'\\t' Glass .DC . i ^ g Ai:?,^ A PRINCESS OF THE OLD WORLD MADEMOISELLE ENTERING ORLEANS FROiM THE PICTURE liV M. EUGENE FOULD IN THE SALON OF 1906 A PRINCESS OF THE OLD WORLD BY ELEANOR C. PRICE " Duquel mariage est sortie la tres-belle, tres-excellente et tres-accomplie Princesse Anne Marie Louise d'Orl^ans, qui possede en perfection les plus rares qualitez qui parent un esprit, et qui font aymer un corps : c'est elle que nous nommons ordinairement Mademoiselle, souhaitt^e des plus grands Monarques, et aym^e universellement de toute la terre." WITH TWENTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS New York : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS London: METHUEN & CO. 1907 /^^/^^ — CONTENTS PART I CHAPTER I PAGE Mademoiselle arrives — The Chalais affair — The Montpensier marriage — The death of the Duchess — Mademoiselle in her nursery— Louis XIII . • • 3 CHAPTER n The new Madame—Her adventures—The fate of Puylaurens The playfellows of Mademoiselle—His Eminence her Godfather . i6 CHAPTER in On the roads—Marie de Rohan, Duchesse de Chevreuse—The affair of the Val-de-Grace—A famous ride—La Rochefoucauld Mademoiselle at Chantilly . ... 25 CHAPTER IV Mademoiselle in Touraine — Champigny and Richelieu — The Duchesse d'Aiguillon and her friends— Fontevrault and Madame Jeanne-Baptiste de Bourbon—A winter of hope . • • 39 CHAPTER V Mademoiselle de Hautefort—Royal sport—" Mon petit mari " The story of Cinq-Mars—The death of Richelieu . • 55 CHAPTER VI The streets of Paris— Corneille—The theatres—The Academy The Hotel de Rambouillet . ... 69 CHAPTER VII Court mourning—The death of Madame de Saint-Georges— Madame de Fiesque—The family of Guise —The death of the King 86 — — — vi A PRINCESS OF THE OLD WORLD CHAPTER VIII PAGE La Bonne Regence—The Superior of the Carmelites—The Due de Beaufort and the Importants—The arrival of Madame—The Prin- cesse de Conde and Madame de Montbazon—A cold collation Mazarin's triumph . ... 97 CHAPTER IX Henrietta of England—The Prince of Wales—A ball at the Palais Royal— Mademoiselle's vocation—The Saujon affair —The eve of the Fronde . ..112 PART II CHAPTER I The causes of the Fronde—Father Vincent—Monsieur le Coad- juteur—The riot at Saint-Eustache—A popular Princess— Retz at the Palais Royal The Joiirnee des Barricades . .125 CHAPTER II Mademoiselle d'Epernon—Mademoiselle du Vigean and the great Conde Mazarinades and Frondeurs— Mademoiselle's ambition . 140 CHAPTER III A royal flight—The Parliament and the Princes—The adventures of Madame de Motteville—The blockade of Paris— The Comte and Comtesse de Maure . ... 149 CHAPTER IV Charenton — The last Coligny — The Peace of Rueil^ Made- moiselle's return—The Queen's ball—The arrest of the Princes " " The siege of Bordeaux—Mademoiselle furieusement frondeuse . 160 CHAPTER V Friendship with Cond^—La Princesse Palatine and Madame de Choisy—Royal matches—Cond^ in arms—The question of Orleans " —A new Jeanne la Pucelle" . ... 174 — CONTENTS vii CHAPTER VI PAGE Mademoiselle Queen of Paris-—The Shrine of Sainte-Genevieve Duke Charles of Lorraine—The Porte Saint-Antoine—The cannon of the Bastille—The massacre at the Hotel de Ville —The duel of Beaufort and Nemours—Mademoiselle expelled from the Tuileries —The end of the Fronde . 190 PART III CHAPTER I The Jacobin friar — The Chateau de Saint-Fargeau — Made- moiselle's Court in exile — The Marquise de Thianges — Family quarrels —The Due de Neubourg . 