The Kings' Mistresses

January 23, 2012
After the death of their father, a Roman aristocrat, Marie and Hortense Mancini were brought to the French court by their maternal uncle Cardinal Mazarin, Louis XIV’s ruthless prime minister, to marry advantageously. Spirited and independent-minded, their escapades eventually became fodder for news gazettes, and they were among the first women to openly publish their memoirs. A besotted young Sun King wanted to marry Marie, but Mazarin planned a Spanish alliance for Louis, so Marie was married to an Italian prince. Despite a glittering public life, Marie fled a husband she feared was going to kill her, leaving three young sons and her marital disputes became an international scandal. Cardinal Mazarin rejected exiled Charles II’s marriage proposal to Hortense. She too, married to a fanatically devout and possessive French nobleman, ran away from her spouse, leaving four young children behind. Hortense eventually went to England, becoming Charles’s mistress, establishing a salon, and becoming a famous gambler. Despite a misleading title—Boston University French professor Goldsmith doesn’t offer evidence to disprove other historians’ contention that Marie never became Louis XIV’s mistress—this is an atmospheric, absorbing tale of 17th-century female media stars taking charge of their own lives. Map. Agent, Erika Storella, Gernert Company.

January 15, 2012
The story of the 17th-century version of the Kardashian sisters, but with the added touch of brains, literacy and class. Marie and Hortense Mancini were rebellious sisters who married well, fled their abusive husbands and spent the rest of their lives on the run, together or separately, soaking up the good life and turning their lives into international gossip. For Goldsmith (French/Boston Univ.; Going Public: Women and Publishing in Early Modern France, 1995, etc.) they were "arguably the first media celebrities," and they received a suitably mixed reception: "admired by libertines, feminists and free-thinkers but viewed by others as frivolous at best and threats to civil society at worst." Born to the Roman aristocracy, they were taken to France by their uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, a savvy political operator with an eye to his own future, who hoped to marry them off. The elder Marie caught the fancy of Louis XIV, but his mother Queen Anne wouldn't have it; Marie had to settle instead for the Italian price Lorenzo Colonna, who wasn't about to let marriage keep him from other women. The younger Hortense drew the attention of England's Charles II, then in exile. However, she ended up with Armand-Charles de la Porte de la Meilleraye, a bullying religious fanatic twice her age; the arrangement made her "the richest heiress and the unhappiest woman in Christendom." After their escapes from their unhappy marriages, the sisters played an elaborate cat-and-mouse game across Europe as their incensed husbands appealed to the authorities, dispatched spies, made threats and attempted kidnappings. The sisters dodged their husbands, indulged their whims and wrote celebrity tell-alls, possibly another first. Though the narrative could have used a lighter authorial touch, the story moves along at a swift pace. Goldsmith's reserved, professional prose works against the rollicking nature of the tale, but the fascinating subjects make up for it.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from March 15, 2012

This dual biography relates the interesting but little-known saga of the Mancini sisters, nieces of Cardinal Mazarin, giant of French statecraft. Born in Italy but summoned to the French court as children, Marie and Hortense defied the strictures that bound women's lives then. Goldsmith (French, Boston Univ.) uses letters, memoirs, family papers, and other archival sources to share the story of two women who were "feminists" long before the word existed. Trapped in loveless marriages arranged for political purposes, they became celebrities but also targets of scorn and ridicule because of their public legal battles with their husbands as well as their travels and love affairs. In her youth, Marie had a fairy-tale romance with the young Louis XIV, while Hortense became mistress to England's Charles II (hence the book's title). Goldsmith presents the sisters as pioneers who embraced notoriety by publishing accounts of their unconventional lives. Their prominence during the emergence of print journalism prompted debates on women's rights, marriage, and property laws. Goldsmith interweaves their stories with those of other women of the period. VERDICT General readers of historical biography and scholars of women's history will enjoy this spirited account that humanizes the experiences of 17th-century women.--Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2012
This ribald tale works all the better because it is true. Married off to abusive and unfaithful husbands, Marie and Hortense Mancini did what very few seventeenth-century noblewomen had the means and courage to do: they ran off, thumbing their noses at conventional society while gallivanting around Europe, enchanting and scandalizing royalty and private citizens wherever they went. Culling their correspondence and memoirs, Goldsmith is able to paint a vivid portrait of two remarkably daring free spirits who paved the way for centuries of women stifled and exploited by both men and societal constraints. Not only did they flaunt the rules but they also wrote about their adventures in daring detail, becoming two of the first in a long line of infamous celebrities to go public with their private lives. Revolutionary, cutting-edge, and inspiring, their lives are worthy of revisiting.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)