Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from housetof
Speaker 1: works dot com. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Sarah Downy and I'm doublin a Charkerboarding and this summer,
Speaker 1: as a special treat to all of our royal loving listeners,
Speaker 1: we're going to be focusing on some of the shenanigans
Speaker 1: of some notable princesses in history. And last time we
Speaker 1: discussed Sophia Dorothea of Selah, who was a pretty sympathetic
Speaker 1: character in her story. I would say she was married
Speaker 1: off to an incompatible cousin at a young age, was
Speaker 1: manipulated by her father in law's mistress, who may or
Speaker 1: may not have been responsible for the murder of her
Speaker 1: own Swedish boyfriend, and to top all of that off,
Speaker 1: she spent nearly half of her life held prisoner in
Speaker 1: a castle. I mean that really does top it off,
Speaker 1: isn't it. So we can definitely feel sorry for her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: even her husband's own subjects, both in Hanover and or
Speaker 1: in England felt kind of sorry for her. But today's
Speaker 1: subject is going to be a little more divisive. I think. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about Marguerite Louise dor Leon, who
Speaker 1: was a near contemporary of Sophia Dorothea, and she was
Speaker 1: also a dynastic pond for her powerful family. She also
Speaker 1: made an unsuitable match in her mid teens and was
Speaker 1: held prisoner by her in laws. But whereas Sophia Dorothea
Speaker 1: comes across as unlucky and maybe somewhat naive, Marguerite Louise
Speaker 1: seems like she would have been hell on wheel. He
Speaker 1: really does. She was a firecracker. Just to give you
Speaker 1: a sense of what other people have said about her,
Speaker 1: eleanor Herman, who wrote Sex with the Queen, said she
Speaker 1: was quote born with an uncontrollable temperament, ill suited to
Speaker 1: her royal position, you know, a position where you kind
Speaker 1: of need to keep your mouth shut most of the time.
Speaker 1: She also said she had a fearless, toxic nastiness. Encyclopedia
Speaker 1: Britannica called her a frivolous consort, and the Women in
Speaker 1: World History Encyclopedia notes that quote she showered invective on
Speaker 1: all within reach. So fun times here. But best of all,
Speaker 1: I think discussing Marguerite Louise is going to allow us
Speaker 1: to revisit our old friends. The Medici family and her
Speaker 1: popular people love the Medici family, and we're going to
Speaker 1: get to find out how exactly that illustrious line finally
Speaker 1: died out. Since way back when the Medici series began
Speaker 1: so long ago, we did discuss how they started so
Speaker 1: full circle. But before we get to that, we're going
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about Marguerite Louise's early life.
Speaker 1: So she was born in sixteen forty five, or they're
Speaker 1: about to Gaston, Duke do Leon and his wife Marguerite
Speaker 1: de Lorraine, and Gaston was the son of King Henry
Speaker 1: the fourth of France and Marie de Medici, and the
Speaker 1: younger brother of Louis the thirteenth, and because he ended
Speaker 1: up being the only surviving younger brother, he was called
Speaker 1: monsieur from a very young age. But it seems like
Speaker 1: Marguerite Loui He's is daring and her impulsiveness that we're
Speaker 1: going to discuss later weren't exactly unique to her her alone,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't a unique family trait. No, her father
Speaker 1: started participating in plots against his brother the king at
Speaker 1: a pretty young age, including one to assassinate our old
Speaker 1: friend Cardinal Rishi lou We talked about him during the
Speaker 1: Bourbon series. Being the heir to the throne, however, usually
Speaker 1: got him out of trouble, got him out of losing
Speaker 1: his head at least right. I remember, Louis the thirteenth
Speaker 1: and his wife didn't have children until decades into their marriage,
Speaker 1: and their son, the eventual Louie fourteenth, was truly considered
Speaker 1: a miracle for a long time. Will Sara was the
Speaker 1: only option out there. You had to deal with them, right,
Speaker 1: so we had to stick around a while. Possible treason
Speaker 1: wasn't Gaston's only business, though, After his first wife died
Speaker 1: giving birth to their daughter, he eloped with Marguerite de
Speaker 1: Lorraine without permission from his brother. The King and Marguerite's
Speaker 1: father were actually enemies, and they were finally given the
Speaker 1: King's blessing. However, as their eldest daughter together, Marguerite Louise
Speaker 1: was groomed to be the Sunday wife of her cousin
Speaker 1: Louis the fourteen and Queen of France, so she had
Speaker 1: a bright future ahead of her at that point. She did,
Speaker 1: or at least her parents were hoping she would have
Speaker 1: that future, and she did seem well suited to the
Speaker 1: part Herman notes that she had turquoise I she had
Speaker 1: chestnut curls. She calls her quote voluptuous, and according to
Speaker 1: the Women in World History Encyclopedia, she also was accomplished.
