Françoise Babou de La Bourdaisière

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Françoise Babou de La Bourdaisière, anonymous, 16th century

Françoise Babou de La Bourdaisière (also called Mme d'Estrées and Marquise de Cœuvres ; * around 1542; † murdered on June 9, 1592 in Issoire ) was a French noblewoman of the 16th century, who was primarily the mother of Gabrielle d'Estrées is known.

origin

The Babou family has its origins in Bourges , where they have been registered as notaries since 1416. The following generations reached beyond Bourges with the wealth they had acquired, acquired seigneuries and bought access to the royal court. Philibert Babou , fourth generation notary, sought to marry a wealthy heiress whom he found in Marie Gaudin , Dame de La Bourdaisière (in Montlouis-sur-Loire ) and already mistress of the future King Francis I. The eldest son of The couple was Jean Babou , 1567–1569 Grand Master of the Artillery of France , who married Françoise Robertet , daughter of Florimond I. Robertet , Minister of the Kings Francis II and Charles IX. .

Life

Françoise Babou de La Bourdaisière was the third of 15 children of Jean Babou de La Bourdaisière and Françoise Robertet, and the eldest of ten daughters - Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux will emphasize in his Historiettes that she was “the most fertile clan of gallant women who ever existed in France ”. The sisters who did not die young or went to the monastery, including Françoise, were also called les sept pêchés capitaux (“the seven deadly sins”) at court because of their relaxed lifestyle .

Françoise, who grew up at court, became a playmate ( fille d'honneur ) of Maria Stuart , who was of the same age and who had lived in France since she was five. Maria Stuart married the Dauphin Franz in April 1558 , shortly after the wedding, the approximately 30-year-old Antoine IV. D'Estrées asked Françoise's father for the hand of his 17-year-old daughter; the wedding took place on February 14, 1559 in Chartres , Françoise was now Marquise de Cœuvres. In July 1559, King Henry was seriously injured in a tournament and died a few days later, the Dauphin ascended the throne as Francis II and the new Queen Maria Stuart made Françoise Babou one of her ladies-in-waiting ( dame d'honneur ). Franz II also died in December 1560, the new king was Charles IX. and Maria Stuart returned to Scotland in 1561, Françoise's task as maid of honor was over for the time being.

Dauphin was now Henri de Valois , the Duke of Anjou. In his constant company was Louis de Béranger, Seigneur du Guast and, as Capitaine de la Garde, one of the Mignons des Dauphins, whom the Marquise de Cœuvres noticed. As he was friends with Brantôme and Ronsard , he asked the two of them to write poems on his behalf that celebrate the beauty of the marquise. Ronsard delivered first and composed the "Sonnets et Madrigals pour Astrée" (the nickname of Françoise Babou), z. B .: 

Plus que mes yeux j’aime tes beaux cheveux,
Liens d’Amour que l’or même accompaigne,
Et suis jaloux du bonheur de ton peigne,
Qui au matin démêle leurs beaux noeuds.

En te peignant il se fait riche d’eux,
Il les dérobe; et l’Amour, qui m’enseigne
D’être larron, commande que je prenne
Part au butin assez grand pour tous deux.

Mais je ne puis; car le peigne fidèle
Garde sa proie, et puis ta damoiselle
Serre le reste et me l’ôte des doigts.

O cruautés! ô beautés trop iniques!
Le pèlerin touche bien aux reliques
Par le travers d’une vitre ou d’un bois.

Françoise Babou, who was not really trapped in her marriage as a lady-in-waiting with a military, gave in to temptation and became the lover of Louis de Béranger du Guast. In March 1564, she appeared at a court ball at Fontainebleau Castle in a diamond-studded dress depicting a lady kissing an armed traveling knight wearing a helmet and cuirass , who could not be any other than Louis de Béranger. From then on, their connection was public.

So far, in their marriage, she had given birth to a girl, Marie Catherine, who was born in 1562 and recently died. In the next few years she gave birth to daughters Marguerite, Diane and Angélique.

Louis du Béranger was appointed Gentilhomme de la Chambre du Roi in 1570 . In 1571 he led his regiment that bore his name. On St. Bartholomew's Night on August 24, 1572, he drew attention to himself through his cruelty and brutality at the head of his units armed with pikes and crossbows. In 1573 he accompanied Henri de Valois to Poland as long as he was king there. Charles IX died on May 30, 1574, Henri de Valois returned from Poland and climbed as Henry III. the throne. Louis de Béranger was at the zenith of his power, Françoise Babou became the lady of honor of the new Queen Luise of Lorraine , whom the king married on February 15, 1575, both moved into apartments in the Louvre , which were formally separate but were next to each other.

