Marie Mancini – Princess of Paliano

Dark Italian beauty won the heart of King Louis XIV

A portrait of Marie Mancini by the
Flemish painter Jacob Ferdinand Voet

Marie Mancini, an aristocratic Italian woman who once had a love affair with French King Louis XIV, was born on this day in 1639 in Rome.

Anna Maria ‘Marie’ Mancini was the third of five sisters, who were all taken to live in France. They were the nieces of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, who was Chief Minister to both Louis XIII and Louis XIV.

Marie grew up in Rome until she was 11 years old, when her father, Baron Lorenzo Mancini, died. Along with her sisters, Marie was taken to Paris by her widowed mother, Geronima, in the hope that Cardinal Mazarin would use his influence to help them all marry advantageously.

Two of Marie’s cousins, who were the daughters of Mazarin’s eldest sister, were also taken to France for the same purpose, and the seven girls were all known at the French court as ‘the Mazarinettes’.

Although Marie was christened Anna Maria, she became known in France as Marie and was said to have grown up as ‘dark, vivacious and beautiful’. 

She was nearly a year younger than Louis XIV, who had become King of France at the age of four, after the death of his father, Louis XIII.

Louis XIV - later known also as the Sun King - fell in love with Marie and wanted to marry her and she said she was willing to marry him, but his adviser, Mazarin, and his mother, Queen Anne of Austria, were both against the match.

Queen Anne wanted Louis to marry his cousin, Maria Theresa of Austria, the Infanta of Spain, who was the daughter of her brother, Philip IV of Spain. Cardinal Mazarin agreed with the Queen because he knew that her support for him and his foreign policy depended on making peace with Spain and on the Spanish marriage going ahead.

Louis XIV became aware that there were plans to exile Marie from the court and sent for Mazarin and asked him if he could marry his niece. Mazarin refused, saying he had been appointed to his position by the King’s parents to protect the welfare of the kingdom. It is said that Louis XIV fell on his knees before the Cardinal and pleaded with him, but without success.

Louis XIV pleaded to be allowed to marry
Marie Mancini (portrait by Charles Le Brun) 

The King also spoke to his mother about it for more than an hour and she managed to convince him that he must give up love for politics, but after the conversation he was observed with his eyes ‘red with tears’.

When Marie left the court, Louis XIV escorted her to her carriage and she is reputed to have said: “Sire, you weep, you love me, and yet you allow me to go!”

In 1660, Louis XIV married Maria Theresa of Spain and in 1661 Marie was sent to marry an Italian, the eighth Duke and Prince of Paliano, Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna.

Marie and Louis XIV had never been lovers, and Colonna was said to have been surprised to discover that she was still a virgin.

Marie bore him three sons, but after she found the third birth was particularly difficult, she refused to be intimate with him again. Their relationship deteriorated and she left Rome in 1672, accompanied by her younger sister, Hortense, because she said she was afraid that her husband might kill her.

She later spent a period living in a convent in Turin and some time travelling around Europe independently, which was unusual for a woman at the time.

Marie wrote her memoirs after a false account about her life had been circulated in France. Her sister, Hortense, also wrote her memoirs, after escaping from an abusive marriage with a French duke. She eventually travelled to London, where she became a mistress of the English King Charles II. The Mancini sisters were said to be among the first women in France to have published their own memoirs.

Marie Mancini died in Pisa in May 1715 at the age of 75 and she was buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre there. Her death occurred a little over three months before the death of Louis XIV at the Palace of Versailles in France on September 1 of the same year.

The character of Marie Mancini has since been used by writers, both in novels and a musical, and a number of biographies have been written about her and her sister, Hortense Mancini.

An 18th century etching of Palazzo Mancini
by Giovanni Battista Piranese

Travel tip:

Palazzo Mancini, in Rome’s Via del Corso, where Marie would have lived as a child,  was created in 1634 by Lorenzo Mancini when the family’s old residence - also in Via del Corso - was enlarged for the celebrations of his wedding to Geronima Mazzarino, the sister of Cardinal Mazarin. Four adjoining houses were purchased and a new building was designed by the architect Carlo Rainaldi. After Lorenzo died and his widow and children went to live in France, the work was completed by Filippo Mancini. The palace was leased to the French Academy in Rome in 1725. One second floor room is still frescoed with scenes produced by the artists who were accommodated there during its time as an academy. After the French Revolution the building became the French Embassy to the Holy See. In 1818 the Palazzo was bought by Louis Bonaparte, who ceded it to Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, the widow of Victor Emanuel I of Sardinia, who gave it to her daughter, Maria Christina, who became Queen of Naples, and passed it on to the Bourbons of Naples. It was acquired by the Banco di Sicilia in 1919.

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The 12th century octagonal Chiesa del Santo
Sepolcro in Pisa, where Marie Mancini is buried

Travel tip:

Pisa, where Marie Mancini died, is a historic town in the Tuscany region that has become famous for its leaning tower, which dates back to 1173. The freestanding bell tower for the Cathedral now has a famous tilt that began during the building process, believed to have been caused by the laying of inadequate foundations on ground that was too soft on one side to support the weight of the structure. The tilt got worse over the years until work had to be carried out to correct it in the 20th century. In 1987, Pisa’s 60-metre-high tower was included in the Unesco World Heritage site list along with the neighbouring cathedral and baptistery  in the Piazza del Duomo. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Chiesa del Santo Sepolcro, where Marie Mancini was laid to rest in Pisa, is an octagonal church, which dates from early in the 12th century and is located in Piazza San Sepolcro, near the Lungarno Galilei in the San Martino district, along the southern bank of the River Arno.

