Enchantress of Paris

 

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With love to my Prince

and our minions

 

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

The Italians

Cardinal Jules Mazarin—
chief minister to Louis XIV

Geronima Mazarin Mancini—
sister of Cardinal Mazarin

Baron Lorenzo Mancini—
her husband

Their children:

Victoire Laure Mancini—
married to Louis de Bourbon, duc de Mercœur

Paul Mancini

Olympia Mancini—
married to Eugène-Maurice Savoy-Carignano, comte de Soissons

Marie Mancini

Philippe Mancini—
later duc de Nevers

Alphonse Mancini

Hortense Mancini

Marianne Mancini—
later married to the duc de Bouillon

Laura Mazarin Martinozzi—
sister of Cardinal Mazarin, married to Count Girolamo Martinozzi

Their children:

Laura Martinozzi—
married to Alfonso, Duke of Modena, daughter became queen of England

Anne Martinozzi—
married to Armand, Prince de Conti

French Royals

Anne of Austria, Queen of France—
sister to Philip IV of Spain, widow of Louis XIII of France

Their sons:

Louis XIV, King of France—
the Sun King

Philippe, duc d'Anjou—
later duc d'Orléans, known as Monsieur

Gaston, duc d'Orléans—
brother of the late Louis XIII of France

Mademoiselle de Montpensier—
his daughter, known as Mademoiselle

English Royals

Henrietta Maria, Queen of England—
sister to Louis XIII, widow of Charles I of England

Their children:

Charles II, the exiled King of England—
later restored to the English throne

James, Duke of York

Henry, Duke of Gloucester

Henriette Anne—
later known as Madame, duchesse d'Orléans

House of Savoy

Christine of France—
sister to Louis XIII, married into the House of Savoy, known as Madame Royale

Charles Emmanuel, duc de Savoy—
her son

Princess Margherita Yolande—
her daughter

Spanish Royals

King Philip IV of Spain—
brother of Queen Anne

Maria-Thérèsa—
his daughter, later queen of France

Don Juan of Austria—
his illegitimate son

Courtiers and other characters

Marquis Angelelli—
friend of Constable Colonna

Charles, comte D'Artagnan—
a musketeer

Anne-Lucie de La Motte d'Argencourt—
encouraged by her father to flirt with Louis XIV

Capita—
the jester

Jean-Baptiste Colbert—
Mazarin's assistant, later minister of finance

Pierre Beauchamp—
ballet master

Isaac de Benserade—
poet, salon attendee

Don Carlo Colonna, Archbishop of Amasia—
Constable Colonna's uncle

Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna, Prince of Paliano, Constable of Naples—
Marie's suitor

Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Condé—
French prince, enemy of Cardinal Mazarin

Oliver Cromwell—
England's Lord Protector

Ninon de l'Enclos—
courtesan

Marie-Madeleine, comtesse de La Fayette—
maid of honor to Queen Anne, author

Hugues de Lionne—
French statesman

Charles, Prince of Lorraine—
Marie's suitor

Jean-Baptiste Lully—
composer

Armand de la Meilleraye—
nephew of Cardinal Richelieu, later duc de Mazarin

Catherine Monvoisin—
the witch known as La Voisin, later burned alive

Françoise Bertaut, Madame de Motteville—
Queen Anne's lady in waiting, author

Molière—
playwright

Moréna—
Marie's maid

Madame d'Oradoux—
Meilleraye's cousin

Celio Piccolomini—
papal nuncio

Don Antonio de Pimentel—
Spanish envoy

Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet—
salon hostess

Comte de Rebenac—
French ambassador

Armand Jean de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu—
great-nephew of Cardinal Richelieu

François, duc de La Rochefoucauld—
salon host, author

Rose—
nurse to the Mancini sisters

Marguerite de la Sablière—
salon attendee

Charles de Saint-Évremond—
writer, salon attendee

Madeleine de Scudéry—
salon hostess, author

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné—
salon hostess, letter writer

Antoine Baudeau de Somaize—
secretary to the Précieuses

Frances Stuart—
later mistress to Charles II of England

Colbert de Terron—
cousin of Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Christina Vasa—
former queen of Sweden

Madeleine, dame de Venelle—
governess to the Mancini sisters

Henri, vicomte de Turenne—
Marshall General of France

 

Conscious that freedom is the richest treasure in the world and that a noble and generous spirit must stop at nothing to acquire it, I applied my efforts to obtaining it.

