Laura Margherita Mazzarini

Laura Margherita Mazzarini
Spouse(s) Girolamo Martinozzi
Father Pietro Mazzarini
Mother Ortensia Buffalini
Born 1608
Rome
Died 9 June 1685
Rome

Laura Margherita Mazzarini (1608-9 / June 1685) was the daughter of Pietro Mazzarini and Ortensia Buffalini.

Life and career

On July 9, 1634, she was married to Count Girolamo Martinozzi (b. 1610). They had two daughters: Anna Maria (Rome, 1637 - Paris, February 4, 1672) and Laura (Fano, May 27, 1639 - Rome, July 19, 1687).[1]

In 1647, she was called by her brother Jules Mazarin, minister to Louis XIV with her sister and daughters, to settle at the French royal court because, under the protection of her brother, she would be able to marry her daughters to powerful men. Mazzarini lived with the rest of the family, first at Aix-en-Provence, then in the palace of her brother and finally settled at the court of Queen Anne of Austria, in the apartment of the Marquise de La Rochefoucauld.

Courtiers, seeking to win the favor of powerful Mazarin, sought in every way to please both Laura and her family. Queen Anne personally took care of the girls' education. Unlike her sister Geronima who, in the words of the abbot of Choisy, "did not ever bother anyone," Laura was more ambitious.

Her brother managed to find good matches for the Martinozzis: Laura was married to Alfonso IV d'Este; Anna Maria to Armand, Prince of Conti. A daughter of Laura, Maria Beatrice d'Este, became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland through marriage to James II of England.

References

  1. Saint-Evremond, Saint-Réal (César Vichard, M. l'abbé de) (1728). The works of Monsieur de St. Evremond: made English from the French original. London: J. and J. Knapton, J. Darby, A. Battesworth. p. 106.