Antoinette de Maignelais

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Antoinette de Maignelais (* around 1430 ; † November 5, 1470 in Brittany ), also written de Magnelais and de Maignelay , was the mistress of the French King Charles VII from 1450 to around 1461 and then the mistress of the Breton until her death Duke Franz II.

family

Antoinette de Maignelais was the elder of two daughters of from Picardy originating knight Jean II. De Maignelais and his wife Marie de Jouy. Her paternal aunt was Catherine de Maignelais, mother of Agnès Sorel , so Antoinette and Agnes were first cousins.

In 1450 Antoinette married the courtier André de Villequier. The marriage had two sons:

  • Arthur, ⚭ Marie de Montberon
  • Antoine, vicomte de Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, ⚭ November 29, 1479 Charlotte de Blois- Châtillon

Another four children of Antoinette came from her relationship with Duke Francis II of Brittany:

  • François dʼ Avaugour (* probably around 1463), ⚭ Madeleine de Brosse
  • Antoine (* probably after 1465; † probably 1483)
  • Françoise (* probably after 1465)
  • a daughter

Sometimes Antoinette de Maignelais is also assigned a child named Jeanne, who is said to have been an illegitimate daughter of Charles VII, but this name is based on a confusion with Antoinette's younger sister Jeanne, who married Jean II de Comborn on the initiative of the mistress in 1456 has been. No children of Antoinette and the King are attested.

Life

Antoinette was the eldest child of Jean II. De Maignelais and his wife Marie de Jouy. There is no evidence of her date of birth, although many historians previously dated her birth to the year 1420. However, contemporary chroniclers did not consider Antoinette to be a cousin of Agnes Sorel, but rather her niece, which is an indication that Antoinette was younger than her 1425 born relatives. In addition, after 1461 she became a mother at least three times. More recent research therefore puts the year of birth around 1430.

Almost nothing is known about Antoinette's childhood and youth, but she is said to have been brought up together with her cousin Agnes. Presumably she introduced them to the royal court in 1449, so that Antoinette could become a nurse for Agnes' children with the king. She officially held the office of maid of honor in the household of Queen Marie d'Anjou . Just a few months after Agnes' death in 1450, she took her cousin's place as royal mistress. It is not certain whether Antoinette might have tried to oust her as mistress even before Agnes' death, however, Charles VII was very much in favor of her during Agnes Sorel's lifetime, because he gave her the one from the end of the 14th century in August 1449 her family's hereditary lands occupied by the Bourbons - including the eponymous Maignelais - returned. Exactly when Antoinette became the royal mistress is not certain, but in November 1450 Charles VII made her mistress of Issoudun , who had previously belonged to her cousin, which suggests that she was already his new favorite at the time. As early as October of the same year, the king had married her to his favorite André Villequier and given her Oléron , Marennes and Arvert on the occasion of the wedding , as well as an annual annuity of 2000 Écus. The festivities on the occasion of the wedding lasted 15 days.

In the following years Antoinette succeeded with the help of the family of her husband, who was appointed first chamberlain of the king in 1453 , to establish herself at the court and to consolidate her position. She maintained a household there that was structured like that of a princess. For many courtiers, employment in Antoinette's household was the springboard for a career at the royal court. According to contemporary reports, their influence was so great that many supplicants first paid the mistress and her husband to wait and present gifts so that they could put in a good word for their cause with the king. Antoinette's rise at the royal court also had a financial impact. In addition to gifts from courtiers and the transfer of land property by the king, the mistress also received regular donations from the state treasury. After the untimely death of her husband in 1454, she continued to receive his pension and the administration of his lands and guardianship of the two sons.

