Claudine Françoise Mignot

Claudine Françoise Mignot

Claudine Françoise Mignot (commonly called Marie; 20 January 1624 – 30 November 1711) was a French adventuress born near Grenoble, at Meylan.

At the age of sixteen she attracted the notice of the secretary of Pierre des Portes d'Amblerieux, treasurer of the province of Dauphiné, and Amblerieux promised to promote their marriage. Instead, he married her himself on 29 July 1740 ^[1] and left her his fortune.

His will was disputed by his family, and Claudine went to Paris in 1653 to secure its fulfilment. She sought the protection of François de l'Hôpital, marshal of France, then a man of seventy-five. He married her on 25 August 1653,^[2] within a week of their first meeting, and after seven years of marriage died on 20 April 1660 ^[3] leaving her part of his estate. They had one son (c. 1654 – c. 1657).

By a third and morganatic marriage on 14 September 1672 with John Casimir, former king of Poland, a few weeks before his sudden death, she received a third, enormous fortune. In the testament, written on 12 December 1672 in Nevers, John Casimir called himself her debtor.^[4] Immediately on her marriage with Amblerieux she had begun to educate herself, and her wealth and talents assured her a welcome in Paris. They had one daughter Marie Catherine (1670 - after 1672), to whom her father left fifteen thousand livres, and asked her to join the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary.^[5]

She retired in her old age to a Carmelite convent in the city, where she died on 30 November 1711. Her history, very much modified, was the subject of a play by Bayard and Paul Duport, Marie Mignot (1829).

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "^{article name needed}". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.