Veronica Buckley

The UK keeps turning out excellent historical biographers. Veronica Buckley, author of the previously reviewed Christina Queen of Sweden, does it again with Madame de Maintenon. Originally Françoise d’Aubigné and a Huguenot and impoverished; then 15-year-old wife of a disfigured and somewhat scandalous poet, Paul Scarron; then Scarron’s widow and appointed governess to the increasing number of bastards sired by Louis XIV, then Louis’ mistress and ennobled as the Marquise d’Maintenon, then Louis’ secret wife, and finally a contented recluse after Louis’ death. She seems to have navigated all this with aplomb: adequately religious for the time and place; adequately virtuous (she supposedly became the king’s mistress to keep him from having too many extramarital affairs, and the queen reportedly agreed, saying “Thank God for Madame d’Maintenon!”); and adequately amorous (Louis apparently valued Françoise because she was “comfortable”; previous mistresses may have been more exotic but also more demanding and more likely to intervene in politics). Françoise’s immediate predecessor as royal mistress was Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemarte, Marquise de Montespan. Madame de Montespan (see Athénaïs,) had become in involved in the notorious “Affair of the Poisons”, where an assortment of noble and common ladies had supposedly become involved in witchcraft, as sort of a hobby for the bored and the situation became too scandalous for the king to ignore; the various noble ladies, including Athénaïs, were discretely instructed to withdraw themselves from court. The non-noble ladies were burned. After this Louis may have decided he needed somebody a little more ordinary.

Buckley covers both the personalities and the background history well; I learned quite a bit about 17th-century international politics. Illustrated with relevant contemporary pictures. Excellent footnotes and references, but could use some maps as an aide to understanding Louis’ campaigns in the Netherlands. Good if you’re fond of The Three Musketeers, Cyrano de Bergerac, and/or Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Trilogy.… (meer)

A clear and concise history of Francoise D'Aubigne, otherwise known as Madame de Maintenon. She became the second (and morganatic) wife of the Sun King Louis XIV. Francoise was thought by contemporaries to be a negative influence on the King, but she truly seems to have had more common sense than he. If not for his excessive construction projects and incessant warfare-and the ever increasing taxation to pay for it-there would probably have been no uprising 80 years later. No Revolution, and the removal of the French monarchy, and the heads of The Sun King's great grandson and his wife.
This book is easy to follow and I would recommend it to French history buffs, especially anyone looking for the reasons behind the Fremch Revolution.… (meer)

Part of the “interesting women” reading list. There must have been high hopes for the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus (more correctly but more confusingly called “Gustav Adolf” in this book), but while Christina was bright and had a forceful personality, she definitely wasn’t a version of her father in skirts. In fact, it wasn’t clear if she belonged in skirts at all; it took doctors 24 hours after her birth to determine her gender, she often wore men’s clothes as an adult, and a good number of her romantic attachments appear to have been with other women. The less respectful of her contemporaries described her as a “hunchback lesbian dwarf whore”, and it’s quite clear that even with her acknowledged beautiful eyes, she would never be mistaken for Greta Garbo.


She reminds me of a smarter but homelier version of a modern pop star - perhaps if Paris Hilton could qualify for Mensa and had once been in a bad car wreck? Her life story is full of not-quite-successful attempts to be great, with numerous interesting and ambitious projects that she was just a little too much of an airhead to complete. She wanted to an Athena, presiding over a court full of artists and scholars and philosophers, but (apologies to 17th century Sweden just wasn’t the place to do this. Although she did manage to lure Rene Descartes to Stockholm, he promptly caught pneumonia and died. Her eventual solution to the problem was characteristically outrageous and not very well thought out: she abdicated the throne, converted to Catholicism, and moved to Rome. Although she amassed a decent sculpture collection (dispensing a small amount of patronage to Bernini) and had occasional musical evenings with Correlli and Scarlatti, she was mostly too impoverished to run the kind of salon she had always anticipated. She attempted to stay active in European politics without any success, becoming a comic and pathetic figure at the royal courts she visited, and she ruined her reputation by having one of her own “court” of hangers-on summarily executed for treason.


At least, the end of her life was not unpleasant. With all passion spent she retired to her Roman villa and her art collection. In her last illness she forgave all her enemies and requested forgiveness for herself.


This is author Veronica Buckley’s first book, and I’m impressed. The narrative is well done and the research is impeccable. Apparently it’s a graduate thesis that Buckley spent years refining. I’m hoping there’s another book in the wings somewhere.… (meer)

I came to this book knowing the basic outline of Christina of Sweden's life but not the details - and what struck me was the role of gender in this 17th-century queen's life. Initially mistaken for a boy at birth (and possibly intersex?), Christina become Queen of Sweden in her own right while still a child. She refused to marry, however, and eventually abdicated from her throne, motivated partly by a desire to convert to Catholicism. She spent years traveling across Europe, often dressed in men's clothing, and was attracted to both men and women. I wish this historical figure was talked about more - she clearly deserves more attention than she typically receives and her life would provide a rich platform for discussions of gender and sexuality.… (meer)