Antoinette de Maignelais probably felt neither love nor passion for Charles VII. In 1461 at the latest, she left the aging monarch for another man, the young and beautiful Francis II of Brittany. She had probably met him for the first time in the autumn of 1450 at a festival in Montbazon . When exactly she became his lover is a matter of dispute, but in January 1461 she was in all likelihood already at the Breton court in Nantes . In the castle there, she may even have her own chambers. She probably took her two sons Antoine and Arthur with her to Brittany. It is unclear whether Antoinette left the French court of her own volition, or whether she did so because of the constant intrigues of Crown Prince Ludwig . At the latest with Ludwig's accession to the throne as the new French king, she had a powerful enemy in him, because he and Antoinette's lover, Duke Franz, were bitter rivals. So their contributions from the French treasury were severely cut, and when Antoinette Franz supported in his disputes with the French crown (see Ligue du Bien public ), Louis XI. 1468 confiscate their lands in France . After the Battle of Montlhéry she received some of the goods back, but when the mistress again took sides for her lover and thus against France, her French property was confiscated again. Even so, Antoinette de Maignelais still had an immense fortune. In 1465 and 1468 she did not hesitate to move her magnificent body and jewelry to support Francis II with the proceeds. Already in 1460 she had bought the Cholet estate . She often stayed at the castle there and gave lavish parties there during her ducal lover's visits.

Antoinette de Maignelais died on November 5, 1570 and was buried in the abbey church of the Franciscan convent in Cholet. Her tombstone was found around 1832 during repair work under the floor of the monastery , which had been used as a hospital since the French Revolution . It is now on display in the Cholet History and Art Museum.

The image of Antoinette in research and literature

Antoinette de Maignelais has the reputation of being a calculating seductress driven by selfishness, ambition and greed for money. In literature, she is portrayed as a woman who is not very virtuous and who did not shrink from supporting the sexual excesses of Charles VII. Christine Juliane Henzler (see literature ) assumes that these less favorable descriptions were intended to convey the impression that the king's inaction and lust was solely due to the bad influence of his new mistress, because it was at the time of Agnes Sorel he did not indulge in such a dissolute and rotten lifestyle. Antoinette is even said to have maintained a whole harem of beautiful girls for Charles VII, whom she brought in to satisfy his sexual needs.

A similar picture Antoinette also drew Jacques Choffel in his biography of Francis II. Of Brittany. Her influence on the Duke, according to Choffel, was so great that she alone was responsible for all of his misconduct and political defeat.

Some authors also claim that the mistress together with some allies - such as the Grand Master of France , Antoine de Chabannes , Count of Dammartin for the overthrow of - Charles Chamberlain Guillaume de Gouffier and Otto Castellani Jacques Cœur was responsible to be to enrich one's goods. Indeed, in January 1456, the mistress acquired the Menetou-Salon estate , which had previously belonged to Cœur, for 7600 Écus , but it has not yet been proven that she was actively involved in the overthrow of the royal financier. One indication that Antoinette's involvement in the plot against Cœur speaks against is the fact that others who had taken advantage of Jacques Cœur's fate later themselves fell out of favor, while Antoinette was left unmolested.

On the basis of a letter that Ludwig is said to have written  as a Dauphin - according to the Chronique Martiniane - Antoinette de Maignelais is considered a defector in historical research, who moved to the camp of his son Ludwig, who opposed him, during the lifetime of Charles VII Father spied. According to the contents of the letter, it was addressed to an unspecified lady at the French court, who, according to the Chronique Martiniane, enjoyed a high reputation there. In the past, the addressee was often equated with the royal mistress, because after the death of Charles, Antoinette received a pension from his successor for allegedly rendered services. It is likely, however, that the letter was drawn up by the heir to the throne with the intention of compromising his father's mistress and the Count of Dammartin, without the message ever actually being delivered to the woman mentioned in the letter.

