Claire-Clémence de Maillé-Brézé
Claire Clémence de Maillé | |
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Urbain de Maillé, Marquis of Brézé | |
Mother | Nicole du Plessis |
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Claire Clémence de Maillé (25 February 1628 – 16 April 1694) was a French
Life
Claire Clémence was born at
When she was five years old, her uncle, the Cardinal, arranged her
In 1641, Claire Clémence married Louis at
The marriage took place on 11 February 1641 at the Palais-Royal in Paris.[3]
As she married a member of the reigning
Although Claire bore her husband three children, he later claimed she committed adultery with a number of different men in order to justify locking her away at Châteauroux, but the charge was widely disbelieved: Claude de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, who admitted that she was homely and dull, however praised her virtue, piety, and gentleness in the face of relentless abuse.[6]
Upon her estranged husband's disgrace, arrest and imprisonment, in January 1650, at the
To get to the fortress of Montrond[7] , the cardinal set out on a long journey from Bordeaux, via Poitou, Anjou and Touraine. She stopped him at Milly-le-Meugon, using his short stay to recruit her husband's friends from all parts. While Condé's faithful intendant, Lenet, came through France and Spain, and readied Montrond for a siege that would take the French army more than a year to raise, Claire Clémence gathered her faithful friends around her and gave splendid celebrations at Milly-le-Meugon in favour of all the organisers of the resistance during the Fronde. Despite her efforts, however, her husband remained imprisoned until 7 February 1651.
In 1651, Claire Clémence was forced to submit to the regent, Queen Anne of Austria, and to her minister, Mazarin.
She thus joined her husband in Spanish Flanders with their son. They only returned to favour in 1660, reinstalling themselves at the Château de Chantilly. However, when a scandal arose because of her liaison with a page, the Prince exiled his wife to the Château Raoul[8] in Châteauroux, where she remained until her death in 1694. She saw the birth of her first grandchild, Marie Thérèse de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Bourbon in 1666; her first great-grandchild, Marie Anne de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Conti, was born in 1689, she later became Princess of Condé, the title that Claire Clémence held for some time.
Claire Clémence was buried at the Chapel of St Martin[9] at the Château de Châteauroux, France.
Issue
- Henri Jules, Prince of Condé (29 July 1643, Paris – 1 April 1709, Paris), married Anne Henriette of Bavaria and had issue.
- Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Bourbon (20 September 1652, Bordeaux – 11 April 1653, Bordeaux), died in infancy.
- Mademoiselle de Bourbon (12 November 1657, Breda – 28 September 1660, Paris), died in childhood.
Her descendants include the present-day
Portrayal in film
In the film Vatel, a 2000 film based on the life of 17th century French chef François Vatel, directed by Roland Joffé and starring Gérard Depardieu, Uma Thurman, and Tim Roth. Claire Clémence is portrayed by Arielle Dombasle.
References
- ^ a b Sturdy 2003, p. 50.
- ^ Bergin 1997, p. 269.
- ^ a b Bannister 2000, p. x.
- gentleman of the bedchamber François Poussard, marquis de Fors and baron du Vigean, and of Anne de Neubourg, daughter of Roland, sieurde Sercelles.
- ^ Ouvrard, Jean-Marie. "Poussard". Les Blasons de la Charente (in French). Retrieved 2008-04-13.
- ^ Spanheim, Ézéchiel (1973). Bourgeois, Émile (ed.). Relation de la Cour de France. Le Temps retrouvé (in French). Paris: Mercure de France. pp. 319.
- ^ "Forteresse de Saint-Amand-Montrond" (in French). Archived from the original on 13 August 2009. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
- ^ du Pouget, Marc. "Chateau Raoul". Archived from the original on 8 January 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
- ^ "Chapel of St Martin". Facebook. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
Sources
- Bannister, Mark (2000). Condé in Context: Ideological Change in Seventeenth-century France. Legenda.
- Bergin, Joseph (1997). The Rise of Richelieu. Manchester University Press.
- Sturdy, David J. (2003). Richelieu and Mazarin: A Study in Statesmanship. Palgrave Macmillan.
Further reading
- Lenet, Pierre (1826) Mémoires. (Collection des Mémoires relatifs à l’histoire de France; eds. Petitot et Monmerqué; tome LIII). Paris: Librairie Foucault