La Duchesse : the life of Marie de Vignerot : Cardinal Richelieu's forgotten heiress who shaped the fate of France
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 397-449) and index.

"A rich portrait of a compelling, complex woman who emerged from a sheltered rural childhood into the fraught, often deadly world of the French royal court and Parisian high society--and who would come to rule them both"--,Provided by publisher

Marie de Vignerot was intended to lead an ordinary aristocratic life, produce heirs, and quietly assist the men in her family rise to prominence. Instead she was married off at sixteen to a military officer she barely knew, became a widow at eighteen, and rose to become the indispensable and highly visible right-hand of the most powerful figure in French politics: the ruthless Cardinal Richelieu. As the Cardinal lay dying, he broke with tradition and entrusted her, above his male heirs, with his vast fortune. McShea shows how Marie would go on to shape her country's political, religious, and cultural life. As the unconventional and independent Duchesse d'Aiguillon, her life reverberated across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas-- yet she was all but forgotten in modern times. -- adapted from jacket