Marguerite d’Orléans was a pot stirrer like no other. Her risqué rebellions shocked her friends and family—which is saying something, considering she was married to a bona fide Medici. But when you tally up all Marguerite’s uber petty vengeances, brash escape plans, and constant need for attention, this little-known femme fatale makes other historical bad girls look like innocent saints.
1. She Was A Spoiled Child
From the moment she was born in July 1645, there wasn’t much Marguerite Louise d’Orléans didn’t have. Her father, Gaston, the Duke of Orléans, was the brother of the King of France, and her whole childhood was full of luxury unlike anything we could ever imagine. But there was a twist. For all that Marguerite’s young life should have been a dream, scandal already stained her every move.
2. She Was A Disgrace
Marguerite’s father Gaston was one of the most scandalous figures in the realm. Indeed, he had insisted on marrying her mother, Marguerite of Lorraine, despite two big reasons not to: Namely, France and Lorraine were sworn enemies at the time, and his brother King Louis XIII banned him from doing it. Surprise! Gaston tied the knot anyway, and got himself exiled from court.
So when our little Marguerite came along, she wasn’t so much a bundle of joy as hard evidence of her father’s sins. And that wasn’t all.
3. Her Father Was A Villain
For all the infamy of her birth, Marguerite d’Orléans had much worse problems. Her father didn’t just rebel in the romance department—he had also tried to depose his brother twice before she was even born. After all this, Marguerite’s family name was utter mud in the French court while she was growing up, and no amount of her ancestral lands or money were going to help matters. Luckily, Marguerite had a secret weapon.
4. She Had A Scandalous BFF
Marguerite’s elder half-sister was none other than the formidable “La Grande Mademoiselle” Anne Marie, whose massive wealth and exploits at court were legendary. Marguerite and Anne Marie got along famously, with the older girl carting the young ingenue around with her to all manner of court functions and giving her advice on how to get in with the “in” crowd—which she very much needed.
Unfortunately for poor Marguerite, this advice didn’t help her avoid a complete court disaster.
5. Her Fiancé Dumped Her In Public
Barely entering her teenage years, Marguerite d’Orléans got an offer of marriage from Charles Emmanuel II, the Duke of Savoy. Full disclosure: Charles was totally her cousin. Still, in the French court, this hardly mattered, and everyone around Marguerite heard wedding bells. Until, that is, the day it all came crashing down. Charles suddenly pulled out of negotiations—and Marguerite thought she knew why.
6. She Was Judgmental
Even from a young age, Marguerite was shrewd and, more than that, critical—and when her nuptials fell through, she blamed her mother’s chief advisor, Madame de Choisy, for the mess-up. To Marguerite, the woman had botched the talks and hadn’t done her duty to the family properly. Because of this, Marguerite now swore she would only rely on her half-sister Anne Marie for her marriage negotiations.
Uh, this really didn’t work out well for her either.
7. She Got A Second Chance
In 1658, Marguerite got an offer she couldn’t refuse. None other than Cosimo de’ Medici, the scion of that House of Medici—one of the most infamous families in Renaissance Italy—asked for her hand. Besides the fact that Cosimo was due to be the Grand Duke of Tuscany, he also had a reputation among the fashionable set as a strapping, sporting gentleman.
Beside herself with anticipation, Marguerite begged her sister Anne Marie to take the reins in negotiating the marriage. She’d live to regret it almost immediately.
8. Her Suitor Looked Perfect On The Outside
Like a good older sister, Anne Marie took her duties as marriage broker very seriously—but this ended up backfiring on the girls spectacularly. See, Anne Marie started out liking Cosimo and his buckets of money very much, but as she got to know the future Grand Duke, she realized that all the rumors about him were most definitely not true.
Far from being a dreamboat jock, his real self was quite different.
9. Her Fiancé Was A Dud
When the d’Orléans family finally met the prospective bridegroom, his worst secrets came out. Although people had described him as an outgoing, athletic boy in his childhood years, as a young man he had become “melancholy” and something of a bore. By now, it had progressed so much that he even made the conscious (and bizarre) decision to stop smiling in public.
Is it any wonder Anne Marie was worried for her sister? Not that this did any good.
