Maria DE'MEDICI

Notes:

Marie de' Medici [1] (April 26, 1573, Florence ? July 3, 1642, Cologne), born in Italy as Maria de' Medici, was queen consort of France under the French name Marie de MÈdicis. She was the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the Bourbon branch of the kings of France. Later she was the regent for her son King Louis XIII of France
Born in Florence, Italy, she was the daughter of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and of Johanna, archduchess of Austria (1548 ? 1578). Her maternal grandparents were Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anne of Bohemia. Anne was a daughter of Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his wife Anne de Foix.

Uncommonly pretty in her youth, in October 1600 she married Henri IV of France, following the annulment of his marriage to Marguerite de Valois. She brought as part of her dowry 600,000 crowns. Her eldest son, the future King Louis XIII, was born at Fontainebleau the following year.

Infighting, unhappy marriage
The marriage was not a successful one. The queen feuded with Henri's mistresses, in language that shocked French courtiers. Her largest infighting was with her husband's leading mistress, Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, whom he had promised he would marry following the death of his former official mistress, Gabrielle d'EstrÈes. When he failed to do so, and instead married Marie, the result was constant bickering and political intrigues behind the scenes. Although the king could have easily banished his mistress, supporting his queen, he never did so. She, in turn, showed great sympathy and support to her husband's banished ex-wife, Margaret of Valois, prompting Henri to allow her back into the realm.

During her husband's lifetime Marie showed little sign of political taste or ability. Hours after Henri's assassination in 1610 she was confirmed as Regent by the Parlement of Paris. She banished from the court his mistress, Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues. However, not very bright, extremely stubborn, and growing obese, she was soon entirely under the influence of her unscrupulous Italian favourite, Concino Concini, who was created Marquis d'Ancre and Marshal of France.

They dismissed Henri IV's able minister the duc de Sully. Through Concini and the Regent, Italian representatives of the Roman Catholic Church hoped to force the suppression of Protestantism in France. Half Habsburg herself, she abandoned the traditional anti-Habsburg French policy. Throwing her support with Spain, she arranged the marriage of both the future king Louis and his sister Elizabeth to members of the Spanish Habsburg royal family.

Politics
Under the regent's lax and capricious rule, the princes of the blood and the great nobles of the kingdom revolted, and the queen, too weak to assert her authority, consented (15 May 1614) to buy off the discontented princes. The opposition was led by Henri de Bourbon-CondÈ, Duc d'Enghien, who pressured Marie into convoking the Estates General (1614-15), the last time they would meet in France until the opening events of the French Revolution.

In 1616 her policy was strengthened by the accession to her councils of Richelieu, who had come to the fore at the meeting of the Estates General. However, in 1617 her son Louis XIII, already several years into his legal majority, asserted his authority. The king effectively overturned the pro-Hapsburg, pro-Spanish policy by ordering the assassination of Concini, exiling the Queen to the Ch‚teau Blois and appointing Richelieu to his bishopric.

After two years of virtual imprisonment "in the wilderness" as she put it, she escaped from Blois in the night of 21/22 February 1619 and became the figurehead of a new aristocratic revolt headed by Gaston d'Orleans, which Louis' forces easily dispersed. Through the mediation of Richelieu the king was reconciled with his mother, who was allowed to hold a small court at Angers. She resumed her place in the royal council in 1621.

Coronation of Marie de' Medici in St. Denis (detail), Paris, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1622-1625The portrait by Rubens (above right) was painted at this time. Marie rebuilt the Luxembourg Palace (Palais du Luxembourg) in Paris, with an extravagantly flattering cycle of paintings by Rubens as part of the luxurious decor (left).

After the death of his favorite, the duke of Luynes, Louis turned increasingly for guidance to Richelieu. Marie de Medici's attempts to displace Richelieu ultimately led to her attempted coup; for a single day, the journÈe des dupes, 12 November 1630, she seemed to have succeeded; but the triumph of Richelieu was followed by her exile to CompiËgne in 1630, from where she escaped to Brussels in 1631 and Amsterdam in 1638.

Her entry into Amsterdam was considered a triumph by the Dutch, as her visit lent official recognition to the newly formed Dutch Republic. Spectacular displays (by Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert) and water pageants took place in the city?s harbor in celebration of her visit. There was a procession led by two mounted trumpeters; a large temporary structure erected on an artificial island in the Amstel River was built especially for the festival. The structure was designed to display a series of dramatic tableaux in tribute to her once she set foot on the floating island and entered its pavilion. Afterwards she was offered an Indonesian rice table by the burgomaster Albert Burgh. He also sold her a famous rosary, captured in Brazil, which she would like to have. The visit prompted Caspar Barlaeus to write his Medicea hospes ("The Medicean Guest") (1638).

Marie subsequently travelled to Cologne, where she died in 1642, scheming against Richelieu to the end.

HonorÈ de Balzac encapsulated the Romantic generation's negative view:

"Marie de' Medici, all of whose actions were prejudicial to France, has escaped the shame which ought to cover her name. Marie de' Medici wasted the wealth amassed by Henri IV; she never purged herself of the charge of having known of the king's assassination; her intimate was d'…pernon, who did not ward off Ravaillac's blow, and who was proved to have known the murderer personally for a long time. Marie's conduct was such that she forced her son to banish her from France, where she was encouraging her other son, Gaston, to rebel; and the victory Richelieu at last won over her (on the Day of the Dupes) was due solely to the discovery the cardinal made, and imparted to Louis XIII, of secret documents relating to the death of Henri IV." ? Essay "Catherine de Medicis".

Maria married Henry IV King Of FRANCE in Oct 1600. Henry (son of Antoine Of NAVARRE and Jeanne III Of NAVARRE) was born on 13 Dec 1553; died on 14 May 1610. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Louis XIII (September 27, 1601 ? May 14, 1643), called the Just (French: le Juste), was King of France from 1610 to 1643.

Early life
Born at the Ch‚teau de Fontainebleau, Louis XIII was the eldest child of Henry IV of France (1589?1610) and Marie de' Medici. His father was the first Bourbon King of France, having succeeded his ninth cousin, Henry III of France (1574?89), in application of the Salic law. Louis XIII's paternal grandparents were Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendome and Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre; his maternal grandparents were Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Johanna, archduchess of Austria.

Louis XIII ascended to the throne of France in 1610, at the age of eight and a half, upon the assassination of his father. His mother acted as Regent until Louis XIII came of age at thirteen, but she clung to power unofficially until in frustration he took the reins of government into his own hands at the age of fifteen. The assassination of Concino Concini (April 24, 1617), who had greatly influenced Marie's policymaking, effectively removed the Queen Mother's favorites from positions of power. Louis then came into his own as ruler of France. He immediately instated his own advisors to the crown, Jean-Louck Tromblin and Christoph Charleaux, in order to maintain his power. He filled his court with loyal friends and executed those who remained loyal to his mother. Under Louis XIII's rule, the Bourbon Dynasty sustained itself effectively on the throne that Henry IV had recently secured; but the question of freedom of religion continued to haunt the country.

The brilliant and energetic Cardinal Richelieu played a major role in Louis XIII's administration from 1624, decisively shaping the destiny of France for the next 18 years and dying only months before the King himself. As a result of Richelieu's work, Louis XIII became one of the first exemplars of an absolute monarch. Under Louis XIII the Habsburgs were humiliated, the French nobility was firmly kept in line behind their King, and the special privileges granted to the Huguenots by his father were retracted. Furthermore, Louis XIII had the port of Le Havre modernized and built up a powerful navy.

The King also did everything to reverse the trend for the promising artists of France to work and study in Italy. Louis XIII commissioned the great artists Nicolas Poussin and Philippe de Champaigne to decorate the Luxembourg Palace. In foreign matters, Louis XIII organized the development and administration of New France, expanding the settlement of Quebec westward along the Saint Lawrence River from Quebec City to Montreal.

On November 9, 1615, aged only 14, Louis XIII was married to a Habsburg Princess, Anne of Austria (1601?66), daughter of King Philip III of Spain (1598?1621). Their marriage was not consummated until 1619 (when he was 18) and his most intense emotional ties were with a series of handsome men. The marriage, like many Bourbon-Habsburg relationships, was only briefly a happy one, and the King's duties often kept them apart. After 23 years of marriage and four miscarriages, Anne finally gave birth to a son in 1638.

Though Richelieu was firmly in charge of French policies, the King's favorites left their mark on the reign. The first was the duc de Luynes, 23 years his senior, who was the boy's closest adult friend and adviser at the outset of his reign. The last of the King's favorites (1639?42) was the much younger marquis de Cinq-Mars, who was executed for conspiring with the Spanish enemy in time of war.

After Louis XIII's death in 1643, his wife Anne acted as regent for their four-year-old son, Louis XIV of France (1643?1715).

