Marie de Nègre

Dame Marie de Nègre d’Ables (1714-1781)

Dame d’Hautpoul, d’Auxillon, et de Blanchefort. Widow of François d’Hautpoul-Rennes (last Seigneur of Rennes-le-Château +1753), Marquis de Blanchefort.

In November 1732, François d’Hautpoul Rennes married a young 19 year old orphan. Her name was Marie de Nègre d’Ables, Demoiselle de Niort et de Roquefeuil. Her ancestors where bailiffs for the kings of the Pays de Sault, a valley not far from Rennes-le-Château. Through this marriage, the lands of the Hautpouls where extended by the Seigneury of Niort, the Seigneury of Roquefeuil and territories in Mérial, Fontanès with a number of tenanted farms and canals. François died in 1753, being the last Seigneur de Rennes in the main bloodline of the Hautpouls. Marie lived for another 28 years in the Hautpoul’s manor (currently known as the Château Hautpoul), with one of their three daughters Marie Anne-Elisabeth d’Hautpoul de Rennes.

the Château Hautpoul in the early 1900's (left) and in March 2007 (right)

the Château Hautpoul in the early 1900’s (left) and in March 2007 (right)

Marie died on 17th January 1781. She was buried in the cemetery of Rennes-le-Château. Noble ladies had to be buried in a special plot in the churchyard. They weren’t allowed in the crypt beneath the church, which was a strict men’s only affair. Marie was buried by the priest Antoine Bigou who had succeeded his much respected uncle Jean Bigou when he died 5 years earlier in 1776. France was at the eve of the Revolution which would made nobles and priests flee out of the region to Spain, forcing them to hide everything they couldn’t carry with them. The enigma of Rennes-le-Château is for a large part based around the assumption that Marie de Nègre told the Hautpoul’s familiy secret to Antoine Bigou on her deathbed. Bigou, on his turn, is supposed to have left a number of clues to what that secret was. It is certain that he stashed away some valuable items of the Rennes-le-Château church before he too had to run for Spain in 1792 at the age of 73. There was a thirteenth century ‘cachette’ (hiding place) at the foot the bell tower. The old Elisabeth apparently didn’t remember the spot or had forgotten about it all when she returned from Spain years later

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