
author
1766–1829
Remembered as the deeply religious and devoted mother of Alphonse de Lamartine, she left a strong mark on the poet’s childhood and imagination. Though not widely known as a writer in her own right today, she remains an important figure in the family world that shaped one of France’s great Romantic voices.

by Alix de Lamartine
Born Françoise-Alix des Roys in 1766, Alix de Lamartine became part of the Lamartine family through her marriage to Pierre de Lamartine. She is best known in literary history as the mother of the poet and statesman Alphonse de Lamartine.
Accounts of Lamartine’s early life regularly describe her as a woman of strong Catholic faith, moral seriousness, and deep affection for her children. Those qualities helped shape the emotional and spiritual atmosphere in which Alphonse grew up, and they echo through many portraits of family life connected with his work.
She died in 1829. Even when she appears only at the edges of larger biographies, Alix de Lamartine stands out as a powerful family presence behind a major nineteenth-century author.