A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Longvic, (Jacqueline de)
LONGVIC, (JACQUELINE DE), Duchess of Montpensier,
A lady of great merit, in the sixteenth century. She had great influence over Francis I. Henry II. and Catherine de Medicis, and made the tranquillity of the publick her care and study; and it is believed, had she not been snatched away so soon, she would have prevented the commotions that afterwards broke out. She was the youngest daughter of John de Longvic, lord de Givri; and married Lewis de Bourbon, duke of Montpensier. She died, August 28, 1561, a little before the troubles on account of religion broke out. Manifestly discovering, during her long consumptive illness, what her husband had long suspected, that she was a protestant; and doubtless it was by her private instructions, that some of her daughters were so firmly attached to the reformation, for Frances de Bourbon, her eldest, married, in 1558, to the duke of Bouillon, openly professed the protestant religion, and could not be prevailed upon to quit it, notwithstanding the incredible pains her father took for that purpose. Charlotte, her fourth daughter, had been sent to a nunnery, contrary to her inclination. She was abbess of Joüare; but as this kind of life did not suit, either the principles she had imbibed, or perhaps her own inclination, she fled to Germany in 1572, abjured the Roman religion there, and married the prince of Orange. Two other daughters persevered in the monastic life, to which they were devoted, and one married the son of the duke de Nevers,