Eugénie Pétain

Eugénie Pétain (née Hardon; 5 October 1877 – 30 January 1962) was the wife of the French military commander and political leader Philippe Pétain who ruled Vichy France between 1940 and 1944.

Eugénie Pétain
Pétain between 1941 and 1944
Born	Alphonsine Berthe Eugénie Hardon (1877-10-05)5 October 1877 Courquetaine, Seine-et-Marne, France
Died	30 January 1962(1962-01-30) (aged 84) Paris, France
Spouses	François de Hérain ​ ​ (m. 1903; div. 1914)​ Philippe Pétain ​ ​ (m. 1920; died 1951)​
Children	Pierre de Hérain

Pétain was her second husband. She had previously been married to François de Hérain, a doctor who later became an artist. Under pressure from her family, she had initially rejected a marriage proposal from Pétain and instead wed de Hérain, but this marriage had ended in divorce by 1914. Her son from her first marriage, Pierre de Hérain, became a film director.

She married Pétain on 14 September 1920. He was reported to have been at a hotel with her the night he was appointed to take command at the Battle of Verdun in 1916.

Bibliography

• Atkin, Nicolas. Petain. Routledge, 2014; ISBN 978-0582070370
• Buckingham, William F. Verdun 1916: The Deadliest Battle of the First World War. Amberley 2016.