Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 2: Wilson. And well before the storming of the Bastille and
Speaker 2: the dethroning of Francis, King Louis the sixteenth and his
Speaker 2: wife Marie Antoinette, there were plenty of instances of uprisings
Speaker 2: and infighting and scandals among the royals and nobility who
Speaker 2: occupied the French court.
Speaker 1: And there's one.
Speaker 2: Woman who was part of that scene in the later
Speaker 2: years of Louis the thirteenth reign and the transition to
Speaker 2: Louis the fourteenth, who I just find ceaselessly fascinating, and
Speaker 2: that is Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans. And part of why
Speaker 2: she's so fascinating is because she has been described over
Speaker 2: the years by historians as having been one of the
Speaker 2: richest heiresses in history, as an insurgent, as an unaccomplished woman,
Speaker 2: as an amazon, as a writer, and even as a fool.
Speaker 2: And the thing that makes it really interesting is that
Speaker 2: she sort of was all of those things. She led
Speaker 2: just an incredibly privileged life that enabled her a great
Speaker 2: deal of freedom, more than most people, and unlike most
Speaker 2: women in the court of France at the time, she
Speaker 2: was never forced into a marriage, although her potential as
Speaker 2: marriable was a big issue for France for a long time.
Speaker 2: So today we're gonna unravel her story and how closely
Speaker 2: tied she was to the son King's birth as well
Speaker 2: as his eventual reign. As a note, I just want
Speaker 2: to point out because in doing research on her it
Speaker 2: was easy to get multiple things. There are multiple women
Speaker 2: whose names if you type them up we'll come up
Speaker 2: with they'll all get kind of lumped together in your results.
Speaker 2: But this is Anne Marie Luise Dorleon, not Anne Marie Dorleon.
Speaker 2: Those two women were born about forty years apart. Anne
Speaker 2: Marie Louise is the earlier of the two. Anne Marie
Speaker 2: Louise Dorlean was born May twenty ninth, sixteen twenty seven
Speaker 2: in Paris, specifically in the Louver when it was still
Speaker 2: being used as a royal residence. She was a princess
Speaker 2: of France. Her mother was Marie de bourbonmont Ponsier, Duchess
Speaker 2: of Montponsier. Marie was the only heir of the wealthy
Speaker 2: Montposier family, so it had been a very strategic move
Speaker 2: to marry her to Gaston, Duke Dorlean. This was an
Speaker 2: arrangement that had been orchestrated by King Louis the thirteenth
Speaker 2: and Cardinal Richelieu. Gaston was the son of King Henry
Speaker 2: the fourth of France and the brother of King Louis
Speaker 2: the thirteenth.
Speaker 1: Marie de Bourbonmont Pontier died less than a week after
Speaker 1: Anne Marie Louise was born. You'll sometimes see that she
Speaker 1: died in childbirth. I saw various dates, but it appears
Speaker 1: that that happened during childbirth did result in her death
Speaker 1: very shortly after Amory Louise, and at that point the
Speaker 1: infant inherited a great deal of money and assets, and
Speaker 1: this made her, according to a nineteen fifty nine biography
Speaker 1: by Victoria Sackville West, the richest baby in France and
Speaker 1: possibly the world. She was moved to Tulerie and cared
Speaker 1: for by a large and dedicated staff, with a governess
Speaker 1: known as Madame de Saint George serving as her mother figure.
Speaker 1: She was frequently visited by the King and Queen, and
Speaker 1: as she grew up she was an outgoing and vivacious child,
Speaker 1: who was called La Mademoiselle and then eventually Lan Grande
Speaker 1: Mademoiselle to acknowledge her high rank. Mademoiselle does not just
Speaker 1: indicate that she was an unmarried woman. This is an
Speaker 1: inheritance of title from her father, who has brother to
Speaker 1: the king, was known by Monsieur as a title, and
Speaker 1: speaking of her father, he was largely absent, and it
Speaker 1: seems that Anne Marie Louise didn't really get the whole story.
Speaker 1: There are a few different things that we'll talk about,
Speaker 1: but her father, when she was particularly young, had remarried
Speaker 1: in secret to Marguerite of Larene. That was a marriage
Speaker 1: the King did not approve of, so Gustave was pretty
Speaker 1: absent from court. But when father and daughter were reunited,
Speaker 1: Anne Marie Louise described herself being completely overjoyed to see him.
