Marguerite-Anne d'Escorailles-Roussille

Marguerite-Anne d'Escorailles-Roussille (3 March 1637–Present), Comtesse de Clermont, otherwise known as Madame la Grande, is a French noblewoman, courtier, lady-in-waiting, and imperial mistress.
'As beautiful as an angel, with a good heart, but as stupid as a basket,' Marguerite-Anne d'Escorailles-Roussille was born into an ancient but minor noble family from Auvergne. As she grew into a stunning beauty her family saw that she could be their ticket to wealth and social success by sending her to court. She succeeded in marrying the forty-seven-year-old Comte de Clermont at the age of seventeen. Though beautiful and ethereal Marguerite was indeed 'as stupid as a basket.' Her husband became 'ashamed every time she opened her mouth in the presence of a third party.'
== Biography ==
=== Birth ===
Marguerite-Anne d'Escorailles-Roussille was born in the Château de Cropières in the county of Auvergne on 3 March, 1637. She was the fifth daughter and tenth child (though fifth surviving) born to Louis II d'Ecorailles-Roussille, Seigneur de Roussille, and his wife Guillemine de Fontanges, suo jure Dame de Fontanges, the sole descendant of the eldest branch of the former feudal family of the same name. The rumour that Marguerite was born on a farm (or actually in a barn in some varients of the rumour) derived from the fact that the château in which she was born had an adjoining farm. Marguerite was baptised the following day in the neighbouring church of Saint-Pierre-aux-Liens, with her first cousin once removed Pierre d'Ecorailles-Roussille, Seigneur de La Salle-Laval, and his wife Anne de Corbier acting as godparents. Named Marguerite-Anne in honour of her deceased elder sister and her aforementioned godmother, the newborn was exclusively known as Marguerite in the family. As an unmarried daughter of a minor noble, Marguerite was entitled to the style of demoiselle.
Following the death of both her father and mother in 1639 and 1641 respectively, Marguerite's eldest brother Jean-Rigal became her legal guardian, and would remain so until her marriage in 1654.
=== Childhood ===
Marguerite spent her early childhood travelling between the Château de Roussille in Limousin and the Château de Cropières in Auvergne. Intended to defend the Goul valley, the first Château de Cropières was a powerful fortress with a high crenellated keep. It first belonged to the Cropières family which merged in the fourteenth century into that of Montjou. In 1381, during the Hundred Years War, the château was seized and burned by the English. Rebuilt by the Montjou family, it passed through successive marriages to the families of Fontanges in 1508 and Escorrailles-Roussille in 1616. As a result of centuries worth of on-and-off construction, the château slowly deteriorated into a ramshackle architectural patchwork. In a futile attempt to modernize and render the château more habitable while at the same time preserving and protecting its medieval character, Marguerite's mother carried out major works of consolidation to the remnants of the thirteenth century fortress. She borrowed so much money for this that the château was seized and sold by creditors in 1641, however, the dowry that her son Jean-Rigal received when he married Aimée-Eléonore de Plas enabled her to buy back the château a few months later.
After her mother's death, Marguerite was sent to the Benedictine Abbey of Brageac to receive an education—albeit an extremely poor one. The abbey was founded at the beginning of the eleventh century by Guy and Raoul d'Ecorailles (brothers) on their return from the crusade, from which they brought back the heads of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Like many women in the seventeenth century, Marguerite was never taught how to read or write and remained illiterate for the rest of her life. She returned home in 1647.
Apart from financial straits, Marguerite and her family remained relatively unscathed by both the bubonic plague pandemic of 1638–1644 and the Rebellion of 1644. Marguerite's brother did, however, fight for the crown during the Insurrection of 29 November 1644 and the Battle of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. For his service, the seigneurie of Roussille was elevated to a marquisate.
