Marie de Rohan

French princess

• Born: December 1, 1600
• Birthplace: Unknown
• Died: August 12, 1679
• Place of death: Gagny, France

During her long and colorful life, de Chevreuse gained great power as an intimate of Queen Anne of Austria. She became powerful also by conspiring against governmental ministers during the reigns of Louis XIII and the regency for Louis XIV.

Early Life

Not much is known about the early life of Marie de Rohan, duchesse de Chevreuse (shehv-rayz). She was born in December of 1600, the daughter of the governor of Paris, Hercule Rohan, duc de Montbazon. In 1617, she was married to Charles d’Albert, who later became the duc de Lynes. Almost immediately after her marriage, she departed for the royal court, where she became an important member of the royal household as the superintendent for Queen Anne of Austria , the unhappy and much-neglected wife of King Louis XIII . Rohan became Queen Anne’s mistress, and Anne, who figures centrally in Alexandre Dumas’s famous novel Les trois mousquetaires (1844; The Three Musketeers, 1846), was to become one of the most influential people in Rohan’s life. Rohan, in turn, was to play a major friendly and political role in the life of the queen and her son, Louis XIV , who became one of the most popular French kings.

In 1621, Rohan became a widow. She married Claude de Lorraine, duc de Chevreuse, in 1625. After her second marriage, Rohan came to be known as the duchesse de Chevreuse. It was around this time that she set in motion her never-ceasing quest for power by conspiring to control royal states of affairs and to manipulate international events. She was known far and wide for her great beauty and attracted a range of high-standing and, ultimately, very politically useful lovers.

Life’s Work

Chevreuse came to be recognized as one of the great French politicians of the mid-seventeenth century. She was at times a friend to the powerful royal cardinal ministers, Cardinal de Richelieu and Cardinal Jules Mazarin and at other times when it served her purposes, she became their sworn enemy. Regardless, both no doubt came to respect her highly.

In 1625, Rohan attempted to promote a relationship between Queen Anne, who was sorely neglected by her cold husband Louis XIII, and the dashing British lord George Villiers, first duke of Buckingham. Her intentions failed miserably, however, when Buckingham openly declared his love for the queen to the shocked French court. This daring action, in turn, cast a shadow on Queen Anne’s reputation. Rohan, for some unknown reason, also bore the blame when the queen suffered a miscarriage during her first pregnancy. The following year, the duchesse de Chevreuse was exiled to Poitou, for her continuous intrigues in opposition to King Louis XIII’s powerful minister, Richelieu. However, she failed to learn a lesson and soon left for her own duchy of Lorraine, where she conspired against the king by aiding Buckingham. Two years later, in 1628, Richelieu found her information useful and gave permission for her to return to France.

However, Chevreuse continued her ways and found herself exiled once more to Touraine in 1633 for providing Spain with French state secrets gleaned from her lover, the marquis de Châteauneuf.

In 1635, France went to war with Spain, and Chevreuse and her lover Queen Anne were accused of providing treasonous information to the Spanish court. Queen Anne’s loyalty to Spain (she was born there) and her strong Roman Catholic background made her a natural suspect. Once more, the duchesse de Chevreuse had to flee into exile to Spain, where she remained until the death of the French monarch, Louis XIII. During her exile, Chevreuse traveled to England and Brussels (now in Belgium), where she entered into various espionage adventures. She was allowed to return to France only after Queen Anne became regent upon the accession of her minor son, Louis XIV, who came to be known as both the Sun King (Le Roi de Soleil) and Louis the Great (Louis le Grand). He ruled France for seventy-two years.

At this point, it becomes clear how brilliant Rohan was as a politician. Some scholars call her one of the brightest politicians of the seventeenth century. She proved to be even more dangerous when in exile because of her plotting with France’s enemies, notably Duke Charles IV of Lorraine. Upon her return to France, she became involved in the failed conspiracy of Les Importants, a group of aristocrats intent on assassinating the queen’s first minister, Jules Mazarin. Mazarin was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Richelieu’s successor. Some scholars maintain that Mazarin was secretly married to the widowed Queen Anne and indeed others think he was the father of Louis XIV.

For Rohan’s political indiscretion, Anne sent Rohan once more into exile. However, in 1649, she was allowed to return to France during the first phase of the Wars of the Fronde (1648-1653), the aristocratic uprising caused by the efforts of the parlement (the chief judiciary body) and by angry and ambitious nobles to restrict the monarch’s authority and overspending. Serving as a link with Spain, Rohan’s great midlife achievements included her designation as a major player in the first Fronde (Fronde of the parlementaires) and the second Fronde (Fronde of the princes).

In the second Fronde, Rohan helped organize a group of aristocrats that supported the prince de Condé (the Great Condé) in 1651. The Fronde of the princes came about as a conflict between Condé and Cardinal Mazarin. Condé was a brilliant French general in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) and came to the royal family’s assistance during the first Fronde. However, the prince expected to control Queen Regent Anne, her eleven-year-old son, Louis XIV, and Cardinal Mazarin. After Condé failed to follow through on his promise and broke his agreement to marry his brother to her daughter Charlotte, Rohan reunited with Mazarin and, thus, helped bring about the end of what came to be known as the Wars of the Fronde. After the defeat of the Fronde, Mazarin remained in control of France. A compromise was finally reached between parlement and the royal family in March of 1649. With the Fronde defeated, Louis XIV established an undisputed monarchy.

In 1652, Rohan retired to Dampierre. Little is known of her life between this time and her death in Gagny, France, in 1679.

Significance

Marie de Rohan’s colorful life and brilliant mind ensured she would be remembered not only as a figure in fiction and art but also as a real-life, key seventeenth century political player. In an era when women did not wield much public power, Rohan became a major politician in the French court in a time when the aristocracy battled the monarch for more power. Because of the insights she gained from her many travels, intrigues, and connections, she was able to encourage rebellion and effect resolution.

In fiction, there is little doubt that Rohan is characterized as the French literary prototype, the seductive villainess Milady de Winter of The Three Musketeers. Instead of a helpless female, Milady is portrayed by Alexandre Dumas as a powerful woman intent on success at any price.

In addition, through close analyses of the sitter’s costumes and attributes in view of seventeenth century decorum, Marie de Rohan has been credited as the model for the master artist Diego Velázquez’s painting Lady with a Fan, painted during Rohan’s time of exile in Madrid in 1638.

Bibliography

Menzies, S. “La Duchesse de Chevreuse (1600-1679).” In Famous Women Described by Great Writers, edited by Esther Singleton. New York: Nova Science, 2002. Informative account of Marie de Rohan’s colorful life, with an illustration of the famous duchess.

Moote, A. L. The Revolt of the Judges: The Parlement of Paris and the Fronde, 1643-1652. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972. Provides great historical detail concerning the uprising of the nobility against the monarch and the political intrigue surrounding the court in which Marie de Rohan participated.

Pitts, Vincent. La Grande Mademoiselle at the Court of France: 1627-1693. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. Makes many mentions of Marie de Rohan and, although she isn’t central, the book remains a major source of information on the period’s political and social events as well as a page-turning melodrama of court intrigue.

Prawdin, Michael. Marie de Rohan, Duchesse de Chevreuse. New York: Allen & Unwin, 1971. This is the only English-language biography of Marie de Rohan and serves as a wonderful introduction to the era.