Hortense Mancini

Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin, was a 17th century aristocrat who was one of the less well known mistresses of Charles II. She was born in 1646, in Italy and was the niece of Cardinal Mazarin, the chief minister of Louis XIV of France. Her mother was the sister of Mazarin and her father was Lorenzo Mancini, an Italian nobleman. She had several sisters and they were all considered beauties. Her sister Marie was loved by Louis XIV when he was a young man and might have become his wife, had she been of higher birth. Hortense met Charles II on his travels abroad, before he was restored to the throne of England, and he proposed –but Mazarin felt that his niece could make a grander match, as there was no sign of Charles becoming King. However soon afterwards he was restored and Mazarin realised he had made a mistake. His niece could have become queen of England. At the age of 15, Hortense was married to Armand De La Porte, a very wealthy French nobleman. The couple had four children in quick succession but she realised that Armand was a religious maniac and very unstable. He attacked priceless works of arts on the grounds they were indecent. He was jealous of his beautiful wife and made her life miserable by insisting on her devoting herself to religion and believing that she was unfaithful. Hortense was a determined young woman and she left him, which was almost unheard of. She had to leave her young children behind, but her family protected her and helped her to escape. Louis XIV gave her a pension and Armand was not able to get her back. She set up a home and made it a meeting place for writers and artists and she had an affair with the Duke of Savoy, who had wanted to marry her some years earlier. Then the Duke died and Hortense was left unprotected. Women were still unable to manage their lives without male protection. Her husband again intervened in her life and froze her financial assets. She was then helped by Ralph Montague, the English ambassador to France. He hoped that the attractive woman might, if she went to England, manage to seduce Charles II, who was then deeply involved with Louise De Keroualle. In 1675, she travelled to England, to visit her young relative, Maria Beatrice, the Duchess of York... who was Italian. Hortense was also attracted to women and enjoyed dressing as a man. Charles became attracted to her. She was around 30 and very beautiful, and she was also lively, witty and sexually adventurous. He granted her a pension, and she settled in England. But she did not ever restrain herself from wild behaviour. She became involved with Anne, one of Charles’ illegitimate daughters, and caused another scandal when she fell in love with Louis, the Prince of Monaco...who was then in England. Charles was furious and cut off her pension, however he was never a really jealous man, and he soon restored it. He returned to his affair with Louise, and broke with Hortense but they remained friends. After Charles’ death, Hortense remained in London with her circle of friends, and wrote her memoirs. It was unusual at the time for even an educated woman to do this, but she wanted to set out her reasons for leaving her unkind and insane husband. She went on living under the protection of James II, whose wife was her cousin. After James left the throne, she stayed on, under the protection of William III. She died in 1699 at the age of 53 having led a wild and adventurous life..albeit one that had had had its share of suffering.