Marie Anne de La Trémoille, princesse des Ursins

She was the daughter of Louis II de La Trémoille, Duc de Noirmoutier, and his wife Renée Julie Aubery de Tilleport. She belonged to a cadet branch of the La Trémoille family, which held the exalted rank of prince étranger in France. She was married young to Adrien Blaise de Talleyrand, Prince de Chalais. Her husband, having been implicated in the duel of four against four, in which Pierre de Beauvilliers, son of the Duc de Saint-Aignan, was killed in 1663, was compelled to flee France. He died soon afterward in Spain, and Marie Anne, now widowed, established herself in Rome.

In 1675, she married Flavio Orsini, Duke di Bracciano (1620–1698). The marriage was far from harmonious, but her husband left her his fortune (popular imagination thought it to be huge, but in reality, the duke was almost bankrupt) and the leadership of the French party in Rome. It brought her a series of lawsuits and troubles with Livio Odescalchi, nephew of Pope Innocent XI, who claimed that he had been adopted by the duke. Eventually, the widow sold the title and estates to Odescalchi.[1]

Marie Anne de La Trémoille

She then assumed the title Princesse des Ursins, a French translation of Orsini, and was tacitly allowed to use it, though it had no legal basis. She had indulged in much unofficial diplomacy at Rome, particularly with Neapolitans and Spaniards of rank, whom it was desirable to secure as French partisans in view of the approaching death of Charles II of Spain, and the plans of Louis XIV to place his family on the Spanish throne.[1]

Her services in favour of France were rewarded in 1699 by a pension, which her problematic financial situation made necessary. When Philippe of France, Duke of Anjou, grandson of the French king, was declared heir by the will of Charles II, she took an active part in arranging his marriage with Princess Maria Luisa of Savoy, a daughter of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy. Her ambition was to secure the post of camarera mayor de palacio (head of the queen's household) to the young queen, a child of barely thirteen. By quiet diplomacy and with the help of Madame de Maintenon, she succeeded, and in 1701, she accompanied the young queen to Spain.[1]

Until 1714, the year of the death of the queen, she was the most powerful person in the country. Her functions in relation to the king and queen were almost those of a nurse. Her letters show that she had to put them to bed at night, and get them up in the morning. She gives a most amusing description of her embarrassments when she had to enter the royal bedroom, laden with articles of clothing and furniture. But if the camarera mayor de palacio did the work of a domestic servant, it was for a serious political purpose. She was expected to look after French interests in the palace and to manage the Spanish nobles, many of whom were of the Austrian party, and who were generally opposed to foreign ways or to interference with the elaborate etiquette of the Spanish court.[1]

Madame des Ursins was resolved not to be a mere agent of Versailles. During the first period of her tenure, she was in frequent conflict with the French ambassadors, who claimed the right to attend the privy council and to direct the government. Madame des Ursins urged that the young king should rely as much as possible on his Spanish subjects. In 1704, her enemies at the French court secured her recall, but she still had the support of Madame de Maintenon, and her own tact enabled her to placate Louis XIV.[1]

Madame des Ursins has the credit of having begun to check the overgrown power of the church and the Inquisition in Spain, and of having attempted to bring the finances to order.[1]

In his Mémoires, Saint-Simon draws a devastating portrait of a scheming intrigant, her accomplices and minions, without crediting the important and sometimes positive role the princess played in getting and keeping the royal pair on the throne, and improving the poor finances of the kingdom of Spain (despite his harsh view of her political influence, Saint-Simon admits that he personally liked and admired her).

Madame des Ursins also is credited as having introduced the essence of bitter orange as a fashionable fragrance by using it to perfume her gloves and her bath. Since then, the name of Neroli (she was Princess of Nerola, in Lazio, Italy) has been used to describe this essence.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ursins, Marie Anne de la Trémoille, Princess des". Encyclopædia Britannica. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• The Princess des Ursins in Spain, by C. Hill (London, 1899)
• Lettres inédites of the Princesse des Ursine, edited by A.Geoffroy (Paris, 1859)