Louis married Anne Of AUSTRIA on 24 Nov 1615. Anne (daughter of Philip III Of SPAIN and Margarita Of AUSTRIA) was born on 22 Sep 1601; died on 20 Jan 1666. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henrietta married Charles I King Of ENGLAND on 13 Jun 1625. Charles (son of James I (Stuart) King of SCOTLAND and Anne Of DENMARK) was born on 19 Nov 1600 in Dunfermline Palace, Fife; died on 30 Jan 1649 in Banqueting House, Palace of Whitehall, London. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Christine married Victor Amadeus I Duke Of SAVOY in 1619. Victor (son of Charles Emmanuel I Of SAVOY and Catherine Michelle Of SPAIN) was born on 08 May 1587; died on 07 Oct 1637. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Gaston Jean-Baptiste, duc d'OrlÈans (April 25, 1608, Fontainebleau ? February 2, 1660, Blois), was the third son of the French king Henry IV and of his wife Marie de' Medici.

Known at first as the duc d'Anjou, he became duc d'OrlÈans, comte de Blois and comte de Chartres in 1626, and had nominal command of the army which besieged La Rochelle in 1628, having already entered upon that course of political intrigue which would occupy the remainder of his life. On two occasions he had to leave France for conspiring against the government of his mother and of Cardinal Richelieu; and after waging an unsuccessful war in Languedoc, he took refuge in Flanders. Reconciled with his brother Louis XIII, he plotted against Richelieu in 1635, fled from the country, and then submitted to the king and the cardinal.

Soon afterwards the same process repeated itself. Orleans stirred up Cinq-Mars to attempt Richelieu's murder, and then deserted his unfortunate accomplice (1642). In 1643, on the death of Louis XIII, Gaston became lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and fought against Spain on the northern frontiers of France; he was created duc d'AlenÁon in 1646. However, during the wars of the Fronde (1648?1653), he passed with great facility from one party to the other. Then exiled by Mazarin to Blois in 1652, he remained there until his death.

Gaston married Marie Of BOURBON on 06 Aug 1626 in Nantes. Marie was born in 1605; died in 1627. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gaston married Margaret Of LORRAINE on 31 Jan 1632 in Nancy. Margaret was born in 1615; died in 1672. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Philip IV King Of SPAIN in 1615. Philip (son of Philip III Of SPAIN and Margarita Of AUSTRIA) was born on 08 Apr 1605; died on 17 Sep 1665. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 1638 - 1 September 1715), known as Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) or the Sun King (le Roi Soleil), was King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country in European history.[1][a] In the age of absolutism in Europe, Louis XIV's France was a leader in the growing centralisation of power.[2]

Louis began his personal rule of France in 1661, after the death of his chief minister, the Italian Cardinal Mazarin.[3] An adherent of the concept of the divine right of kings, Louis continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralised state governed from the capital. He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism persisting in parts of France and, by compelling many members of the nobility to inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles, succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many members of which had participated in the Fronde rebellion during Louis' minority. By these means he became one of the most powerful French monarchs and consolidated a system of absolute monarchical rule in France that endured until the French Revolution.

Louis also enforced uniformity of religion under the Gallican Catholic Church. His revocation the Edict of Nantes abolished the rights of the Huguenot Protestant minority and subjected them to a wave of dragonnades, effectively forcing Huguenots to emigrate or convert, and virtually destroying the French Protestant community.

The Sun King surrounded himself with a dazzling constellation of political, military, and cultural figures such as Mazarin, Colbert, Louvois, the Grand Condé, Turenne, Vauban, Boulle, Molière, Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, Lully, Charpentier, Marais, Le Brun, Rigaud, Bossuet, Le Vau, Mansart, Charles, Claude Perrault, and Le Nôtre.

During Louis' long reign, France was the leading European power, and it fought three major wars: the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession. There were also two lesser conflicts: the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions. Warfare defined the foreign policy of Louis XIV, and his personality shaped his approach. Impelled "by a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique", Louis sensed that warfare was the ideal way to enhance his glory. In peacetime he concentrated on preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats that their job was to create tactical and strategic advantages for the French military.[4]

Louis XIV was born on 5 September 1638 in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was named Louis Dieudonné (Louis the God-given)[5] and bore the traditional title of French heirs apparent: Dauphin.[6] At the time of his birth, his parents had been married for 23 years. His mother had experienced four stillbirths between 1619 and 1631. Leading contemporaries thus regarded him as a divine gift and his birth a miracle of God.

Sensing imminent death, Louis XIII decided to put his affairs in order in the spring of 1643, when Louis XIV was four years old. In defiance of custom, which would have made Queen Anne the sole Regent of France, the king decreed that a regency council would rule on his son's behalf. His lack of faith in Queen Anne's political abilities was his primary rationale. He did, however, make the concession of appointing her head of the council.

Louis' relationship with his mother was uncommonly affectionate for the time. Contemporaries and eyewitnesses claimed that the Queen would spend all her time with Louis. Both were greatly interested in food and theatre, and it is highly likely that Louis developed these interests through his close relationship with his mother. This long-lasting and loving relationship can be evidenced by excerpts in Louis' journal entries, such as:

"Nature was responsible for the first knots which tied me to my mother. But attachments formed later by shared qualities of the spirit are far more difficult to break than those formed merely by blood."[7]

It was his mother who gave Louis his belief in the absolute and divine power of his monarchical rule.[8]

During his childhood, he was taken care of by the governesses Françoise de Lansac and Marie-Catherine de Senecey. In 1646, Nicolas V de Villeroy became the young king's tutor. Louis XIV became friends with Villeroy's young children, particularly François de Villeroy, and divided his time between the Palais-Royal and the nearby Hotel de Villeroy.

Minority and the Fronde

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Accession
Further information: Franco-Spanish War (1635?59)

Louis XIV in 1643, prior to becoming king, by Claude Deruet
On 14 May 1643, with Louis XIII dead, Queen Anne had her husband's will annulled by the Parlement de Paris (a judicial body comprising mostly nobles and high clergymen).[9] This action abolished the regency council and made Anne sole Regent of France. Anne exiled some of her husband's ministers (Chavigny, Bouthilier), and she nominated Brienne as her minister of foreign affairs.[10] Anne also nominated Saint Vincent de Paul as her spiritual adviser, which helped her deal with religious policy and the Jansenism question.[11]

Anne kept the direction of religious policy strongly in her hand until 1661; her most important political decisions were to nominate Cardinal Mazarin as her chief minister and the continuation of her late husband's and Cardinal Richelieu's policy, despite their persecution of her, for the sake of her son. Anne wanted to give her son absolute authority and a victorious kingdom. Her rationales for choosing Mazarin were mainly his ability and his total dependence on her, at least until 1653 when she was no longer regent. Anne protected Mazarin by arresting and exiling her followers who conspired against him in 1643: the Duke of Beaufort and Marie de Rohan.[12] She left the direction of the daily administration of policy to Cardinal Mazarin.

The best example of Anne's statesmanship and the partial change in her heart towards her native Spain is seen in her keeping of one of Richelieu's men, the Chancellor of France Pierre Séguier, in his post. Séguier was the person who had interrogated Anne in 1637, treating her like a "common criminal" as she described her treatment following the discovery that she was giving military secrets and information to Spain. Anne was virtually under house arrest for a number of years during her husband's rule. By keeping him in his post, Anne was giving a sign that the interests of France and her son Louis were the guiding spirit of all her political and legal actions. Though not necessarily opposed to Spain, she sought to end the war with a French victory, in order to establish a lasting peace between the Catholic nations.

The Queen also gave a partial Catholic orientation to French foreign policy. This was felt by the Netherlands, France's Protestant ally, which negotiated a separate peace with Spain in 1648.[13]

In 1648, Anne and Mazarin successfully negotiated the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War. Its terms ensured Dutch independence from Spain, awarded some autonomy to the various German princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and granted Sweden seats on the Imperial Diet and territories to control the mouths of the Oder, Elbe, and Weser rivers. France, however, profited most from the settlement. Austria, ruled by the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand III, ceded all Habsburg lands and claims in Alsace to France and acknowledged her de facto sovereignty over the Three Bishoprics of Metz, Verdun, and Toul. Moreover, eager to emancipate themselves from Habsburg domination, petty German states sought French protection. This anticipated the formation of the 1658 League of the Rhine, leading to the further diminution of Imperial power.

