Laura Martinozzi
Laura Martinozzi ( born April 22, 1635 Fano, † July 16, 1687 in Rome) was one of the so-called Mazarinetten (French: Mazarinettes ) and was by marriage to Alfonso IV d'Este, Duchess of Modena. From 1662 to 1674 she practiced in the duchy from the regency for her infant son nor Francesco II d' Este.
Life
Laura came in Fano, the daughter of Italian nobleman Geronimo Martinozzi, Margrave of Fano and majordomo of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, and his wife Laura Margeritha Mazarini, the older sister Jules Mazarin, was born. She was thus niece of the powerful French First Minister, who together with her cousins and Maria Hortensia Mancini brought to France in 1653. There she met in Aix -en- Provence Once six months French and etiquette before she was allowed to travel to Paris to the French court.
The Duke of Modena, Francesco I d' Este, held at Mazarin for his son, the 21 -year-old Alfonso d' Este to the hand of the then 15 -year-old Laura, because Francesco French needed help to stand up to Spain to be able to. The wedding took place May 27, 1655 by procurationem in Compiègne instead. The groom was there, represented by Eugene Maurice of Savoy - Carignan, the father of the famous Prince Eugene.
After just two years of residence in France Laura went to her husband and thus back to Italy. 1658 ascended this after the sudden death of his father to the throne in Modena, and Mazarin saw himself as an uncle of a reigning princess. Even Laura's husband died in 1662, and she became regent and heir of the biennial Francesco II your regency years were quiet because Laura proved to state things as wise and far-sighted. She ruled with mildness and knew how to improve the ailing finances of the Duchy by a strict austerity policy, but still continue large, had already begun under the Duke Francesco I. Baroque building projects such as the Palazzo Ducale or the church of San Carlo.
When her childhood playmate, Louis XIV, an expedition to Candia started, she lent him from Modena thousand soldiers. Ludwig sought her for the son of the then Duke of York, the last English Stuartkönig was later identified as James II.
When her son was 14 years old, Laura resigned the regency. The mentally and physically weak Francesco II came under the influence of his half- brother Cesare, and Laura moved to Rome with her mother. The pleas of her son to return to Modena, she refused until her death. She died highly respected on July 16, 1687 at the local, magnified by her Ursuline Convent in Via Vittoria from a disease. Her grave is now in the church of San Vincenzo in Modena.
Progeny
From the marriage with Alfonso came from three children, of whom only two survived to adulthood:
- Francesco (1657-1658)
- Maria Beatrice d' Este (1658-1718), ∞ 1673 James II, King of England
- Francesco II d' Este (1660-1694), Duke of Modena 1662 ∞ 1692 Margherita Farnese