209 CHAPTER n Journeys in Touraine—The restoration of Champigny— Forges- les-Eaux—A visit from Madame de Longueville—A practical joke —The Princess of Orange—Queen Christina of Sweden . 223 CHAPTER HI Mademoiselle's religion—The abbeys of Jouarre and Port Royal —Mademoiselle's return to the Court— The King and his brother —The Cardinal and his nieces—Parisian gaieties—The purchase ofEu . ... 237 CHAPTER IV Sovereign Princess of Dombes—The Duchesse de Montmorency —Royal visits to Chambord and Blois—Royal journeys in the south —Proclamation of peace and return of Conde—The death of Gaston d'Orl^ans , . ... 252 CHAPTER V Mademoiselle begins to reflect—The Spanish marriage—Life at the Luxembourg— Mademoiselle's portrait gallery—The King of Portugal—A second exile . 270 viii A PRINCESS OF THE OLD WORLD CHAPTER VI PAGE The title of "Mademoiselle"— Court amusements—At the Luxem- bourg—The death of Anne of Austria—The fancy for M. de Lauzun —An adventure in the floods—The death of Madame—"C'estvous!" 285 CHAPTER VH Madame de Sevignd's letter— Indignation—Delays and warnings —The fatal Thursday—The marriage forbidden . 300 CHAPTER VIH The story of a secret marriage— Lauzun's imprisonment— Made- moiselle's constancy— Choisy—Freedom and disillusion—The final quarrel — Last days and death of Mademoiselle . .313 Index . ... 325 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS in Mademoiselle entering Orleans : from the Picture by M. Eugene Fould / the Salon of 1906, (Copyright) . Frontispiece {Photo., Moreau, Paris.) FACING PAGE 6 Gaston de France, Due d'Orleans . ... {Photo., Neurdein, Paris.) Chateau de Blois : Wing built by Gaston d'Orleans {Photo., Neurdein, Paris.) The Chapel at Champigny . ... {Photo., Pimbert-Chemineau, Loudun.) Henry d'Effiat, Marquis de Cinq-Mars : from an Engraving by Langlois . {Photo., Neurdein, Paris.) Cardinal de Richelieu : from a Portrait by Philippe de Champaigne in the Louvre . ... {Photo., Giraudon, Paris.) Louis XIII. ... {Photo., Neurdein, Paris.) Mademoiselle de Montpensier : from a Miniature by Petitot at S. Ken- sington Museum . ... Cardinal Mazarin : after a Portrait by Mignard . ... Cardinal de Retz . ... {Photo., Neurdein, Paris.) Louis, Prince de Conde . ... {Photo., Neurdein, Paris.) Henrietta Maria of France, Queen of England : from a Portrait by Vandyck at the National Portrait Gallery . 156 {Photo., Mansell, London.) The Duchesse de Chevreuse, as a widow : after a Portrait by Ferdinand . 166 Mademoiselle de Montpensier : from a Steel Engraving . .178 The Palace of the Tuileries : from an Old Print . 191 X A PRINCESS OF THE OLD WORLD FACING I'AGK ,/ The Duchesse de Longueville . ... 228 {Photo., Neurdein, Paris.) i The Palace of the Luxembourg : from an Old Print . 248 Marie Theresa of Austria, Queen of France : after a Portrait by Beaubrun . 273 {Photo., Neurdein, Paris.) Mademoiselle de Montpensier : from an Engraving by Nicolas de I'Armessin 286 Philippe de France, Due d'Orleans . ... 298 {Photo., Neurdein, Paris.) ^ Louis XIV . ... 