Laura Mancini
Laura Mancini (* 1635 / 36 in Rome , † 8. February 1657 in Paris ) one of the so-called was Mazarinetten (French: Mazarinettes ) and was marrying I. Louis de Bourbon Duchess of Mercœur .
Life
Laura was born in Rome as the eldest daughter of Michele Lorenzo Barone di Mancini and his wife Geronima Mazarini, Jules Mazarin's youngest sister . She was therefore a niece of the powerful French First Minister, who brought her to France in September 1647 together with her sister Olympia and her brother Michele Paolo and her cousin Anna Maria Martinozzi . At the behest of Queen Anna of Austria , she grew up in the Palais Royal under the supervision of Marie-Catherine de La Rochefoucauld , the widowed Marquise de Sennecey and former tutor to Louis XIV .
When she arrived in Paris at the age of 13, Laura promised to become a beauty. When she was of marriageable age, her uncle considered the Hereditary Prince of the House of Épernon , Louis-Charles de Nogaret de La Valette , as a possible husband, but these plans failed. Mazarin therefore began marriage negotiations with the then Duke of Mercœur, Louis de Bourbon, a grandson of King Henry IV of France . The impetus for this connection was provided by his father César , Duke of Vendôme , who had intrigued against the cardinal during the Cabale des Importants and was now seeking a reconciliation with him. The negotiations were not yet over when Mazarin had to flee to Brühl because of the Fronde in February 1651 . Laura shared - like all his nieces - the fate of her uncle and went into exile with him. Although a connection with her no longer seemed at all opportune for the 39-year-old Duke of Mercœur, he held on to the proposed marriage with the cardinal's niece. He secretly traveled to Brühl to bring the negotiations to a close and to sign the marriage contract. This was solemnly renewed after Mazarin's return to Paris on May 29, 1654 in the presence of the king and his mother. Laura's dowry was 600,000 livres , Louis XIV gave the couple another 100,000 livres as a wedding gift. For Louis there was also the governorate of Provence , while Laura's father-in-law was given the post of governor of Brittany and was appointed admiral of France .
The couple's exact wedding date is unclear. Some publications mention 1651, but this is only the year in which the marriage contract was first signed. In 1651, Louis I. de Bourbon stated at a hearing before the Paris Parliament that he had married his wife before their uncle had fled, but this is unbelievable because the marriage contract can be shown to have been concluded during his exile in Brühl. When the agreement between Louis and Mazarin became known in France, the groom was exposed to numerous denigrations that were spread through diatribes. Laura was also forbidden by the parliament from stepping on French soil.
After her return to France in 1653, Laura lived modestly and piously, mostly at Anet Castle, about 60 kilometers west of Paris and rarely stayed at the royal court. Together with her mother-in-law Françoise de Lorraine-Mercœur , she devoted herself to charity. Madame de Motteville described her in her memoirs as beautiful and virtuous.
A few days after the birth of her third child, the Duchess suffered a stroke in January 1657, which is why she no longer had any feeling in her left arm or hand. Shortly afterwards there was also the loss of language. The doctors prescribed cupping , but it only made Laura's suffering worse. She died at the age of 21 on February 8th in what was then the Hôtel de Vendôme in Paris. Her husband withdrew to a Capuchin monastery in deep sorrow and became a priest without having married again. He died as a cardinal in 1669 .
progeny
The marriage with Louis I de Bourbon resulted in three sons, but only two of them reached adulthood:
- Louis II Joseph (* 1654; † 1712), Duke of Vendôme
- Philippe (* 1655; † 1727), Duke of Vendôme
- Jules César (* 1657; † 1660)
literature
- Otto Flake : Great ladies of the baroque. Historical portraits. Fischer, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-596-22273-7 , pp. 23-26.
- Amédée Renée: Mazarin's nieces. Studies of Morals and Characters in the 17th Century . 3. Edition. Rudolf Kuntze, Dresden 1858, pp. 88-99 ( online ).
- Guy Jean Raoul Eugène Charles Emmanuel de Savoie-Carignan: The seven richest heiresses of France . J. Long, London 1911, pp. 74-85 ( online ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ A. Renée: Mazarin's nieces , p. 93 ( online )
- ↑ Jules de Cosnac (ed.): Mémoires de Daniel de Cosnac . Volume 1. Renouard, Paris 1852, p. 254 ( online ).
- ↑ A. Renée: Mazarin's nieces , p. 97 ( online )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mancini, Laura |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mancini, Laure |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | by marriage to the Duchess of Mercœur |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1635 or 1636 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rome |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 8, 1657 |
| Place of death | Paris |