Early acts
As the Thirty Years' War came to an end, a civil war known as the Fronde (after the slings used to smash windows) erupted in France. It effectively checked France's ability to exploit the Peace of Westphalia. Anne and Mazarin had largely pursued the policies of Cardinal Richelieu, augmenting the Crown's power at the expense of the nobility and the Parlements. Anne interfered much more in internal policy than foreign affairs; she was a very proud queen who insisted on the divine rights of the King of France.[citation needed]


Europe after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648
All this led her to advocate a forceful policy in all matters relating to the King's authority, in a manner that was much more radical than the one proposed by Mazarin. The Cardinal depended totally on Anne's support and had to use all his influence on the Queen to avoid nullifying, but to restrain some of her radical actions. Anne imprisoned any aristocrat or member of parliament who challenged her will; her main aim was to transfer to her son an absolute authority in the matters of finance and justice. One of the leaders of the Parlement of Paris, whom she had jailed, died in prison.[14]

The Frondeurs, political heirs of the disaffected feudal aristocracy, sought to protect their traditional feudal privileges from the increasingly centralized royal government. Furthermore, they believed their traditional influence and authority was being usurped by the recently ennobled bureaucrats (the Noblesse de Robe, or "nobility of the robe"), who administered the kingdom and on whom the monarchy increasingly began to rely. This belief intensified the nobles' resentment.[citation needed]

In 1648, Anne and Mazarin attempted to tax members of the Parlement de Paris. The members refused to comply and ordered all of the king's earlier financial edicts burned. Buoyed by the victory of Louis, duc d?Enghien (later known as le Grand Condé) at the Battle of Lens, Mazarin, on Queen Anne's insistence, arrested certain members in a show of force.[15] The most important arrest, from Anne's point of view, concerned Pierre Broussel, one of the most important leaders in the Parlement de Paris.


1655 portrait of Louis, the Victor of the Fronde, portrayed as the god Jupiter
People in France were complaining about the expansion of royal authority, the high rate of taxation, and the reduction of the authority of the Parlement de Paris and other regional representative entities. Paris erupted in rioting as a result, and Anne was forced, under intense pressure, to free Broussel. Moreover, a mob of angry Parisians broke into the royal palace and demanded to see their king. Led into the royal bedchamber, they gazed upon Louis, who was feigning sleep, were appeased, and then quietly departed. The threat to the royal family prompted Anne to flee Paris with the king and his courtiers.

Shortly thereafter, the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia allowed Condé's army to return to aid Louis and his court. Condé's family was close to Anne at that time, and he agreed to help her attempt to restore the king's authority.[16] The queen's army, headed by Condé, attacked the rebels in Paris; the rebels were under the political control of Anne's old friend Marie de Rohan. Beaufort, who had escaped from the prison where Anne had incarcerated him five years before, was the military leader in Paris, under the nominal control of Conti. After a few battles, a political compromise was reached; the Peace of Rueil was signed, and the court returned to Paris.

Unfortunately for Anne, her partial victory depended on Condé, who wanted to control the queen and destroy Mazarin's influence. It was Condé's sister who pushed him to turn against the queen. After striking a deal with her old friend Marie de Rohan, who was able to impose the nomination of Charles de l'Aubespine, marquis de Châteauneuf as minister of justice, Anne arrested Condé, his brother Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, and the husband of their sister Anne Genevieve de Bourbon, duchess of Longueville. This situation did not last long, and Mazarin's unpopularity led to the creation of a coalition headed mainly by Marie de Rohan and the duchess of Longueville. This aristocratic coalition was strong enough to liberate the princes, exile Mazarin, and impose a condition of virtual house arrest on Queen Anne.

All these events were witnessed by Louis and largely explained his later distrust of Paris and the higher aristocracy.[17] "In one sense, Louis' childhood came to an end with the outbreak of the Fronde. It was not only that life became insecure and unpleasant ? a fate meted out to many children in all ages ? but that Louis had to be taken into the confidence of his mother and Mazarin and political and military matters of which he could have no deep understanding".[18] "The family home became at times a near-prison when Paris had to be abandoned, not in carefree outings to other chateaux but in humiliating flights".[18] The royal family was driven out of Paris twice in this manner, and at one point Louis XIV and Anne were held under virtual arrest in the royal palace in Paris. The Fronde years planted in Louis a hatred of Paris and a consequent determination to move out of the ancient capital as soon as possible, never to return.[19]

Just as the first Fronde (the Fronde parlementaire of 1648?1649) ended, a second one (the Fronde des princes of 1650?1653) began. Unlike that which preceded it, tales of sordid intrigue and half-hearted warfare characterized this second phase of upper-class insurrection. To the aristocracy, this rebellion represented a protest against and a reversal of their political demotion from vassals to courtiers. It was headed by the highest-ranking French nobles, among them Louis' uncle Gaston, Duke of Orléans and first cousin Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, known as la Grande Mademoiselle; Princes of the Blood such as Condé, his brother Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, and their sister the Duchess of Longueville; dukes of legitimised royal descent, such as Henri, Duke of Longueville, and François, Duke of Beaufort; so-called "foreign princes" such as Frédéric Maurice, Duke of Bouillon, his brother Marshal Turenne, and Marie de Rohan, Duchess of Chevreuse; and scions of France's oldest families, such as François de La Rochefoucauld.

Queen Anne played the most important role in defeating the Fronde because she wanted to transfer absolute authority to her son. In addition, most of the princes refused to deal with Mazarin, who went into exile for a number of years. The Frondeurs claimed to act on Louis' behalf, and in his real interest against his mother and Mazarin.

Queen Anne had a very close relationship with the Cardinal, and many observers believed that Mazarin became Louis XIV's stepfather by a secret marriage to Queen Anne.[20] However, Louis' coming-of-age and subsequent coronation deprived them of the Frondeurs' pretext for revolt. The Fronde thus gradually lost steam and ended in 1653, when Mazarin returned triumphantly from exile. From that time until his death, Mazarin was in charge of foreign and financial policy without the daily supervision of Anne, who was no longer regent.[21]

During this period, Louis fell in love with Mazarin's niece Marie Mancini, but Anne and Mazarin ended the king's infatuation by sending Mancini away from court to be married in Italy. While Mazarin might have been tempted for a short period of time to marry his niece to the King of France, Queen Anne was absolutely against this; she wanted to marry her son to the daughter of her brother, Philip IV of Spain, for both dynastic and political reasons. Mazarin soon supported the Queen's position because he knew that her support for his power and his foreign policy depended on making peace with Spain from a strong position and on the Spanish marriage. Additionally, Mazarin's relations with Marie Mancini were not good, and he did not trust her to support his position. All of Louis' tears and his supplications to his mother did not make her change her mind; the Spanish marriage was very important both for its role in ending the war between France and Spain, and because many of the claims and objectives of Louis' foreign policy in the next 50 years would be based on this marriage.[22]

Louis married Maria Theresa Of SPAIN in 1660. Maria was born in 1638; died in 1683. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Philip married Henrietta Anne Of ENGLAND in 1661. Henrietta (daughter of Charles I King Of ENGLAND and Henrietta Maria Queen Of ENGLAND) was born on 16 Jun 1644; died on 30 Jun 1670. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Philip married Elizabeth Charlotte Of PALATINE in 1671. Elizabeth was born in 1652; died in 1722. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

No legitimate issue. Believed to have fathered such illegitimate children as James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, who later rose against James II.

Name:
Charles did not ascend the English throne until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. He divided his time between devious diplomatic activity, centered on getting as much financial support as he could from the Catholic Louis XIV of France, and a full and sensuous life devoted to his own pleasure.

Tall and dark, with long curly black hair, sparkling eyes, and a sensuous mouth, Charles was very attractive to women.

Charles married Catherine Of BRAGANZA on 21 May 1662. Catherine was born in 1638; died in 1705. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mary married William II Prince Of ORANGE in 1648. William was born in 1626; died in 1650. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: 6 Feb 1685, Acceded
• Fact 1: 23 Apr 1685, Crowned at Westminster Abbey
• Fact 2: 23 Dec 1688, Deposed

Notes:

Name:
James ascended the throne on the death of his brother, Charles II, in 1685. His intention of restoring Catholicism, and his policies, led to conflict with Church and Parliament. The birth of a son, and potential Catholic monarch, in 1688 intensified the conflict, and within six months he was forced to flee into exile.

James married Anne HYDE on 3 Sep 1660 in London. Anne was born in 1637; died in 1671. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

James married Mary Of MODENA on 21 Nov 1673 in Dover, Kent. Mary was born in 1658; died in 1718. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henrietta married Philip I Duke Of ORLEANS in 1661. Philip (son of Louis XIII King Of FRANCE and Anne Of AUSTRIA) was born on 21 Sep 1640; died on 08 Jun 1701. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Princess Luisa Cristina of Savoy (27 July 1629 - 12 May 1692) was a Princess of Savoy by birth and the eldest daughter of Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy. She married her uncle Prince Maurice of Savoy but had no children. She was the owner of the future Villa della Regina. She was a first cousin of Louis XIV of France and Charles II of England.

