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Brief Lives

Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749)

Andrea Reichenberger presents a fulcrum of the European Enlightenment.

Gabrielle Émilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet, was born on 17 December 1706 in Paris, the only girl amongst six children. Her mother was Gabrielle Anne de Froullay, Baronne de Breteuil. Her father was Louis Nicolas le Tonnelier de Breteuil, a member of the lesser nobility. At the time of Émilie’s birth, her father held the position of the Principal Secretary and Introducer of Ambassadors to King Louis XIV. This position provided her at a young age with access to France’s aristocratic and intellectual elites.

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