Blanche Monnier

Blanche Monnier (French pronunciation: ​[blɑ̃ʃ mɔnje]; 1 March 1849 – 13 October 1913), often known in France as la Séquestrée de Poitiers[lower-alpha 1] (roughly, "The Confined Woman of Poitiers"),[1] was a woman from Poitiers, France, who was secretly kept locked in a small room by her aristocratic mother for 25 years. She was eventually found by police, then middle-aged and in an emaciated and filthy condition; according to officials, Monnier had not seen any sunlight for her entire captivity.[2]

Blanche Monnier
Blanche Monnier, shortly after being discovered in her locked room in 1901.
Born(1849-03-01)1 March 1849
Poitiers, Second French Republic
DisappearedMarch 1, 1874 (aged 25)
Died13 October 1913(1913-10-13) (aged 64)
Blois, Third French Republic
NationalityFrench
Other namesla Séquestrée de Poitiers
Known forHaving been secretly incarcerated for a quarter-century

Biography

Monnier was a French socialite from a well-respected, bourgeoisie family in Poitiers of old noble origins. She was renowned for her physical beauty, and attracted many potential suitors for marriage. In 1874, at the age of 25, she wanted to marry an older lawyer who was not to her mother Louise's liking; she argued that her daughter could not marry a “penniless lawyer”.[3] Her disapproving mother, angered by her daughter's defiance, locked her in a tiny, dark room in the attic of their home, where she kept her secluded for 25 years. Louise Monnier and her brother Marcel continued on with their daily lives, pretending to mourn Blanche's death. None of her friends knew where she was, and the lawyer she wished to marry unexpectedly died in 1885. On 23 May 1901, the "Paris Attorney General"[lower-alpha 2] received an anonymous letter – the author of which is still unknown – that revealed the incarceration:

Monsieur Attorney General: I have the honor to inform you of an exceptionally serious occurrence. I speak of a spinster who is locked up in Madame Monnier’s house, half-starved and living on a putrid litter for the past twenty-five years – in a word, in her own filth.

Monnier was rescued by police from appalling conditions, covered in old food and feces, with bugs all around the bed and floor, weighing barely 25 kilograms (55 lb).[4][5]

One policeman described the state of Monnier and her bed thus:[3]

The unfortunate woman was lying completely naked on a rotten straw mattress. All around her was formed a sort of crust made from excrement, fragments of meat, vegetables, fish, and rotten bread… We also saw oyster shells, and bugs running across Mademoiselle Monnier’s bed. The air was so unbreathable, the odor given off by the room was so rank, that it was impossible for us to stay any longer to proceed with our investigation.

Her mother was arrested, became ill shortly afterwards, and died 15 days later after seeing an angry mob gather in front of her house. Her brother Marcel Monnier appeared in court, and was initially convicted, but later was acquitted on appeal; Marcel Monnier was deemed mentally incapacitated, and although the judges criticized his choices, they found that a "duty to rescue" did not exist in the penal code at that time with sufficient rule to convict him.[4][6]

After she was released from the room, Monnier continued to suffer from mental health problems. She was diagnosed with various disorders, including anorexia nervosa,[lower-alpha 3] schizophrenia, exhibitionism, and coprophilia. This soon led to her admission to a psychiatric hospital in Blois, France, where she eventually died in 1913 in apparent obscurity.[7][8]

Legacy

In 1930, André Gide published a book about the incident, named La Séquestrée de Poitiers, changing little but the names of the protagonists.[4][9] According to Hervé Guibert, this book was a great influence on the young Michel Foucault.

See also

Notes
  1. Pronounced in French as a rhyme as [la sekɛstʁe d(ə) pwatje].
  2. See Procureur général for the closest translation of the office. At the time of writing, Paris was the capital of the Second French Empire; the "Attorney General" of Paris was Léon Bulot from 1900.
  3. Then written in French as "anorexie hystérique".

References
  1. Ivry, Benjamin; Gide, André (2003). "The Confined Woman of Poitiers". New England Review (1990-). 24 (3): 99–132. JSTOR 40244293.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. Vivi, Janouin-Benanti. La Séquestrée De Poitiers: Une Affaire Judiciaire Sans Précédent (in French) ISBN 978-2914474009
  3. See "English sources" under References section below.
  4. Pujolas, Marie (27 February 2015). "En tournage, un documentaire sur l'incroyable affaire de "La séquestrée de Poitiers"" (in French). France Télévisions.
  5. "Jacques Pradel et RTL reviennent sur l'incroyable histoire de la Séquestrée de Poitiers" (in French). Charente Libre. 19 May 2015.
  6. Moreillon, Laurent. L'infraction par omission, Librairie Droz, 1993, p. 65, (in French)
  7. "Pascal Audoux dévoile les mystères du Loir-et-Cher" (in French). La Nouvelle Republique. 25 April 2015.
  8. "Retronews - Le site de presse de la BnF" (in French). 31 December 1999. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  9. Levy, Audrey (21 April 2015). "Destins de femmes: Ces Poitevines plus ou moins célèbres auront marqué l'Histoire". Le Point (in French).
English sources
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