Biography
Luisa Cristina was born at the Castello del Valentino in Turin. She was the eldest daughter of the future Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy and his wife Christine Marie of France. Her birth was greeted with excitement as prior to her birth, her parents had lost a son and heir and were expecting another son.[1] However, being a female and due to the salic law, she was barred from succeeding to the Duchy of Savoy which at the time of her birth was ruled by her grandfather Charles Emmanuel I. Luisa Cristina was said to have been illegitimate and the fruit of her mother's supposed affair with a French courtier named "Pommeuse".[1]

As a child, two of her brothers succeeded their father who became ruler of Savoy in 1630. Her father died in 1637 and was succeeded quickly by her brother Francis Hyacinth who died in 1638 and was followed by another brother Charles Emmanuel II. Her mother took over a regency which was disputed by her uncles Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano and Cardinal Maurice. The two brothers conspired against Christine Marie claiming the regency between the two of them causing a war in Savoy.

The war resulted in Thomas Francis and Maurice fleeing to Spain for support which came to nothing. Her mother was soon victorious in the ensuing wars thanks to French support in the form of her brother, Louis XIII. Returning to Savoy, Luisa Cristina was soon engaged to Maurice as part of a reconciliation between Christine Marie.[2] Luisa Cristina married Maurice in Turin on 18 August 1642. Maurice had previously been a cardinal and had to receive permission from Pope Urban VIII who consented to the match. The thirteen-year-old bride and forty-nine-year-old Maurice moved to Nice where Maurice was the governor of the city ? another part of the reconciliation.

Her husband died in 1657 of a stroke leaving Luisa Cristina a widow aged twenty seven. Her husband willed her his large art collection as well as his huge debts.[3] In Turin she lived at her husband's villa outside Turin. She also did much to improve the structure under the direction of Amedeo di Castellamonte. She also commissioned Guarino Guarini to carry out works on churches in Savoy.[4] Luisa Cristina died at the villa and left the property to her nephew's consort, the French born Anne Marie d'Orléans.[5]

Family/Spouse: Maurice Of SAVOY. Maurice (son of Charles Emmanuel I Of SAVOY and Catherine Michelle Of SPAIN) was born on 10 Jan 1593; died on 04 Oct 1657. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Charles Emmanuel II (Italian: Carlo Emanuele II di Savoia); 20 June 1634 ? 12 June 1675) was the Duke of Savoy from 1638 to 1675[1] and under regency of his mother Christine of France until 1648.[2] He was also Marquis of Saluzzo, Count of Aosta, Geneva, Moriana and Nice, as well as claimant king of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia. At his death in 1675 his second wife Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours acted as Regent for their nine-year-old son.

Biography
He was born in Turin to Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy, and Christine of France.[1] His maternal grandparents were Henry IV of France and his second wife Marie de' Medici. In 1638 at the death of his older brother Francis Hyacinth, Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel succeeded to the duchy of Savoy at the age of 4. His mother governed in his place, and even after reaching adulthood in 1648, he invited her to continue to rule.[2] Charles Emmanuel continued a life of pleasure, far away from the affairs of state.

He became notorious for his persecution of the Vaudois (Waldensians) culminating in the massacre of 1655, known as Piedmontese Easter. The massacre was so brutal that it prompted the English poet John Milton to write the sonnet On the Late Massacre in Piedmont. Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, called for a general fast in England and proposed to send the British Navy if the massacre was not stopped while gathering funds for helping the Waldensians. Sir Samuel Morland was commissioned with that task. He later wrote The History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piemont (1658). The 1655 massacre was only the beginning of a series of conflicts, the Savoyard?Waldensian wars (1655?1690), that saw Waldensian rebels use guerrilla warfare tactics against ducal military campaigns to enforce Roman Catholicism upon the entire population.

Only after the death of his mother in 1663, did he really assume power. He was not successful in gaining a passage to the sea at the expense of Genoa (Second Genoese?Savoyard War, 1672?1673),[3] and had difficulties in retaining the influence of his powerful neighbour France.

But he greatly improved commerce and wealth in the Duchy[citation needed], developing the port of Nice and building a road through the Alps towards France. He also reformed the army, which until then was mostly composed of mercenaries: he formed instead five Piedmontese regiments and recreated cavalry, as well as introducing uniforms. He also restored fortifications. He constructed many beautiful buildings in Turin[citation needed], for instance the Palazzo Reale.

He died on 12 June 1675, leaving his second wife as regent for his son.[4] He is buried at Turin Cathedral.

Marriages and issue
Charles Emmanuel first met Marie Jeanne of Savoy in 1659 and fell in love with her. However, his mother disagreed with the pairing, and encouraged him to marry Françoise Madeleine d'Orléans, daughter of his maternal uncle Gaston, Duke of Orléans, the younger brother of his mother Christine Marie. They were married 3 April 1663.[5] The couple had no issue. His mother died at the end of 1663, and his first wife died at the start of 1664. This left him free to get married on 20 May 1665 to Marie Jeanne of Savoy.[6] They had one son:

Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, future King of Sicily and later Sardinia;[3] married Anne Marie d'Orléans and had issue; had illegitimate issue also; married Anna Teresa Canalis di Cumania in a morganatic marriage
Charles Emmanuel II also recognized five of his illegitimate children by three different mistresses.[7]

Charles married Francoise Madeleine Of ORLEANS on 04 Mar 1663 in The Louvre. Francoise (daughter of Gaston Duke Of ORLEANS and Margaret Of LORRAINE) was born on 13 Oct 1648 in st. Germain-en-Laye; died on 14 Jan 1664 in Turin. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Charles married Marie Jeanne Baptiste of SAVOY-NEMOURS on 20 May 1665. Marie (daughter of Charles Amadeus Duke of NEMOURS and Elisabeth DE BOURBON) was born on 11 Apr 1644; died on 15 Mar 1724. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Ranuccio Farnese Duke Of PARMA, II. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Elector of Bavaria Ferdinand Maria Of BAVARIA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Marguerite married Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo DE'MEDICI, III on 20 Jun 1661. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Louis Joseph Duke Of GUISE on 15 May 1667 in st. Germain-en-Laye. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Francoise married Charles Emmanuel II Of SAVOY on 04 Mar 1663 in The Louvre. Charles (son of Victor Amadeus I Duke Of SAVOY and Christine Marie Duchess Of SAVOY) was born on 20 Jun 1634 in Palace of Venaria; died on 12 Jun 1675. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Louis of France (1 November 1661 - 14 April 1711) was the eldest son and heir of Louis XIV, King of France, and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. As the heir apparent to the French throne, he was styled Dauphin. He became known as Le Grand Dauphin after the birth of his own son, Le Petit Dauphin. As he died before his father, he never became king. His grandson became Louis XV of France.

Biography
Louis was born on 1 November 1661 at the Château de Fontainebleau, the eldest son of Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain (who were double first-cousins to each other). As a Fils de France ("Son of France") he was entitled to the style of Royal Highness. He was baptised on 24 March 1662 at the chapel of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye and given his father's name of Louis. At the ceremony, the Cardinal de Vendôme and the Princess of Conti acted as proxies for the godparents, Pope Clement IX and Queen Henrietta Maria of England. The latter was Louis's great-aunt. It was for this occasion that Jean-Baptiste Lully composed the motet Plaude Laetare Gallia.

He was initially under the care of royal governesses, among them being Julie d'Angennes and Louise de Prie de La Mothe-Houdancourt. When Louis reached the age of seven, he was removed from the care of women and placed in the society of men. He received Charles de Sainte-Maure, duc de Montausier, as his governor and was tutored by Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, the great French preacher and orator, without positive result:

Louis XIV secretly nursed the same suspicious jealousy of the Grand Dauphin that Louis XIII had once shown to himself. No prince could have been less deserving of such feelings. Monseigneur, as the heir to the throne was now known, had inherited his mother's docility and low intelligence. All his life he remained petrified with admiration of his formidable father and stood in fear of him even while lavish proofs of 'affection' were showered upon him. The best way for Monseigneur to do someone an injury was to commend him to the royal favour. He knew it, and did not conceal it from his rare petitioners.
Louis XIV saw to it that his son's upbringing was quite the opposite of his own. Instead of a devoted mother and an affectionate and likeable tutor, the Dauphin had the repellent and misanthropic Duc de Montausier, who ruthlessly applied the same methods that had so disturbed Louis XIII. They annihilated his grandson.
[...] Bossuet overwhelmed his backward pupil with such splendid lessons that the Dauphin developed a lasting horror of books, learning and history. By the age of eighteen, Monseigneur had assimilated almost none of the knowledge amassed to so little purpose, and the apathy of his mind was second only to that of his senses.[2]

It was said that when Louis was an adult, he could pass a whole day simply tapping his cane against his foot in an armchair. Nonetheless, his generosity, affability, and liberality gave him great popularity in Paris and with the French people in general. Louis was one of six legitimate children of his parents. The others all died in early childhood; the second longest-lived, Marie Thérèse of France, died at the age of five when Louis was 11.

