Folk Figure. She was a lower class English girl who, for a time, held a high position at the French Royal Court. Born to a poor family, Sophie was raised in a Newport workhouse; after holding various odd-jobs, she found herself a "servant" in an upper crust London house-of-prostitution, where she attracted the attention of the quite wealthy Prince of Conde. The Prince made her his mistress, saw that she obtained an excellent classical education, and took her to Paris. There, he arranged her 1818 marriage to Major Adrien Victor De Feucheres of the Royal Guards; the Prince provided well, paying the dowery, and making the major a baron (and thus Sophie a baroness). Pretty, intelligent, and well-read, Sophie became a favourite of the nobility, particularly of King Louis XVIII. Eventually, however, De Feucheres figured out "the truth" (he had rather obtusely thought Sophie to be the Prince's daughter) and, in 1827, filed for separation. The King quickly gave her the bounce, and Sophie found herself unwelcome in polite society; in 1829, though, she somehow persuaded the Prince to sign a will leaving her 10 million francs. She once again enjoyed royal patronage (her niece and nephew received titles), but the Prince was tired of her, and of Paris, and made plans to leave. When he hanged himself in August, 1830, common gossip held that Sophie had murdered him, with or without help from King Louis-Plilippe. There was no evidence, and Sophie was never officially accused; the best modern theory is that the Prince's death was, indeed, suicide. Sophie had made Paris too hot for herself, and returned to London, with little being known of her last ten years. Her story has been told in Violet Montagu's 1912 "Sophie Dawes, Queen of Chantilly" and the 1934 "The Scandal of Sophie Dawes" by Marjorie Brown.