aged fourteen, as the Penal Laws did not allow a Catholic education in England or Ireland, and then when he was twenty-two to Paris ….

Mrs Murphy, like many historians, is not entirely accurate but her account leaves nothing in the telling. The splendid coach, it was said to eclipse that of the viceroy, has disappeared but I do have a picture of it embroidered on silk by Augustine. You will note the two postillions, driver and footman.