Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle

Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle, painting by Jean-Marc Nattier

Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle , Duchesse de Châteauroux (born October 5, 1717 in Paris , † December 8, 1744 in Paris) was a mistress of the French King Louis XV.

origin

Marie-Anne was the youngest daughter of Louis III. de Mailly-Neslé (1689–1767) and his wife Armande Félice de La Porte Mazarin (1691–1729), granddaughter of Hortensia Mancini . Her four older sisters were Louise Julie, Comtesse de Mailly , Pauline-Félicité, Marquise de Vintimille , Diane-Adélaïde, Duchesse de Lauraguais and Hortense-Félicité, Marquise de Flavacourt.

Rise to the mistress of Louis XV.

Marie-Anne is said to be the prettiest of the five daughters of Louis III. de Mailly-Nesle. At the age of fifteen she became the wife of the Marquis Louis de la Tournelle, who died in 1740. In the same year, she met Louis XV for the first time in the house of the Duke of Antin in Petit-Bourg, who loudly admired her beauty. Together with her sister Hortense-Félicité, she lived with her maternal aunt, the Duchess of Mazarin. After her death, the two sisters had to move out on the orders of the deceased's heir, Count Maurepas , and at her request were brought to the royal court in Versailles by her older sister Louise Julie, who was then mistress of Louis XV. (1742). There Marie-Anne took over the position of the various Duchess of Mazarin.

The Duke of Richelieu , known as a seducer of women, wanted to rise to higher political offices. For this purpose he tried to get rid of the royal mistress Louise Julie, who was not well-disposed towards him, and in her place her beautiful, strong-willed sister Marie-Anne as the new lover of Louis XV. close. However, Marie-Anne had a relationship with a nephew of Richelieu, the Count of Agenois. Richelieu ended this relationship, which was a hindrance to his plans, with an intrigue: According to his plan, his nephew was transferred to the army and seduced by a wicked woman. The love letters from the Count of Agenois to this lady were then brought to the attention of Marie-Anne, who thereupon ended their relationship as requested by Richelieu.

Marie-Anne was now ready to play a part in Richelieu's plans, but did not want to enter into a secret relationship with the king and refused to give herself up to him immediately. She previously asked him to appoint her maîtresse en titre, to recognize expected common children, to receive a court of her own as well as considerable income and to ban her sister Louise Julie from Versailles. She also wanted the king to court her, which he had never considered necessary in a woman because of his position. Therefore, the French ruler hesitated, although he had already caught fire for Marie-Anne on Richelieu's initiative. Richelieu achieved through further intrigues that the reluctant Louise Julie finally left Versailles on November 3, 1742 for good. But even after her sister's departure, Marie-Anne, to Richelieu's indignation, delayed her willingness to devote herself to the monarch for a good month in order to increase his desires. She gave the desire of the king only on their third joint trip to the beautiful, on the Seine nearby Château de Choisy by.

In 1743, Marie-Anne behaved at one point against the king, then again with devotion, and tried to arouse his jealousy by pretending to be still in love with the Count of Agenois. She also knew how to replace old friends of the king with devoted people and thus make the monarch even more dependent on her. Her two sisters Diane-Adélaïde and Hortense-Félicité helped her entertain the king.

In October 1743, Louis XV. Marie-Anne the title of Duchess of Châteauroux, which brought her reputation and considerable financial income. If she died without a male heir, the duchy should revert to the crown. She was now also the official favorite and enjoyed further honorary rights. On October 22, 1743, she was presented in her new role at court and congratulated by the indignant Queen Maria Leszczyńska on receiving the royal favors. In the glory of her new power, she behaved very haughty, also towards the queen.

Political influence

The writer Claudine Guérin de Tencin , who ran a famous literary salon in Paris, tried to advance the career of her beloved brother, Cardinal Pierre Guérin de Tencin , through intrigues. After the death of the governing minister, Cardinal André-Hercule de Fleury (January 29, 1743), Louis XV. lost influence. Now his sister turned to her former lover, Duke Richelieu, to persuade Marie-Anne to stand up for Cardinal Tencin with the king. In the event of success, the cardinal would, in return, ensure that Richelieu was admitted to the Privy Council.

