LONGUEVILLE, ANNE GENEVA:1TE DE BOURI30N-CONDA Duehesse de, 1619-79; b. in the donjon of Vincennes, where her father, Henry III. of Bourbon, was a prisoner. lier mother WAS Charlotte de Montmorency, sister of the great Conde. Before arriving at womanhood her beauty and grace, and a sino-ularly sympathetic attraction, made her debut at the court a social event. She was ate'onee a pupil and a star in the choice society gathered around the marquise de Rambouillet. In 1642, at the age of 23, she ,beca.me wife of the due de Longueville, an old 1'021e, who deserved and received no love from his young wife. She was strongly attached to Coligny, who was killed in a duel by the duc de Guise. In 1646, her husband being ambassador at Munster, the duchess was already so renowned for her charms that her reception was like au ovation to a mouarch; but she speedily tired of the vulgar show, and returned to the more elegant and refined circles of Parts. The duc cle Rochefoucauld, author of the Maxima, became her ardent admirer and favorite. Up to this time she had exhibited only the power to charm the most eminent men by a singular blending of languor and sweetness of manner. The internal troubles of France generated a strong animosity between the Freud, par liament and cardinal Mazariu, regent of Louis XIV., and developed into a civil war, called the war of the Fronde. The duchess participated in the popular hatred of Mazarin and espoused the other side. From this time she appears in a role which exhibits energy, powers of intrigue, and ability of a high order. La Rochefoucauld's ascendency over her heart and her mind awakened her to political ambition. She became the soul and bond of alliance between the various friends of the parliament, and supported the acts of the citizens of Paris, who rose aouinst Mazarin and by barricades forced his flight from the city. With the duchesse deeBouillon installed in the Hotel de Ville, she aided to keep Paris in tile possession of the insurrectionists against the regent. During this time she gave birth to a child, alleged to be a son of La Rochefoucauld. She was an active party to the treaty of peace with Mazarin in 1649. Soon after, her husband was imprisoned in Vincennes, and she flew to Normandy to effect a rising of the people against 3Iazarin, but frilled. She then sought safety for herself and fled to Holland, and thence to the veat general, Turenne, at Stenau, and soon acquired an ascendency over hini for a time made him untrue to his government, and in the end led to the submission of The duchess to Mazariu and her return to Paris. For a short time she returned to the
literary and social frivolities of the Hotel Rambouillet; but her uncle Conde rind prince Conti, her brother. having again broken with the Mazarin government, she joined them at Bourges and Bordeaux, where, the democratic diameter of the supporters of their cause was like bitter water to her taste. Her party fell apart; her brother Conti and La Rochefoucauld made their separate peace with the government; Conde fled to Spain; and the duchess returned to Paris, pardoned through the efforts of her husband in her behalf. She immediately after went into retirement from society and politics, but was soon required by her husband to join him in Normandy, where he was governor. Seek ing to avoid publicity, as she then was, Mazarin was still suspicious of her, and in a conversation with the Spanish ambassador, who plead the cause of her brother Conde, he said: " You Spaniards can talk at your ease; your women only trouble themselves with affairs of love; but in France it is quite another thing, for we have three who are quite capable to govern or to overturn three kingdoms—the duchesse de Longueville, the princess Palatine, and the duchesse de Chevreuse." The death of her husband in 1663 only induced her to greater seclusion, and, though she lived in Paris, her presence was only felt in her occasional mediation to ameliorate the condition of the Protestants, and to avert the hostility of the Catholic power towards them. Her son, born in 1649, had opened a brilliant career, and had even been called to the throne of Poland, when she had news of his death in battle, June, 1672. She retired to the convent of the Car melites, but continued the friend of the Jansenists; and when their persecution was renewed, it was under her roof that " the grand Arnoult" was successfully hid. For 25 years after this, Mme. de Longueville lived in tranquillity, rendering as obscure as possible the beauty which never left her, and performing the gracious acts of kindness which her life, in the midst of the religieuseR, gave opportunity to do. M. Victor Cousin has written the ltemoires de Madame de. Longuetille, in 3 vols., with a care that gives it one of the highest places in French biography.