Louis XIV, too, had a low opinion of his son:

indolent, fatuous, and dull, only the saving grace of his bourgeois morals kept him from outraging the pious people about him. Like his father he enjoyed the hunt, but that was about the only way in which this disappointing son resembled his father. [3]
Alive especially to political considerations, the King considered various European royal daughters as possible wives for his heir, such as Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, Louis' own cousin Marie Louise d'Orléans, daughter of Philippe, Duke of Orléans, and Princess Henrietta of England. According to various reports, Marie Louise and Louis were in love, having grown up with each other. However, Louis XIV decided to use Marie Louise to forge a link with Spain and forced her to marry the invalid Charles II of Spain, the Dauphin's own half-uncle.

Louis was engaged to his second cousin, Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria, when he was seven. She was a year older than Louis and, upon arriving at the French court, was described as being very unattractive. Nonetheless, she was a very cultured princess, and made initially a good impression upon her arrival as she was able to speak French fluently.

They were married by proxy in Munich on 28 January 1680; the couple met for the first time on 7 March 1680 in Châlons-sur-Marne.

Political and military role
Although he was permitted at first to attend and later to participate in the Conseil d'en haut, Louis did not play an important part in French politics. Nonetheless, as the heir to the throne, he was constantly surrounded by cabals battling for future prominence. Apart from the minor political role he played during his father's reign, Louis engaged in more leisurely pursuits and was esteemed for his magnificent collection of art at Versailles and Meudon. Louis XIV purchased Meudon for him from the widow of Louvois. The Dauphin employed Jules Hardouin Mansart and the office of the Bâtiments du Roi, but most particularly his long-term "house designer" Jean Bérain, head of the Menus Plaisirs, to provide new decors. He lived quietly at Meudon for the remainder of his life surrounded by his two half-sisters Marie Anne de Bourbon and the Princess of Condé, both of whom he loved dearly. These three made up the main part of the Cabal de Meudon which opposed the Dauphin's son Louis and his Savoyard wife, the Duchess of Burgundy.

Louis is said to have hunted wolves to extinction in the Île-de-France.[citation needed]

During the War of the Grand Alliance, he was sent in 1688 to the Rhineland front. Before leaving the court, Louis was thus instructed by his father:

In sending you to command my army, I am giving you an opportunity to make known your merit; go and show it to all Europe, so that when I come to die it will not be noticed that the King is dead.

There Louis succeeded, under the tutelage of Marshal de Duras and Vauban, in taking one of the bridgeheads across the Rhine, Philippsburg, which was surrounded by marshes. Louis' courage was shown when he visited the soldiers in the inundated trenches under heavy fire to observe the progress of the siege.[4] Montausier, his former governor, wrote to him thus:

I shall not compliment you on the taking of Philippsburg; you had a good army, bombs, cannons and Vauban. I shall not compliment you because you are brave. That virtue is hereditary. But I rejoice with you that you have been liberal, generous, humane, and have recognised the services of those who did well.[5]


The Grand Dauphin
Louis' capture of Philippsburg prevented the large gathering Imperial army from crossing the Rhine and invading Alsace.

Louis's position in the Conseil d'en haut gave him an opportunity to have his voice heard in the years and crises leading up to the War of the Spanish Succession. From his mother, Louis had rights and claims to the Spanish throne. His uncle Charles II of Spain had produced no descendants and, as he lay dying, had no heir to whom he could pass the throne. The choice of a successor was essentially split between the French and Austrian claimants. In order to improve the chances of a Bourbon succession, Louis gave up his (and his eldest son's) rights in favour of his second son, Philip, Duke of Anjou (later Philip V of Spain), who, as second son, was not expected to succeed to the French throne, thus keeping France and Spain separate. Moreover, in the discussions in the Conseil d'en haut regarding the French response to Charles II's last will and testament, which did indeed leave all Spanish possessions to Anjou, Louis persuasively argued for acceptance. He opposed those who advocated a rejection of the will and the adherence to the Partition Treaty signed with William III of England, even though that Treaty had awarded Naples, Sicily and Tuscany to him.

Louis died of smallpox on 11 April 1711, at the age of 49, predeceasing his father.

Literary tribute
The Delphin Classics was a large edition of the Latin classics, edited in the 1670s for Louis (Delphin is the adjective derived from dauphin) Thirty-eight scholars contributed to the series, which was edited by Pierre Huet, with assistance from several co-editors including Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet and Anne Dacier.
Marriages
Louis married Duchess Maria Anna of Bavaria on 7 March 1680. She was known in France as Dauphine Marie Anne Victoire. Although the marriage was not a close one, the couple had three sons. The Dauphine died in 1690 and in 1695 Louis secretly married his lover Marie Émilie de Joly de Choin. His new wife did not acquire the status of Dauphine of France, and the marriage remained without surviving issue. Pregnant at the time of her marriage, Mlle de Choin gave birth to a son, who was secretly sent to the countryside; the child died aged two, in 1697, without having been publicly named.[6]

Issue
Louis (16 August 1682 ? 18 February 1712), Duke of Burgundy and later Dauphin of France; married Princess Maria Adelaide of Savoy and had the future Louis XV of France;
Philip (19 December 1683 ? 9 July 1746), Duke of Anjou and later King of Spain; married Princess Maria Luisa of Savoy and had issue; married again Elisabeth Farnese and had issue such as the future Dauphine of France, Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain;
Charles (31 July 1686 ? 5 May 1714), Duke of Berry, Alençon and of Angoulême Count of Ponthieu; married Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans and had issue but none survived over a year;
Thus, through Burgundy and Anjou, Louis ensured the continuation of the senior Bourbon line on the throne of France and the establishment of the Spanish Bourbon dynasty.

Besides his unnamed child with Mme de Choin, Louis had two illegitimate daughters with Françoise Pitel:[7][8]

Anne Louise de Bonbour (1695 ? August 1716) ? wife of Anne Errard d'Avaugour;
Charlotte de Fleury (6 February 1697 ? 1750) ? wife of Gérard Michel de La Jonchère.
With another mistress, Marie Anne Caumont de La Force, he had one daughter:[8]

Louise Émilie de Vautedard (1694?1719) ? wife of Nicolas Mesnager.
Legend has it that a prophecy told at his birth[citation needed] said that Louis would be "son of a king, father of a king, but never a king". This was thought to be fulfilled as he was the son of Louis XIV of France and father of Philip V of Spain, but did not himself become king.

Ancestry
Louis's paternal grandparents were Louis XIII of France and Anne of Austria; he was descended, on his mother's side, from Philip IV of Spain and Élisabeth of France. Louis XIII and Élisabeth de Bourbon were siblings (the children of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici), as were Anne of Austria and Philip IV, who were the children of Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria. That means that he had only four great grandparents instead of the usual eight, and that his parents had the same coefficient of coancestry (1/8) as if they were half-siblings.

Louis married Maria Anna Victoria of BAVARIA in 1680. Maria (daughter of Elector of Bavaria Ferdinand Maria Of BAVARIA and Henrietta Adelaide Marie Of SAVOY) was born on 28 Nov 1660 in Munich, Bavaria; died on 20 Apr 1690 in Palace of Versailles, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Anne Marie d'Orléans (27 August 1669 ? 26 August 1728) was the first Queen consort of Sardinia by marriage to Victor Amadeus II of Savoy. She served as regent of Savoy during the absence of her spouse in 1686 and during the War of the Spanish Succession.[1] She is also an important figure in British history (see Jacobite Succession below).


She was the daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of Louis XIV, and Henrietta of England, the youngest daughter of Charles I of England. Her mother died at the Château de Saint-Cloud ten months after Anne Marie's birth. A year later, her father married 19-year-old Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, who became very close to her stepdaughters. Her half-brother Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, the future regent of France, was born of her father's second marriage.

Her stepmother later described her as one of the most amiable and virtuous of women.[2]

Marriage
To maintain French influence in the Italian states, her uncle King Louis XIV arranged her marriage, at the age of fourteen, to her third cousin Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, then Duke of Savoy, later King of Sicily and then of Sardinia. Louis XIV was an ally of her future mother-in-law, Marie Jeanne, and supported Marie Jeanne when she extended her regency even after her actual mandate as regent had come to an end in 1680: Marie Jeanne did, in fact, not surrender her position as regent until shortly before her son's wedding.[3]

The proxy marriage of Anne Marie and Víctor Amadeus took place at Versailles on 10 April 1684, the day after the signature of the marriage contract. Her husband-to-be was represented by her cousin, Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine. Louis XIV gave her a dowry of 900,000 livres.[4]

The Duke of Orléans accompanied his daughter as far as Juvisy-sur-Orge (18 kilometers south of Paris), and the comtesse de Lillebonne accompanied her all the way to Savoy. She met her husband Victor at Chambéry on 6 May, the nuptials being performed at the castle by the Archbishop of Grenoble. Two days later, the newlyweds made their "Joyous Entry" into Turin.

