Quick Facts
Biography
Blanche Monnier (1849–1913), often known in France as la Séquestrée de Poitiers, was a woman in Poitiers, France who was secretly kept locked in a small room by her mother for 25 years. Blanche Monnier had not seen sunlight for 25 years.
Biography
At age 25, Blanche Monnier had set her heart on marrying a lawyer who was not to her mother's liking. Her disapproving mother locked her in a tiny room, where she was kept for 25 years. On May 23, 1901, the Paris Attorney General received an anonymous letter that revealed the secret incarceration. Blanche was found in appalling conditions and rescued by police.
Her mother became ill shortly after being arrested, and died 15 days later. Her brother Marcel appeared in court, and was initially convicted, but later was acquitted on appeal; Marcel Monnier was 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.
Having been released from the room, Blanche Monnier experienced continuing mental problems that soon led to her admission to a psychiatric hospital, where she died in 1913.
Legacy
- In 1930, André Gide published a book about the incident, named La Séquestrée de Poitiers, changing little but the names of the protagonists.