Speaker 1: She rode well, she hunted, she was smart, she was witty,
Speaker 1: a brilliant conversationalist. And that last point you got me
Speaker 1: thinking a little bit. It's a label you see applied
Speaker 1: to a lot of nobles and royals, and I always
Speaker 1: find it it's a little hard to imagine what exactly means,
Speaker 1: because I just dumped to somebody like Mark Twain, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure that's not what they were talking about. Antonia Fraser, though,
Speaker 1: writing in Love in the Life of Louis the fourteen
Speaker 1: helped me understand a little bit why this last accomplishment
Speaker 1: was considered so very important in this era. I mean,
Speaker 1: of course it's still important today a but why it
Speaker 1: was crucial in this age. Apparently, upper class women in
Speaker 1: France in this era were very, very poorly educated in
Speaker 1: the traditional sense. Only an estimated fourteen to thirty four
Speaker 1: percent could even sign their own names. But conversational training
Speaker 1: almost took the place of formal reading and writing training,
Speaker 1: and um Frasier quoted a Madeline Discutari, who detailed the
Speaker 1: ideal in feminine conversational ability at the time, and she said, quote,
Speaker 1: a woman in conversation should demonstrate a marvelous rapport between
Speaker 1: her words and her eyes. While she should, of course
Speaker 1: be careful not to sound quote like a book talking.
Speaker 1: She should rather speak quote worthily of everyday things and
Speaker 1: simply of grand things. So it's a lot to live
Speaker 1: up to, I'd say it is. And but unfortunately for
Speaker 1: Margaret Louise, or at least for her parents ambitions for
Speaker 1: her report, between turquoise eyes and worthy speaking wasn't enough
Speaker 1: to make a marriage between her and Louis. Now conversation
Speaker 1: wasn't going to cut it. He had a lot of prospects,
Speaker 1: mostly cousins, and ended up with his double first cousin.
Speaker 1: We've talked about this before, to Maria Theresa, since their
Speaker 1: alliance could promise peace between Spain and France, who were
Speaker 1: warring at the time. Marguerite Louise meanwhile, would marry Costomo
Speaker 1: the third de Medici, heir to Ferdinand the second Grand
Speaker 1: Duke of Tuscany. But by this point Marguerite Louise herself
Speaker 1: had fallen in love with another cousin of hers, one
Speaker 1: on her maternal side, Prince Charles of Lorraine. And he
Speaker 1: was eighteen and a dashing soldier fresh out of Spanish prison.
Speaker 1: And this was actually it would have been considered a
Speaker 1: really good match for the two of them, and Marguerite,
Speaker 1: Louisa's now widowed mother even approved of the idea. But
Speaker 1: Louis just forged right ahead with the Medici alliance. He
Speaker 1: was working, according to the Women in World History Encyclopedia,
Speaker 1: under the advice of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, again, you know,
Speaker 1: hoping to make some sort of a liliance here rather
Speaker 1: than just helping the family all marry each other. And plus,
Speaker 1: it might be worth noting to Louis had himself given
Speaker 1: up his youthful love uh to make this dynastic marriage,
Speaker 1: so he probably wasn't about to make concessions for his
Speaker 1: young cousins. Wanted everyone to suffer as he had. That's
Speaker 1: not nice. Well I don't know about that, but he
Speaker 1: was acting as king rather than loving cousin. But anyway,
Speaker 1: cosomo it is, that's going to be the groom. And
Speaker 1: in sixteen sixty one, at age sixteen, Margaret Louise was
Speaker 1: married by proxy to Costomo at the Luve Chapel, and
Speaker 1: she had already given her engagement right away. That's how
Speaker 1: not into this match she was. And while she was
Speaker 1: traveling to Tuscany to meet her husband and be married
Speaker 1: in person, she really took her sweet time, stopping too
Speaker 1: long at every every city she went through to upset
Speaker 1: this tightly controlled pageant schedule for her progress. We've talked
Speaker 1: about that sort of thing before, the grand slow pace travel.
