Marie Madeleine de Vignerot

Marie Madeleine de Vignerot, suo jure Duchess of Aiguillon (1604 – 17 April 1675) was a French aristocrat, also remembered for her charitable work and her patronage of artists and mathematicians.

The Duchess of Aiguillon

Biography

Vignerot was the daughter of Cardinal Richelieu's sister, Françoise du Plessis,[1] and her husband René de Vignerot.

In 1620 Vignerot married a nephew of the constable de Luynes, Antoine de Beauvoir du Roure, sieur de Combalet, who died in 1622. In 1625, through her uncle's influence, she was made a lady-in-waiting (dame d'atour) to the queen-mother Marie de Medici, and in 1638 was created duchess of Aiguillon.[1]

The Duchess did not marry a second time, although Richelieu wished to marry her to a prince, either to the comte de Soissons or to the Only brother of the King. After the death of the cardinal in 1642, the Duchess retained her honours and titles, but withdrew from the court and devoted herself entirely to works of charity. She became a patron of work involving science and the arts, providing funding for many notable initiatives. She died on 17 April 1675.[1] from 1638 she was the duchess of Aiguillon in her own right.

Patron of science and arts

The Duchess worked with St. Vincent de Paul and helped him to establish the Bicêtre Hospital for foundlings. She also took part in re-organising the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris and establishing several others in the provinces.[1] Additionally, she founded and funded the establishment of the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec for the colonists of New France.[2]

The Duchess was the patroness of Pierre Corneille, who in 1636 dedicated his tragedy Le Cid to her.[1] She also had the vision to provide patronage to Marie Crous, a mathematician who introduced the decimal system to France with her published research.[3]

Notes
  1. Chisholm 1911, p. 436.
  2. Hôtel-Dieu de Québec. Canadian Register of Historic Places. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  3. (in English) Catherine Goldstein, Neither public nor private: mathematics in early modern France.

References
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aiguillon, Marie Madeleine de Wignerod du Pont de Courlay" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 436–437.
  • Henry Gardiner Adams, ed. (1857). "Aiguillon, Duchess d'". A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography: 23. Wikidata Q115446301.
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