Anne d'Este

Entry by Penny Richards, 2004

Anne d'Este was born on the 16 November 1531 in Ferrara, the eldest child of Renée of France and Hercule d'Este, heir to the duchy of Ferrara. Anne was therefore through her mother the granddaughter of Louis XII of France. On 4 December 1548 Anne married François de Lorraine who became second duc de Guise in 1550. François de Guise was a legendary military hero in his own lifetime, victor of Metz (1553) and conqueror of Calais (1558). They had seven children, four of whom became nationally famous, Henri, born 1550, Catherine (duchesse de Montpensier), born in 1552, Charles (duc de Mayenne) born in 1554, and Louis (cardinal de Guise) born in 1555.

François de Guise was assassinated in 1563 by Poltrot de Méré, an act that the Guise family considered to have been instigated by the Huguenot leader Admiral Coligny. Anne and her mother-in-law Antoinette de Bourbon led a procession outside the cathedral at Meulan, where Charles IX was attending vespers, to petition for redress for the murder. In 1566 Anne married Jacques de Savoie, duc de Nemours, a successful soldier and a member of the Guise affinity. They had three children, two of whom survived into adulthood, Charles-Emmanuel born in 1567, and Henri de Saint-Sorlin born in 1572. As leaders of the Catholic Leagues, the Guise clan were heavily involved in the French civil wars and constituted a direct threat to the power of the crown. Henri third duc de Guise was popularly believed to have instigated the St. Bartholomew Night Massacres in Paris in 1572. Anne was also involved since Coligny's assassin, Maurevert, was staying in her lodgings in Paris at the time of the marriage of Henri de Navarre and Marguerite de Valois.

In December 1588 following the assassination of her Guise sons Henri and Louis at the Château de Blois on the direct orders of Henri III, Anne was arrested at Blois and briefly imprisoned at the château d'Amboise. The assassination provoked numerous League pamphlets, two of which were issued in her name, Remonstance faicte au Roy par Madame de Nemours, sur le massacre de ses enfans, and Les Regrets de Madame de Nemours sur la morte des messeigneurs de Guyse ses enfans, then frequently reprinted with their variants. On her release, Anne joined other members of her family in Paris and became an active participant in League politics encouraging the defense of Paris while waiting for her son Mayenne to relieve the city. During the power vacuum following the assassination of Henri III in 1589 (possibly at the instigation of Anne's daughter Catherine de Montpensier), it briefly seemed credible that Mayenne might become king of France. The successful campaigns of Henri de Navarre brought an end to these aspirations and in 1594 as Henri IV he made his ceremonial entry into Paris. With Guise hopes in ruins, Anne undertook the role of peacemaker negotiating with the new king on behalf of those of members of her family willing to capitulate. So successful was she, that she regained entry to the royal court and between 1601-1607 Anne was surintendante of the household of Marie de Médicis, Henry IV's second wife. Indeed, throughout her life Anne was an accomplished courtier holding positions at the courts of five kings (Henri II, François II, Charles IX, Henri III, and Henri IV). A great League princess, Anne nevertheless, remained close to her Calvinist mother, Renée of France, as well as the Guise matriarch Antoinette de Bourbon, who supervised the education of generations of Guise children including Anne's and with whom she regularly corresponded. Anne also corresponded with Catherine de Médicis and her cousin by marriage Marie de Lorraine, regent of Scotland, and she kept a watchful eye on Marie's daughter's, Mary Stuart, during her youth in France. Throughout her long life, Anne was a woman of vast landed wealth and had estates all over France, which included land inherited from her mother in Montargis, as well as holdings in Normandy, Dourdan, Provins, and Saumur. Anne died on 17 May 1607 having outlived most of her children as well as her immediate Este family.

Anne d'Este was admired by her contemporaries as a great princess and renowned beauty. The assassination of her first husband, and the subsequent assassination of her elder two Guise sons made her a central figure in League politics. As a figure of romance she is alluded to in La Princesse de Clèves. Anne d'Este was then largely forgotten but interest revived in the later half of the twentieth century with the rise of women's studies.

