The Arendzens had always claimed a connection with French nobility (usually citing Marie-Antoinette) and there appears to be a line of descent that can be traced back to King Louis XIII of France, Ferdinand III of Germany and beyond. The connection to Marie-Antoinette would have been her uncle, Charles Alexander of Lorraine. Anne Françoise de Rinonville and Marie-Antoinette were cousins.


The link to Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, who had many children with a string of mistresses, is an interesting one. Some of these mistresses are named, like Elisabeth de Vaux but others remain anonymous. Charles was known to have fathered a daughter, Anne Françoise de Rinonville with one unnamed mistress. Anne Françoise married Jean-Nicolas Marchal.


There is an interesting entry in Wikipedia that sheds a little more light on Charles Alexander’s private life:


“Though there is obscurity about his private affairs after the death of Maria Anna, it is known that from his mistress Elisabeth de Vaux, Charles had a son Charles Alexandre Guillaume Joseph, and a grandson through the same; a stillborn daughter by an unnamed mistress; a son Charles Frédéric by an unnamed mistress; a son Jean Nicholas and a daughter Anne Françoise by an unnamed mistress, and an unnamed daughter through a mistress named Regine von Porthenfeld.”


N.B. It has proved very difficult to ensure that all details are correct, in part due to the wide variety of dates and spellings to be found on official documents. For example, I have come across five different ways that Stracké has been spelt including; Strackel, Strakke, Strack and Strackée.