But then Louis de Béranger made a momentous mistake: he told the king about the relationship between his sister Margaret of Valois , the wife of Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV) and Louis de Clermont, seigneur de Bussy d'Amboise , who also called her “ the queen of whores ”. Margarete found out who had supplied the information and now saw Louis de Béranger (and Françoise Babou) as her personal enemies.

On October 31, 1575 she got her revenge, although she was under house arrest after the Duke of Alençon had escaped from Paris: Margaret had Guillaume du Prat, Baron de Vitteaux (a skilled duelist who was always ready to fight at the slightest provocation ), asked to get rid of her du Guast. At around 10 p.m. that evening, he and some of his followers entered Louis de Béranger's house on rue Saint-Honoré and killed him while he was in bed, and cut his servants' throats. Vitteaux fled to the Duke of Alençon, where he was safe, especially since the king showed no energy in pursuing the crime.

Françoise Babou retired to the Château de Cœuvres near Soissons with the three children she had given birth since St. Bartholomew 's Night ( Gabrielle , François-Annibal and François Louis) , but then resumed her role as the Queen's Lady of Honor. Around 1580 she gave birth to another child, Julienne-Hippolyte .

Then she learned on August 7, 1583 that the Baron de Vitteaux had been killed in a duel by a young Auvergnat nobleman: the 23-year-old Yves IV d'Alègre had come to avenge the death of his father, the Vitteaux a few months had previously killed. She set out with joy to meet the man who had avenged the death of her murdered lover and, to thank him, offered him a valuable ring, a purse with a thousand écu - and herself. The young man refused the ring and Purse off, he accepts the marquise herself. The next day, on August 8, 1583, a scandal broke out during a ball in the Louvre: King Heinrich publicly accused his sister Margarete of a dissolute lifestyle, listed all of her subordinate lovers and banned her from court.

Shortly afterwards she left her husband (again) and followed Alègre to his estates in the Auvergne, only taking her daughter Julienne-Hippolyte with her.

She left the upbringing of her other children, whom she had left behind in Cœuvres, to her sister Isabeau Babou, Marquise de Sourdis, although the latter had an even worse reputation than Françoise for being open with her lover, Philippe Hurault de Cheverny , Chancellor of France , lived together - with the consent of her husband François d'Escoubleau, Marquis d'Alluye, who preferred the young page .

In 1589, Yves d'Alègre received from King Henry III. the post of Governor of Issoire in Auvergne. Shortly afterwards the king was murdered by the monk Jacques Clément and Henry IV was his successor. Formally, Margaret of Valois was now Queen of France, but was imprisoned in the fortress of Usson from the end of 1586. In Issoire the Marquise de Coeuvres gave birth to her last daughter: Marie Françoise, who a few months later was even recognized by Antoine d'Estrées. At about the same time, their daughter Gabrielle became the mistress of Henry IV, which will have been the ultimate triumph for Françoise Babou over Margaret of Valois.

But soon she triggered the last drama of her life with her arrogance and contempt. For several years she had ruled the city like a queen, even calling on Alègre to forbid the citizens from wearing silk or jewelery on the death penalty. In addition, she did not pay her bills. Suppliers who applied to the Hôtel des Gouverneurs to pay Madame d'Estrees' debts were beaten. The creditors made an appointment and broke into the governor's house on the night of June 8th to 9th, 1592, found Alègre and the marquise in their bed and killed them, then threw the bodies out the window. They spared their mother's fate for their two daughters, one of them in the cradle.

progeny

literature

  • Pierre de Ronsard , Les sonnets et madrigaux pour Astrée , published 1578, no.15 , Wikisource
  • Père Anselme , Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la Maison Royale de France , Volume 8, Paris 1733, Généalogie de Babou , pp. 180-182
  • Nouveaux mémoires du Maréchal de Bassompierre recueillis par le président Hénault , 1802, p. 163f
  • Julien de Gaulle, Nouvelle Histoire de Paris et ses environs , 1839
  • Jacques-Xavier Carré de Busserolle, Dictionnaire géographique, historique et biographique d'Indre-et-Loire et de l'ancienne province de Touraine , Volume 1, 1878, pp. 109–110 ( online )
  • Pierre Champion , Ronsard et son temps , 1925, pp. 360-362
  • Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux , Historiettes , Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 2 volumes, 1960/61
  • Roger Archaud, Yves d'Alègre, marquis d'Auvergne , 2006