Speaker 1: Given her standing in lineage from two important lines, it
Speaker 1: was natural for Montpontier to expect that she too would
Speaker 1: have a marriage arranged or orchestrated by the crown to
Speaker 1: an impressive husband. Really everyone expected this. In the two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven book Against Marriage, the correspondence of La
Speaker 1: Grande Mademoiselle, translated by Jean de Jon. This situation is
Speaker 1: concisely summed up this way quote. In early modern Europe,
Speaker 1: the marriage of an aristocratic woman was always a thoroughly
Speaker 1: political matter. It was understood by all that she was
Speaker 1: first and foremost a commodity. She belonged to her family,
Speaker 1: whose role it was to negotiate the exchange of her
Speaker 1: hand for whatever it needed, most money, social advancement, a
Speaker 1: military alliance. But Momtposier occupied a really unique position in
Speaker 1: this practice because she was basically independently wealthy. She had
Speaker 1: inherited so many assets from her mother well before she
Speaker 1: was able to even understand what wealth was, and the
Speaker 1: matter of a marriage arrangement for her was a source
Speaker 1: of ongoing conflict. Efforts were made to match her to
Speaker 1: various men, but because she did not need any of them,
Speaker 1: she had more agency than was usual for a woman
Speaker 1: to say no to any such arrangements. On September fifth,
Speaker 1: sixteen thirty eight, Louis the fourteenth was born, and there
Speaker 1: was immediate speculation that Anne Marie Louise might be betrothed
Speaker 1: to the future king. This is allegedly sparked by his mother,
Speaker 1: Anne of Austria, who apparently mentioned this jokingly that pairing
Speaker 1: did not materialize, but the possibility of it was gossiped
Speaker 1: about at all levels of society for quite a while.
Speaker 1: Montpalsier is also said to have called Louis her little husband,
Speaker 1: which undoubtedly helped stoke such gossip, but she was also
Speaker 1: a kid at the time. She was very young and
Speaker 1: may have only meant it in jest. She visited him
Speaker 1: frequently in his early days the Chateau de Saint Germain,
Speaker 1: because his mother adored her and wanted her with her.
Speaker 1: She later wrote in her memoirs, quote, the birth of
Speaker 1: Monsieur de Dauphin gave me a new occupation. I went
Speaker 1: to see him every day, and I called him my
Speaker 1: little husband. The king was diverted by this, and he
Speaker 1: thought that I did well.
Speaker 2: But though King Louis the thirteenth might have thought she
Speaker 2: was a delightful child, Cardinal Richelieu really did not. She
Speaker 2: described his response to her instant affection for her newborn
Speaker 2: cousin Louis the fourteenth, and her memoirs as well, quote
Speaker 2: Cardinal de Richelieu, who does not like me to as
Speaker 2: myself to being there, nor to have them accustomed to
Speaker 2: seeing me there, had me given orders to return to Paris.
Speaker 2: The Queen and Madame d' hautefert did all that was
Speaker 2: possible to keep me. They could not obtain their wish,
Speaker 2: which I regretted. It was all tears and cries when
Speaker 2: I left there. Their majesties gave many proofs of friendship,
Speaker 2: especially the Queen, who made me aware of a particular
Speaker 2: tenderness on that occasion. After this displeasure, I had still
Speaker 2: another to endure. They made me pass through Yu to
Speaker 2: see the cardinal who usually lived there when the King
Speaker 2: was at Saint Germain. He took it so to heart
Speaker 2: that I had called the little Dauphin my little husband,
Speaker 2: that he gave me a great reprimand he said that
Speaker 2: I was too large to use such terms, that I
Speaker 2: had been ill behaved to do so. He spoke so seriously,
Speaker 2: just as if I had been a person of judgment, that,
Speaker 2: without answering him, I began to weep. To pacify me,
Speaker 2: he gave me collation, but I did not pass it over.