Works

- 1588 : Remonstance faicte au Roy par Madame de Nemours, sur le massacre de ses enfans, Paris, Hubert Velu (attribution incertaine) -- Éd. D. Pallier, Recherches sur l'imprimerie à Paris pendant la Ligue 1585-1594, Genève, Droz, 1976, nos 281, 311.
- 1589 : Les Regrets de Madame de Nemours sur la mort de messeigneurs de Guyse ses enfans, Paris, Hubert Velu (attribution incertaine) -- Éd. D. Pallier, Recherches sur l'imprimerie... (voir supra), nos 308-309.
- correspondance : avec des membres de sa famille et des acteurs de la scène politique nationale comme Catherine de Médicis et le duc de Montmorency. Voir Foreign Correspondence, with Marie de Lorraine, Queen of Scotland, from the Originals in the Balcarres Papers, 1548-57,ed. M. Wood, Edinburgh, 1925; beaucoup de lettres manuscrites à sa mère à la BNF; voir également la correspondance of Catherine de Médicis, ainsi que les Archives de Chantilly, Papiers Condé (1) Série L. XXXIX fo. 46.

Selected bibliography

- Carroll, Stuart. Noble Power during the French Wars of Religion: The Guise Affinity and the Catholic Cause in Normandy. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
- Munns, Jessica et Penny Richards, «Exploiting and Destabilizing Gender Roles: Anne D'Este», French History, vol. 6. no 2 (June 1992), p.206-215.
- Richards, Penny. «The Guise Women: Politics, War, and Peace», in Jessica Munns and Penny Richards (dir.), Gender, Power, and Privilege. London, Longman, 2003, p.159-170.
- Viennot, Éliane. «Veuves de mère en fille au XVIe siècle: le cas du clan Guise», in Nicole Pellegrin et Colette Winn (dir.), Veufs, veuves et veuvage dans la France d'Ancien Régime, Paris, Champion, 2003.
- Viennot, Éliane. «Des "Femmes d'Etat" au XVIe siècle: les princesses de la Ligue et l'écriture de l'histoire», in Danielle Haase-Dubosc et Éliane Viennot (dir.), Femmes et Pouvoirs sous l'Ancien Régime. Paris, Rivages, 1991, p.77-97.

Selected bibliography of images

- Anonyme, Anne d'Este (huile sur bois), France, XVIe siècle (vers 1550?). Musée de Versailles (3212).
- Atelier de Clouet, A nne d'Este (crayon sur papier) après 1566. Chantilly, Musée Condé (De Broglie, 318).

Reception

- «La princesse de Ferrare [...] est une des belles et honnestes princesses que l'on sauroit voir.» (François d'Orléans, duc de Longueville, à sa mère, in Marie de Lorraine in Scotland, December 1548, Foreign Correspondence with Marie de Lorraine [Balcarres Papers], Edinburgh University Press, 1925, p.20).
- «Je la vis un jour danser, comme j'ay dit ailleurs, avec la Reine d'Escosse, elles deux toutes seules ensemble et sans autres Dames de compagnie, et ce par caprice, que tous ceux et celles qui les advisoient danser ne sceurent juger qui l'emportoit en beauté; et eut-on dit, ce dit quelqu'un, que c'estoyent les deux soleils assemblez qu'on lit dans Pline avoir apparu autresfois pour faire esbahir le monde. Madame de Nemours, pour lors Madame de Guise, monstroit la taille plus riche; et s'il m'est loisible ainsi le dire sans offenser la Reine d'Escosse, elle avoit la majesté plus grave et apparente, encor qu'elle ne fust Reine comme l'autre; [...] ç'a esté une très-belle femme en son printemps, son esté et son automne, et son hyver encor, quoy qu'elle ait eu grande quantité d'ennuis et d'enfans.» (Pierre de Bourdeille, Seigneur de Brantôme, Discours sur l'amour des dames vieilles... [vers 1585], Recueil des dames, poésies et tombeaux, éd. É. Vaucheret, Paris, Gallimard «la Pléiade», 1991, p.607, 609 [Lives of Gallant Ladies, essay 5, translated by Alec Brown, London, 1961, p.370-72].