Montebello

Overview

A name of the Lannes de Montebello family (dukes of Montebello, descendants of Napoleon's marshal Lannes; en.wikipedia «Duc de Montebello»). The tag covers two people:

• 019.0373 (27 May 1874): «cette héroïne du duel Montebello, Metternich» — a Montebello who fought, or was said to have fought, a duel with a Metternich. See «Identity uncertain» below.
• 093.0368 (15 November 1881): «Cassagnac s'est battu en duel avec son concurrent malheureux, M. de Montebello et l'a blessé». This is Adrien Lannes de Montebello (1851–1935), who stood against Paul de Cassagnac in the Mirande constituency (Gers) at the election of 21 August 1881 and lost (8,793 votes to 11,016; fr.wikipedia «Adrien Lannes de Montebello»). They fought with swords on 12 November 1881 and Montebello was wounded in the right arm (Ferréus, Annuaire du duel 1880–1889; Karen Offen, Paul de Cassagnac and the Authoritarian Tradition in Nineteenth-Century France, 1991, citing Le Pays of 10 November 1881). Confidence 0.9. The Mon Journal t.14 index has «Montebello (M. de) fonctionnaire : 251».

«La comtesse de Montebello» of 1880–1883 (087.0777, 087.0792, 087.0810, 098.0522) now has her own entry, COMTESSE_DE_MONTEBELLO (split 2026-10-22, B-84).

Identity uncertain

We are not sure who the Montebello of the 1874 duel is. At Laferrière's on 27 May 1874 Marie sees Gioia and la Soubise come out of a side salon and writes: «J'ai vu cette fée de la mode, cette héroïne du duel Montebello, Metternich, elle m'a paru très laide» (019.0373; Mon Journal t.3 p.205, print checked; the t.3 index lists «Montebello, 205» and «Metternich, 205» with no first names). The heroine may be Gioia or la Soubise (see the RSR note at 019.0373). No record of a Montebello–Metternich duel was found (web searches 2026-10-22; the duel claimed in an older RSR note, «1870, over Giulia Barucci», has no source and is withdrawn; Barucci died in 1871, while Marie's Gioia is alive in 1874). Contemporary press (Gallica, Le Figaro, Gil Blas 1870–1874) is the likely place to find it. If you can identify this duel, we would be glad to hear from you.