Speaker 1: She made it too slow, and things didn't get better
Speaker 1: when she actually met her groom too. I mean, in
Speaker 1: case you were hoping for some sort of stunning like,
Speaker 1: actually I do like you at all. Um, he's an
Speaker 1: unfortunate looking fellow. He had Popeye's really oversized features and um.
Speaker 1: The main issue, though, was just their temperaments were completely incompatible.
Speaker 1: He was somber serious, he was extremely devout. The Papal
Speaker 1: Nuncio described their incompatibility thank quote, the Prince is all gravity,
Speaker 1: but the Princess loves nothing more than laughing. So not
Speaker 1: a great couple maybe, And it was probably emphasized that
Speaker 1: disparity between their temperaments was probably emphasized by the type
Speaker 1: of entertainments cost most stage to try to make his
Speaker 1: new wife happy, ballets and balls and feasts, things that
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't show him off to his best advantage. But
Speaker 1: despite these attempts to win her over, Costomo didn't seem
Speaker 1: that into her at all, at least as far as
Speaker 1: producing an air was concerned, and so probably this, combined
Speaker 1: with her homesickness for the French court, meant that she
Speaker 1: tried to get out of the marriage early and actually
Speaker 1: requested permission to have it annulled and enter a convent
Speaker 1: back home no dice, though they wouldn't allow this at all.
Speaker 1: So unable to simply leave the situation, she took up
Speaker 1: a more passive, aggressive way of showing her unhappiness, or
Speaker 1: actually aggressive ways yet sometimes just not so nice. For example,
Speaker 1: she refused to learn Italian. Okay, maybe that's not so bad.
Speaker 1: But then sometimes she would refuse to eat, and other
Speaker 1: times she would run a daily food bill that was
Speaker 1: ten times that of her husband. When she was eating,
Speaker 1: she was spending. Sometimes she would just use the silent
Speaker 1: treatment for everybody. And that's my favorite when she started
Speaker 1: to talk again. That especially for a brilliant conversationalist. Right
Speaker 1: when she started to talk again, though it wasn't I
Speaker 1: would imagine they'd almost wish she just was still violent,
Speaker 1: because she would mock her husban been at court um,
Speaker 1: and we've already included that quote about showering invectives though
Speaker 1: she wasn't saying nice things when she was talking. Her
Speaker 1: father in law, the Grand Duke, tried to rein in
Speaker 1: her out range of spending and her behavior by dismissing
Speaker 1: her French retinue. She sent them off smuggling the Tuscan
Speaker 1: Crown jewels, so she kind of got back at him
Speaker 1: and they didn't get them back ultimately, but still, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's a bold move Marguerite Louise. To stop her
Speaker 1: from coming and going as she pleased, her father in
Speaker 1: law put bolts on her doors and only allowed her
Speaker 1: out for promenades and court events, And she would also
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time just away from the main court,
Speaker 1: out of public eye, where everybody could hear her making
Speaker 1: fun of her new family. At one point, while she
Speaker 1: was staying at one of these medici villas, she said
Speaker 1: her husband a note threatening to throw a missile at
Speaker 1: his head should he attempt to follow her go bring
Speaker 1: her home, visit her at all, probably didn't help any
Speaker 1: whole child creating department. And when she caught malaria, she
Speaker 1: tried to blame it on the Medici penchant for poisoning.