Anne Marie bore nine children, beginning with Marie-Adélaïde just a few months after Anne Marie's 16th birthday. The birth nearly cost Anne Marie her life, prompting administration of the viaticum.[5] Marie-Adélaïde married Louis, Duke of Burgundy, grandson of Louis XIV in 1697, and was the mother of Louis XV.

This marriage was arranged with the assistance of the maréchal de Tessé and of Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, comtesse de Verrué, who was Victor's mistress from 1689 till 1700.

Her husband had two children with Jeanne. Nonetheless, when he fell ill with smallpox, Anne Marie nursed him until his recovery.

Queen Anne Marie
After her arrival in Savoy, Anne Marie came under the influence of her pro-French mother-in-law, who maintained a powerful position as a French ally at the court of Savoy. She was described as a dutiful and humble daughter-in-law, who loyally adhered to Marie Jeanne's wishes.[6] Her close relationship with her mother-in-law was not viewed favorably by her spouse, who regarded it as a political threat, as he had long been opposed to his mother's influence in politics.[7]

The personal relationship between Anne Marie and Victor Amadeus was reportedly somewhat cool during the first years of their marriage, partly due to the adultery on his part and his disappointment that she did not give birth to a son for several years.[8] Anne Marie served as regent for the first time during the trip of Victor Amadeus in 1686, and was said to have handled the task well despite her young age.[9]

When Victor Amadeus severed his ties with France in 1690, Anne Marie and her children accompanied her mother-in-law when they demonstratively left the capital in protest.[10]

Despite his marriage ties to France, Victor Amadeus joined the anti-French side in the War of the Spanish Succession. Anne Marie was appointed by him to serve as regent of Savoy during his absence in the war, a task she handled with maturity and judgement.[11] In 1706, Turin was besieged by French forces under the command of Anne Marie's half-brother Philippe d'Orléans, and Spanish forces of her cousin and son-in-law Philip V. She and her sons Victor Amadeus and Carlo Emanuele were forced to flee to Genoa.[12]

When the war was ended in 1713 by the Treaty of Utrecht, Victor Amadeus received the Kingdom of Sicily, formerly a Spanish possession. Anne Marie's stepmother wrote: I shall neither gain nor lose by the peace, but one thing I shall enjoy is to see our Duchess of Savoy become a queen, because I love her as though she were my own child ...[13] When Victor Amadeus left for his coronation in Sicily, he had originally planned to leave Anne Marie behind to function as regent in his absence, but as he feared that she would let herself be directed by his mother because of her loyalty to her, he changed his mind and took her along with him instead.[14] Anne Marie was crowned with him in Sicily.

At the death of her eldest son in 1715, both she and Victor Amadeus fell into severe depression and left the capital to mourn, leaving Marie Jeanne to handle their official duties.[15] Victor Amadeus was forced to exchange Sicily for the less important domain of Sardinia in 1720, but retained the title of King.

As the Savoyard consort, Anne-Marie had the use of the Royal Palace of Turin, the vast Palazzina di caccia di Stupinigi outside the capital, and the Vigna di Madama Reale.[16]

Queen Anne Marie died of heart failure at her villa on 26 August 1728, the day before her 59th birthday. She is buried at the Basilica of Superga in Turin, where all her children, except Marie-Adélaïde and Maria Luisa, are also buried.

Jacobite succession
From 1714 to 1720, Anne Marie d'Orléans was the heiress presumptive to the Jacobite claim to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. These claims were held at the time by James Francis Edward Stuart ("the Old Pretender", son of James II). Anne Marie became heiress presumptive with the death of James' daughter Queen Anne in 1714. She was displaced as heir by the birth of the Old Pretender's son, Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie"), on 31 December 1720. Charles Edward and his brother Henry, Cardinal Stuart, both died without legitimate issue, so the descendants of Anne Marie d'Orléans inherited the Jacobite claim, i.e. they would have inherited the British crown had it not been for the Act of Settlement, which excluded the claims of the Catholic Stuarts and d'Orléans' and settled the throne on the nearest Protestant relatives, the Hanoverians.

Issue
During her marriage, Anne Marie gave birth to nine children, of whom only three survived to adulthood and one outlived her:[17][18]

Princess Marie Adélaïde of Savoy (b. Turin, 6 December 1685 ? d. Versailles, 12 February 1712), married Louis, Duke of Burgundy and was the mother of Louis XV of France.
Princess Maria Anna of Savoy (b. Turin, 14 August 1687 ? d. Turin, 5 August 1690).
Princess Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy (b. Turin, 17 September 1688 ? d. Madrid, 14 February 1714), married King Philip V of Spain.
Stillborn daughter (Turin, 6 June 1690).
Stillborn daughter (Turin, 19 July 1691).
Stillborn son (Turin, 9 November 1697).
Victor Amadeus Filippo Giuseppe, Prince of Piedmont (b. Turin, 6 May 1699 ? d. of smallpox, Turin, 22 March 1715).
Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy (b. Turin, 27 April 1701 ? d. Turin, 20 February 1773), King of Sardinia.
Prince Emanuele Philibert of Savoy (b. Turin, 1 December 1705 ? d. Turin, 19 December 1705), Duke of Chablais.

Family/Spouse: King of Sicily and Sardinia Victor Amadeus II Of SAVOY. Victor (son of Charles Emmanuel II Of SAVOY and Marie Jeanne Baptiste of SAVOY-NEMOURS) was born on 14 May 1666 in Royal Palace, Turin, Savoy; died on 31 Oct 1732 in Castle of Rivoli, Turin, Savoy. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Edward Henry LEE. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: 13 Feb 1689, Acceded (jointly)
• Fact 1: 11 Apr 1689, Crowned at Westminster Abbey (jointly)

Mary married William Of ORANGE on 4 Nov 1677 in London. William was born on 14 Nov 1650 in the Hague, Holland; died on 8 Mar 1702 in Kensington Palace. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: 8 Mar 1702, Acceded
• Fact 1: 23 Apr 1702, Crowned at Westminster Abbey

Notes:

Name:
The last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne succeeded William of Orange in 1702. Shortly after Anne;s accession, England declared war on France in the War of the Spanish Succession. In the course of this conflict Britain gained four great victories in battle, and established itself as a major European power.

Anne married George Prince of DENMARK on 28 Jul 1683 in St. James's Palace. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Victor Amadeus II (Vittorio Amedeo Francesco; 14 May 1666[1] ? 31 October 1732) was Duke of Savoy from 1675 to 1730. He also held the titles of marquis of Saluzzo, duke of Montferrat, prince of Piedmont and count of Aosta, Moriana and Nice.

Louis XIV organised his marriage in order to maintain French influence in the Duchy, but Victor Amadeus soon broke away from the influence of France. At his father's death in 1675, his mother took over a regency in the name of her nine-year-old son and would remain in de facto power till 1684 when Victor Amadeus banished her further involvement in the state.[2]

Having fought in the War of the Spanish Succession, he became king of Sicily in 1713, but he was forced to exchange this title and instead became king of Sardinia.[3]

Victor Amadeus left a considerable cultural influence in Turin, remodeling the Royal Palace of Turin, Palace of Venaria, Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi, as well as building the Basilica of Superga where he rests.[4]


Infancy and regency
Victor Amadeus was born in Turin to Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy and his second wife Marie Jeanne of Savoy. Named after his paternal grandfather Victor Amadeus I he was their only child.[2] As an infant he was styled as the Prince of Piedmont, traditional title of the heir apparent to the duchy of Savoy. A weak child, his health was greatly monitored. As an infant he had a passion for soldiers and was noted as being very intelligent.[2]

His father died in June 1675 in Turin at the age of forty after a series of convulsive fevers.[5] His mother was declared Regent of Savoy and, known as Madame Royale at court, took power. In 1677, during her regency, she tried to arrange a marriage between Victor Amadeus and his first cousin Infanta Isabel Luísa of Portugal, the presumptive heiress of her father, Peter II and Victor Amadeus' aunt. His mother urged him to agree to the marriage, as this would have left Marie Jeanne permanently in control of the Duchy of Savoy as Regent because her son would have had to live in Portugal with his new wife. The duchy would then revert to the Kingdom of Portugal at her death. Victor Amadeus refused, and a party was even formed which refused to recognise his leaving Savoy. Despite a marriage contract being signed between Portugal and Savoy on 15 May 1679,[6] the marriage between Victor Amadeus and the Infanta came to nothing and was thus cancelled.

