A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Mazarin, (Hortensia Mancini, Duchess of)
MAZARIN (HORTENSIA MANCINI, DUCHESS OF), the favourite Niece of Cardinal Mazarin.
Represented as one of those Roman beauties, who are so far removed from insignificance as to inspire respect as well as love. Her eyes were large, neither blue, gray nor black; but partook of all those colours, and were very beautiful, expressing with equal force, according to the different feelings of her soul; mild, vivacious, penetrating or serious; yet they were not tender: as if she was born to be loved, and not to feel it herself. Her smile was benevolent and her voice sweet and touching. She had a fine complection, and black hair curling naturally; she was finely formed, and was the most accomplished woman in Europe. St. Evremond says, that she knew as much as a man could know, without any appearance of science; that she was without affectation.
She had an elder sister, that Louis XIV. wished to marry. But though Hortensia was the youngest, Cardinal Mazarin chose her to bear his name, and proposed her in marriage to Turenne, M. de Candales, and M. de la Feuiilade. The first showed very little inclination, the second died, and the third quarrelled with her uncle. Charles, afterwards the IId. of England, was one of her admirers; but he had then no possessions, and was not accepted. After the death of Cromwell he offered, and was again refused; but when he was placed on the throne. Cardinal Mazarin repented, and proposed his niece to him; but the king, disgusted with his former conduct, did not accept the offer. At last, at the age of fifteen, she was married to the Duke de la Meilleraye, who was passionately in love with her; and she soon after became heiress to the cardinal, who left her twenty millions.
This young man, whose understanding was capricious and contracted, was also superstitious. Once, when he had broken with a hammer statues of inestimable value, M. Colbert sent by the king, asked him the motive: "My conscience," returned he. One day meeting the bishop of Noyon, he asked him his blessing, though the bishop was in a travelling dress, when it was unusual for them to bestow it. He, however, was so importunate, remaining on his knees at the foot of the chariot, that the bishop impatiently exclaimed, "Well! Sir, since you desire it so much, I give you my compassion." He soon, though without cause, became jealous of the duchess, carried her with him from one province to another, though she was not in a situation to travel; and seemed to take every opportunity of making himself disagreeable to her. The door was shut to every body she knew or liked; and if a servant happened to please her, immediate dismission was the consequence. Prohibited of every pleasure however innocent, surrounded by a cabal who strove to give every word a wrong interpretation, the young Hortensia began to despair. She would have borne it all, she said, and passed her life in sorrow and confinement; but when the excessive expences of her husband threatened poverty to her son, who would else be the richest gentleman in France, she could bear it no longer. He took away her jewels, as useless and dangerous ornaments. In short, disputes ran so high between them that at length she fled to her sister, the countess of Soissons. Her jewels were then sent to M. Colbert, and she staid some time in the abbey De Chelles. There, with a young friend of hers, she amused herself with childish sports, such as putting ink into the receptacles for holy Water, &c. Her husband wanted to carry her off from this place, but was prevented, and after many divisions, in which the king interfered, they were in a manner reconciled, and lived together. But though still passionately fond of her, he interrupted her amusements, crossed her wishes, and took every pains to blacken her reputation. One of her servants, in consequence, hearing a calumny against her, drew his sword to revenge it, an indiscretion which was illnaturedly interpreted; and the duchess J Who had not admitted the duke lately into her presence, heard with affright that she should be obliged to be reconciled. Inexperienced and rash, she disguised herself as a man, and, attended by a maid servant who had taken the same precaution , followed by two valets, she fled from her house, in 1667) and sought refuge with her elder sister, in Italy. She soon however felt the consequences of her flight, and declared, that could she have foreseen the danger she ran, and the slanders her absence from her husband occasioned, she would have preferred perpetual imprisonment and a violent death to incurring them.
After passing some lime in a convent, and travelling over Italy; after many disguises, voyages, and resolutions, the duchess, in 1675, passed over to England to the duchess of York, who was her relation, and determined to remain there the rest of her life. Charles II. granted her a pension, which was continued by James n. and William III. who opposed the wish of parliament that she might leave the kingdom. Her husband was continually urging her return, but she would not be persuaded to put herself in his power. She was much admired by the English, but often felt the pressure of severe necessity, and died at Chelsea 1699, aged 53, having passed 30 years in England, Her misfortunes, which she attributed to the ingratitude she had shewn to her uncle the cardinal, who had done so much for her family, taught her to be very indifferent to life. Her husband survived her many years; and though, during her life, he was such a great enemy to superfluous expences on her account, he employed immense sums to transport her corpse to France and to bury it there. Memoirs of Madame de Mazarin may be seen in St. Evremond's and St. Real's worlds, as well as separately.