=== Adolescence ===
By her adolescence Marguerite had bloomed into an exceptional beauty. Realising that her beauty could be their ticket to financial and social success, her family decided to send her off to court with the aim to replenish the family coffers by finding a wealthy husband. With the assistance of Antoine de Grolée-Virville, Baron de Peyre, a distant kinsman who had served in the household of the late Duc de Bourgogne (known as Monsieur), Marguerite secured a position in the household of the Duchesse Douairière de Bourgogne (known as Madame) as a fille d'honneur. Her principal duty would be to learn courtly etiquette, how to hold a conversation, and how to dance (all of which she would fail at miserably). Additionally, she would have to keep Madame company and participate in ordinary and official ceremonies. Prior to her departure for Paris, Marguerite's brother Jean-Rigal had successfully petitioned the Paris parliament for a sum of money to support his sister at court, since the tiny salary of one hundred livres was scarcely enough to dress on.
On 1 August 1654, Marguerite arrived in Paris and was officially presented to the eighteen-year-old Emperor Henri III & I. As a member of Madame's household, Marguerite lived with her mistress in the Hôtel du Petit-Bourbon, adjacent to the Louvre, a fourteenth century hôtel particulier which served as Madame's official Parisian residence. With her blonde, ethereal, unsullied beauty, Marguerite made quite the impression on everyone. In a letter to her niece in Poland, Madame declared that Marguerite was 'as beautiful as an angel, with a good heart, but as stupid as a basket,' adding, 'you have never seen anyone more beautiful than her.' Even the Emperor admitted that her youth and beauty was 'far above anything that had long been seen at court.' The Comtesse de Moray, however, observed that Marguerite was 'the prettiest, silliest, most affected, husband-hunting butterfly I have ever remembered.'
Marguerite soon came to the attention of Charles-Henri II de Clermont-Tonnerre, Comte de Clermont, a forty-seven-year-old widower and military veteran who had earned the reputation of being a notorious drunkard and philanderer of both sexes. From 1628 and 1654, Clermont had fathered twenty-six illegitimate children with eight different women, all the while still finding time to father fourteen legitimate children with his wife of sixteen years, the homely Marie de Rochechouart who had died in 1651. Not long after he first laid eyes on her, Clermont went into marriage negotiations with Marguerite's brother. Though he settled on marrying Marguerite on account of her youth and beauty, there was the additional benefit of assisting an impoverished noble family of chivalric extraction. According to the Princesse de Raucourt, the engagement was to 'the astonishment of the whole court.' The Paris pamphleteers were not slow to detail Clermont's latest conquest in terms of a military surrender: 'This important place, having been reconnoitred, was attacked in all its curvaceousness. The way was cleared, the outskirts were seized, and with much sweat and fatigue, and spilt blood, the King entered in victorious. We can say that no conquest gave him greater difficulty. There were many cries and tears spilt on one side, and never did a dying virginity release such gentle sighs.'
On 21 December 1654, Marguerite and Clermont were married in a grand ceremony officiated by her brother-in-law François, Archevêque de Rouen, in the Château d'Ancy-le-Franc. The Emperor, the Empress Dowager Margaret of Austria, the Empress Mother Nicole de Lorraine, and a great majority of the court were in attendance, all of whom remained in Ancy-le-Franc throughout the week-long wedding celebrations. Unfortunately, Marguerite quickly succumbed to the domestic violence which Clermont's first wife had suffered.
After her wedding, Marguerite was briefly employed in the household of the Empress Mother as a dame d'honneur until she was transferred over to the household of the Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain upon her marriage to the Emperor in January 1655. Marguerite had accompanied the court to the France-Spain border to participate in the handover of Spanish Infanta.
Beginning in Feburary 1655 and ending in May of the same year, Marguerite accompanied the court to Scottland were they resided at Linlithgow Palace, West of Edinburgh. Marguerite bore witness to The Linlithgow Uprising, a rebellion of French Imperialism in Scotland. Additionally, the majestic Scottish landscape provided the backdrop for a blossoming romance between Marguerite and Henri III. He was taken by her charm, her spirit, her frankness, her thoughtfulness, and naturally her dazzling beauty. She was also an accomplished equestrienne, something the Emperor liked in a woman. Upon their return, Marguerite and Henri III were observed by all to be inseparable, so much so that when Marguerite withdrew to Ancy-le-Franc to begin her laying-in period, the Emperor paid a series of monthly visits to check upon her health. It wasn't long until Marguerite was made his official mistress in everything but name. Though the affair was discreetly maintained, it quickly became public knowledge.