Speaker 2: I came away from there very angry at all he
Speaker 2: had said to me. Charles the second of England was
Speaker 2: the next candidate, as a husband of note, who came
Speaker 2: into the picture when he was exiled to France in
Speaker 2: sixteen forty six. Montposier was nineteen at the time, so
Speaker 2: the idea of a marriage between the two royals was
Speaker 2: a natural one to be contemplated, but she turned that
Speaker 2: marriage down, recognizing that her assets were more valuable to
Speaker 2: Charles Stewart than anything he could offer her. As an
Speaker 2: exile in sixteen forty seven, Anne Marie Louise had another
Speaker 2: potential spouse, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand the Third. There was
Speaker 2: a different problem there. France and the Habsburg Empire were
Speaker 2: at war, and that could not be part of the
Speaker 2: peace negotiations. Apparently. In a biography of Anne Marie Louise
Speaker 2: written in nineteen oh two by Arved Barn and translated
Speaker 2: by Helen E. Meyer, it described this period of her
Speaker 2: lif life this way quote, Mademoiselle was courted and ardently admired.
Speaker 1: The people worshiped her.
Speaker 2: Paris was determined to place her upon the throne of France.
Speaker 2: Well employed though her time had been, she had done
Speaker 2: nothing to distinguish herself, nothing to give her a place
Speaker 2: among heroines like the Princess de Conde and the enticing
Speaker 2: Madame de Longville. But the year sixteen fifty two was
Speaker 2: on its way and it was to bring her her
Speaker 2: long awaited glory. We will get to the source of
Speaker 2: that glory in a moment, because we need to establish
Speaker 2: some contexts regarding the fraud, and we're going to dig
Speaker 2: into the Fronde and eventually how Amory Louise was involved
Speaker 2: in it. Right after we paused for a sponsor break
Speaker 2: in sixteen fifty one, the twenty four year old Amrie Louise,
Speaker 2: having grown somewhat frustrated with the crown, became involved with
Speaker 2: the effort to fight the central assa of the monarchy's power.
Speaker 1: This conflict became known as the Fronde, and the Frond
Speaker 1: had begun in sixteen forty eight. This is an important
Speaker 1: moment in French history because had the Frond not happened,
Speaker 1: Louis the fourteenth may not have become as powerful as
Speaker 1: he ultimately was. The conflict called the Frond is actually
Speaker 1: a series of conflicts, kind of like many civil wars.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you'll see this referred to as a civil war,
Speaker 1: and other times it could have been a civil war
Speaker 1: had it gotten any bigger. So just know you'll see
Speaker 1: it characterized different ways, and it's the series of conflicts
Speaker 1: within France as concerns over the monarchy's power grew. Sometimes too,
Speaker 1: you will see the Frond referred to as a civil
Speaker 1: war singular, instead of a series of civil wars or
Speaker 1: a series of conflicts. It's written about in all the
Speaker 1: different ways. There is one big thing called the Frond,
Speaker 1: and under that umbrella there are multiple separate issues going on,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about. Though it began officially in sixteen
Speaker 1: forty eight, the seeds of the Frond were shown earlier
Speaker 1: that decade, when Cardinal Richelieu and Louis the thirteenth died
Speaker 1: in sixteen forty two. In sixteen forty three.
Speaker 2: Louis the fourteenth was heir to the throne, but he
Speaker 2: was only five when his father, the King died. His mother,
Speaker 2: Anne of Austria, served as regent for her child king,
Speaker 2: and she was aided in this role by Cardinal Mazarin.
Speaker 2: You may remember from our episode on Marie and Hortense Mancini.
Speaker 2: He was an Italian who had been hand selected to
Speaker 2: be part of the French government by Richelieu. France at
Speaker 2: this time was facing a number of issues. It had
Speaker 2: been engaged in an expensive, long term war with the
Speaker 2: Spanish Habsburg's. Various members of the nobility saw the arrangement
Speaker 2: with Anne of Austria as regent as weak. They sought
Speaker 2: to exert their own influence on the country's political dealings.
Speaker 2: This included King Louis the Thirteenth's younger brother, Gaston that
Speaker 2: was Anne Marie Louise's father. Additionally, the Parisian Catholic Church,
Speaker 2: led by Cardinal Deuretz, saw an opportunity to gain more power.
Speaker 2: All of them thought this was a vacuum they could fill.
Speaker 2: The tax known as La Paulette had been instituted in
Speaker 2: sixteen oh four under King Henry the Fourth. So this
Speaker 2: tax was paid to the crown by holders of government offices.
Speaker 2: It secured their right to the office and conferred them
Speaker 2: the power to transfer that office. It might help to
Speaker 2: think of this as sort of like a lease on power,
Speaker 2: paid to retain that power annually, with the ability to
Speaker 2: pass that position through hereditary lines, and the money collected
Speaker 2: from it supported the crown with a steady, reliable income.
