Anna Maria Martinozzi

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Contemporary portrait of Anna Maria Martinozzi

Anna Maria Martinozzi (French Anne Marie Martinozzi ; * 1637 in Rome ; †  February 4, 1672 in Paris ) was one of the so-called Mazarinettes ( French Mazarinettes ) and became Princess of Conti through marriage to Armand de Bourbon .

Life

Childhood and youth

Anna Maria was born in Rome in 1637 as the daughter of the Italian nobleman Geronimo Martinozzi, Margrave of Fano and majordomo of Cardinal Francesco Barberini , and his wife Laura Margeritha Mazarini , Jules Mazarin's older sister . She was thus niece of the powerful French First Minister, who brought her to France at the age of ten together with her cousins Laura and Olympia Mancini and her cousin Michele Paolo Mancini.

After arriving in Paris in 1647, she was quickly given the nickname miracle with blonde hair (French merveille aux cheveux blonds ), because her hair color differed from her brunette cousins ​​and promised to become a beauty from a young age. She was brought up at the behest of Queen Mother Anna of Austria together with the still underage French King Louis XIV and his younger brother Philippe in the Palais Royal , but later moved to a monastery.

Mazarin first arranged for her to marry the Hereditary Prince of the House of Épernon , Louis-Charles de Nogaret de La Valette , duc de Candale , but he wanted to enjoy his freedom for a while, so the wedding of the two was a long time coming. Even when Anna Maria's education ended in 1653 and she returned from the monastery to the French court in Paris, her fiancé showed no inclination to keep his marriage promise, and so Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, came up as a candidate for marriage. As the brother of the great Condé, he had played a major role as an opponent of Mazarin during the Fronde and saw the marriage as an opportunity to be reconciled with the cardinal and to have him repay his high debts. The prince of the blood did not conduct the negotiations in advance himself, but was represented by the poet Jean-François Sarrasin , who served Conti as secretary. According to his own admission, his master did not care which of Mazarin's nieces he married, "he married the cardinal, not the wife." The Duke of Candal generously ceded his rights to the prince, so that Anna Maria married him nothing stood in the way. Daniel de Cosnac , one of the confidants of the Contis, later reported in his memoir that Mazarin's niece - if she had been asked - would not have given her consent to this exchange.

Princess of Conti

Since Anna Maria was not even asked for her opinion, the marriage contract was signed on February 21, 1654 in the Louvre . The engagement was celebrated there that same evening. The following day, February 22nd, the two newly engaged couples were married by the Archbishop of Bourges , Anne de Lévis de Ventadour , in the Queen's Chapel in the Louvre. In addition to the bride, the Prince of Conti also received the governorship of Guyenne and command of the French army in Catalonia .

Anna Maria Martinozzi was praised by many contemporaries, including Madame de Motteville , for her beauty and her gentle character, which was paired with a lot of spirit and understanding. In addition, she proved to be extremely helpful when it came to securing the vacated bishopric of Valence for her confidante Daniel de Cosnac through intercession with her influential uncle . After unexpectedly recovering from a serious illness, a great change of heart took place in her. The formerly fun-loving and enjoyable young woman was won over by Jansenitin , renounced all luxury and from then on did her best as a benefactor. For example, in 1662, the year of famine, she sold the little jewelry she had left in order to use the proceeds to finance poor food.

When she was widowed in 1666, despite her young age of 29, she did not enter into a new marriage, but devoted herself entirely to bringing up her two sons and to charity.

At the age of 35, Anna Maria suffered a stroke and then passed out. In one of her letters, Madame de Sévigné described the princess's appearance after attempts were made to faint her by breaking two teeth and burning her scalp. But all efforts were in vain. Anna Maria Martinozzi died on February 4, 1672 at 4 a.m. in her Parisian Hôtel de Conti without having regained consciousness. She was buried on February 6th in the church of Saint-André-des-Arcs, while her heart found its final resting place with the Carmelites on rue Saint-Jacques and her bowels in the monastery of Port Royal des Champs .

In her will, she had appointed her sister-in-law Anne Geneviève de Bourbon-Condé , Duchess of Longueville, as the educator and her brother-in-law Louis II. De Bourbon, prince de Condé , as the guardian of her children. Most of their legacy went to the poor and their servants.

progeny

Anna Maria Martinozzi had three children together with Armand the Bourbon, two of whom reached adulthood:

literature

  • Edouard de Barthélemy: Une nièce de Mazarin. La princesse de Conti d'après sa correspondance inédite . Firmin-Didot, Paris 1875 ( online ).
  • Otto Flake : Great ladies of the baroque. Historical portraits. Fischer, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-596-22273-7 , pp. 27-33.
  • Auguste Jal : Dictionnaire critique de biographie et d'histoire. Errata et supplément pour tous les dictionnaires historiques, d'après des documents authentiques inédits . Plon, Paris 1867, p. 421 ( online ).
  • Amédée Renée: Mazarin's nieces. Studies of Morals and Characters in the 17th Century . 3. Edition. Rudolf Kuntze, Dresden 1858, pp. 100-115 ( online ).
  • Matinozzi (Anne-Marie) . In: Pierre Larousse: Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle . Volume 11. Administration du grand Dictionnaire universel, Paris 1873, p. 1286.

Web links

Commons : Anna Maria Martinozzi  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ^ Sylvia Jurewitz-Freischmidt: Galantes Versailles. The mistresses at the court of the Bourbons . Piper, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-492-24494-7 , p. 24.
  2. ^ O. Flake: Great ladies of the baroque. P. 30.
  3. ↑ A. Renée: Mazarin's nieces. P. 103.
  4. ↑ In older publications Compiègne is often incorrectly mentioned as the place of engagement.
  5. ↑ Lucien Perey: Le roman du grand roi. Louis XIV et Marie Mancini d'après des lettres et documents inedits . 7th edition. Calmann Lévy, Paris 1899, p. 31.
  6. ↑ A. Renée: Mazarin's nieces. P. 108.
  7. ^ Jean Vatout: Le château d'Eu. Notices historiques . Volume 4. Félix Malteste, Paris 1836, pp. 36-37 ( online ).
  8. ^ A. Jal: Dictionnaire critique de biographie et d'histoire. P. 421.
personal data
SURNAME Martinozzi, Anna Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Princesse de Conti; merveille aux cheveux blonds; Martinozzi, Anne Marie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian-French noblewoman, Princess von Conti by marriage
DATE OF BIRTH 1637
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome , Italy
DATE OF DEATH February 4, 1672
Place of death Paris , France