Marie Jeanne of Savoy - Life in France

Life in France

Marie Jeanne Baptiste de Savoie was born at the Hôtel de Nemours in Paris and was the eldest of five children born to Charles Amadeus, Duke of Nemours and his wife Élisabeth de Bourbon. Through her mother, Marie Jeanne was a great grand daughter of Henry IV, King of France via her father César de Bourbon, Légitimé de France, whose mother was Gabrielle d'Estrées. This made her a half-first-cousin once removed of Louis XIV and a relation to most Catholic royalty at that time. She was a member of the Nemours cadet branch of the House of Savoy which had settled in France in the sixteenth century. Marie Jeanne grew up with her sister Marie Françoise, Mademoiselle d'Aumale who was born in 1646. She was styled as Mademoiselle de Nemours prior to marriage. As a young girl she frequented the salon of the famous Madame de La Fayette who later introduced Marie Jeanne into correspondence with Madame de Sévigné.

Her father died in 1652 having been killed in a duel with his own brother-in-law the Duke of Beufort. From then on she and her family were under the guardianship of her paternal uncle Henri the new Duke of Nemours. At Henri's death in 1659 his estates reverted to the crown but were later secured by Marie Jeanne who used the estates for her own income. With two young daughters no financial support nor influence at court her mother Élisabeth looked to her maternal family her mother being a princess of Lorraine.