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10. She Felt Trapped
Marguerite d’Orléans trusted her sister’s judgment implicitly, so when she heard that the Grande Mademoiselle despised her would-be beau, she was extremely alarmed. But here was the kicker: The marriage planning was so far along at that point, it was going to go ahead whether Marguerite liked it or not (and she very much did not). After this, Marguerite’s reaction was drastic.
11. She Became A Bad Girl
Horrified at the knowledge she’d have to marry someone with so many red flags, Marguerite went off the deep end. And when I say, that, I mean it: In the blink of an eye, she stopped caring about anything approaching propriety, and started going out unchaperoned at all hours of the night. This was a gasp-worthy endeavor for a noblewoman of the time, but she did not stop there.
12. She Took A Lover
Marguerite d’Orléans might have been going out unchaperoned, but she wasn’t going out alone. Her constant companion on these jaunts was her handsome cousin Prince Charles of Lorraine. Like Marguerite, Charles was also in the middle of an engagement he didn’t want to be in, and the pair of them got along like a house on fire. Soon enough, their friendship turned into a very blatant affair.
As Marguerite’s marriage approached, she only got more brash.
13. She Tried To Run From Her Fate
On April 19, 1661, the worst day so far of Marguerite’s life occurred. That day, she got married “by proxy” to Cosimo—that is, without having seen her groom. Bereft and feeling helpless, Marguerite only dug her rebellious heels in further. When ministers came by her house to offer their congratulations, she tried to go out hunting to purposefully miss them.
Her cousin King Louis XIV certainly noticed her lack of cooperation, but nothing could save her now.
14. She Got A Big Send-Off
That summer, Marguerite d’Orléans traveled to Marseille to meet the Italian fleet that would take her to Tuscany. On the surface, it was the height of luxury: Cosimo’s uncle Mattias was there to greet her, and there was practically a whole Tuscan armada to carry her over. For Marguerite, though, it must have felt like a death march—and she knew just how to show her disdain.
15. She Refused To Give Up Her Lover
When Marguerite got to Marseille, she gave the Medicis a nasty surprise. Get this: She brought her lover Prince Charles of Lorraine with her to say one final goodbye. This move was so bonkers, it’s honestly hard to imagine how Marguerite even pulled it off—though, to be fair, Charles was immediately banned from going any further with her.
As she pushed off alone, though, Marguerite was already coming up with another dastardly plan to make the Medicis’ lives a living nightmare.
16. She Was Expensive
On June 20, Marguerite d’Orléans made a resplendent entrance into Tuscany, and her in-person wedding celebrations were more than worthy of a Grand Princess of Tuscany. Her procession alone boasted 300 carriages, and her new father-in-law, Grand Duke Ferdinando, gave her an enormous pearl “the size of a pigeon’s egg” to say welcome to the family.
All great inroads to a good impression. But when Marguerite laid eyes on her groom, it all crumbled.
17. Her Husband Bored Her
At long last, Marguerite and Cosimo met. It was an utter disaster. Not only was Marguerite as thoroughly unimpressed (no surprise there) but Cosimo didn’t take to her, either. There was about as much passion in the union as, well, you might expect from an arranged marriage done mostly for political clout. Of course, a lack of passion didn’t necessarily mean the union was doomed. Oh no, it was doomed for much more scandalous reasons.
18. She Made An Indecent Request
Two days after their marriage ceremony—you know, when Marguerite d’Orléans was supposed to be in the throes of infatuation—she really outdid herself. Cutting right to the chase, she brought up the only thing that mattered to her about Cosimo: His bank account. Specifically, she asked her brand-new husband to immediately gift her with the crown jewels of Tuscany.
Yeah, it was a bold ask. It didn’t go her way.
19. Her Husband Refused Her First Wish
While Marguerite likely expected her husband would hand over the jewels ASAP, she was in for one rude awakening. Cosimo was totally taken aback by the request and stammered out that he didn’t even think he could give them to her, considering they rightfully belonged to his father until the old man passed. This started a series of very dramatic events.
20. She Was A Thief
At first, Marguerite seemed to play it cool with Cosimo, and simply took a handful of other jewels she managed to finagle out of him. All good so far. After all, she was his wife, and if she wasn’t getting pretty things out of this raw deal, what good was it to her? No, the real problem came when Marguerite then tried to smuggle those jewels out of the country. That’s when all hell broke loose.
