Germaine de Staël - Marriage

Marriage

Soon her parents became impatient for her to marry; and they are said to have objected to her marrying a Roman Catholic, which, in France, considerably limited her choice. There is a legend that William Pitt the Younger thought of her. The somewhat notorious lover of Julie de Lespinasse, Guibert, a cold-hearted coxcomb of some talent, certainly paid her addresses.

Finally, she married Baron Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein, who was first an attaché of the Swedish legation, and then minister. For a great heiress and a very ambitious girl, the marriage did not seem brilliant, for Staël had no fortune and no very great personal distinction. A singular series of negotiations, however, secured from the king of Sweden a promise of the ambassadorship for 12 years and a pension in case of its withdrawal, and the marriage took place on 14 January 1786.

The husband was 37, the wife 20. Mme de Staël was accused of extravagance, and latterly an amicable separation of property had to be made between the couple. But this was a mere legal formality, and on the whole the marriage seems to have met the views of both parties, neither of whom had any affection for the other. The baron obtained money and the lady obtained, as a guaranteed ambassadress of a foreign power of consideration, a much higher position at court and in society than she could have secured by marrying almost any Frenchman, without the inconveniences which might have been expected had she married a Frenchman superior to herself in rank. Mme de Staël was not a persona grata at court, but she seems to have played the part of ambassadress fairly well.