Maria Felicia Orsini

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Maria Felicia Orsini on a stained glass window in the Saint Martin church in Montmorency
Maison de Sylvie in the park of Chantilly

Maria Felicia Orsini (born November 11, 1600 in Rome or Florence , † June 5, 1666 in Moulins ) came from the Roman noble family Orsini . She was the second wife of Duke Henry II of Montmorency (1595-1632).

Parentage and offspring

Maria Felicia Orsini was the daughter of Virginio Orsini (1572-1615), the second Duke of Bracciano . Through her grandmother Isabella de 'Medici , she was the great-granddaughter of Cosimo I de' Medici . Her great-aunt was Maria de Medici , the wife of the French King Henry IV. Her marriage to Henry II of Montmorency was childless.

Life

Tomb of Duke Henry II of Montmorency and Maria Felicia Orsini

Maria Felicia Orsini grew up in Florence . In 1612, at the age of twelve, she was married to Henry II of Montmorency, the fourth and last Duke of the House of Montmorency and one of the most important figures in the French kingdom. He was peer , marshal and admiral of France and governor of Languedoc . In Chantilly Castle , one of the family seats of the Montmorency in what is now the Oise department in the French region of Hauts-de-France , she surrounded herself with writers and art lovers. In the palace gardens, a pavilion, the so-called Maison de Sylvie , commemorates the Duchess. The poet and playwright Théophile de Viau , who had been banished from Paris because of his lifestyle and allegedly suggestive poems, found refuge here. His work, La Maison de Sylvie , a series of ten odes , is a hymn of thanks to his hostess, whom he named Sylvie . The playwright Jean Mairet , whose tragic comedy La Sylvanire ou la Morte-vive is dedicated to the Duchess of Montmorency, was one of her protégés.

For his participation in a Languedoc uprising led by Gaston , brother of King Louis XIII, against Cardinal Richelieu , the Duke of Montmorency in Toulouse was sentenced to death in 1632 and executed on the scaffold. His widow was placed under house arrest in the castle of the Dukes of Bourbon in Moulins. In 1636 she received it from Louis XIII. permission to retire to the local monastery of the Order of the Visitation of Mary . In 1641 she entered the order as a novice, in 1657 she became a nun and in 1665 its superior .

Out of gratitude for her acceptance into the order, she supported the Visitation Sisters in the construction of new monastery buildings and the chapel ( Chapelle de la Visitation ). In 1648 Maria Felicia Orsini commissioned the sculptors Michel and François Anguier in Paris to build a splendid tomb to commemorate her husband , which she built in 1653 in the newly built chapel of the Visitantinnen and into which she had her husband's remains transferred. In life-size figures made of Carrara marble , Henry II of Montmorency and his wife are depicted lying on a sarcophagus with an upright torso . In 1651 she commissioned the painter Rémy Vuibert for ceiling paintings for the Visiting Sisters' choir on the theme of the Glorification of Mary.

literature

  • Le Patrimoine des Communes de l'Allier . Flohic Éditions, Volume 2, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-84234-053-1 , pp. 884-886.

Web links

Commons : Maria Felicia Orsini  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ La Maison de Sylvie Domaine de Chantilly
  2. ↑ La Sylvanire ou la Morte vive BnF Gallica
personal data
SURNAME Orsini, Maria Felicia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marie Félice des Ursins
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duchess of Montmorency
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1600
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome or Florence
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1666
Place of death Moulins