Léonie Léon

Léonie Léon (1838–1906) was the French mistress of statesman Léon Gambetta. Born Marie-Léonie in Paris on 6 November 1838, she was the daughter of a French artillery officer. She was educated at the Louvencourt Sisters convent school in Dunkirk. Following the death of her father in the Charenton asylum in 1860, Léon took Louis-Alphonse Hyrvoix, who was in charge of Emperor Napoleon III's security, as a lover. She gave birth to Alphonse Léon, Hyrvoix's son, in Bordeaux on 5 February 1865. Léon met Gambetta in 1868 and was his mistress from 1872 until his death a decade later. She lived in a house on Avenue Perrichont in Auteuil and was his confidante and adviser in his political plans. They corresponded on an almost daily basis and Gambetta repeatedly urged her to marry him. She finally consented in 1882, though he died later that year. The full details of their relationship were not known to the public until her death in 1906.