Speaker 2: But in sixteen forty eight, La Paulette was up for
Speaker 2: a renewal, and Mazarin and Anne of Austria thought that
Speaker 2: it would be a good bargaining chip to get other
Speaker 2: things that they wanted, including additional taxation to fund the military,
Speaker 2: but Anne and Mazarin overplayed their hands. Instead, the judges
Speaker 2: of Paris banded together against the monarchy to demand reform,
Speaker 2: and they had the support of the church and a
Speaker 2: portion of the nobility. This all began at an assembly
Speaker 2: known as the Chambre Saint Louis. Mazarin in particular was
Speaker 2: a problem for the Frond, and he was characterized as
Speaker 2: an untrustworthy foreigner. Things became so heated that Anne, Mazarin
Speaker 2: and the nine year old At this point Louis the
Speaker 2: fourteenth left Paris for Saint Germain, just outside the city.
Speaker 2: But this was only the first phase of the Fronde.
Speaker 2: The judges of the city parliament, the Regent, Anne and
Speaker 2: her advisor negotiated a resolution to their conflict. This deal
Speaker 2: got the magistrates a lot of the things that they wanted,
Speaker 2: and they were promised amnesty for their part in the
Speaker 2: conflicts that had broken out, But in doing so they
Speaker 2: had excluded the nobility, which meant that when they announced
Speaker 2: the deal that ended the Frond, of parliaments called the
Speaker 2: Peace of Rey. A second phase of the Frond. The
Speaker 2: Frond of the Princes started, and this is when Anne
Speaker 2: Marie Louise and her father Gustave got deeply involved in
Speaker 2: the fighting. In some ways, the Frond of the Princes
Speaker 2: was a more complex affair than the Frond of Parliament,
Speaker 2: because there were various deals being made among nobles to
Speaker 2: support each other, to turn on others, to exclude some
Speaker 2: members of the nobility, et cetera. It was like a
Speaker 2: lot of cliquish, interconnected deals being made. But the big
Speaker 2: turn of events that happened was from within the monarchy's
Speaker 2: own defenses. Louis the second de Bourbon, the fourth Prince
Speaker 2: of Conde, who was a general who had fought to
Speaker 2: protect the monarchy in the first phase of the Frond,
Speaker 2: turned against the crown in the second phase. Mazarin had
Speaker 2: him arrested. That stoked anger against Mazarin to a degree
Speaker 2: that in early sixteen fifty one he left the country. That, however,
Speaker 2: did not end the conflict. All of those various allegiances
Speaker 2: and orals within the rebelling nobility were still in play
Speaker 2: as everyone jockeyed for power, and then the young, barely
Speaker 2: teenage Louis the fourteenth was recognized as king in sixteen
Speaker 2: fifty one. This stopped short the efforts of many nobles
Speaker 2: who had sought to gain more influence in the absence
Speaker 2: of a fully vested king, and it especially stopped the
Speaker 2: efforts of Louis the second of vermon And while there
Speaker 2: were additional efforts at resting power from the throne, they
Speaker 2: did not succeed. The fraud is named that after the
Speaker 2: fact because a frond was a kid's toy. It was
Speaker 2: kind of like a slingshot, and the name suggests that
Speaker 2: the whole lengthy episode was ultimately kind of silly infighting
Speaker 2: and not a serious threat to the monarchy. On the contrary,
Speaker 2: it ended up bolstering support for the monarchy in its
Speaker 2: final stages, enabling Louis the fourteenth to ultimately rule at
Speaker 2: an almost unprecedented level of power. Momtponsier's father, Gaston, had
Speaker 2: initially supported and Mazarin in the Fronde, but as the
Speaker 2: aristocracy mounted the Frond of the Princes, he was against
Speaker 2: the king's mother and her advisor, and he was no
Speaker 2: stranger to conflict with the throne, having instigated a number
Speaker 2: of rebellions against his brother during Louis the thirteenth reign.
