Renée Suzanne de Soucy née de Mackau (1758-1841), was a French court office holder. She was royal governess to the children of Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette from 1781 and 1792.
Life
She was the daughter of baron Marie Henri Louis Eleonor Dirkheim de Mackau and Marie Angélique de Mackau, and the sister of Marie-Angélique de Bombelles (1762-1800) and Armand Louis de Mackau (1759-1827). She married her cousin count François-Louis de Fitte de Soucy in 1774.
In 1781, she was appointed one of five sous gouvernante (depute governess) to the royal children: they were placed under the Governess of the Children of France, but normally did most of the daily work. Her mother and her mother-in-law Elisabeth Louise Lenoir de Verneuil de Soucy (1729-1813) were two of the other four sous gouvernante. In contrast to her mother, who was loved by her pupils and respected at court, de Soucy was not as liked by her students, and was described as authoritarian and an intriguer.
Revolution
Soucy accompanied the royal family to the Tuileries Palace in Paris after the Women's March on Versailles during the French revolution in October 1789. During the Demonstration of 20 June 1792, she, alongside Princess de Lamballe, Madame de Tourzel, the Duchess de Maillé, Mme de Laroche-Aymon, Louise-Emmanuelle de Châtillon, Princesse de Tarente, Marie Angélique de Mackau, Mme de Ginestous, and a few noblemen, belonged to the courtiers surrounding the queen and her children for several hours when the mob passed by the room shouting insults to Marie Antoinette.
During the 10 August (French Revolution), she and the rest of the ladies-in-waiting of the queen was left in the queen's chamber after the royal family left the palace only in the company of Princess de Lamballe and Madame de Tourzel. When the mob broke in to the chamber, Louise-Emmanuelle de Châtillon, Princesse de Tarente made a personal appeal to the leading Marseillais, who stated: "We do not fight with women; go, all of you, if you choose," after which the women were all allowed to depart the palace unharmed, some of them even escorted by the rioters.
On request of the queen, she brought the royal adoptive daughter Ernestine de Lambriquet to safety from the Tuileries Palace. Passing the Carousel square in front to the palace, de Soucy left Lambriquet to fetch a coach. When she was away, a rebel mistook Lambriquet for Marie Thérèse and threw the corpse of a member of the Swiss Guard in front of her feet, but a shop-keeper defended her, also believing she was Marie Thérèse. They both hid with the Mackau family during the Terror.
Trip of 1795
When Marie Thérèse of France was released from Temple in 1795 and allowed to depart for Austria, she was chosen to accompany her on her journey to the border in Huningue after her mother - who had been the first choice of Marie Thérèse - was forced to decline due to health reasons. Marie Thérèse, who traveled under the name Sophie, sat in the carriage with de Soucy and the guards Mechin (posing as the father of Sophie) and Gomin; the male servants Hue and Baron, the cook Meunier, as well as the maid Catherine de Varenne and a teenage boy called Pierre de Soucy followed them in the next carriage.
After their arrival in Austria, the French entourage of Marie Thérèse were fired by the Austrian emperor, who did not wish them to convince Marie Thérèse not to submit to his will to marry an Austrian archduke, but before her departure, de Soucy stated that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette wished for their daughter to marry the duke of Angoulême.