Madame de Montcalm

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies--Proverbs 31:10

"She was as tender a wife as she was a devoted mother"--Abbe H. R. Casgrain

Louise-Angelique, Madame de Montcalm was born in 1709 or possibly early in 1710. I do not yet know the exact date of her birth; however, she was born after her father died, and he died on July 10, 1709. On October 3, 1734, she married a young soldier named Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm. Montcalm dearly loved his wife and six children, and his wife reciprocated this love. In 1756, as the Seven Years' War broke out, the Minister of War sent Montcalm to Canada to command French troops there. Madame de Montcalm did not wish to see him so far away, but she let him go--and never saw him again. Even through the rigors of campaign, and the battles with Governor Vaudreuil, he never forgot his wife and six children who were waiting in France for him. "Adieu, my heart, I believe I love you more than ever!" is the affectionate closing to one of his last letters home. Montcalm died shortly after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. One of his last acts was to write a letter for every member of his family.

She died on March 12, 1788, thirty-nine years after her beloved husband.

I have not yet found any portrait, engraving, illustration, or any other picture of Madame de Montcalm, so I drew one.

Apparently Montcalm liked green coats, so in my drawing, he wears one, while Madame de Montcalm has a green dress. His two sons (one as colonel of the Regiment de Montcalm) are represented, as well as his four daughters. The one in green is Mirete, who died while Montcalm was fighting in Canada. Under magnification, one might notice a bird on the left. That is a tribute to Montcalm's verse, written when some said the number of his children was too many for such a small fortune: "Small birds He (God) gives the pasture, And His goodness extends to all nature."

An excellent tribute to the faith of Montcalm and his wife.