318 {Photo., Neurdein, Paris.) INTRODUCTORY NOTE THIS book is meant to be a true picture in more or less detail, drawn chiefly from contemporary memoirs, of French society in the seventeenth century, especially the society which is a natural background for the distinguished, eccentric personality of Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans, Duchesse de Montpensier, known in her own day and ours as La Grande Mademoiselle. The life of Mademoiselle covers nearly three-quarters of the century. If the earlier part of this period has been more dwelt upon than the later, it is because people and manners in the final years of Louis XIII, under the Regency, and during the Wars of the Fronde, are less familiar to English readers than those belonging to the actual age of Louis XIV. It is also because Mademoiselle herself, picturesque, ad- venturous, original, loses much of her characteristic charm when she falls once and for ever under the baleful little shadow of Lauzun. FTP CHIEF AUTHORITIES CONTEMPORARY Mimoires de Gaston Due d^ Orleans. Edition Petitot et Monmerque. Valentin Mimoires de Conrart. ,j „ „ Memoires de FAbM de Choisy. „ „ „ Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. Edition Cheruel. MSmoires de Madame de Motteville. Edition Riaux. MSmoires du Cardinal de Retz. Edition Champollion-Figeac. Memoires du Due de Saint-Simon. Edition Cheruel. Memoires du Marquis de Dangeati. Lettres de Madame de Sivigne. La Galerie de Portraits de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. Deseription de la Ville de Paris. Germain Brice. Les Historiettes de Tallema?it des Reaux. Edition Monmerque. MODERN Histoire du Cardinal de Riehelieu. G. Hanotaux. Etudes Historiques. G. Hanotaux. Le Roi ehez la Peine. A. Baschet. Histoire de Pranee. Henri Martin. Vols. XI and XH. Histoire de Pranee pendant la Minorite de Louis XIV. A. Cheruel. Madame de Chevreuse. Victor Cousin. Madame de Hautefort. „ „ La Jeunesse de Madame de Longueville. Victor Cousin. Madame de Longueville pendant la Pronde. „ „ Life of Louis Prince of Condi. Lord Mahon. La Misere au Temps de la Pronde. A. Feillet. Extravagants et Originaux dti z/'"' Sieele. P. de Musset. Causeries du Lundi. Vols. HI and V. Sainte-Beuve. Les Ennemis de Racine au ly'"' Sieele. F. Deltour. xiv A PRINCESS OF THE OLD WORLD Lafetmesse de la Grande Mademoiselle. Arvede Barine. Louis XIV et la Grande Mademoiselle. „ „ La Duchesse de Montmorency. M. R. Monlaur. La Rochefoucauld. A. Bourdeau. (Grands Ecrivains frangais.) Corneille. G. Lanson. ,, d •>> Madame de Sevigne. G. Boissier. „ „ v 0) ,, 4) (/l K^ 0) oj pC p 3 (U ^.bQOG PART I CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YEARS 1627-48 5 A PRINCESS OF THE OLD WORLD CHAPTER I I 626- I 63 " And cymbals glorious Swinging uproarious In the gorgeous turrets Of Notre Dame." "And the flare of the bonfires died down into the flickering tapers that dimly lit the funerals." MADEMOISELLE ARRIVES—THE CHALAIS AFFAIR—THE MONTPEN- SIER MARRIAGE—THE DEATH OF THE DUCHESS—MADEMOISELLE IN HER NURSERY—LOUIS XIII. ON the 29th of May, in the year 1627, the cannon of noisy Paris were thundering, the bells clanging and clashing, for the birth of a grandchild of France. The news ran through the narrow, crowded streets, where the citizens stopped to laugh and gossip till scattered aside by some great lady's plunging coach, some splendid courtier with his train of men-at-arms and lackeys, on the way to offer con- gratulations at the Louvre. On the quays of the Seine, on the Pont Neuf, the new thoroughfare, not blocked by houses like the other bridges, where King Henry IV on horseback kept guard over " Paris, sa grand'-ville," crowds gathered with their heads turned towards the palace, whose high roofs, stately and glittering in the May sunshine, sheltered the new baby and 3 ; 4 A PRINCESS OF THE OLD WORLD its mother.