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More reading:

How Cardinal Jules Mazarin became de facto ruler of France

Catherine de’ Medici, the mother of three French kings

Marie Josephine of Savoy, the Italian noblewoman who married Louis XVIII of France

Also on this day:

1665: The unexplained death of painter Elisabetta Sirani

1809: The birth of sculptor Giovanni Maria Benzoni

1909: The birth of Lamberto Maggiorani, star of classic movie Bicycle Thieves

1928: The birth of photographer Ugo Mulas

1938: The birth of talk show host Maurizio Costanzo

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Beatrice d’Este – Duchess of Milan

The brief life of a politically astute noblewoman from Ferrara

Beatrice D'Este, portrayed in a painting by the
19th century Italian artist Francesco Podesti

Beatrice d’Este, who became Duchess of Bari and Milan after her marriage to Ludovico Sforza and was an important player in Italian politics during the late 15th century, died on this day in 1497 in Milan.

The Duchess was said to have shown great courage during the Milanese resistance against the French in what was later judged to be the first of the Italian Wars. At the time of the French advance on Milan, with her husband ill, Beatrice made the right decisions on his behalf and helped prevent the Duke of Orleans from conquering her adopted city.

Sadly, she died when she was just 21, after giving birth to a stillborn baby.

Beatrice was born in the Castello Estense in Ferrara in 1475, but spent her early years growing up in her mother’s home city of Naples. When she was 15, her family sent her to marry the 38-year-old Ludovico Sforza, nicknamed Il Moro - The Moor - because of his dark complexion, who was acting as regent of Milan on behalf of his nephew, Gian Galeazzo Sforza.

Ludovico and Beatrice’s wedding celebrations were directed by Leonardo da Vinci, who worked at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan for 17 years, designing elaborate festivals for the Sforza family as well as painting and sculpting.

Ludovico became Duke of Milan after Gian Galeazzo died in 1494, seemingly of natural causes. However, it was rumoured at the time he had been poisoned by his uncle.

Ludovico Sforza, to whom
Beatrice was betrothed at 15

Beatrice found herself at the centre of court life in Milan, where she was much admired for her beauty, charm, and diplomatic skills.

As well as associating with Da Vinci and the architect, Donato Bramante, she spent time with poets such as Baldassare Castiglione and Niccolò da Correggio. Her husband seemed to have been genuinely fond of her, despite having a string of mistresses, and once described her as ‘happy by nature and very pleasing.’

Beatrice was trusted to represent her husband as an ambassador to Venice and she also attended a peace conference, along with many powerful political figures of the day, including Charles VIII, King of France.

She gave birth to two sons, Massimiliano, who was born in 1493, and Francesco, who was born in 1495. They each, in turn, went on to become the Duke of Milan.

Beatrice was on course to make Milan one of the greatest Renaissance capitals of Europe when her life ended abruptly.

Pregnant for the third time, she seemed to be in good health when she was seen out in her carriage on January 2, 1497.

Ludovico Sforza mourns his wife's death by her
tomb in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie

She waved to the crowds on her way to the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, where Da Vinci was in the process of painting his famous masterpiece, The Last Supper, known in Italian as Il Cenacolo, on the wall of the refectory.

After saying her prayers in the church, Beatrice returned to the Castello Sforzesco, where she was said to have taken part in dancing during the evening. Afterwards, she started to suffer stomach pains and she gave birth to a stillborn son. She never recovered from the birth and died half an hour after midnight, on January 3.

Later that day, her heartbroken husband wrote about the sad news to his brother-in-law, Francesco II Gonzaga, who was married to Beatrice’s sister, Isabella. He asked for no visits of condolence, saying he wanted to be left alone to grieve. He remained locked in his apartment for two weeks and when he reappeared, he had shaved his head and was dressed in black, wearing an old, torn cloak.

The beautiful Beatrice has been immortalised in sculptures and paintings and has gone down in history as ‘a virago who showed the courage of a man’, during a time when Milan was at war.  

The Castello Sforzesco in Milan, almost 600 years
old, is one of the largest castles in Europe

Travel tip:

One of the main sights in Milan is the impressive Sforza castle, Castello Sforzesco, built by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, in 1450. After Ludovico Sforza became Duke in 1494, he commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to fresco several of the rooms. The castle was built on the site of the Castello di Porta Giovia, which had been the main residence in the city of the Visconti family, from which Francesco Sforza was descended. The Viscontis ruled Milan for 170 years. Renovated and enlarged a number of times in subsequent centuries, it became one of the largest citadels in Europe and now houses several museums and art collections.  The Cairo metro station is opposite the main entrance to Castello Sforzesco, which is about a 20 minute walk from Milan’s Duomo.

Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, which he
painted on the wall of the refectory

Travel tip:

Santa Maria delle Grazie, a church and Dominican convent in Milan, is home to Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, The Last Supper - Il Cenacolo, which is on the wall of the refectory where the monks used to eat their meals. Entrance to the refectory is now limited to 25 people at a time for a maximum stay of 15 minutes and it is necessary to book a visit in advance.  In addition to Il Cenacolo, the church also has a chapel decorated with the frescoes Stories of Life and The Passion of Christ, by Gaudenzio Ferrari and other works by Ferrari, Titian and Bramantino. Titian’s painting, The Coronation of Thorns, once hung in the same chapel as the Ferrari frescoes but is now in the Louvre, in Paris.

Also on this day:

106BC: The birth of Roman politician and philosopher Cicero

1698: The birth of opera librettist Pietro Metastasio

1785: The death of composer Baldassare Galuppi

1877: The birth of textile entrepreneur and publisher Giovanni Treccani

1920: The birth of singer-songwriter Renato Carosone

1929: The birth of film director Sergio Leone

1952: The birth of politician Gianfranco Fini

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