After the outbreak of the Austrian War of Succession (1740), Louis XV. after a moment's hesitation, placed on the side of Maria Theresa's enemies , but after initial successes, the fortunes of war had turned away from him. France suffered heavy defeats due to the disagreement of its generals, for example on June 27, 1743 at the Battle of Dettingen in Bavaria. Because of these military failures, the Marquise de Tencin and Richelieu persuaded the Duchess of Châteauroux to use her influence on Louis XV. to use the fact that the monarch himself took on more government responsibility and led the army personally into battle. Similar to her sister Pauline-Félicité earlier, Marie-Anne also liked to interfere more in politics and she encouraged the king to earn military laurels as a general. It achieved its greatest political success through an alliance that Louis XV. at her instigation with Frederick II in 1744. The Prussian king even paid tribute to her contribution to the conclusion of this Paris alliance with a letter of thanks addressed to her.

In May 1744, Louis XV opened. an incursion into the Austrian part of Flanders and took over the supreme command himself. The soldiers and the population welcomed him enthusiastically when he arrived in Lille and the campaign was initially successful. Marie-Anne was afraid of losing her influence over the monarch and wanted to be able to take part in eventual victories. So she persuaded the king that she was allowed to accompany him during the military offensive and arrived in Lille on June 8, 1744 with her sister Diane-Adélaïde. But the liaison of Louis XV. with the various daughters of Louis III. de Mailly-Nesle had long been a thorn in the side of the French and so the mistress and her sister were greeted and reviled in a very unfriendly manner. Even the soldiers were not happy with the arrival of the two duchesses. The king therefore preferred to inspect a few important cities in Flanders alone.

When Austrian troops threatened the eastern border of France, the king moved with his mistress and the main army to Metz , but on the way Marie-Anne repeatedly met the resentment of the citizens. While Louis XV. had lodged separately from his lover at the earlier stages of his campaign to avoid too much fuss and had their accommodations connected by specially built corridors, he now lived in Metz, where he arrived on August 4, 1744, his relationship with her open out. He even had a wooden bridge built from his residence to the neighboring residence of his mistress so that she could visit him without being watched. Many French regarded this behavior of their king as a scandal.

On August 9th, in Metz, the king suffered a severe fever. At first he was cared for by Marie-Anne and her sister. Initially, they prevented high state dignitaries from visiting him and informing him of the severity of his illness. It was not without reason that they feared that the king, aware that he might soon have to die, wanted to go to confession and receive the sacraments, which would have required his previous separation from his mistress. On August 12, Marie-Anne had to allow Duke François de Fitz-James , Bishop of Soissons, of the danger of death of Louis XV. informed and high functionaries were given access to the monarch's bed. A day later, the king asked the confessor to come and announced his separation from Marie-Anne. The Bishop of Soissons insisted that the mistress and her sister leave Metz; only then would he give communion to the seriously ill king. Fearing that they would be lynched by a crowd, Marie-Anne and Diane-Adélaïde left Metz hidden in a carriage and had to put up with insults and intimidation attempts on their way home to Paris. In the meantime the king had to confess to the bishop of Soissons that he had lived unworthily and ask his people for forgiveness. Soon after this humiliating admission of guilt, Louis XV recovered. but again from his illness and in November 1744 he returned to the capital, cheered.

death

The king secretly met his exiled lover, Marie-Anne, and wanted to honor her again as mistress at court. She wanted revenge for the humiliation she had suffered. In particular, she demanded the overthrow of her hated cousin, Count Maurepas, who had publicly feasted on her repudiation. She could not enforce this demand with the king, but Maurepas had to humiliate himself to inform her personally that she would be invited to Versailles to return to her old position. Soon after, however, she suddenly developed a violent fever and then pneumonia. Doctors prescribed bloodletting, but it only made her illness worse. Marie-Anne passed away on December 8, 1744. She was only 27 years old. Rumors that she had been poisoned were without any evidence and were not corroborated by an autopsy of the deceased. She was quickly buried in a secret funeral so that her body could not be desecrated, as in the case of her sister Pauline-Félicité. The king was deeply saddened, but after a few months he took Madame de Pompadour as his new mistress.

literature

• Benedetta Craveri: Amamnti e regine. Il potere delle donne. Adelphi, Milano 2005, ISBN 978-88-459-2302-9 ; German: queens and mistresses. The power of women - from Katharina de 'Medici to Marie Antoinette. Translated by Annette Kopetzki, Hanser, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-446-23013-2 , pp. 319–336.
• Edmont and Jules de Goncourt: La duchesse de Châteauroux et ses sœurs . Charpentier, Paris 1879 ( PDF ; 10.2 MB).
• Sylvia Jurewitz-Freischmidt: Galant Versailles. The mistresses at the court of the Bourbons . Katz Casimir, Gernsbach 2004, ISBN 3-925825-86-X .
• Uwe Schultz, Madame de Pompadour . CH Beck, Munich 2004, pp. 68-72.

Web links

• Madame de Châteauroux (French)