Princesse de Lamballe and Duchesse de Polignac

This is one of these strange coincidences: two unrelated ladies who were born on the exact same day, both had a strong friendship with Queen Marie-Antoinette, and both met their fate during the "Terror" phase of the French Revolution.

The Princesse de Lamballe and the Duchesse de Polignac were both born on 8 September 1749. They were successively very close friends to Marie-Antoinette and were known to be the "favourite" of the Queen. Rumours on the exact nature of their  "friendship" stained the reputation of the young Queen.

The Princesse de Lamballe met her fate during the September 1792 massacres when mobs went into Paris prisons and killed about four thousand prisoners. As per the legend has it, Lamballe's head was put on a pike and paraded by the window of Marie-Antoinette's prison cell...

While the Duchesse de Polignac (portrayed with the hat) managed to flee France during the Revolution, she dies of sickness in Vienna in 1793 while France was still in turmoil...