Gabrielle d'Estrées

Gabrielle d' Estrées (* 1570 in Coeuvres Castle ( Picardy ), † April 10, 1599 in Paris), Duchesse de Beaufort et Verneuil, marquise de Monceaux, was from 1592 to 1599 the mistress of the French King Henry IV, and took in this time influence on French politics. She had three illegitimate children with Henry, her son Cesar, who later became Admiral of France founded the Bourbon branch line Vendôme. She was the sister of François- Annibal d' Estrées, the Marshal of France.

Life

Gabrielle d' Estrées was born as the daughter of Grand Master Antoine d' Estrées artillery around the year 1570. As a 20- year-old she met Henry the IV, king of France, to know when this happen to their place of residence, the castle Coeuvres visited, . The married to Margaret of Valois king fell in love with the young woman who was described as beautiful and witty, and took her as his mistress. Because of appearances she married the king with Nicolas d' Amerval, but the marriage was annulled after a short time. D' Estrées was the closest confidant of the king and even accompanied him as heavily pregnant on his campaigns to be near him.

The Huguenot king was the beginning of the 1590s mired in fierce conflict with the Holy League, a Catholic group that violently resisted because of his religion against the enthronement of Henry. D' Estrées, himself a Catholic, Henry persuaded them to convert to Catholicism in order to break the influence of the Holy League. They thus strengthened its position and was in 1594 raised to the Marquise de Monceaux and the official mistress of the King of France.

D' Estrées lived as a wife with Henry IV Together they had four children, one of which was stillborn. My first-born César ( * 1594, † 1665) inherited after the death of his mother, whose title and founded the house Vendôme. The only daughter, Catherine Henriette (* 1596, † 1663 ), married Charles II de Lorraine - Guise, the Duke of Elbeuf, and her born on April 19, 1598 son, Alexandre ( † 1628), called Le Chevalier de Vendôme, later Grand Prior of France, was built by King Louis XIII. appointed ambassador at the court of Pope Paul V.

Despite the opposition of Prime Sully was appointed in 1597 to the Duchess of Beaufort. The annulment of the marriage of Henry IV with Margaret of Valois was already initiated and the marriage with D' Estrées scheduled when she died on April 10, 1599. The cause of death is unknown. There was speculation that she was poisoned, because the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand I de ' Medici, his niece Maria de' Medici with Henry wanted to marry. Others believe the death was caused by complications in a subsequent pregnancy ( eclampsia).

Reception

Your from a manuscript of the Royal Library at Paris, published Mémoires are probably not authentic. The novel, published in 1996, the Purple line from Wolfram Fleischhauer contains historical and art-historical considerations to Gabrielle d' Estrées death and the painting Two ladies in the bath. In the two novels The youth of King Henri Quatre and the completion of King Henri Quatre of Heinrich Mann told the mistress of a corresponding literary reception.