page_title: Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier
section_title: Exile
hierarchical_section_title: Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier / Exile
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Château de Saint-Fargeau, dessin et lavis
context_page_description: Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, known as La Grande Mademoiselle, was the only daughter of Gaston d'Orléans with his first wife Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier. One of the greatest heiresses in history, she died unmarried and childless, leaving her vast fortune to her cousin, Philippe of France. After a string of proposals from various members of European ruling families, including Charles II of England, Afonso VI of Portugal, and Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy, she eventually fell in love with the courtier Antoine Nompar de Caumont and scandalised the court of France when she asked Louis XIV for permission to marry him, as such a union was viewed as a mésalliance. She is best remembered for her role in the Fronde, her role in bringing the famous composer Lully to the king's court, and her Mémoires.
context_section_description: Fearing for her life, Mademoiselle fled Paris for the safety of her residence at Saint-Fargeau. She remained in exile until 1657 when she was welcomed to the court once again. She went with Madame de Fiesque and Madame de Frontenac, wife of the future Governor General of New France.
  Having never been to Saint-Fargeau before, she was unaware of the state of the building and thus stayed at a small residence in Dannery having been received by the bailiff of her estates. Convinced to return to Saint-Fargeau, she settled into her home for the next four years and soon began to improve the building under the direction of François Le Vau, brother of the renowned architect Louis Le Vau.
  Le Vau redid the exteriors of Saint-Fargeau at a cost of 200,000 livres. They were lost in a fire in 1752 and suffered further damage in 1850, thus all evidence of the appearance of Mademoiselle's residence was lost. Despite being an exile, she still visited her father at Blois. While at Saint-Fargeau, she dabbled in writing and wrote a small biography under the title of Madame de Fouquerolles despite her bad spelling and grammar. Mademoiselle looked to her financial affairs, which had been under her father's management. Having reached her majority in 1652 it was discovered that her father had not been entirely honest with the management of her finances and that was the reason for her 800,000 livres of debt. At the same time her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Guise, tricked Mademoiselle into signing away money to her under false pretences. Her father was involved with this, which caused her relationship with Gaston to deteriorate. In 1656, hearing that her father had been excused for his various scandals, Mademoiselle herself said she would forget the bad blood caused by his financial misdemeanours and resumed her close relationship with him.
caption: A view of Saint-Fargeau where Mademoiselle stayed in her exile
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