literature

  • Raoul Boucard: Antoinette de Magnelais au château de Nantes. In: Revue du Bas-Poitou et des provinces de LʼOuest. May – August 1965, ISSN  0556-767X , p. 228 ff.
  • Georges Durville: Notes biografiques sur Antoinette de Magnelais, mère de Mademoiselle Françoise. In: Bulletin de la Société archéologique de Nantes et du département de la Loire-Inférieure. Vol. 57, No. 1, 1917, ISSN  2420-1626 , pp. 42-46 ( digitized version ).
  • Christine Juliane Henzler: The wives of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-412-20879-0 , pp. 23–24, 31–32, 41–45, 67–69, 85–86, 104–107, 143–163, 190–192 ( digitized from De Gruyter (subject to charge)) .
  • Stéphane Praud de La Nicollière-Teijeiro: Le collier d'Antoinette de Magnelais. In: Bulletin de la Société archéologique de Nantes et du département de la Loire-Inférieure. Vol. 1, No. 1, 1859, ISSN  2420-1626 , pp. 330-332 ( digitized version ).
  • Charles Thenaisie: Sur la pierre tombale d'Antoinette de Maignelais, retrouvée à Cholet, dans ces derniers temps. In: Bulletin de la Société archéologique de Nantes et du département de la Loire-Inférieure. Vol. 12, No. 1, 1873, ISSN  2420-1626 , pp. 103-105 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b C. J. Henzler: The wives of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 31.
  2. ↑ a b C. THENAISIE: Sur la pierre tombale d'Antoinette de Maignelais, retrouvée à Cholet, dans ces derniers temps. 1873, p. 103.
  3. ^ Jean-François Dreux du Radier: Mémoires historiques, critiques et anecdotes des reines et régentes de France. Volume 3. Paul Renouard, Paris 1827, p. 212 ( digitized version ).
  4. ^ Entry on Antoine de Villequier on geneanet.org , accessed on February 5, 2016.
  5. ↑ Information, unless otherwise stated, from CJ Henzler: Die Frauen Karls VII. Und Ludwigs XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 68.
  6. ↑ Georges Durville: Une demi-sœur inconnue dʼAnne de Bretagne. In: Bulletin de la Société archéologique de Nantes et du département de la Loire-Inférieure. Vol. 57, No. 1, 1917, ISSN  2420-1626 , pp. 30-31 ( digitized version ).
  7. ↑ This daughter is not documented.
  8. ↑ a b c C. J. Henzler: The wives of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 67.
  9. ↑ a b c d e Les Favorites Royales , accessed February 15, 2016.
  10. ^ CJ Henzler: The women of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 32.
  11. ↑ a b C. J. Henzler: The wives of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 42.
  12. ^ A b Jean-François Dreux du Radier: Mémoires historiques, critiques et anecdotes des reines et régentes de France. Volume 3. Paul Renouard, Paris 1827, p. 213 ( digitized version ).
  13. ↑ Sylvia Jurewitz-Freischmidt: The mistresses of the Loire castles. Queens and Maitresses around the lily throne. 3. Edition. Piper, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-492-23805-X , p. 72.
  14. ^ CJ Henzler: The women of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, pp. 143-144.
  15. ↑ a b C. J. Henzler: The wives of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 43.
  16. ↑ a b C. J. Henzler: The wives of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 44.
  17. ^ CJ Henzler: The women of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 192.
  18. ^ CJ Henzler: The women of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 154.
  19. ↑ C. THENAISIE: Sur la pierre tombale d'Antoinette de Maignelais, retrouvée à Cholet, dans ces derniers temps. 1873, p. 107.
  20. ^ CJ Henzler: The women of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 161.
  21. ^ G. Durville: Notes biografiques sur Antoinette de Magnelais, mère de Mademoiselle Françoise. 1917, p. 45.
  22. ^ CJ Henzler: The women of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 23.
  23. ^ CJ Henzler: The women of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, pp. 23–24.
  24. ^ CJ Henzler: The women of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 149.
  25. ^ CJ Henzler: The women of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 150.
  26. ^ CJ Henzler: The women of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 151.
  27. ^ CJ Henzler: The women of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 152.
  28. ^ CJ Henzler: The women of Charles VII and Ludwig XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483). 2012, p. 153.
personal data
SURNAME Maignelais, Antoinette de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Magnelais, Antoinette de; Maignelay, Antoinette de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mistress of the French King Charles VII and the Duke Franz II of Brittany
DATE OF BIRTH around 1430
DATE OF DEATH November 5, 1470
Place of death Brittany