Speaker 2: Gaston and Anne Marie Louise were quite close, though he
Speaker 2: was often gone during her childhood because of his involvement
Speaker 2: with all these various intrigues.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we mentioned his problematic marriage, but he also was
Speaker 1: constantly like, let's revolt against my brother. Now, this involvement
Speaker 1: in the fraud is the phase of Anne Marie Louise's
Speaker 1: life that I and I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: find most fascinating. She got directly involved in the battles
Speaker 1: of the Fraud in the sixteen fifties, and by directly involved,
Speaker 1: I mean on the ground fighting. She was not the
Speaker 1: only woman of nobility to do so. She is often
Speaker 1: mentioned with two others, the Duchess de Chevreuse and the
Speaker 1: Duchess de Longueville. All all of these women led troops
Speaker 1: on horseback into conflicts. That's why the three of them
Speaker 1: are sometimes grouped together and called the Amazons. On March
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, sixteen fifty two, Montponcier took command of an
Speaker 1: army that battered its way into Orleans and occupied the city.
Speaker 1: On July second, sixteen fifty two, at the Battle of Faubourg,
Speaker 1: Saint Antoine Conde's troops were in trouble. The conflict was
Speaker 1: within the city, near the Bastille, and credit is given
Speaker 1: to Montponcier for ordering the Bastille cannon to be fired
Speaker 1: into the royal army. This gave the rebel forces under
Speaker 1: Conde a reprieve. While Conde survived the day thanks to
Speaker 1: the Grand Mademoiselle, the rebellion ultimately was defeated.
Speaker 2: Conde was arrested and with Louis the fourteenth back in Paris,
Speaker 2: ann Marie Louise found herself no longer welcome in the city.
Speaker 1: She was exiled.
Speaker 2: This was not as though she was sent to some
Speaker 2: desolate place of misery. She went to the Ynge region,
Speaker 2: where she had an estate at Saint Fogo, about one
Speaker 2: hundred and eighty five kilometers or one hundred and fifteen
Speaker 2: miles south of Paris. Her father was also exiled, but
Speaker 2: returned to Paris with a royal reconciliation in sixteen fifty seven.
Speaker 2: And while she was living in exile in the country,
Speaker 2: mom Polsier certainly was not sulking.
Speaker 1: She still lived like a royal. She had a court
Speaker 1: of attendance, and she had social connections. She spent time
Speaker 1: overseeing upgrades and decor to the Saint Frago estate, and
Speaker 1: there were all manner of entertainment stage for her and
Speaker 1: her friends. Sometimes this is called like her Petite Court.
Speaker 1: She also started writing during this time, with assistance and
Speaker 1: teaching from poet and novel Jeangno de Sergree and scholar
Speaker 1: Pierre Daniell Lue, and the level of formal education she
Speaker 1: ever received is unknown. It is not generally described as
Speaker 1: much at all when she was younger, so this time
Speaker 1: of taking up writing would have really been a time
Speaker 1: of great learning for her, and it was probably really challenging.
Speaker 1: One of the things that she wrote about in her
Speaker 1: correspondence during this time was how when she was living
Speaker 1: in Paris, she had always thought life in the country
Speaker 1: would be just miserable, but it turned out that she
Speaker 1: quite liked it.
Speaker 2: Montponsier did return to the court at Paris eventually. We'll
Speaker 2: talk about her life after that after we hear from
Speaker 2: the sponsors that keep the show going. Montpolsier returned to
Speaker 2: Paris five years after her exile in sixteen fifty seven.
Speaker 2: She started working on her memoirs once she was there,
Speaker 2: and there had been sort of a cruel angle to
Speaker 2: the timing of her exile period, because in deeming that
Speaker 2: five years was how long she had to stay away,
Speaker 2: that meant she would be away from court from the
Speaker 2: age of twenty five until she was thirty, so that
Speaker 2: by the time she had returned she had aged out
Speaker 2: of desirability as a perspective on this, however, did not
Speaker 2: seem to trouble her, and she also didn't seem eager
Speaker 2: to stay in Paris. She left for another period of
Speaker 2: country living to write, this time at another estate she
Speaker 2: owned about two hundred and ninety five kilometers southwest of Paris,
Speaker 2: Champigni Cheveude. She worked on a project there called Diverse Portrait,
Speaker 2: which contained fifty nine biographical portraits of people of the
Speaker 2: royal court. She was not the only writer on it.
Speaker 2: That piece was privately published in early sixteen fifty nine.
Speaker 2: When she was traveling with other members of the court
Speaker 2: in early sixteen sixty to the wedding proceedings of Louis
Speaker 2: the fourteenth to Maria Theresa of Spain, she started to
Speaker 2: discuss an idea that really sounds quite modern with some
Speaker 2: of the other people on the trip. Was the idea
Speaker 2: of a community of people who might choose to leave
Speaker 2: the court, stay single and live communally. Sounds kind of
Speaker 2: like the fantasy of owning a brownstone with all your
Speaker 2: friends as your neighbors.
