Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, duchesse de Chevreuse

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Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, duchesse de Chevreuse (1600- August 12, 1679) was a French aristocrat at the center of all the intrigues of the first half of the 17th century in France.

In 1617 she married the constable (supreme commander of the French armies) Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes, who died in 1621. In 1622 she married Claude de Lorraine, duc de Chevreuse.

Friend and confidante of the queen consort Anne of Austria, she provoked or encouraged the conspiracies of the court and of the highest-ranking aristocrats against Richelieu, such as the conspiracy of the comte de Chalais, that she set up in 1626. She was at the center of all the intrigues that involved foreign powers against France: negotiations with the duchy of Lorraine and with Spain conducted by Charles de l'Aubespine, marquis de Châteauneuf (1633); secret exchanges of correspondence with Spain carried out by Anne of Austria (1637); conspiracy of the comte de Soissons (1641).

After the death of Richelieu, she conspired against Mazarin: in 1643 she was at the center of the cabale des Importants. During the Fronde, she came closer to Mazarin for a time (1649-1650), but then she switched back to the aristocratic party when the parliamentary Fronde and the aristocratic Fronde joined forces in 1651.

She died in Gagny (Seine-Saint-Denis département) in 1679.

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