—FROM MARIE MANCINI'S MEMOIR,

The Truth in Its Own Light

 

PROLOGUE

Madrid

1689

Footmen threw open the front doors of my
casa,
my sanctum of peaceful exile in Madrid for near a decade, and a whiff of spices and the gleam of moonlight filled my front hall. Olympia brushed in, tall and fashionable as ever in black French silks and familiar diamonds, looking only half of her fifty years. Though she had come to Madrid for her own exile years earlier, I had not seen my older sister since her arrival visit. She took one look at my Spanish garb and frowned her disdainful courtier's frown. “Really, Marie, have you lost all sense of style?”

I kissed each of her cheeks. “It is good of you to come. What a beautiful gown.”

She fluffed out her skirts and glanced about the hall, taking in the oil paintings and the Turkish carpets and, no doubt, appraising the price of each gilded candelabra. It did not worry me. She would recognize nothing to claim from our departed uncle's vast treasure trove. All of that had long been spent. “Yes,” she said with a grin. “My dressmaker says the secret to making a gown beautiful is putting it on me.”

I swept my hand toward the seats in my salon. “Then grace my divan and elevate my
casa
with the favor of your presence.”

She caught the sarcasm. Her frown returned. “Did you summon me to exchange spite?”

“No.” I marched into the salon in a manner that required her to follow. “What news from the Alcázar palace?”

She flopped down on the divan. “The court wears mourning for the Spanish queen.” The Spanish queen had been a member of the French royal family in Paris, where Olympia and I were once the celebrated nieces of Europe's most powerful cardinal. France was no longer safe for Olympia, but in the Spanish queen's court, she'd led one intrigue after another. I no longer cared for courts or intrigue. Olympia went on. “In truth, nobody mourns her. The Spanish king had long tired of my old friend's daughter.”

“Didn't you once try to steal that friend's lover?”

“The Sun King was my lover first, before
you
stole him from
me,
” she snapped.

I gave her a look that told her she'd gone too far. “I tried to tell you potions wouldn't make a king love you.”

She looked away. “Perhaps I should have listened.
You
merely have to whisper your desires and men obey.”

On this she was wrong. There was one who had resisted my whispers. “Everyone talked about the extreme measures you took to get him back. I warned you to stay away from that dreadful witch in Paris.”

She glared. “I never poisoned the king's mistresses. I just tried to replace them.”

I hid my flush of jealousy at her use of the word
them
. “You managed to escape persecution in France, but you might not be so lucky this time. You gave the Spanish queen something to drink right before she died.”

Olympia seemed stunned. “How do you know this?”

Some things I just know. “The Spanish king believes you're a sorceress, that you poisoned his queen. You will be accused before the Spanish Inquisition.”

She dropped her head into her hands. “She complained of stomach fits and dizziness. I infused her milk with ginger and mint. To help, not to harm!”

I sighed. “I believe you. Flee Madrid or risk another witchcraft trial.”

Olympia muttered, “How much time do I have?”

“Until dawn.”

Her head jerked up. “This isn't fair. You were the one born under an evil star.”

“I've borne my suffering, you know I have. Each of our sisters has had to pay the price of our family name.” I walked to the window and gazed over the city. It wasn't always this way for us Mancinis.

Once, our uncle's power eclipsed everyone's. Once, his nieces were known as the Mazarinettes, and we were courted by kings and princes. And one king, the greatest monarch who ever lived, had loved Olympia. That is when everything changed. Because then his gaze fell on me, and France has never been the same.

 

CHAPTER
1

Palais du Louvre, Paris