THE DUCHESS OF MONTPENSIER IS ALSO KNOWN FOR A PASSION THAT DEFIED THE STATUS QUO
"La Grande Mademoiselle," granddaughter of Henri IV, first cousin of Louis XIII and heir to one of Europe's greatest fortunes thought herself worthy of a king or emperor alone...
Marie-Louise de Montpensier holding the Portrait of her Father, Gaston de France by Pierre Bourguignon, 1672 / zoom
Yet when over 40 she fell in love with the insolent younger son of a low-level noble:
The court's astonishment*
*The famous passage comes from the correspondence of the Marquise de Sévigné, which deals with court events and events of the day, and is considered classic French literature.
"I will tell the most surprising, the most astonishing, the most marvelous, the most miraculous, the most triumphant, the most stunning, the most outrageous, the most singular, the most unbelievable, the most unexpected, the greatest, the smallest, the most rare, the most common, the most outstanding, the most secret until today, the most brilliant, the most worthy of envy [... ]; a thing that has everyone crying for mercy,a thing that will happen on Sunday and maybe not happen on Monday. I cannot bear to say it: guess! [... ] Do you give up?
Well! So I'll have to tell you: Monsieur Lauzon will marry on Sunday, guess who? [the names of unmarried women of the court]. So I'll have to tell you. He'll marry, Sunday, at the Louvre, with the King's permission, Mademoiselle... Mademoiselle of... Mademoiselle... guess the name: He marries Mademoiselle, I swear! I swear on my honor! Mademoiselle, the grand Mademoiselle: Mademoiselle, daughter of the late Monsieur [title of the king's brother]; Mademoiselle, the granddaughter of Henri IV; Mademoiselle d'Eu, Mademoiselle of Dombes, Mademoiselle of Montpensier, Mademoiselle of Orléans; Mademoiselle, first cousin of the King; Mademoiselle, destined to the throne [before the Bastille cannonade her marriage to Louis XIV was a possibility].
There is a great subject of discussion. If you scream, if you are beside yourself, if you say we have lied, that that is false, that it's a joke, that it's a bit hard to imagine; if you even insult us, we will agree with you: We have done the same.
-- December 15, 1670
Louis agrees to the mariage, then changes his mind: One cannot confront the God-given hierarchy so boldly (and let her immense fortune leave the family).
Four days later
"Being completely flabbergasted was what happened last night at the Tuileries; but we must start from the beginning. You are joyful, transported, enraptured by the princess and her most fortunate lover. On Monday the thing was declared, as you know. Tuesday was spent talking, being surprised, complimenting. Wednesday, Mademoiselle made a grant to Mr. de Lauzun, with the design of giving him the titles, names and ornaments necessary to the mariage contract, which was signed on the same day. She gave him, as a first installment, four dukedoms [they are listed].
Thursday morning, which was yesterday, Mademoiselle hoped the king would sign, as he had said; but at seven in the evening, His Majesty, having been persuaded by the Queen, Monsieur [the king's brother] and several old men, that that affair would damage his reputation, had decided to cancel. Monsieur de Lauzun received the order with all the submissions, firmness and despair that such a great plunge deserved.
As for Mademoiselle [...] she burst into tears, into violent suffering, intense complaints; she did not leave her bed for a full day, swallowing nothing but bouillons. There went a beautiful dream, a fine subject for a novel or tragedy, but most of all a subject for endless reasoning and discussion [...]."
-- 19 décembre 1670
The king imprisons the ex-fiancé for another matter.
He slid under bed where the king and the royal favorite (Madame de Montespan) were making love, to learn whether she would keep her promise to speak favorably of him to the king. But she denigrated him. When he asked her if she had done as promised and she said she had, he repeated their conversation word for word, and insulted her.
-- The Novel of the Duke of Lauzun, " Louis XIV and his court"
by the Duke of Saint-Simon, abridged Fr. ed., 1994
For ten years, she begs the king to free her lover. When she agrees to leave her fortune to one of his legitimized sons, he finally agrees.
They marry.
He makes her kneel to take off his boots.
She punches him. And leaves him.
# # #
Helping James II escape from England reboots Lauzun's career.
"His manners were measured, reserved, honeyed, even respectful; and from that low and sugary tone would come jabs that were piercing and devastating in their justice, their force and their ridicule, and that in two or three words, sometimes with an air of naïveté or distraction, as if he had not thought of them. So he was feared [...]"
-- The Duke of Lauzun, "Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon," early 18th century
The duke, who lived to be 91,
never got over losing his post
as Commander of the Guard as a young man.
"I have often thought on that occasion [a ridiculous temper tantrum connected with that loss] on the extreme misfortune of letting the world's intoxication sweep one along, and of the lamentable state of an ambitious person that neither wealth, nor an agreeable family life [Lauzun's second wife was Saint-Simon's sister-in-law], nor acquired dignity, nor age, nor bodily impotence can bring to an end, and who, instead of serenely enjoying all that he possesses, and of feeling its advantage, wears himself out in regrets and useless and continual bitterness [...]."
# # #
Obsession with rank and royal despotism
crushed the Grand Mademoiselle and Lauzun
in different ways.
That was true for most members of a court in which
"Everything becomes skill, design, forced pleasantries,
boundless flattery and basic bitterness..."
-- The Marquise de Maintenon, Louis XIV's second wife, in Madame de Maintenon, "The Age of Conversation" by Benedetta Craveri," 2001, p. 236.
A rare happy end is that of Louise la Vallière,
who after years of humiliation as the king's
official yet despised mistress,
left the court to live the rest of her life,
apparently contentedly, as a Carmelite nun.
End of this section.
* * *
No comments:
Post a Comment