# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Maine, Anne, Louise, Benedicte de Bourbon, Duchess de

Layout 2
MAINE, ANNE, LOUISE, BENEDICTE DE BOURBON, DUCHESS DE,
Grand-daughter of the great Condé, was born in 1676; and was married, in 1692, to Louis Augustus de Bourbon, Duke du Maine, son of Louis the Fourteenth, and Madame de Montespan. Through the influence of Madame de Maintenon, the children of Madame de Montespan were legitimized; and she wrung from the old king, on his death-bed, a testament in favour of the duke Du Maine. This having been revealed to the Duke of Orleans, he took steps, before the opening of the will, to have his claim to the regency, as first prince of the blood, acknowledged, and the will was set aside. A strong and dangerous party, opposed to the power of the regent, immediately sprung up, of which the Duchess du.Maine was the acknowledged chief. Her rank, talents, and ambition, rendered her influence formidable; and had she only been able to impart her own active and energetic spirit to her husband, the Duke of Orleans would not have obtained the regency without a struggle. She held her little court at Sceaux, and, under the mask of pleasure and devotion to literature, she carried on political intrigues. Madame du Maine had received an excellent classical education. Her wit was light and brilliant, and conversation singularly felicitous. She was bold, active, vehement, but deficient in moral courage. Her temper was fickle, selfish, and violent; and, small as she was in person, she had the reputation of beating her husband, who, grave, learned, and deformed in person, had no latent energies to arouse. The weakness of du Maine encouraged the princes of the blood to protest against the edicts by which the legitimized children of Louis the Fourteenth had been rendered their equals in rank.
Madame du Maine answered this attack by a long and learned memorial, in which the rights of these princes were set forth; but without avail. The legitimized princes were deprived of their right of succession to the crown. Bent upon revenge, Madame du Maine's projects were favoured by the state of the country. She carried on intrigues with Spain and with the disaffected Bretons, and moved every engine within her reach to bring the regent into disrepute and overturn his power. A plot was formed, having many ramifications, its chief objects being the deposition of the regent, and the aggrandizement of the Duke du Maine. The plot, however, was prematurely discovered. The duke and duchess were arrested, and the duchess was imprisoned in the castle of Dijon, where, after a tedious confinement, she became so heartily weary as to make her submission to the regent. She was liberated, and her husband was released at the same time. They resumed their former mode of existence, and the little court at Sceaux was soon as gay as ever, though it was never again so brilliant as formerly.
The political part of Madame du Maine ended with her captivity. Her literary influence, though circumstances caused it to decline, was more real and lasting than' her political power. If she gave ​no new impulse to genius, she assisted its development, and had enough taste to feel the superiority of Voltaire. Her most extraordinary quality appears to have been her conversational style.