1. Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin, was a niece of Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister of France, and a mistress of Charles II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
12 Facts About Hortense Mancini
1. 2.
Hortense Mancini was the fourth of the five famous Mancini sisters, who, along with two of their female Martinozzi cousins, were known at the court of King Louis XIV of France as the Mazarinettes.
3.
Hortense Mancini's hand was requested by Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy, another first cousin of Louis XIV, but arrangements fell through when Cardinal Mazarin refused to include the stronghold-castle of Pignerol in her dowry.
4.
Hortense Mancini was young, bright, and popular; Armand-Charles was miserly and extremely jealous, not to mention mentally unstable.
5.
Hortense Mancini forbade his wife to keep company with other men, made midnight searches for hidden lovers, insisted she spend a quarter of her day at prayer, and forced her to leave Paris and move with him to the country.
6.
Hortense Mancini hoped she would replace the king's current mistress, Louise de Kerouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth.
7.
Hortense Mancini was dressed as a man; her penchant for cross-dressing is thought by some historians to be an outward expression of her gender neutrality.
8.
Hortense Mancini maintained good relations with the king until his death.
9.
The King sitting and toying with his concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland, and Mazarin [Hortense Mancini being the Duchesse Mazarin].
10.
Hortense Mancini had been the richest lady in Europe; she was niece to Cardinal Mazarin, and was married to the richest subject in Europe, as was said; she was born at Rome, educated in France, and was an extraordinary beauty and wit, but dissolute, and impatient of matrimonial restraint, so as to be abandoned by her husband, and banished: when she came to England for shelter, lived on a pension given her here, and is reported to have hastened her death by intemperate drinking strong spirits.
11.
Hortense Mancini has written her own story and adventures, and so has her other extravagant sister, wife to the noble Colonna family.
12.
Hortense Mancini's husband managed to continue the drama after her death; he carted her body around with him on his travels in France, before finally allowing it to be interred by the tomb of her uncle, Cardinal Mazarin.