Marie de Mancini- Hisotry in France Part 7

History in this part of France. Marie de Mancini.

The ancient fortified town of Brouage is a few minutes’ drive from here, and well worth a visit.  It is a famous and interesting town in its own right, loaded with fascinating epochs of history and fine old architecture.  One of its many famous (or infamous!) residents was Marie de Mancini, one-time lover of the French king Louis XIV, nicknamed The Sun King.

Marie de Mancini was Italian, born in Rome in 1639 and died in Pisa 1715.  She was brought to France as a young girl, and was introduced to the French Court by her influential uncle, a French-Italian cardinal close to the King Louis.

Marie and Louis fell in love and, to all intents and purposes, Marie was the first of many of Louis’ passionate love affairs. It seems Marie was also the only one Louis ever truly loved – though this may be the result of French romanticism.  Certainly, the King, barely a year older than Marie, was just at that tender age when love seems to be forever.

We do know that they hoped to marry because these plans were fiercely opposed by the King’s mother, who was the Queen of Austria, and Cardinal Mazarin, as well as the French Court in general.

Louis was instructed to ban Marie from Court, and for a while she lived in La Rochelle, and then moved to Brouage, which was the last place the unhappy lovers ever met.  Convinced that Louis would one day return for her, Marie waited several years in Brouage before finally marrying an Italian prince.  She had three children by him but abandoned both him and the children (ostensibly because he was violent) and return to Italy, where she died.

Marie de Mancini is the subject of Racine’s tragedy “Berenice”, whence came the famous words:

“Vous etes Empereur, Seigneur, mais vous pleurez”.  (You are emperor, sire, yet you cry).

Catherine Broughton is a novelist, a poet and an artist. Her books are available on Amazon and Kindle, or can be ordered from most major book shops and libraries.  More of her work, to include entertaining blogs and short stories from around the world, on http://www.turquoisemoon.co.uk