Marie-Anne Walewska one after another of the ladies at court, but she remained his only serious mistress until their relationship ended in 1861. Walewska succeeded Pauline de Bassano as "dame d'honneur" in 1868. Marie-Anne Walewska Marie-Anne Walewska (1823–1912), was a French courtier and royal mistress. She is known for her relationship to emperor Napoleon III of France in 1857–1861. She served as "dame d'honneur" to empress Eugénie de Montijo in 1868–1870. She was born to the Italian count Zanobi di Ricci and princess Isabelle Poniatowski-Luci (illegitimate daughter of the last king of Poland's nephew). She married the Polish count (later duke) Alexandre
Dame school the colonial period. If their parents could afford it, after attending a dame school for a rudimentary education in reading, colonial boys moved on to grammar schools where a male teacher taught advanced arithmetic, writing, Latin and Greek. In the 18th and 19th centuries, some dame schools offered boys and girls from wealthy families a "polite education". The women running these elite dame schools taught "reading, writing, English, French, arithmetic, music and dancing". Schools for upper-class girls were usually called "female seminaries", "finishing schools" etc. rather than "dame schools". The first known school in Australia was founded in Sydney in