Speaker 1: Who among us has not had that fantasy.
Speaker 2: The correspondence she shared with Francoise Berto de Montville about
Speaker 2: this idea is the basis of the biography we mentioned earlier.
Speaker 2: Motvilla had been married off at eighteen to a man
Speaker 2: who was ninety, but she did not inherit anything when
Speaker 2: he died just two years later. She was probably a
Speaker 2: sympathetic ear to Montponcier's ideas of just flipping the table
Speaker 2: on what was expected of women in the nobility at
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: One of Montpontier's early letters to Montvilla reads quote, it
Speaker 1: is essential, in my opinion, that the people who would
Speaker 1: like to withdraw from the court or from society distance
Speaker 1: themselves from those places without feeling obliged to leave them,
Speaker 1: but rather because they are aware of how little constancy
Speaker 1: can be found in this type of life, and even
Speaker 1: among one's friends. One can also find one's self at
Speaker 1: an age when ambition is less compelling and when reasonable
Speaker 1: people are easily cured of it. She goes on to
Speaker 1: describe the ideal companions and placement of her theoretical dream community,
Speaker 1: writing quote, I would rather there were no married people,
Speaker 1: and that everyone would either be widowed or have renounced
Speaker 1: this sacrament, for it is said to be an unfortunate undertaking.
Speaker 1: You know how lucky we are to be out of it.
Speaker 1: For my part in this matter, I have come to
Speaker 1: this decision in such a way as those who do
Speaker 1: not know me will not guess who I am by
Speaker 1: what I say about it. It would be good to
Speaker 1: come to an absolute agreement about the place where we
Speaker 1: would live, and to consider whether we would choose the
Speaker 1: banks of the Loire or those of the sin. She
Speaker 1: describes a place where they could grow fruits and vegetables,
Speaker 1: and have other gardens that they could watch grow. She
Speaker 1: notes that each person would have a house that suited
Speaker 1: their tastes, both in design and in placement, and that
Speaker 1: it would be a place where community areas would enable
Speaker 1: them to play games together and have concerts and other entertainment.
Speaker 1: She is very clear that this commune she envisions isn't
Speaker 1: intended to cut the residents off from the society that
Speaker 1: they've known. It It's a rather charming.
Speaker 2: Section where she says she would absolutely go to events
Speaker 2: when invited, but that quote, I believe that I would
Speaker 2: be bored, and that I would be very happy to
Speaker 2: return home. But I would not let it show for
Speaker 2: fear that this affectation would make others despise me, or
Speaker 2: would expose me to a mockery. All the more dangerous
Speaker 2: because it is well founded and that it is brought
Speaker 2: on by ridiculous behavior. Yeah, she's kind of like, I know,
Speaker 2: this is a kooky dream.
Speaker 1: Not everybody's gonna get it well. Polsier's rural republic, as
Speaker 1: she dreamed of it, would be a place of leisure
Speaker 1: and socializing. She wanted it to have a hospital for
Speaker 1: poor children and quote a beautiful church staffed by capable
Speaker 1: and zealous clerics. She wanted livestock so the residents could
Speaker 1: milk them and make cheeses and cakes. She envisioned this
Speaker 1: as a very religious community, and she wanted it to
Speaker 1: also include a carmelite convent as well as abodes for
Speaker 1: hermits in the woods. There are a lot of detailed
Speaker 1: letters back and forth between Montpalsier and her friend Moltaville
Speaker 1: about all the ways that they were going to set
Speaker 1: up this commune, which of course never actually happened, but
Speaker 1: it does seem that Amory Louise was deeply emotionally invested
Speaker 1: in the idea. She wrote, quote, my most agreeable hours
Speaker 1: are spent dreaming about our plan and thanking God that
Speaker 1: the obstacles that could have stood in its way in
Speaker 1: the past have finally been removed, with no signs of
Speaker 1: new ones ahead. That means marriage, She continues, quote I
Speaker 1: find myself like those little birds who have been in
Speaker 1: a cage for a long time, and who are so
Speaker 1: overjoyed to fly wherever they like. While she was back
Speaker 1: in Paris and in the good graces of the court,
Speaker 1: her father Gaston died in sixteen sixty. That left her
Speaker 1: with even more of an immense fortune. One of the
Speaker 1: things that she did at this time was purchased the
Speaker 1: Chateau Dux in Normandy. The grand chateau had been started
Speaker 1: as a construction project in fifteen seventy eight by Henry,
Speaker 1: the first Duke of Keys.
