Marion Delorme

Marion Delorme.

Woodcut of a performance of Victor Hugo's drama Marion Delorme

Marion Delorme or de Lorme (born October 3, 1613 in Blois , † July 2, 1650 ) was a French courtesan .

Marion Delorme was born not far from Champaubert, the daughter of Jean de Lou, an influential treasurer of France and Marie Chastelain. She went to Paris in her youth , where she inherited an important inheritance. She was first the lover of the poet Jacques Valle , Sieur Desbarreaux, and left him to begin an affair with Henri Coiffier de Ruzé , a favorite of the king. Apparently the two were secretly married.

Marion Delorme's salon became a center of Paris society. She was said to have had various influential and well-known lovers and benefactors after the execution of de Ruzé, including Charles de St Evremond (1610–1703), George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham , Louis II de Bourbon ( "Le Grand Condé" ), possibly also belonged to Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII. to her beloved.

In the time of the Fronde , the supporters of the discontented princes held their meetings with her. After the arrest of Princes Condé and Conti , Mazarin wanted to see her imprisoned as well, but she died suddenly on July 2, 1650. The cause of her death, as well as the question of whether she actually died or simply evaded arrest, is unclear. There was a rumor that she staged her death in order to flee to England, returned later and, after marrying three men, including a robber captain, lived until 1706 (according to other sources until 1741).

Alfred de Vigny recorded her story in his novel "Cinq-Mars" and Victor Hugo in the drama Marion Delorme . Two operas by Amilcare Ponchielli and Giovanni Bottesini also bear her name.

literature

• Eugène de Mirecourt: Les confessions de Marion Delorme , Paris 1850–51, 4 volumes
• PJ Jacob: Marion Delorme et Ninon Lenclos , Paris, 1859
• J. Péladan: Histoire et légende de Marion de Lorme , Paris, 1882