Other candidates included Maria Antonia of Austria, a Countess Palatine of Neuburg and Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici. Victor Amadeus was keen on the match with Tuscany and negotiations were kept secret from France even though the match never happened. Under the influence of Louis XIV and Marie Jeanne, Victor Amadeus was forced to marry a French princess Anne Marie d'Orléans. His mother was keen on the match and had always promoted French interests having been born in Paris a member of a cadet branch of the House of Savoy.[7] He asked for Anne Marie's hand in March 1684, Victor Amadeus, who had been using political allies to gain support to end his mother's grip on power, succeeded in 1684 when she was banished from further influence in the state.[8]

Salt wars
A significant event of his mother's regency was the Salt Wars of 1680. These rebellions were caused by the unpopular taxes on salt in all cities in Savoy. The system had been put in place by Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy in order to raise money for the crown. The annual payment of a tax which had been in place for over 100 years caused great discontent and rebellion finally broke out in Mondovì, where the people refused to pay taxes to the emissary of Savoy, Andrea Cantatore di Breo. The unrest caused an army to be sent to stop the unrest in the town, which was pacified quickly. However, in the town of Montaldo, the unrest began again and was more serious than before. 200 soldiers were killed in warfare which lasted for several days.

The news of these rebellions soon reached a wider scope and it became clear that soon the whole of Piedmont was on the verge of revolt. Power at this point still being with Victor Amadeus' mother, she ordered representatives of the town of Mondovì to go to Turin to conclude treaties and were cordially welcomed by the young Victor Amadeus, who agreed to the treaties. The event had allowed Victor Amadeus a chance to exert some power.

Duke of Savoy
Having succeeded in ending his mother's power in Savoy, Victor Amadeus looked to his oncoming marriage with the youngest child of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (brother of Louis XIV) and Henrietta of England. The contract of marriage between Anne Marie and the Duke of Savoy was signed at Versailles on 9 April; On 10 April 1684, Anne Marie was married at Versailles, by proxy, to Victor Amadeus. The couple were married in person on 6 May 1684.


At the urging of Louis, Victor Amadeus II began a large scale persecution of the Vaudois (Piedmontese and Savoyard Protestants) in 1685. The state had been bankrupted due to various conflicts and a famine in 1679 which had used all last resources.[9] Due to his alliances with England and the Dutch Republic during the Nine Years War, he was forced to cease this practice from 1688, and in 1694 granted an Edict of Toleration. However, in 1698 Louis XIV forced him to expel all Protestant immigrants from Savoy in accordance with a treaty of 1696.[10]

During this period he became anxious to free himself of domination by Louis, and his first sign of independence was his independent visit to Venice in 1687, where he conferred with Prince Eugene of Savoy and others. Louis discovered this and demanded that Victor Amadeus launch another expedition against the Vaudois; he grudgingly complied, but as described below soon chose the allies countering France.[11]



Victor Amadeus II undertook sweeping administrative reforms within Savoy. In 1696 he established a system of intendants, based on the French model, responsible for collecting taxes and law enforcement. In 1697 he began a land survey which was largely completed by 1711, the Perequazione, to examine the land holdings and privileges of the Church and nobility. In 1717 he reformed the secretariat system in Turin establishing individual secretaries for war, internal affairs and foreign affairs. From the 1670s he also had a new administrative zone built in Turin, around the ducal palace. This zone included a military academy, the ministry of war, a mint, and a customs house. This work was still ongoing upon his death.

Victor Amadeus also undertook a number of military reforms. Often when one of his key fortresses was under attack, he would replace its commanding officer with one of his most reliable and trusted leaders.[12] In 1690 he established a select militia within his territories, and he later overhauled the militia system in 1714 and strictly codified it. This included an obligation for each region under his rule to provide a number of men for the militia based on population.[13] From 1713 he also began to establish his own navy based on the limited Sicilian naval forces he had been granted.

Victor Amadeus was able to use the experienced armies he developed in foreign wars to establish more firm control within his own territories. Faced with rebellion by Mondovì at the end of the century, he brought a force of veterans from the Nine Years War there and re-established his authority. He employed a similar strategy against an anti-tax riot in Cigliano in 1724.[14]

Under his mother's regency Savoy, despite being a state of the Holy Roman Empire, was closely linked to and heavily dependent upon France, essentially becoming a French satellite. Victor Amadeus II broke this link by joining alliances against France in both the Nine Years War and the War of the Spanish Succession.[15] Savoy was considered a valuable ally in both wars due to its geographical position, enabling a second front to be opened against France in the south.[16] Savoy relied heavily on foreign subsidies, particularly from England and the Dutch Republic, in both wars to maintain its armies.

Nine Years War
At the start of the Nine Years War, Savoy had three regiments in the service of France in Flanders. Victor Amadeus struggled throughout the early part of the war to bring those troops back into his own use.[17] Part of the agreement he reached with the Grand Alliance against France was that they would enable him to recover Pinerolo,[15] which his predecessor and namesake had lost decades before. In 1692, he was the only member of the Grand Alliance to bring the war to French lands, invading the Dauphiné. In 1695 and 1696, he secretly negotiated a separate treaty with Louis XIV of France which included the return of Pinerolo to Savoy.[18] Throughout the war, he greatly increased the size of the army of Savoy from about 8500 to more than 24000.[19]

During the War of the Spanish Succession, foreign subsidies amounted for almost half of the revenue raised by Savoy to fight the war. The end of the Nine Years' War had helped to design a new balance on the continent: at the death the childless Charles II of Spain he left his throne to Philip, grandson of Louis XIV. The will stated that should Philip not accept it would go to his brother Charles. Victor Amadeus was himself in line to succeed, as a great-grandson of Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain.[20] As a result, Victor Amadeus expected compensation in the form of a territory which had been owned by the vast Spanish empire. Victor Amadeus had his eye on the Duchy of Milan which, having signed a treaty with Louis XIV, had support in conquering the duchy. With the Treaty of Vigevano in October 1696, however Louis XIV's support waned.[20] Victor Amadeus subsequently allied himself with Emperor Leopold I.

England and Austria ignored his claim, the latter of which had a candidate in the person of Archduke Charles, who immediately proclaimed himself King of Spain. The Grand Duke of Tuscany also ignored his claims. In the meantime he pursued the expansion of Savoy and bought various fiefdoms of the Holy Roman Empire.

Victor Amadeus was in a position where on most sides of Savoy was a Bourbon ruler, the enemy of Philip V, and he was forced to let French troops enter his lands in order to get Milan which Victor Amadeus had wanted so greatly. Forced to ally himself again this time to Louis XIV and his grandson in Spain, his daughter Maria Luisa was used as a pawn to seal this alliance. His daughter subsequently married Philip V in 1701.[21] In 1701, he fought bravely at the Battle of Chiari, fought in the name of Bourbon control of Milan.[21] By 1702, Victor Amadeus was considering changing allegiance to the emperor again having entered secret correspondence with the emperor who promised him the Duchy of Montferrat. In order to appease him, the emperor increased his bribe, adding various territories in Lombardy, Victor Amadeus having ignored him.

In 1703, Victor Amadeus switched sides, joining the Grand Alliance as he had in the Nine Years War.[22] Savoy fared particularly badly against the larger French forces resulting in a siege of Turin in 1706.[23] Anne Marie's uncle, Louis XIV (along with Spanish forces from Anne Marie's second cousin Philip V of Spain), besieged Turin during the Battle of Turin. French troops were under the control of Anne Marie's half brother, the Duke of Orléans.[citation needed] She and her sons were forced to flee Turin with the grandmother for the safety of Genoa.[24] Turin was saved by the combined forces of Victor Amadeus and Prince Eugene of Savoy in September 1706.[23]

King of Sardinia
As a result of his aid in the War of the Spanish Succession, Victor Amadeus II was made King of Sicily in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht which ended the war. Victor Amadeus was forced to exchange Sicily for the less important kingdom of Sardinia in 1720 after objections from an alliance of four nations, including several of his former allies.[25] The duke was a marquis and Prince and Perpetual Vicar in the Holy Roman Empire.

As ruler of an independent kingdom and a key player in the recent war, Victor Amadeus significantly expanded his foreign relations. As a duke, he had envoys and embassies in France, the Empire, and Rome. In 1717, he established his own foreign office.[26]


Having done much to improve the state of his inheritance in 1684, Victor Amadeus took the decision to abdicate in September 1730. The previous month the lonely king had lost most of his family, including his favourite and eldest son the Prince of Piedmont, and sought the security of a previous mistress Anna Canalis di Cumiana. The couple were married in a private ceremony on 12 August 1730 in the Royal Chapel in Turin having obtained permission from Pope Clement XII. Still attractive in her forties, Victor Amadeus had long been in love with her and as a wedding gift, created her the Marchioness of Spigno.[27] The couple made their marriage public on 3 September 1730 much to the dismay of the court. A month later, Victor Amadeus announced his wish to abdicate the throne and did so in a ceremony at the Castle of Rivoli on the day of his marriage. His son succeeded him as Charles Emmanuel III.

