A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Longueville, (Anne Genevieve de Bourbon, Duchesse de)
Conceived early an inclination for a conventual life; her father opposing it, she remained in the world, but from thence had a disdainful and cold air in society, which, however, was not proof against a public ball, and the admiration her beauty excited. The world which she pleased began to please her, and her talents, her graces, began to appear, particularly at the Hotel de Rambouillet, where all that was refined and distinguished, in Paris, met. In her 23d year, she became the second wife of the Duke de Longueville, aged 47, but was not very happy with him. The same year she had the small pox, but without injury to her beauty.
Godeau, who frequently wrote to her, on congratulating her upon this event, said, that he had such an opinion of her good sense, that he believed, had it left marks, she would have been easily consoled. "They are often," added he, "proofs of divine mercy."
The great Condé, her brother, then due d'Enguien, was strictly attached to her: but some interruption to their friendship happened in consequence of her thinking it her duty to inform her father of an attachment he had conceived for a friend of hers, on which the young lady retired into a convent. The brother and sister were, however, soon reconciled, as appeared from the eagerness with which he undertook her defence against Madame de Montbazon. This lady, jealous of the princess, pretended that the count Maurice de Coligny, who was her relation, frequently visited as her lover. She fabricated letters to prove it, and dispersed them; but the queen obliged her to go to the Hotel de Conde, and pronounce a formal retractation of what she had said and written. Yet, as the duke of Guise, who was the lover of Madame de Montbazon, still continued to spread the calumny, the count de Coligny called him out in a duel, which was fatal to the injured person. As to the duke de Longueville, he took no interest in the matter; indeed, he had once loved Madame de Montbazon, and perhaps still loved her.
In 1644, he went envoy to Munster, and left his wife at Paris; but two years afterwards, her brother engaged him to send for her, to take her out of the way of the prince de Marsillac, afterwards the famous Rochefoucault, whose passion for her was well known. This affair made a second breach between Condé and his sister; but Madame de Longueville was in some measure consoled by the great honours paid her in a foreign country, yet she grew tired of the place, and returned to Paris, where she was brought to bed of a daughter, who lived only four years.
The troubles of the minority of Louis XIV. opened a grand career to her ambition. Her natural indolence would have made political discussions unpleasant to her, had they not been developed by the prince de Marsillac, who, as well as herself, was irritated against her brother, and opposed to him the prince de Conti. Thus she found herself between the court and the faction, the mediator between them, and equally looked up to by Condé, Mazarin, and the Coadjutor.
Yet they mistrusted Madame de Longueville at Paris, and her brother at St. Germain's. They feared their enmity was only feigned, and they could only persuade them they were not of intelligence the one with the other, by widening the breach; yet a sincere reconciliation soon took place on the cessation of the troubles, but the good understanding' between them was one principal cause of renewing them, as Madame de Longueville continually spirited up her brother against the court.
She could not dispense with going to St. Germain's, but she would not go as a suppliant. She sent word the day and hour on which she would go, but was expected some time before she appeared. When she came, the court was very full, and the queen in bed. Every one was anxious to hear what a woman of so fine an understanding would say upon the occasion; but trembling as if she had the fever, she only pronounced distinctly the word Madame; and the rest of her speech was so low, that with the utmost attention the queen could not hear her; and this meeting, cold on both sides, only served to augment the queen's resentment.
After the imprisonment of the princes on the 18th of January, 1649, Madame de Longueville went to Stenay to be near M. de Turenne. It is said, this illustrious warrior, not content with directing her political enterprizes, was deeply in love with this princess; and though she rejected his vows, it is certain he always remained her firm friend. During all these agitations, her little girl died, and she sent a letter to the Carmelite nuns, written in a very pious strain, on that occasion; and perhaps the moment after, says her historian, wrote another to the king of Spain, to demand troops against the king.
After the enlargement of the princes, Madame de Longuevilie found herself in the most brilliant situation, and the object of public admiration. Yet the prince de Condé soon renewed the civil war, though he took some time to determine upon it, and severely reprehended his sister and the duke de la Rochefoucault for engaging him in an enterprize of which they would first be weary, and abandon him when he had no other resource.
Indeed, Madame de Longueville began to have many subjects of disgust with life. The king's party prevailed, and her brother, though still attached to her, began to follow her counsels less. The duke de la Rochefoucault, offended at the manner in which she had received the addresses of the duke de Nemours, had left her, as did the latter soon after; though, on his being killed by the duke of Beaufort, she bitterly regretted him.
Having had permission to go to Moulins, she passed ten months there at a monastery, with her relation the duchess de Montmorenci, who was abbess; and from that time, though only thirty-four years of age, she had no more bold projects, no more sighs for glory, no more taste for dominion; and the same princess, who had presided in Paris in the midst of a numerous court, composed of the most illustrious people in France, confined herself to one province, engaged in domestic duties, and abandoned to the rigours of penitence.
The sincerity of her conversion was at first doubted, and was spoken of with scorn; but her perseverance soon converted it into public esteem, and gained her the royal countenance. She was devout and benevolent, without those littlenesses which often disfigure piety; and the following trait of adherence to truth cannot be uninteresting.
Not having been able to obtain a favour for one of her people of the king, she was so much hurt, that very indiscreet words, to say no more, escaped her; which were reported by a gentleman present to the king, and from him to her brother, who assured him it could not be, and that his sister had not lost her senses. "I will believe her, if she herself denies it," said the king. The prince went to her, and she concealed nothing from him. In vain he tried, during a whole afternoon, to persuade her, that in this instance sincerity would be folly. That in justifying her to the king, he believed he had spoken truth, and that it would be even more grateful to his majesty for her to deny than own her fault. "Do you wish me to repair it," said she, "by a greater, not only towards God, but towards the king? I cannot lie to him, when he has the generosity to put faith in me, and believe me on my word. The man who has betrayed me is much to blame; but after all, I must not let him pass for a slanderer, which he is not."
She went the next day to court, and having obtained a private audience of the king, threw herself at his feet, and begged pardon for the indiscreet words which had escaped her, which her brother had not believed her capable of, but that she had rather avow her fault, than be justified at the expence of others. The king pardoned her immediately, and ever after treated her with more particular kindness than before.