The life of the best-known courtesan in Scottish history, Grace Dalrymple Elliott is getting a rerun in the Scottish capital this week, thanks to a French "new wave" film director and the French Film Festival. And public notoriety still appears to be dogging her heels.

The 18th-century prostitute, who seduced the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Orleans and Napoleon Bonaparte is at the centre of scandal again almost 200 years after her death, thanks to the revered French film director, Eric Rohmer.

Mr Rohmer has immortalised Grace’s life as a courtesan in revolutionary Paris in his latest film, after studying her memoir, Journal of My Life During the French Revolution. His film - L’Anglaise et le Duc - literally The Englishwoman and the Duke - is being screened in Scotland this week.

Edinburgh Beginnings

Born in Edinburgh in 1758, Grace Dalrymple was the youngest child of a lawyer. Her father deserted his wife just months before her birth, and the young Grace was sent to France as a child, to be educated in a convent.

At the age of 15, she was brought back to her father’s house to make her debut in Edinburgh society. Blessed with natural beauty and a gloss of French sophistication, she instantly became the "It" girl of her age.

Shortly after returning to Scotland, she met her future husband Sir John Elliott, a Scottish physician 20 years her senior. They married in haste - and Grace repented at her leisure with a series of extra-marital affairs, before finally running off with Lord Valentia in 1774.

Dis-Graced

Elliott sued for divorce, receiving a settlement of UKP12,000, and the disgraced Grace was sent back to a French convent. But shortly afterwards she was rescued by Lord Cholmondley, another of her lovers, who took her to England, where she became one of the most celebrated courtesans of her age.

Lord Cholmondley introduced Grace to the then Prince of Wales - later George IV - who claimed paternity of her daughter, Georgiana Seymour, born in 1782. The royal prince introduced her to the Duke of Orleans - Le Duc of the title - and she moved to France to be his mistress.

As a royalist, Grace was imprisoned four times during the revolution, but was finally released by Robespierre. She returned to England, but went back to France and died at Ville D’Avray in 1823.

French Storm

The film has already caused a storm in France, where Rohmer has come under fire for examining the revolution through the eyes of Grace’s royalist perspective. Now both the Saltire Society and SNP have criticised the film’s title.

Paul Scott, president of the Saltire Society said: "This is quite typical of the complete inability of anyone outside Scotland to distinguish between Scotland and England as culturally diverse entities.

Offence Taken!

"Dalrymple and Elliott are two good Scottish names, and this woman was born in Scotland, but still she is presented in this film title as an Englishwoman. It is particularly offensive coming from a Frenchman, considering the Auld Alliance that Scotland and France enjoyed for 300 years from the 13th century, when England was our common enemy."

Disassociation?

Mike Russell, the SNP’s spokesman on arts and culture, said: " Perhaps we should be grateful this courtesan has been described as English, considering how she made her living. Maybe Scotland does not want to be associated with her."

A spokeswoman for the film’s producers and distributors, Pathé, said: "L’Anglaise is the word that French people use to describe a person from the UK, so it is used by the French for Scottish people too."

Rohmer is regarded as one of the founding fathers of the Nouvelle Vague - the new wave - which revolutionised French cinema in 1950s and 1960s. Six Comtes Moraux (Six Moral Tales) and Comtes des Quatre Saisons (Tales of Four Seasons) are seen as classics, with their observations on everyday life and relationships.