Speaker 2: It was still unfinished eighty years later when Anne Marie
Speaker 2: Louise purchased it. She had the construction completed and set
Speaker 2: about decorating it with fine art Also during this time,
Speaker 2: her cousin Louis the fourteenth, was looking for potential marriage
Speaker 2: alliances for her, because he understood completely how valuable her
Speaker 2: holdings were and he wanted them to be used to
Speaker 2: secure additional power for France. This culminated in conflict with
Speaker 2: the king once again, and in sixteen sixty two, Montponcier
Speaker 2: was once again exiled. This time she had refused a
Speaker 2: royal match. A marriage deal had been struck that would
Speaker 2: wed her to the King of Portugal, Alfonso the sixth,
Speaker 2: but ann Marie Louise was not having it. Louis the
Speaker 2: fourteenth was angry enough about this that he sent her
Speaker 2: away again, this time for two years. She returned to
Speaker 2: court in sixteen sixty four, but is described as having
Speaker 2: been kind of distant and less central to its various
Speaker 2: goings on. In December of sixteen seventy, it seemed that
Speaker 2: Montponcier would finally marry, this time because she actually wanted to.
Speaker 2: She had fallen in love with the Count de Lauzoon,
Speaker 2: Antonine Nampar de Camman. This whole situation was kind of odd,
Speaker 2: given all that had come before it, and other reasons
Speaker 2: as well. Montponsier had been keenly aware of her fortune's
Speaker 2: value in a marriage match. She had always stated that
Speaker 2: she didn't want a potential husband who just needed her assets.
Speaker 1: But the Count de Lauzoon was not in line for
Speaker 1: any kind of valued position or inheritance. He had no wealth.
Speaker 1: He was not the kind of man who would ever
Speaker 1: be considered a match for her. The two of them, though,
Speaker 1: asked King Louis the fourteenth for permission to marry, and
Speaker 1: he granted that permission on December fifteenth, sixteen seventy.
Speaker 2: Mont Poncier immediately started and transferring some of her titles
Speaker 2: to her future husband. This would have raised his rank
Speaker 2: at court and made the match less lopsided, at least
Speaker 2: on paper, but that was premature. The approval she had
Speaker 2: been given by the King was something of a shock
Speaker 2: to the court. It was seen as Louis the fourteenth
Speaker 2: being soft on a woman who had gone against him
Speaker 2: at every turn, even with violence.
Speaker 1: The King quickly.
Speaker 2: Reversed his decision and rescinded the permission three days after
Speaker 2: he had given it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's also the patina of you're going to marry
Speaker 1: a poor into our court. Montponsier and Lauzun protested this reversal,
Speaker 1: but it did no good, and it probably just annoyed
Speaker 1: Louis the fourteenth, because a year later he had Lauzun,
Speaker 1: who had been a member of his guard, imprisoned in
Speaker 1: the remote fortress at Pinole in the Alps. This is
Speaker 1: the same place that the French convict who became known
Speaker 1: as the Man in the Iron Mask, was imprisoned before
Speaker 1: being moved to the Bastille a. Marie Louise worked to
Speaker 1: get Lauzoon freed for the next decade, and then, finally,
Speaker 1: in sixteen eighty, Montponcier made the sacrifice of personal wealth
Speaker 1: to gain Lauzoon's freedom. She gave up a lot of
Speaker 1: her estate, which became the property of Louis Auguste, the
Speaker 1: King's son with his mistress Francoise, at Dene de Rocheois
Speaker 1: de Montemart, Marquis of Monte di Spon. Some biographies about
Speaker 1: Montponcier suggest that Madame de Montespon had been instrumental in
Speaker 1: having Lauzun imprisoned because she saw the potential opportunity to
Speaker 1: seize Amrie Louise's assets for her son. Sometime after Lauzun's release,
Speaker 1: although the exact date is not known, he and Anne
Speaker 1: Marie Louise were married in a secret ceremony, secret because
Speaker 1: Louis the fourteenth had never given them permission to wed
Speaker 1: after having given it and then resented it, and there's
Speaker 1: some speculation that there never was a formal marriage. This
Speaker 1: is not a happily ever after. She had spent at
Speaker 1: that point eleven or twelve years fighting to be with him,
Speaker 1: but it turned out that Montponsier and Lauzun were ill
Speaker 1: suited to have a life together. This marriage only lasted
Speaker 1: a couple of years. Lauzun is said to have been
Speaker 1: kind of a womanizer and not especially attentive to the
Speaker 1: woman who had agreed to be with him, despite being
Speaker 1: so far above his station, Anne Marie Louise ended things
Speaker 1: abruptly and sent him away. After that, she lived alone,
Speaker 1: working on her memoirs. She still had a number of estates,
Speaker 1: even though she had given a lot up, and she
Speaker 1: moved from one to another in the last decade of
Speaker 1: her life. She reportedly lived for a short time at
Speaker 1: the end of her life in a convent in Paris.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of speculation about whether she had considered
Speaker 1: becoming a nun throughout her life. She died in that
Speaker 1: convent on April fifth, sixteen ninety three, from a bladder issue.
