Armand Charles de La Porte, 2nd Duke of La Meilleraye (1632 – 9 November 1713), was a French general, who was Grand Master and Captain General of Artillery. In addition, he was made a French peer, Duke of

La Meilleraye La Meilleraye-de-Bretagne (; Gallo: ''La Melherae'', ) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. Geography La Meilleraye is situated 18 km south of Châteaubriant. Climate Population See also *Communes o ...

, prince de

Château-Porcien Château-Porcien () is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France. Population See also *Communes of the Ardennes department The following is a list of the 447 communes of the Ardennes department of France France, o ...

, Marquis of Montcornet, as well as Count of La Fère and of Marle. He married a niece of

Cardinal Mazarin Jules Mazarin (born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino or Mazarini; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), from 1641 known as Cardinal Mazarin, was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Lou ...

Biography

The son of

Charles de La Porte Charles de La Porte, 1st Duke of La Meilleraye (1602 in Paris – 8 February 1664 in Paris) was a French nobleman and a Marshal of France. He was marquis then duke of La Meilleraye and peer of France, baron of Parthenay and of Saint-Maixent, co ...

(called "

Marshal Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used fo ...

de La Meilleraye") and nephew of

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religi ...

, Armand Charles was Marquis of La Porte. He later became Marquis of

and then Duke of

Mayenne Mayenne ( ) is a landlocked department in northwest France named after the river Mayenne. Mayenne is part of the administrative region of Pays de la Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Manche, Orne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, and Il ...

. He served as Grand Master of the French Artillery in 1646 or 1648.

Marriage

On 1 March 1661 he married

Hortense Mancini Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin (6 June 1646 – 2 July 1699), was a niece of Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister of France, and a mistress of Charles II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. She was the fourth of the five famous Mancini ...

, the favourite niece and heiress of the immensely wealthy

. Upon his marriage, he became Duke Mazarin.

Children

The duke and his wife had four children: # Marie Charlotte de La Porte (28 March 1662 – 13 May 1729) married Louis Armand de Vignerot, Marquis of Richelieu. # Marie Anne de La Porte (1663 – October 1720) became an abbess. # Marie Olympe de La Porte (1665 – 24 January 1754) married Louis Christophe Giqault, Marquis of Bellefonds and of Boullaye; # Paul Jules de La Porte, Duke Mazarin and of La Meilleraye (25 January 1666 – 7 September 1731) married Félice Armande Charlotte de Durfort. The marriage proved quite unhappy due to the duke's mistreatment of his wife and general strange behaviour. He was miserly and extremely jealous, and mentally unstable. His strange behaviour included preventing milkmaids from going about their job (to his mind, the cows' udders had strong sexual connotations), having all of his female servants' front teeth knocked out to prevent them from attracting male attention, and chipping off and painting over all the "dirty bits" in his fantastic art collection. He forbade his wife to keep company with other men, made midnight searches for hidden lovers, insisted she spend a quarter of her day at prayer, and forced her to leave Paris and move with him to the country. In 1668 Hortense fled France, in order to escape her abusive husband and eventually settled in England, where she became a mistress of King Charles II. He died in the castle of La Meilleraye, today in ruins, (

Beaulieu-sous-Parthenay Beaulieu-sous-Parthenay (, literally ''Beaulieu under Parthenay'') is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in western France. See also *Communes of the Deux-Sèvres department The following is a list of ...

) in 1713.

Sources

* Guyard de la Fosse, ''Histoire de Mayenne'' *

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

, fr. 11. 468 * M. Pinard, ''Chronologie militaire'', t. IV, p. 201 * ''Relation d'

Ezéchiel Spanheim Ezekiel, Freiherr von Spanheim (also Ézéchiel, and known as Baron Spanheim) (7/18 December 1629 – 14/25 November 1710) was a Republic and Canton of Geneva#History, Genevan diplomat and scholar. Life He was born at Geneva, the eldest son of ...

'' * Grosse-Duperon, ''Souvenirs du Vieux-Mayenne'' * Grosse-Duperon, ''Etude sur Fontaine-Daniel'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Porte, Armand-Charles De La 1632 births 1713 deaths 17th-century French people 18th-century French military personnel Dukes of Mayenne Dukes of France French generals 17th-century peers of France 18th-century peers of France Peers created by Louis XIV