A Tale of Tyranny: The Unfortunate Marriage of Hortense Mancini

We do love a good story here at Vintage Ladies’ Guide, and the tumultuous marriage between the young Ortensia Mancini (anglicized to “Hortense”) and her eccentric husband makes for one. The husband, the 2nd Duc de La Meilleraye, was not only a religious fanatic, but extremely controlling and jealous. He restricted his wife’s social life, forced her to travel to desolate places, and was suspicious of anyone in her association. He even confiscated her most valuable possessions, including her jewels. The Duchess, frustrated and unhappy, fled from her husband twice. Ultimately, she was confined to a nunnery under her husband's control. The narrative that we’ll share below paints a picture of a deeply unhappy marriage marked by control and religious extremism.

Things finally turned around for Hortense, and she ultimately fled to the protection of her brother, the Duc de Nevers, in order to escape her awful marriage. Later, she moved to England, where she caught the eye of King Charles II, who had, in fact, been the first suitor to propose marriage to her years prior. Her uncle, the Cardinal Mazarin, initially refused, a decision that he most certainly regretted when Charles ascended the thorne. Upon her arrival in England, she became the favorite mistress of the King, and enjoyed a remarkably free and privileged position due to his favor.

Despite her intelligence and wit, her reputation was eventually tarnished by rumors of promiscuity, including affairs with both men and women. Although she briefly held the position of the king's favorite, her scandalous behavior ultimately led to her social downfall. But Hortense Mancini was a remarkable woman who defied societal norms and lived life on her own terms. Her story is a testament to her resilience.

The following description of her marriage comes from Some Beauties of the 17th Century, written in 1907. It is certainly worth a read.

A more ill-suited pair than the young Duchess and her husband it would be difficult to imagine. The child-wife, wayward, flattered, and spoiled, with a romantic fancy for madcap pranks ; the husband, an eccentric and rigid fanatic and monomaniac who, believing he was inspired, traveled the country with a party of religious enthusiasts preaching of visions and trying to convert people. He was jealous in the extreme of his beautiful and vivacious young wife, and had all her movements watched narrowly. He removed her from the gaieties of the Court, and became suspicious of the young King, who always had had a great regard for her and her sisters. Her movements were harassed in every way. She was being continually lectured on the folly of her ways. It was wrong to go out driving in public or to go to the play, and a sin to play at blind-man's-buff or to go to bed late. To correct these evil ways she was made to travel about with him in the country, in the most desolate and lonely places, where there was never any company and where their lodgings were of the most wretched description.