In September 1655, Marguerite gave birth to twins; a boy entitled Seigneur de Husson and a girl entitled Mademoiselle de Husson. As a result of the traumatizing childbirth, both children were immediately baptised by the family chaplin. Tragically, Mademoiselle de Husson died a week later.
In December 1656, on account of her improved service, Marguerite was promoted to the rank of dame du chocolat within the Empress's household. This gave her the minor privilege of acquiring and serving Empress's cocoa.
In March 1657, Marguerite gave to her third child; a boy entitled Seigneur de Saint-Aigman. It was in December of the same year, following the long awaited birth of Monseigneur le Dauphin in November, that Marguerite and Henri III consumated their relationship physically. This naturally resulted in a pregnancy.
During the War of the Portuguese Restoration, Marguerite took an active part in assisting the war effort by partaking in a series of important visits to provincial military academies, of which her husband had authority, to meet with their instructors to determine which men are ready to take on a captaincy. Additionally, on behalf of her husband, Marguerite received a bevy of affluent men and women petitioning to acquire military positions for themselves or their male relatives. In March 1658, Marguerite was promoted to the distinguished rank of dame d'atour within the Empress's household. This meant she would be in charge of the Empress's wardrobe and jewellery, which included the buying and selling of items. Marguerite was particularly good at this job on account of her youthful ardor for fashion and her exceptional skills with a needle. Around the same time, Marguerite took in an orphaned baby from the Ursuline convent in Tonnerre. Owing to her good press, Marguerite became known in and around Paris as 'the whore with the heart of gold.'
In September of the same year, Marguerite gave birth to her and the Emperor's illegitimate child; a girl entitled Mademoiselle de Saint-Aignan. Though illegitimate, the child would be brought up under the pretense of being legitimate.
In 1659 Marguerite took in another orphaned baby from the Ursuline convent in Tonnerre.
In March 1660, prior to her and her husband's installation in the Château de Vaucresson, Marguerite gave birth to her fourth legitimate child; a girl entitled Mademoiselle d'Ancy-le-Franc. During the same month, Marguerite attended the The Pleasures of the Enchanted Island, an extravagant multi-day celebration held in honour of Margaret of Austria. Marguerite danced in both a ballet dedicated to the four seasons, in which she portrayed the personification of spring, and in a pastoral ballet, in which she portrayed the role of a shepherdess.
== Appearance & Personality ==
=== Appearance ===
Marguerite was small in height and slim in figure; possessing that lissom slenderness, 'like a willow reed,' which is characteristic of youth. An oval head crowned her classically beautiful form. The Chevalier de Belle-Île pointed Marguerite out to the Comte de Clermont at court, remarking casually, 'Look, here is a beautiful statue; seeing her I asked myself lately if she came from the chisel of Pygmalion, and I was surprised when I was told that she is living!' 'A statue, perhaps,' replied Clrmont, 'but Good God, what a beautiful creature!'
Marguerite's complexion was uncharacteristically white for a provincial noblewoman, as were her teeth. She had thick, dark blonde hair which curled artlessly about her shoulders when she was in a state of déshabille. Her beautiful blue-grey eyes had an indescribable charm—'she has sweet languor in her beautiful eyes.' Her servants wore grey livery to match the celebrated grey of her sea-nymph eyes. 'Nature,' wrote the Duc de Noailles, 'had lavished all her gifts on Madame de Clermont: waves of blond hair, lovely dark eyes, with darker eyebrows, which united vivacity with languor, a complexion 'a dazzling whiteness, finally, one of those figures that illuminate the places where they appear.' The writer Jean Loret too waxed lyrical on the subject of Marguerite's beauty in a poem commemorating her marriage: 'This charming miracle, this divine paradise of the eyes, this rare masterpiece of the gods, this excellent young lady.'
