A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Aunoy
AUNOY, or AULNOY (MARIA CATHARINE DE BERNEVILLE, COUNTESS D') Died at Paris, 1705, aged 50.
This singular and celebrated lady was the daughter of Monsieur Jumel de Barneville, descended from one the best families in Normandy, who had served in the army with great reputation. Her mother was also of distinguished birth; but, being left a widow when very young, she married the marquis de Gadaigne, and spent the remainder of her days at Madrid, where she had obtained a considerable pension of Charles II. which was continued to her by Philip V. Her daughter, who married the count d'Aulnoy, is described as a woman whose amiable character, great talents, and lively turn of conversation, made her society sought for with avidity; nothing escaped her penetration. Whatever was the subject of conversation, her opinion was always given with judgment and precision; she wrote with astonishing facility: a strong proof of which are the number of volumes which she published. The account she gives of her travels in Spain, is written with a great deal of spirit, character, and incident. In her Memoires de la Cour d'Espagne, she relates every circumstance worthy of observation that passed at the court of Charles the Second. Les Memoires de la Cour d'Angleterre, likewise relates some singular anecdotes which happened in the reign of our Charles the Second; but as it does not appear she ever was in England, they are, most likely, chiefly from report and invention, which the intriguing spirit then prevalent gave sufficient grounds for. Her Memoires Historiques of Europe, from 1672 to 1679, are part fiction, and part truth. Her romances are still read with interest—They are Adventures of Hypolytus, Earl of Douglas; an historical one of John de Bourbon, Prince of Carency, 1692, and Tales of the Fairies, in 4 vols. Her daughter. Madam de Heere, likewise wrote with applause in prose and verse.