Blanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil (22 April 1787 – 10 September 1851), by her second marriage duchess of Maillé, was a French lady of letters and memoir writer. She has left highly interesting memoirs in which her legitimist convictions are shown not to affect the sharpness of her political analysis.
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Early life
She was born in Tours, and raised in Paris in her family's Hôtel particulier (essentially a grand townhouse) at 85 rue du Faubourg St. Honoré. She was a daughter of Lt-Gen. Jean-Louis-Marie Le Bascle, Marquis d'Argenteuil (1749–1794) and Catherine Barjot de Roncé.
During the French Revolution, her family lived in Switzerland and Germany. They returned to France in 1797 by her uncle the Charles Joseph Fortuné, Marquis d'Herbouville (husband of her aunt Marie-Louise-Victoire d'Argenteuil) during the French directoire. Her uncle, who raised her and established her in Paris in 1809, was prefect of the Department of the two Netes from 1800 to 1805 during the First French Empire.