21. They Caught Her Red-Handed
If it sounds like Marguerite was flailing here, that’s because she was. Obviously, she wasn’t planning on sticking around in Tuscany that long, and wanted the jewels for some kind of insurance. But before she could get them out, her own father-in-law caught her in the act and stopped her. I, for one, would be super embarrassed here. But not Marguerite. Her response was bone-chilling.
22. She Came To Hate Her Husband
If Marguerite d’Orléans had felt cold and suspicious toward her husband before this Crown Jewel Debacle, she now felt downright hateful. It didn’t help that she was far from over Prince Charles of Lorraine, and her lover’s memory lingered with her wherever she went. In short, her marriage was off to a horrific start—and there were even darker secrets she was about to find out.
23. She Loved Spending Money
In case you didn’t realize this yet (though I have no idea how you wouldn’t), Marguerite was a woman who loved her luxury. While she may not have gotten the jewels she wanted, she did quickly set about spending all her allowance on clothing, food, drink, and anything else that struck her fancy. But she couldn’t have known how disastrous this was.
24. Her New Family Had A Ruinous Secret
When Marguerite’s father Ferdinando caught her trying to secret out his jewels from his own country, he must have had a heart attack—because the truth was, the Tuscan coffers were practically empty at the time, despite all the pomp and circumstance they had displayed during Marguerite’s wedding. Yep, Marguerite had all but married a pauper with a title…and she showed her displeasure in the bedroom.
25. She Did Her Duty
The marriage of Cosimo and Marguerite had never been functional, much less fiery. According to Sophia, Electress of Hanover, the childless pair only managed to choke back their disgust and grudgingly visit each other in the bedroom once a week—this in a time where having an heir was paramount. And even then, they couldn’t keep it together.
26. She Uttered Violent Threats
You might think Marguerite and Cosimo had a sensual hate-to-love thing going on, but you’d be very wrong. In private, Marguerite was even crueler to her husband. One evening, Marguerite wasn’t in the mood—or else just simply not willing to put up with her husband in general—and she threatened to break a bottle over him unless he left her alone.
Even so, the weekly visits continued…and their dogged, disturbing persistence paid off.
27. She Got One Thing Right
Marguerite d’Orléans soon got pregnant, giving birth in the summer of 1663—and best of all, she gave birth to a male heir. They named the boy after his grandfather, Ferdinando, and the whole kingdom rejoiced. So, too, did Marguerite…just not for the same reasons. She had now done her duty as a bride, and the relief somehow pushed her to more controversial behavior.
28. An Ex-Lover Came To See Her
Around the time she gave birth to baby Ferdinando, a ghost from Marguerite’s past came back to haunt her. None other than her old lover Prince Charles of Lorraine sauntered into Italy, staying in Florence as a guest of the Grand Duke. With her obsession so close at hand, it wasn’t long before Marguerite was ramping up a plot to get him back. A really bad one.
29. Her Husband Spied On Her
Marguerite d’Orléans wrote a series of intense, longing letters to Prince Charles of Lorraine while he was in Italy—and her ardor did not go unnoticed. Her husband Cosimo and father-in-law Ferdinando were so alarmed at the tone of the missives, they actually stooped to spying on her to make sure she didn’t run directly into Charles’s arms.
Unfortunately, the father-son duo was none too smart in how they went about this. When Marguerite caught on to what they were doing, she waged an all-out war.
30. She Pleaded With The King Of France
In the midst of this, Marguerite and Cosimo both made separate pleas to her cousin King Louis XIV. In her own letter, Marguerite insisted Cosimo was treating her horribly, while Cosimo’s entreaty was basically “put your rabid cousin on a leash, sire”. Trying to please both parties was difficult, but King Louis gave it a shot and sent his emissary, the Count de Saint Mesme, to Tuscany.
The Count was supposed to find out what exactly was going on and act as a peacemaker if he could. The king didn’t like the answer he got back.
