Draft:Marie d'Avaugour
Marie d'Avaugour | |
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 Marie d'Avaugour, Duchess of Montbazon Unknown, c. 1630 | |
| Born | 1610 |
| Died | April 1657 (aged 46–47) |
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Marie d'Avaugour, Duchcess of Montbazon, was born in 1610 C.E. and died on 28 April 1657. She was a lady of Breton nobility, known for her political and gallant intrigues.
Family origins
Marie d'Avaugour is the daughter of Claude d'Avaugour and Catherine Fouquet de La Varenne. She came from Avaugour's second house, descended from her father, François d'Avaugour[fr], Count of Vertus[fr], bastard child of Francis II, Duke of Brittany.[1]
She is the eldest sister of Catherine de Vertus[fr], whom she introduces into the world, before she dedicated herself to Jansenism.
Biography
On 5 March 1628, she married Hercule de Rohan, Duke of Montbazon[1], of whom she had three children:
- Marie-Éléonore (1629 - 8 April 1682), abbess of La Trinité de Caen, then became abbess of Malnoüe (Eulogy held on April 11, 1682 in the church of the Benedictine nuns of the Prieuré de Chasse-Midy, where she is buried).[2]
- François (1630-1712), first prince of Soubise by his wife Anne Julie de Rohan-Chabot, lady of Soubise, father of the prince and the cardinal of Rohan: the Rohan-Soubise family branch.[1]
- Anne (1640 - 29 October 1684), who was the second wife of her nephew, the Duke of Luynes.[3], son of her half-sister Marie, from whom she had: the Count of Albert, the Knights of Luynes, and several daughters, all married[1]
Hercule de Rohan was governor of Paris; he was a widower aged 60 when he married the daughter of the Count of Vertus, who was then 18[1]. He had several children from a previous marriage, including Marie, who married the Duke of Chevreuse in a second marriage[1]. This resulted in Marie d'Avaugour, although ten years younger than her daughter-in-law, was the mother-in-law of the Duchess of Chevreuse and the mistress of the Duke of Chevreuse, her old husband.
Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law joined forces to fight against Cardinal Mazarin, prime minister during Louis XIV's minority, and, having both conspired against the king, were exiled during the Fronde.[3]
The Duchess of Montbazon was known for her greed, but also for her dazzling beauty. Her contemporaries compared her beauty to that of ancient statues[4]. She was the subject of comment by all the memorialists of her time:
- "She defeated all others at the ball," said Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux
- The cardinal of Retz judged her harshly in his memoirs: "Madame de Montbazon was a very great beauty, only modesty was visibly wanting in her air; her grand air and her way of talking sometimes supplied her want of sense. She loved nothing more than her pleasures, unless it was her private interest, and I never knew a vicious person that had so little respect for virtue."[4]
- "The life of the Duchess of Montbazon was obscure, and her morals and her ill-tempered head were the talk of the town" Saint-Simon, 260, 109.
The Duchess of Montbazon is mentioned in a popular song, Y avait dix filles dans un pré[fr] (see also Du Maine).
She was, notably, the mistress of the abbot of Rancé, who was so deeply affected by the death of his sublime mistress, he withdrew from the world and entered the Trappists monastery. In this monastery, he stayed for a long time, undergoing a lasting reform.
References
- ^ a b c d e f de Rouvroy de Saint-Simon, Louis (1698). "Mémoires de Saint-Simon, tome 2 chapitre 9". rouvroy.medusis.com. Archived from the original on 2024-10-01. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
- ^ Anselme, Antoine (1682). Oraison funèbre de ... Marie Eleonor de Rohan, abbesse de Malnouë, prononcée à Paris l'onzième jour d'avril 1682 en l'église des religieuses bénédictines du prieuré de Chasse-Midy, où elle est enterrée (in French). Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy. Archived from the original on 2024-10-01. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
- ^ a b de Rouvroy de Saint-Simon, Louis (1698). "Mémoires de Saint-Simon, tome 2 chapitre 10". rouvroy.medusis.com. Archived from the original on 2024-10-01. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
- ^ a b François Paul de Gondi, Jean (1717). "MEMOIRS OF CARDINAL DE RETZ". www.gutenberg.org. Book II. Archived from the original on 2024-10-01. Retrieved 2024-10-01.