Speaker 1: Lauzoon It said, attempted to see her when she was
Speaker 1: on her deathbed, but she refused his visit. She was
Speaker 1: sixty five when she died. Because she had never married
Speaker 1: or had any children, her cousin, Philippe, the first Duke
Speaker 1: d'orleon inherited all of her assets and Montponcier was buried
Speaker 1: in the Basilica de Sant Denis. There's also some details
Speaker 1: about her funeral which are a little horrifying, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna save those for Friday.
Speaker 2: Oh no, but that is the life of Anne Marie
Speaker 2: Louise Montpontier, who I just like heaps. I just feel
Speaker 2: like she's an interesting person. I feel like she was
Speaker 2: probably a lot of fun to be around. She's the
Speaker 2: party girl, but also possibly a pill's herd. Yeah, she
Speaker 2: knew her own heart. I have to say that she's
Speaker 2: got props. You have listener mail I have. I know,
Speaker 2: I keep doing things about our various calendar things. But
Speaker 2: a lot of people had comments and thoughts about them
Speaker 2: that were interesting. This one got me very excited. It's
Speaker 2: Reurlessener Jessica. Uh who actually titled it? Another Advent calendar email.
Speaker 2: Jessica writes, Hi, I don't know if either of you
Speaker 2: are puzzle people, but my sister stumbled on Advent puzzles
Speaker 2: last year. My family suffers from an inability to not
Speaker 2: finish a puzzle the same day we started. But with
Speaker 2: the Advent puzzle, you get many puzzles each day that
Speaker 2: make the whole picture. She bought one for each household,
Speaker 2: so we trade them out on Thanksgiving. Attached a picture
Speaker 2: of mine this year. Yes, one piece is missing. I
Speaker 2: was doing the last day outside because the puppy also
Speaker 2: attached solo and in matching Christmas jammies with his older
Speaker 2: sister needed to run out some energy and one piece
Speaker 2: ended up going through the deck slats, atlantic clay dirt
Speaker 2: underneath the deck, and with the rain in the past
Speaker 2: few days, that piece is a goner. I hope you've
Speaker 2: had a RESTful winter holiday season. Jessica. Okay, this is brilliant.
Speaker 2: I love this idea event puzzles. I'm gonna look for those. Also,
Speaker 2: puppies puppies and pajamas I want the cutest.
Speaker 1: These are puffy little things. They look almost like maybe
Speaker 1: Australian shepherds or a cattle dog. I can't quite tell.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry if I have misidentified your sweet babies, but
Speaker 1: they are both gorgeous. They need hugs and kisses on
Speaker 1: their snooch. See. I love finding out about all of
Speaker 1: the advent calendars that people have found because it's just
Speaker 1: gonna feed my little addiction and I'm going to live
Speaker 1: in a pile of them soon. If you have a
Speaker 1: cool advent calendar we have not yet heard, please tell me,
Speaker 1: because you know what I need is more stuff. If
Speaker 1: you would like to.
Speaker 2: Do that, you could do that through the Email History
Speaker 2: podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also find us
Speaker 2: on social media as Missed in History, and if you
Speaker 2: haven't subscribed yet, you can do that on the iHeartRadio
Speaker 2: app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows. Stuff
Speaker 2: you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
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