Marie-Anne de la Trémoille, princesse des Ursins
Encyclopedia
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
court, was the daughter of the duc de Noirmoutier
La Trémoille
Members of the House of La Trémoille, were part of an old French family which derives its name from a village in the department of Vienne....
and his wife Renée Julie Aubri. Dying at the age of 80, she played a central role at the Spanish Royal Court during the first years of the reign of Philip V
Philip V of Spain
Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
before her ousting from the country following a power struggle with Elisabeth of Parma
Elisabeth of Parma
Elisabeth Farnese , the daughter of Odoardo Farnese and Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg, was Queen consort of Spain who exerted great influence over Spain's foreign policy.-Parma:Elisabeth was born at the Palazzo della Pilotta in Parma, the capital of a duchy which had been ruled by...
.
Life
She was married young to Adrien Blaise de Talleyrand, prince de Chalais. Her husband, having been concerned in the duelDuel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
of four against four, in which the duke of Beauvilliers was killed in 1663, was compelled to flee the country. He died soon afterwards in Spain, and his widow established herself in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. In 1675 she married Flavio Orsini, duke of Bracciano. The marriage was far from harmonious, but her husband left her his fortune (popular imagination thought it to be huge, in reality, the duke was almost bankrupt) and the leadership of the French party in Rome. It brought her a series of lawsuits and troubles with Livio Odescalchi, nephew of Pope Innocent XI
Pope Innocent XI
Blessed Pope Innocent XI , born Benedetto Odescalchi, was Pope from 1676 to 1689.-Early life:Benedetto Odescalchi was born at Como in 1611 , the son of a Como nobleman, Livio Odescalchi, and Paola Castelli Giovanelli from Gandino...
, who claimed that he had been adopted by the duke. At last the widow sold the title and estates to Odescalchi.
She then assumed the title of Princesse des Ursins, a corruption of Orsini, and was tacitly allowed to use it, though it had no legal existence. The Princesse des Ursins had indulged in a great deal of unofficial diplomacy at Rome, more particularly with Neapolitans
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
and Spaniards of rank, whom it was desirable to secure as French partisans in view of the approaching death of Charles II of Spain
Charles II of Spain
Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain and the ruler of large parts of Italy, the Spanish territories in the Southern Low Countries, and Spain's overseas Empire, stretching from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies...
, and the plans of Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
for placing his family on the Spanish throne.
Her services in favour of France were rewarded in 1699 by a pension which her problematic financial situation made necessary to her. When Philip de France, duc d'Anjou
Philip V of Spain
Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
, grandson of the French king, was declared heir by the will of Charles II, the princess took an active part in arranging his marriage with Princess Maria Luisa of Savoy
Maria Luisa of Savoy
Maria Luisa of Savoy was a Savoyard princess and the first wife of Philip V of Spain. She acted as Regent of Spain and had great influence over her husband...
, a daughter of the duke of Savoy
Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia
Victor Amadeus II was Duke of Savoy from 1675 to 1730. He also held the titles of marquis of Saluzzo, duke of Montferrat, prince of Piedmont, count of Aosta, Moriana and Nizza. Louis XIV organised his marriage in order to maintain French influence in the Duchy but Victor Amadeus soon broke away...
. Her ambition was to secure the post of Camarera mayor de Palacio
Camarera mayor de Palacio
The Camarera mayor de Palacio was the Official of the Royal Household and Heritage of the Crown of Spain, who was in charge of the person and the rooms of the Queen of Spain....
, or chief of the household to the young queen, a child of barely thirteen. By quiet diplomacy, and the help of Madame de Maintenon
Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon
Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon was the second wife of King Louis XIV of France. She was known during her first marriage as Madame Scarron, and subsequently as Madame de Maintenon...
, she succeeded, and in 1701 she accompanied the young queen to Spain.
Till 1714, the year of the decease of the queen, she was the most powerful person in the country. Her functions about the king and queen were almost those of a nurse. Her letters show that she had to put them to bed at night, and get them up in the morning. She gives a most amusing description of her embarrassments when she had to enter the royal bedroom, laden with articles of clothing and furniture. But if the Camarera mayor de Palacio
Camarera mayor de Palacio
The Camarera mayor de Palacio was the Official of the Royal Household and Heritage of the Crown of Spain, who was in charge of the person and the rooms of the Queen of Spain....
did the work of a domestic servant, it was for a serious political purpose. She was expected to look after French interests in the palace, and to manage the Spanish nobles, many of whom were of the Austrian party, and who were generally opposed to foreign ways, or to interferences with the absurdly elaborate etiquette of the Spanish court.
