“Died for Want of Lobster Sauce”
A humorous saying after Vatel the Chef committed suicide over lack of fish to serve for a King Louis IVX banquet
Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur, Died for Want of French Baguettes
During the American Revolution and a document for Money Paid to him By Charles Philippe
Not much more is known about the Chevalier Saint-Sauveur, not even his full name. It is clear that prior to his military service he was the first chamberlain of Count d’Artois, the future King Charles X of France. He apparently was sent to the American Colonies in support of the American Revolution. He dies at the hands of the colonists over French Baguettes!
The Memorial to the Chevalier de SaintSauveur in Boston
Along Boston’s Freedom Trail one notices an obelisk and monument in the front yard of King’s Chapel. The title to the inscription:
In Memory of THE CHEVALIER DE SAINT SAUVEUR first Chamberlin of his Royal Highness, Count d’Artois, brother of his Majesty the King of France.
General Sullivan: Major General John Sullivan (February 17, 1740 – January 23, 1795) was a Continental Army officer, politician and judge who served in the American Revolutionary War and participated in several key events of the conflict, most notably George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River.
General Sullivan, not once, but twice, had insulted his French allies for departing the American army during the siege of Newport. Chevalier de Raimondis, after having his arm shot off in the conflict, declared that “I am ready to lose my other arm in the cause of the Americans.”[9] Despite these sacrifices, the French were being criticized and insulted in Boston.
On September 8 the tense environment exploded in a tragic violent confrontation. The French navy had established a bakery in Boston in order to make bread to feed their sailors and soldiers. Suddenly, heated exchanges between the French soldier-bakers and certain Bostonians turned into a riot. Learning of the disturbance, two French officers, apparently bringing French grenadiers with them, rushed to the scene to end it: Chevalier Gregoire de Saint-Sauveur, a twenty-eight-year-old lieutenant of the Tonnant, and one-legged Lieutenant George René Pléville le Pelley of the Languedoc, one of d’Estaing’s favorites. The two men succeeded in diffusing tensions, but on their return, they were set upon by some fifty men, clubbed brutally in their heads, “and left for dead.” Within a week, Saint-Sauveur, who had been viciously struck above the right eye, died from his injuries.
On the next page is document in the Yuko Nii Foundation library of payment to Saint-Sauveur from the future King of France signed by him as Charles Phillipe asking Armand Frederic Erneste Nogaret, the Treasurer General of Versailles to issue the funds.
Above: Armand Frederic Erneste Nogaret, the Treasurer General of Versailles.
After Antoine-François Callet
Count of Artois Charles Phillippe, Future King Charles X of France, Portrait 1778