Claudine Francoise Mignot - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

CLAUDINE FRANCOISE MIGNOT [commonly called ] (c. 1617-1711), French adventuress, was born near Grenoble, at Meylan. At the age of sixteen she attracted the notice of the secretary of Pierre des Portes d'Amblerieux, treasurer of the province of Dauphiny, and Amblerieux promised to promote their marriage. He married the girl himself, however, and left her his fortune. His will was disputed by his family, and Claudine went to Paris in 1653 to secure its fulfilment. She sought the protection of Francois de 1'Hopital, marshal of France, then a man of seventy-five. He married her within a week of their first meeting, and after seven years of marriage died leaving her part of his estate. By a third and morganatic marriage in 1672 with John Casimir, ex-king of Poland, a few weeks before his death, she received a third fortune. Immediately on her marriage with Amblerieux she had begun to educate herself, and her wealth and talents assured her a welcome in Paris. She retired in her old age to a Carmelite convent in the city, where she died on the 30th of November 1711.

Her history, very much modified, was the subject of a play by Bayard and Paul Duport, Marie Mignot (1829).