Speaker 1: Louis basically told her to knock it off and asked
Speaker 1: the Pope to threaten her with excommunication. And when her
Speaker 1: in laws finally had her imprisoned in one of their
Speaker 1: palaces and pizza, she tried to escape with gypsies. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're going to get out somehow, that's the way
Speaker 1: to go, I guess, according to G. F. Young in
Speaker 1: the Medici quote, finding her circumstances becoming us ever more
Speaker 1: intolerable and that she could get no help from her
Speaker 1: relatives in France, she evolved the idea of escape from
Speaker 1: the contemptible Cosmo by joining a party of gypsies, with
Speaker 1: whom she was discovered one night, settling all the arrangements
Speaker 1: from a window of the palace at pizza, whereupon that
Speaker 1: mode of escape was made impossible. But since the couple
Speaker 1: would reconcile occasionally, it's hard to believe with all this
Speaker 1: going on that they ever would, but they did end
Speaker 1: up having three children. Ferdinand was born in sixteen sixty three.
Speaker 1: Anna Maria Louisa de Medici was born in sixteen sixty seven,
Speaker 1: and Giovanne or gian Gaston was born in sixteen seventy one.
Speaker 1: Marguerite Louise also found time to entertain her cousin and
Speaker 1: old friend Charles of Lorraine, who was a frequent visitor
Speaker 1: at court and her lover incidentally another another ranch in
Speaker 1: this next year. But in sixteen seventy fernand the second died,
Speaker 1: leaving Cosomo the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Margaret Louise
Speaker 1: I think at this point was hoping, well, maybe if
Speaker 1: I have some little portion to govern myself, we can
Speaker 1: work this out. She was forbidden from taking any role
Speaker 1: in government, though by Cosomo and his mother, and so
Speaker 1: she went back to one of the villas, and within
Speaker 1: two years she decided that enough was enough. She was
Speaker 1: tired of hanging around just threatening her husband, and while
Speaker 1: she was visiting a small Tuscan town, wrote to him
Speaker 1: saying that she considered their marriage essentially over. She wrote
Speaker 1: to her cousin Louie, explaining that since both parties had
Speaker 1: had multiple affairs, she really didn't stay any point in
Speaker 1: staying in Tuscany and playing sort of prisoner slash Grand
Speaker 1: duchess anymore, and Louie initially told her, well, okay, you're
Speaker 1: welcome to be a prisoner in France instead, But finally
Speaker 1: herr husband and her cousin worked things out and by
Speaker 1: sixteen seventy five she was allowed to return to France
Speaker 1: to a convent outside of Paris, but it was understood
Speaker 1: that there would be certain restrictions on her. She chose
Speaker 1: to spend her time entertaining at court, attending parties and balls,
Speaker 1: and of course continuing to harass her husband Costomo. I
Speaker 1: mean I shouldn't say. Of course, you would think that
Speaker 1: she had escaped him and would just kind of leave
Speaker 1: that life behind. But but no, she actually chose to
Speaker 1: sort of stay in his life by by staying at
Speaker 1: his throat a According to herman, at one point she
Speaker 1: wrote to him, quote, no hour of the day passes
Speaker 1: when I do not desire your death and wish that
Speaker 1: you were hanged. What aggravates me most of all is
Speaker 1: that we shall both go to the devil, and then
Speaker 1: I shall have the torment of seeing you even there.
Speaker 1: I swear by what I loathe above all else. That
Speaker 1: is yourself that I shall make a pact with the
Speaker 1: devil to enrage you and to escape your madness. Enough
Speaker 1: is enough. I shall engage in any extravagance I so
Speaker 1: wish in order to bring you unhappiness. If you think
Speaker 1: you can get me to come back to you, this
Speaker 1: will never happen. And if I came back to you, beware,
Speaker 1: because you would never die. But by my hand me
Speaker 1: and mean letter. Um. For his part, Kosmos did very
Speaker 1: much interested in her too. I mean, not just because
Speaker 1: he was paying a lot of her bills, but um,
Speaker 1: they were still very much involved in each other's life.
Speaker 1: But uh, this convent situation, we should mention one more
Speaker 1: thing about it too. Sense she clearly wasn't living a
Speaker 1: retired life. Is Deplana mentioned going out to parties and everything.
