Born into a bourgeois family, Louise Rondel was the daughter of an engineer with the Ponts et Chaussées.[3] She was also the cousin of Auguste Rondel. In 1886, she married Count Maurice de Courville (1860–1944), a military engineer and director of the Schneider factories, responsible for manufacturing heavy artillery for the French army.[4]
Passionate about literature, the Comtesse de Courville published several children's novels between 1896 and 1899. Concurrently, she hosted a salon at her apartment on the Rue du Cherche-Midi, where she became a close friend of Charles Maurras and Maurice Barrès.[3] She was described as a “woman of social and networking prowess."[3]
Alongside the Marquise de Mac Mahon, she worked to mobilize sections of royalist women[3] and played an active role in establishing the Institut d'Action française. She was named secretary of the Dames royalistes (Royalist Ladies' Committee).[3] Her dedication served as an inspiration for “her son Xavier and her two sons-in-law, Jean Rivain and Pierre Gilbert, who were among the leading militants of Action Française."[5]