Madame des Ursins was resolved not to be a mere agent of Versailles. During the first period of her tenure of office she was in frequent conflict with the French ambassadors, who claimed the right of sitting in the council and of directing the government. Madame des Ursins wisely held that the young king should rely as much as possible on his Spanish subjects. In 1704 her enemies at the French court secured her recall. But she still had the support of Madame de Maintenon, and her own tact enabled her to placate Louis XIV.
Spain
In 1705 she returned to Spain, with a free hand, and with what was practically the power to name her own ministry. During the worst times of the war of the Spanish Succession she was the real head of the BourbonHouse of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
party, and was well aided by Princess Maria Luisa of Savoy
Maria Luisa of Savoy
Maria Luisa of Savoy was a Savoyard princess and the first wife of Philip V of Spain. She acted as Regent of Spain and had great influence over her husband...
, the spirited young queen of Philip V
Philip V of Spain
Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
. She did not hesitate to quarrel even with such powerful personages as the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, Portocarrero
Luis Manuel Fernández de Portocarrero
Luis Manuel Fernández de Portocarrero y de Guzman , was a Spanish prelate, who was cardinal archbishop of Toledo...
, when they proved hostile, but she was so far from offending the pride of the nation, that when in 1709 Louis the XIV, severely pressed by the allies, threatened, or pretended, to desert the cause of his grandson, she dismissed all Frenchmen from the court and threw the king on the support of the Castilians.
Her influence on the sovereigns was so strong that it would probably have lasted all through her life, but for the death of the queen. Madame des Ursins confesses in her voluminous correspondence that she made herself a burden to the king in her anxiety to exclude him from all other influence. She certainly rendered him ridiculous by watching him as if he were a child. Philip was too weak to break the yoke himself, and could insist only that he should be supplied with a wife. Madame des Ursins was persuaded by Alberoni
Giulio Alberoni
Giulio Alberoni was an Italian cardinal andstatesman in the service of Philip V of Spain.-Early years:He was born near Piacenza, probably at the village of Fiorenzuola d'Arda in the Duchy of Parma....
to arrange a marriage with Elisabeth of Parma
Elisabeth of Parma
Elisabeth Farnese , the daughter of Odoardo Farnese and Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg, was Queen consort of Spain who exerted great influence over Spain's foreign policy.-Parma:Elisabeth was born at the Palazzo della Pilotta in Parma, the capital of a duchy which had been ruled by...
, hoping to govern the new queen as she had done the old.
However, Saint-Simon relates that the princess tried to become queen of Spain herself, and, when this plan failed, she persuaded Alberoni to choose Elisabeth Farnese, hoping that Elisabeth Farnese, who could not hope for a royal crown, would be indebted to her. In trying to become queen, Mme des Ursins lost the last remnants of support from Mme de Maintenon; in promoting Elisabeth without French consent, she also lost Louis XIV's support.
Elizabeth had, however, stipulated that she should be allowed to dismiss the Camarera Mayor. Madame des Ursins, who had gone to meet the new queen at Quadraque near the frontier, was driven from her presence with insult, and sent out of Spain without being allowed to change her court dress, in such bitter weather that the coachman lost his hand by frostbite. In Bayonne, she waited for a while hoping that the King would call her back, in vain. Saint-Simon believes that the dismissal had been schemed beforehand, and even happened with consent of the king. After a short stay in France, she went to Italy, and finally established herself in Rome, where she imposed her personality on the small English emigre Jacobite court of "The Old Pretender
James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales was the son of the deposed James II of England...
", effectively running that until she died on 5 December 1722. She had the final satisfaction of meeting Alberoni there after his fall.
Legacy
Madame des Ursins has the credit of having begun to check the overgrown power of the church and the Inquisition in SpainSpanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
, and of having attempted to bring the finances to order.
Saint-Simon
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon
Louis de Rouvroy commonly known as Saint-Simon was a French soldier, diplomatist and writer of memoirs, was born in Paris...
, in his Mémoires, draws a devastating portrait of a scheming intrigant, and her accomplices and minion, rather unjustly, and without crediting the important and positive role the princess played in getting and keeping the royal pair on the throne, and arranging the poor finances of the kingdom of Spain.( Despite his harsh view of her political influence, Saint-Simon admits that he personally liked and admired her.) A readable life of Madame des Ursins was published in Paris in 1858 by NF Combes, and there is an English life by C Hill, The Princess des Ursins in Spain (London, 1899). See her Lettres inédites, edited by A Geoffroy (Paris, 1859), and her correspondence with Madame de Maintenon (Paris, 1826).
Madame des Ursins also is credited as having introduced the essence of bitter orange tree as a fashionable fragrance by using it to perfume her gloves and her bath. Since then, the name of Neroli (she was princess of Nerola, Italy) has been used to describe this essence. Neroli has a refreshing and distinctive, spicy aroma with sweet and flowery notes.