Margaret Mercer de Flahault, comtesse de Flahault de la Billarderie, 2nd Baroness Keith and de jure 7th Lady Nairne (12 June 1788 – 11 November 1867) was a society hostess.

Born Margaret Mercer Elphinstone in Hertford Street, Mayfair

Mayfair

Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...

, she was the only child of George Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith and his first wife, Jane. She was early brought into the circle surrounding Princess Charlotte of Wales, over whom she exercised considerable influence, which was not universally welcomed: Cornelia Knight made some criticisms of her in her autobiography, and the princess's husband, Leopold

Leopold I of Belgium

Leopold I was from 21 July 1831 the first King of the Belgians, following Belgium's independence from the Netherlands. He was the founder of the Belgian line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha...

, wrote that she had been one of those most determined that Charlotte should not be a "good and obedient wife", and that the princess had been afraid of her. She was involved in the intrigues surrounding the relationship between the princess and her separated parents, much to the displeasure of the Prince of Wales

George IV of the United Kingdom

George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...

.

On 20 June 1817, at Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, she married Auguste Charles Joseph, comte de Flahault de la Billarderie

Charles Joseph, comte de Flahaut

Auguste Charles Joseph de Flahaut de La Billarderie, Comte de Flahaut de La Billarderie was a French general and statesman...

, an aide-de-camp

Aide-de-camp

An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...

 to Napoleon Bonaparte, who had been educated in Britain, and took refuge there at the time of the Bourbon Restoration

Bourbon Restoration

The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon  – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...

. The countess, who was one of the Lady Patronesses of Almack's

Almack's

Almack's Assembly Rooms was a social club in London from 1765 to 1871 and one of the first to admit both men and women. It was one of a limited number of upper class mixed-sex public social venues in the British capital in an era when the most important venues for the hectic social season were the...

 and took a prominent place in society, succeeding her father as Baroness Keith, and her cousin as Lady Nairne in 1837, although she was not recognised in the latter. When the count was restored to favour in France, she became a noted hostess in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. She died at the Palais de la Légion d'honneur

Palais de la Légion d'Honneur

The Palais de la Légion d'Honneur is the building on the west bank of the River Seine in Paris that houses the Musée national de la Légion d'Honneur et des Ordres de Chevalerie and is the seat of the Légion d'honneur, the highest order of chivalry of France...

 on 11 November 1867, and was buried at Tulliallan Castle

Tulliallan Castle

Tulliallan Castle is a large house in Kincardine, Fife, Scotland.It is the second structure to have the name , and is a mixture of Gothic and Italian style architecture set amid some of parkland just north of where the Kincardine Bridge spans the Firth of Forth...

, Perthshire

Perthshire

Perthshire, officially the County of Perth , is a registration county in central Scotland. It extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south...

. The eldest of her five daughters, Emily Jane

Emily Petty-Fitzmaurice, Marchioness of Lansdowne

Emily Jane Mercer Elphinstone Petty-Fitzmaurice, Marchioness of Lansdowne and 8th Lady Nairne was a British peeress....

, who married Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne

Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne

Henry Thomas Petty-Fitzmaurice, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne KG , styled Lord Henry Petty-FitzMaurice until 1836 and Earl of Shelburne between 1836 and 1863, was a British politician.-Background and education:...

, succeeded as Lady Nairne (and was recognised in 1874), but the two baronies of Keith, limited to heirs male of her body, became extinct.

Source

• K. D. Reynolds, Flahault de la Billarderie, Margaret de, suo jure [sic] Lady Nairne and suo jure Baroness Keith, and Countess de Flahault de la Billarderie in the French nobility (1788–1867), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press
  Oxford University Press
  Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
  
  , 2004 accessed 7 July 2008