Taking the style of King Victor Amadeus, he and Anna moved into the château de Chambéry outside the capital. The couple took a small retinue of servants and Victor Amadeus was kept informed of matters of state. He insisted on having a Louis XIV-style wig with him at all times as his only luxury.

Under the influence of Anna, in 1731 having suffered a stroke, Victor Amadeus decided he wanted to resume his tenure on the throne and informed his son of his decision.[28] Arrested by his son, he was transported to the Castle of Moncalieri and Anna was taken to a house for reformed prostitutes at the Castle of Ceva but was later allowed to return to the Castle of Rivoli where her husband was moved. She was returned to him on 12 April. The stroke seemed to have affected Victor Amadeus in a way which caused him to later turn violent towards his wife, blaming her for his misfortunes.[25]

King Victor Amadeus died in September 1732 and was buried in the Convent of San Giuseppe di Carignano. His son decided not to bury him in the Basilica of Superga which Victor Amadeus had built and where he asked to be buried, as his son did not want to remind the public of the scandal which his abdication had caused. Anna was moved to the Convent of the Visitation in Pinerolo where she died aged 88.[25]

Cultural legacy
Despite his political reforms and his passion for trying to increase the importance of Savoy in Europe, Victor Amadeus left a considerable cultural legacy in the city of his birth. In 1697 Victor Amadeus commissioned Le Notre to lay out large gardens at the Palace of Turin where he had previously commissioned the Viennese Daniel Seiter to paint a famous gallery which exists to this day. Victor Amadeus subsequently had Seiter knighted. He also encouraged musical patronage in Savoy and the court became a centre for various musicians of the period.

Being crowned King of Sicily in Palermo in December 1713, he returned to Turin in September 1714. From Palermo he brought back Filippo Juvarra, an Italian architect who had spent many years in Rome.[29] Juvarra was patronised by Victor Amadeus and was the mind behind the remodelling of the Royal Palace of Turin, Palace of Venaria, Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi as well as building the Basilica of Superga. The architect was also responsible for various roads and piazza's in Turin. Victor Amadeus' mother also used Juvarra for the famous staircase within the Palazzo Madama where she lived after being banished.[29]

In 1997 the UNESCO added a group of buildings which were connected to Victor Amadeus and his family to be added to have World Heritage status. These buildings including the Royal Palace, the Palazzo Madama, the Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi and his wife's Villa della Regina were grouped as the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy.[30]

Family and issue
His distant relationship with his mother was always strained and has been blamed on her ambition to keep power to herself.[31] Marie Jeanne spent most of her time relegated to state business which she enjoyed and had little time for her only child whom she kept under close supervision in order to make sure he would try to assume power.[31] Anne Marie gave her husband six children but also had two stillbirths of each gender one in 1691 and again in 1697. Three of these children would go on to have further progeny including the eldest Maria Adelaide who was the mother of Louis XV of France. His second daughter Maria Luisa known in the family as Louison would marry Philip V of Spain in 1701 and was also regent of Spain for various periods. These two marriages were tactics used by Louis XIV to keep Victor Amadeus close to France prior to the War of the Spanish Succession.[32]


Anne Marie would remain a devoted wife. She quietly accepted his extramarital affairs; the longest one being with the famed beauty Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes by whom he had two children. Jeanne Baptiste was his mistress for eleven years and eventually fled Savoy due to Victor Amadeus' obsession with her. Victor Amadeus subsequently had his daughter with Jeanne Baptiste, Maria Vittoria, marry the Prince of Carignano from which the present Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples is a direct descendant.[33] His favourite child was Victor Amadeus born in 1699 and given the title Prince of Piedmont as heir apparent. The Prince of Piedmont later died in 1715 from smallpox[34] Anne Marie died in 1728 after a series of heart attacks.[35]

His relationship with his younger son and eventual successor Charles Emmanuel was a cold one and the two were never close.[36] Victor Amadeus organised the first two marriages of Charles Emmanuel the first one being to Anne Christine of Sulzbach, daughter of the Count Palatine of Sulzbach which produced a son which died in infancy.[37] The second marriage was to Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg a first cousin of Anne Christine and mother of six children including the future Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia.[27]

Legitimate issue
Maria Adelaide of Savoy (1685?1712); married Louis, Duke of Burgundy and had issue;
Maria Anna of Savoy (1687?1690);
Maria Luisa of Savoy (1688?1714) married Philip V of Spain and had issue;
Victor Amadeus of Savoy (1699?1715) died unmarried;
Charles Emmanuel of Savoy (1701?1773); the next Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia.
Emanuele Philibert of Savoy (1705-1705) died in infancy.
Illegitimate issue
Maria Vittoria of Savoy (1690?1766) married Victor Amadeus I, Prince of Carignano and had issue;
Vittorio Francesco of Savoy (1694?1762) married Maria Lucrezia Franchi di Pont, had no issue;

Family/Spouse: Anne Marie of ORLEANS. Anne (daughter of Philip I Duke Of ORLEANS and Henrietta Anne Of ENGLAND) was born on 27 Aug 1669 in Chateau de Saint-Cloud, France; died on 26 Aug 1728 in Villa Della regina, Piedmont. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria (28 November 1660 ? 20 April 1690) was Dauphine of France by marriage to Louis, Grand Dauphin, son and heir of Louis XIV. She was known as the Dauphine Marie Anne Victoire or la Grande Dauphine. The dauphine was regarded a "pathetic" figure at the court of France, isolated and unappreciated due to the perception that she was dull, unattractive and sickly.


Life
Maria Anna was the eldest daughter of Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria and his wife Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy. Her maternal grandparents were Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy and Christine Marie of France, the second daughter of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici, thus her husband the dauphin was her second cousin.

Born in Munich, capital of the Electorate of Bavaria, Maria Anna was betrothed to the dauphin of France in 1668, at the age of eight, and was carefully educated to fulfill that role. Besides her native language of German, she was taught to speak French, Italian and Latin. She was said to have looked forward to the fate of becoming dauphine of France. Maria Anna was very close to her mother, who died in 1676. Her siblings included Violante of Bavaria, future wife of Ferdinando de' Medici as well as the future Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian II Emanuel.

Dauphine
Prior to her marriage to the dauphin, there was a proxy ceremony in Munich on 28 January 1680; the couple would meet for the first time on 7 March 1680 in Châlons-sur-Marne. She was the first dauphine of France since Mary, Queen of Scots married Francis II of France in 1558.

Upon her marriage, Maria Anna took on the rank of her husband as a Fille de France (Daughter of France); this meant that she was entitled to the style "Royal Highness" and the form of address Madame la Dauphine.

When she first arrived in France, Maria Anna made a good impression with her good French. When she entered Strasbourg, she was addressed in German, but interrupted the greeting by saying, "Gentlemen, I speak French!" The impression of her appearance, however, was not as good, and she was called "terribly ugly". Others said, that although she may not have been beautiful, she did have personal charm.


Dauphine Victoire, 1680
As soon as she married the dauphin, Maria Anna was the second most important woman at court after her mother-in-law, Queen Maria Theresa of Spain. When the queen died in July 1683, Maria Anna ranked as the most prominent female at court and was given the apartments of the late queen. The king expected her to perform the functions of the first lady at court, but her ill health made it very difficult for her to carry out her duties. The king was completely unsympathetic to her situation and accused her falsely of hypochondria.

Her husband took mistresses, and she lived an isolated life in her apartments, where she spoke with her friends in German, a language her husband could not understand. She was very close to a fellow German at court, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, the wife of the king's younger brother Philippe. She was said to be depressed having to live at a court where beauty was so much prized, not being beautiful herself. She died in 1690. An autopsy revealed a multitude of internal disorders that completely vindicated her complaints of chronic and severe illness.

Maria Anna was buried at the Royal Basilica of Saint Denis.

Issue
Louis de France (16 August 1682 ? 18 February 1712), Duke of Burgundy and later Dauphin of France; married his second cousin Princess Maria Adelaide of Savoy; they were the parents of Louis XV of France;
Philippe de France (19 December 1683 ? 9 July 1746), Duke of Anjou, later King of Spain; married his second cousin Princess Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy and had issue; married again Elisabeth Farnese and had issue. He was the first Bourbon king of Spain and the ancestor of every subsequent monarch of that country;
Charles de France (31 July 1686 ? 5 May 1714), Duke of Berry, Alençon, and Angoulême, Count of Ponthieu; married his first cousin Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans and had issue, but none survived over a year.
Titles and styles
28 November 1660 ? 7 March 1680: Her Serene Highness Duchess Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria
7 March 1680 ? 20 April 1690: Her Royal Highness The Dauphine of France

Maria married Grand Dauphin Louis Of FRANCE in 1680. Louis (son of Louis XIV King Of FRANCE and Maria Theresa Of SPAIN) was born on 1 Nov 1661 in Chateau de Fontainebleau, France; died on 14 Apr 1711 in Chateau de Meudon, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]