Remarks

  1. ^ "La race la plus fertile en femmes galantes qui aient jamais été en France."
  2. ^ Louis de Béranger, * around 1540, Seigneur du Guast (or Gua), came from the Dauphiné ; his friend Ronsard describes him as “brave, brutal, cruel and a terrible fighter, from King Charles IX. much appreciated "(Champion)
  3. ↑ Ronsard
  4. ↑ "Il avait répandu beaucoup de sang innocent à la Saint-Barthélemy" (de Gaulle, p. 435)
  5. ↑ Champion
  6. ↑ Jean Charles Léonard Simonde de Sismondi , Histoire des Francais , Volume 13, 1838, p. 384: “You guast avait loué dans la rue Saint-Honoré, proche du Louvre, une petite maison pour donner des rendez-vous à sa maîtresse. Ce fut là que Vitteaux entra à dix heures du soir, avec quelques assasins qui lui étaient depuis longtemps affidés; il tua dans son lit Du Guast, qui n'eut pas le temps de se défendre, tandi que ses meurtriers éteignaient les flambeaux et égorgeaient les valets; ensuite Vitteaux se laissa couler avec une corde le long des murs de la ville, dans un endroit où on luit tenait des chevaux prêts; il s'enfuit auprès du duc d'Alençon, où il demeura en sûreté; car le roi après avoir fait commencer une information la fit étouffer. Henri III fit à Du Guast un convoi magnifique, mais il le regrette peu; car ce favori commençait à le fatiguer en l'exhortant à montrer plus de vigueur et d'activité. "
  7. ^ “La nouvelle de ce combat fut bientôt épandue partout et vint aux oreilles de madame d'Estrée, qui, vaine de joye, fit diligence de trouver le lieu où Alègre s'était retiré, y vint le soir, lui porta une bague de prix qu'elle lui donna et lui offrit mille écus dans une bourse, et en outre cela, sa personne, s'il la trouvait à son gré. Ce jeune homme, heureux de trouver une si bonne fortune (car elle était extrêmement belle), rejeta ses dons et accepta sa personne à l'heure même, et devint ensuite si passionnément amoureux, et elle de lui, qu'elle abandonna son mari pour le suivre en ses maisons d'Auvergne, où elle demeura jusques aux guerres da la Ligue, que le marquis d'Alègre se saisit d'Issoire où se tenait et la tenait pour le roi, vers la fin des dernières guerres. " (Bassompierre)
  8. ↑ Isabeau gave birth to six children, including François d'Escoubleau de Sourdis (1575–1628), Archbishop of Bordeaux and Cardinal, and Henri d'Escoubleau de Sourdis (1593–1645), Archbishop of Bordeaux, and Charles d'Escoubleau, marquis de Sourdis et d'Alluye (1588–1666), who continued the line.
  9. ↑ "Cette femme violente ayant maltraité et fait battre de certains marchands et bouchers, qui founissaient la maison du marquis d'Alègre qui lui demandaient de l'argent, ces bourgeois indignés de ce traîtement, conspirèrent contre lui et elle, vinrent une sa maison à Issoire, les trouvèrent couchés ensemble, le tuèrent et puis les jetèrent par les fenêtres; ils épagnèrent und fille de monsieur d'Estrée et d'elle, nommée Juliette, qui était couchée dans la chambre, qui est madame de Villars, comme aussi une autre fille du marquis et de madame d'Estrée, qui était au berceau, qui a depuis été la comtesse de Saussay. ”(Bassompierre); for details see: Annales de la ville d'Issoire, manuscrit inédit sur l'histoire des guerres religieuses en Auvergne aux 16e et 17e siècles, accompagné de notes, publié par J.-B. Bouillet , Clermont-Ferrand, 1848 ( online )
  10. ↑ Père Anselme, Volume 4, p. 600
personal data
SURNAME Babou de La Bourdaisière, Françoise
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marquise de Coeuvres, Madame d'Estrées
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French nobles
DATE OF BIRTH around 1542
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1592
Place of death Issoire , Puy-de-Dôme