Women of Modern France (Illustrated): Woman: In all ages and in all countries Vol. 7 (of 10) — John Shaqi
Women of Modern France (Illustrated): Woman: In all ages and in all countries Vol. 7 (of 10)Thieme, Hugo P. (Hugo Paul)
History
Women of Modern France (Illustrated): Woman: In all ages and in all countries Vol. 7 (of 10)
Thieme, Hugo P. (Hugo Paul)
France -- Social life and customs; Women -- France
This excited the Importants to fever heat and a plot was formed, with
Mme. de Chevreuse as the leader, to assassinate the cardinal. Shortly
after this, Coligny, as champion of the cause of Mme. de Longueville,
challenged the Duc de Guise to a duel. The whole court was made up
of two parties: the Importants with Mme. de Montbazon and Mme. de
Chevreuse; and Condé and Mme. de Longueville with their friends;
the result was the death of Coligny. Mme. de Longueville was a true
_précieuse_ and hardly loved Coligny, but allowed him and any other to
serve and adore her in a respectable way--a principle followed by
the better women of the age, such as Mme. de Rambouillet and Mme. de
Sablé.
Some time after these occurrences, Mme. de Longueville was stricken
with smallpox which, fortunately, did not impair her beauty; it was
said, on the contrary, that in taking away its first flower it left
all the brilliancy which, joined to her culture and charming
languor, made her one of the most attractive persons in France. La
Rochefoucauld has left the following picture of her: "This princess
had all the advantages of _esprit_ and beauty to as great a degree as
if nature had taken pleasure in completing, in her person, a perfect
work; but these qualities shone less brilliantly on account of one
characteristic which led her to imbibe so thoroughly the sentiments of
those who adored her that she no longer recognized her own."
After her twenty-fifth year, Mme. de Longueville became more and more
imbued with the general spirit of the seventeenth century: coquetry
and _bel esprit_ became her chief occupation. The glory of her
brother, the Duc d'Enghien, who was rapidly becoming a power, and the
probability of the house of Condé becoming dangerous, made Mazarin
realize that Mme. de Longueville was to be reckoned with, inasmuch as
she had full control over D'Enghien and was constantly instilling new
ideas into his mind and requesting from him the distribution of all
sorts of favors. Mazarin, in 1646, succeeded in causing her withdrawal
to Münster for one year; there she ruled as queen of the Congress. On
the death of her father, the Prince of Condé, and at the request
of her mother to come home for her lying-in, the husband of Mme. de
Longueville consented to her return to Paris.
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