Speaker 1: When the convents knew, Prioris tried to really enforce the
Speaker 1: rules and keep her home like she was she was
Speaker 1: supposed to be under the terms of this arrangement. She
Speaker 1: supposedly threatened the woman with an axe and a pistol
Speaker 1: and then threatened to set the place on fire. So, UM,
Speaker 1: think thinking we're starting to see some signs of more
Speaker 1: serious serious behavioral problems. But yeah, she was. She was
Speaker 1: not about to be reined in. Eventually, though, her outrageous
Speaker 1: behavior was too much for even all these amusing stories
Speaker 1: about Tuscany and Cosmo to be worth it anymore, and
Speaker 1: so Louis the fourteenth finally banned her from court, and
Speaker 1: in seventeen twenty one she died at the age of
Speaker 1: seventy six. I think by then actually finally living sort
Speaker 1: of a retired life and and um, trying to take
Speaker 1: things down a notch. Cosmo, though, was equally long lived.
Speaker 1: I always think that's sort of that's what happened to it.
Speaker 1: She couldn't get him in time. Um. Yeah. He died
Speaker 1: in seventeen twenty three, after a reign of fifty three years,
Speaker 1: which incidentally was the longest reign of any Medici, even
Speaker 1: though during that time his duchy lost a lot of
Speaker 1: its prestige. He was succeeded by his youngest son, Gianne,
Speaker 1: who was already into his fifties, unhealthy and childless, and
Speaker 1: with him the Medici line of grand dukes ended, and
Speaker 1: he was succeeded by Francis, the grandson of Margherite Louise's
Speaker 1: Duke of Lorraine, who we mentioned earlier in the podcast,
Speaker 1: and the father of Marie Antoinette, so strange connections on
Speaker 1: both sides. I feel like this episode has tied into
Speaker 1: almost every royal person we've ever talked to, every series
Speaker 1: that we've done, in some way one somewhat touching note
Speaker 1: to this bizarre story. In the early twentieth century, two
Speaker 1: silver coins belonging to Marguerite Louise were found to actually
Speaker 1: be hollow like little gets her boxes, and one had
Speaker 1: a miniature of Charles of Lorraine as a young man,
Speaker 1: and something that's kind of sweet. Maybe if she just
Speaker 1: married her cousin, none of these nasty letters had to happen.
Speaker 1: Um And kind of a fun fact to something decidedly
Speaker 1: good that did come out of this poor coupling. Her
Speaker 1: eldest son with Cosmo Fernando, who was also the child
Speaker 1: she was closest to. Um. He had died before his father, obviously,
Speaker 1: that's why he didn't become the grand Duke himself. He
Speaker 1: was the patron of a man called Bartolomeo Christophy and
Speaker 1: christophery is the man who invented the piano. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's a little connection there, some sort of some sort
Speaker 1: of positive note for us to end on rather than um,
Speaker 1: you won't die by any hand but mine. Maybe he
Speaker 1: could have put music to her letters. I feel like
Speaker 1: they were maybe the classical historical iterations of the precursors
Speaker 1: to a lot of small sets songs or something like
Speaker 1: breakup music. I mean, I was thinking they were kind
Speaker 1: of an operatic seeming couple. It seems like this would
Speaker 1: be a uh, if not an opera from from many
Speaker 1: years ago, then I guess some sort of lifetime movie today.
Speaker 1: It does sound like something fit for lifetime, I think,
Speaker 1: but also fit for a good series. So it's been
Speaker 1: fun to do these over the summer, and maybe we'll
Speaker 1: have some more coming up soon, some more princess stories,
Speaker 1: but if you have any suggestions for some that you'd
Speaker 1: like for us to cover. I feel like we've covered
Speaker 1: a lot of royalty over the years, but there are
Speaker 1: some key figures that get suggested all the time that
Speaker 1: we haven't gone a chance to cover yet. So if
Speaker 1: you have any especially want to hear about, feel free
Speaker 1: to write to us. We're at History Podcast at Discovery
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also find us on Facebook and
Speaker 1: we're on Twitter at Miston History and in the meantime,
Speaker 1: if you want to learn a little bit about royalty
Speaker 1: in a more general sense, we do have an article
Speaker 1: called how Royalty Works. You can check it out by
Speaker 1: searching on our on page www dot how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics.
Speaker 1: Is it how stuff works dot com. M