M is for Madame de Guise – Duchess of Alençon

A contribution to the #AtoZchallenge 2024

Background

Élisabeth Marguerite d’Orléans, also known as Isabelle d’Orléans, was was a first cousin of Louis XIV of France. She was acquainted with the young Louise Françoise de La Vallière, one of Louis XIV’s early mistresses. Although handicapped by a humpback, Élisabeth was known for her intelligence, wit, and strong personality.

In 1661, Élisabeth Marguerite married Louis Joseph de Lorraine, Duke of Guise, becoming known as Madame de Guise or simply Madame. Their marriage was arranged for political reasons, as part of King Louis XIV’s efforts to reconcile the Orléans and Guise branches of the House of Lorraine. Madame de Guise played a prominent role at the court of Louis XIV, where she was admired for her beauty and charm. She participated in courtly entertainments and festivities and maintained a close relationship with her cousin, the king. Like many noblewomen of her time, Madame de Guise was involved in patronage of the arts, literature, and culture.

In Alençon

In 1676, Madame de Guise, who by then was Duchess of Alençon, joined the Catholic party there. She was fiercely antagonistic toward Huguenots and encouraged their repression. In 1682, she dismissed the incumbent intendant Barrillon de Morangis, whom she considered too moderate in the fight against the followers of the so-called reformed religion, and replaced him with Jubert de Bouville.

One of her projects was to provide financial support to La maison des Nouvelles Catholiques, founded by her friend Mademoiselle de Farcy. Although officially a haven for children of Huguenot families who wished to become Catholic, in fact dozens of young children, sometimes as young as four years old, were abducted from their parents and locked up in the two houses where they were educated in the ‘true faith’. See this post (in French), which includes a facsimile of Elizabeth Farcy’s letter to the Bishop of Séez, requesting permission to open a house for new Catholics in Alençon.

Opinions on Madame de Guise differ. According to some, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, she set about persecuting the Protestants of her duchy, going so far as to exhume their remains and have them thrown in the garbage, in order to join their cemetery to her gardens in Alençon. According to others, the city will never forget her example of virtue, nor the “abundant alms that her inexhaustible charity led her to pour into the bosom of the needy”.

In the book ‘Greet Suzon for me’, a crucial encounter occurs between Jubert de Bouville’s son Noël and Madame de Guise at Mademoiselle de Farcy’s home for abducted children. The book is due to be published in 2024.

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