The Association of Haitians in Italy "Fraternità Haitiana" organized, under the high patronage of the city of Pisa (Tuscany), in collaboration with the Embassy of Haiti in Italy, a day to celebrate the life of Queen Marie-Louise Christophe Melgrin, widow of King Henry Christophe, who died in exile in Pisa in 1851.

Two commemorative plaques have been installed respectively in front of the “Chiesa di San Donnino” church, where the tomb of the Queen and that of her two daughters are located, and in front of the Queen's final resting place, in the “Piazza Francesco Carrara”.

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Marie-Louise Christophe Melgrin, born Coidavid on August 1st, 1778 in Ouanaminthe, died March 14, 1851, wife of King Henri Christophe of Haiti, first and only Queen of Haiti.

Marie-Louise was born into a family of freedmen: her father owned the Hôtel de la Couronne in Cap-Français (now Cap-Haïtien). It was there that she met General Henri Christophe, whose mistress she became in 1792. She married Christophe in 1793. They had 4 children: François Ferdinand (1794-1814), Françoise-Améthyste (1798-1840) , Athénaïs (1800-1839) and Jacques-Victor Henri (1804-1820), Prince Royal and titular King of Haiti under the name of Henri II.

In 1820, a revolution broke out in the kingdom. King Henri then committed suicide in his Palace of Sans-souci, his son Jacques-Victor Henri was proclaimed titular king of Haiti but was captured by the insurgents and then hanged.

Marie-Louise manages to leave the Palace safe and sound with her daughters and under the protection of President Jean-Pierre Boyer, she leaves Haiti on Admiral's English ship "Home Riggs Popham. After England, she settles then in Pisa in Tuscany, where the climate is more lenient to him, and dies in 1851 at the age of 73, after having unsuccessfully asked the Haitian authorities for the right to return to his native country.

S/ iciHaiti