=== Personality ===
Apart from earning the reputation of being a well-known beauty, Marguerite became equally well-known for her monumental stupidity, more likely a result of her poor education—or lack thereof. An exchange made between Marguerite and the Empress Mother Nicole de Lorraine highlighted this embarrassing aspect of Marguerite's character:
'Where were you born?' asked the Empress-Mother,
'Auvergne,' replied Marguerite,
'Which part?'
'Why all of me.'
Where Marguerite had her passionate admirers she had her equally vehement detractors. According to the Empress Dowager, Marguerite was 'ungraceful in bearing, timid and awkward, cannot speak a word of sense, no matter what pains people take to educate her, dances badly, and, in fact, there is nothing in her that does not point either to faults in her disposition or to an excessively neglected education.' In a similar vein, the Empress Mother described Marguerite as 'the most stupid and impertinent creature that you can possibly imagine.' In matters of opinion, the apple didn't fall far from the tree. Madame Impériale believed Marguerite to be 'more dull and stupid than I can find words to express.' The Emperor, however, was quite taken with what his mother considered to be Marguerite's 'impertinence,' quoting the character Valerio in Beaumont and Fletcher's play A Wife for a Month: "For on my conscience she is very honest, and will be hard to cut as a rough diamond." Concerned Marguerite would use her friendship with the Emperor for her own gain, the Comte de Clermont assured the paranoid Empress Mother that Marguerite would 'have to use important documents as curling papers in order to get them into her head.' She too developed the reputation 'of pausing for extended periods of time before speaking.'
Stupidity aside, another result of her impoverished upbringing was Marguerite's greed. Accusations of Marguerite being a gold-digger in marrying the Comte de Clermont were not exactly unfounded, since in marrying him she had achieved what she was sent to court to do—obtaining a wealthy husband. This was something which the writer Jean Loret picked up on in a tongue and cheek poem: 'This object, always shining, of which a thousand loves are the source, attacked Monsieur de Clermont’s heart and his purse.' Another aspect to Marguerite's personality was her excessive vanity. The Comtesse de Moray said that Marguerite could not walk into a room and pass a mirror or pane of glass without 'at first contemplating if she was all in one piece.' Nevertheless, Marguerite was a very amiable, loyal, and down-to-earth individual, unashamed of her undesirable Occitanian accent or provincial manners. Despite her openly coquettish nature, she took the subject of religion and piety very seriously.
== Issue ==
=== Legitimate ===
* Marie-Thérèse Henriette de l'Exaltation de la Croix de Clermont-Tonnerre, Mademoiselle de Husson (14 September 1655–21 September 1655)
* Antoine Henri Marie de l'Exaltation de la Croix de Clermont-Tonnerre, Seigneur de Husson (14 September 1655–Present)
* François Rigal Aimé Humbert de Clermont-Tonnerre, Seigneur de Saint-Aignan (25 March 1657–Present)
*Marie-Henriette-Hélène-Thomasine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Mademoiselle d'Ancy-le-Franc (7 March 1660–Present)
=== Illegitimate ===
With Emperor Henri III & I
* Marie-Thérèse Henriette Michelle-Gabrielle de Clermont-Tonnerre, Mademoiselle de Saint-Aignan (29 September 1658–Present)
=== Adoptive ===
* Marie-Madeleine Tisserande (1658–Present)
*Pierre-Paul Vaillancourt (1659–Present)
== Ancestry ==
== Titles & Styles ==
=== Titles & Styles ===
* 3 March 1637–21 December 1654 Demoiselle Marguerite-Anne d'Escorailles-Roussille or Demoiselle d'Escorailles or Demoiselles de Roussille
* 21 December 1654–Present Madame la Comtesse de Clermont
On account of her husband's military position as grand connétable de l'empire, Marguerite was granted the honourary style of Madame la Grande.
=== Full Title ===
Madame la Comtesse de Clermont, de Tonnerre, Marquise de Cruzy, Vicomtesse de Tallard, de Clermont (Première Baronne de Dauphiné), Baronne d'Ancy-le-Franc, de Villon-en-Tonnerrois, Dame de Husson, de Saint-Aignan, de Dannemoine, de Selles-sur-Cher, de Laignes, de La Bastie d'Albanais, de Ravières.