Versailles (2015-2018), Canal+
31. She Could Charm Anyone
With all of her scandals and controversies, it’s easy to forget how charismatic Marguerite was. Before long, she had the count eating out of her hand. When she told him how she longed to go back to France, he completely sympathized with her—and when he went back to King Louis, he was firmly on Team Marguerite. Cosimo and his family were incensed at this turn of events, and Louis found himself in the middle of a diplomatic nightmare.
To course-correct, the King of France denied his cousin any kind of safe haven from her marriage. Big mistake.
32. She Humiliated Her Husband
Although Marguerite d’Orléans had been cunning before, Cosimo and his family hadn’t seen anything yet. She got her revenge in the pettiest way. Completely fed up, she relished every humiliation she could inflict on the Medicis. For one, she insisted on employing only French cooks. Why? She claimed she was worried that the Medicis would poison her, as they were infamously wont to do, and she could only trust chefs from her native land.
Oh, but this lady was just getting started.
33. She Publicly Insulted Her Groom
The Catholic Church is, in case you didn’t know, a huge deal in Italy, and it was an even bigger deal in Renaissance Italy. Which is why Marguerite’s next burn ran so deep: One day, she found herself in the presence of the Papal nuncio, a high-powered Catholic diplomat. Only, Marguerite wasn’t in a diplomatic mood. In front of the man, she sniped that Cosimo was “a poor groom".
Shots were getting fired left, right, and center, and it was all approaching a mortifying climax.
34. She Abandoned Her Home
In September 1664, Marguerite chose the nuclear option. She completely abandoned her lavish royal palace—not to mention her toddler son—to take up residence far away from her in-laws at the Villa di Lappeggi. Surprisingly, Cosimo allowed this all to happen, and was even the one who suggested the place. But then again, there was a dark catch.
35. She Was A Lavish Prisoner
By this time, Cosimo was shaking in his boots about the prospect of his wife hot-footing it to France and causing yet more scandal. Hoping to prevent this, he sent 40 officers and six courtiers to her bachelorette villa to guard her and keep her from fleeing. Yes, he was that afraid of his wife. And well, maybe he was right to be—Marguerite’s next move wasn’t exactly stable.
36. She Had An Unlikely Reconciliation
After over a year of extreme marital dramatics, Marguerite made a shocking decision. She decided to reconcile with Cosimo—and we have incontrovertible proof of that fact. Namely, Marguerite got pregnant with his child again, which at least suggests the two of them held it together for one night, if only for one night. Because even during her pregnancy, the cracks were starting to show once more.
37. She Tried To Crudely End Her Pregnancy
Marguerite d’Orléans was a woman who approached her problems with a laser focus, and she saw her pregnancy as a huge problem. In the early months, she actually tried to induce a miscarriage time and again, usually by riding horseback vigorously for long hours. Yet when the jig was up and a baby was definitely coming, she grudgingly threw her lot in with Cosimo again.
In 1667, she gave birth to a girl she named Anna Maria after her beloved sister, Cosimo at her side. But, like every on-off couple you’ve ever known, the storm that followed their tenuous peacetime was worse than ever.
38. She Blamed Her Husband For A Ridiculous Reason
Marguerite and Cosimo were on the outs again immediately following Anna Maria’s birth, and the reason behind the split is pretty gobsmacking. Simply put, Marguerite caught smallpox and began to feel once more that Cosimo was the root of all her problems, including highly infectious diseases. Little did she know, a much bigger problem was coming her way.
39. She Became A Grand Duchess
In 1670, Marguerite’s life altered forever. That year, her meddlesome father-in-law Ferdinando passed, turning Marguerite into the Grand Duchess of Tuscany and her good-for-nothing husband Cosimo into the Grand Duke. With this title, moreover, came the potential for great political power, especially if she could get on Cosimo’s Privy Council.
Well, you know Marguerite was down to grab more power for herself. Except this went horrifically.
40. She Had A Monster-In-Law
Throughout her years in Tuscany, Marguerite had made precious few friends, but she had earned one very formidable enemy: Her mother-in-law Vittoria della Rovere. And if the old Duke Ferdinando had disliked Marguerite, Vittoria despised her. Besides this, Vittoria was already on the Privy Council—and she absolutely refused to admit Marguerite into her ranks.
Enter: The most spiteful catfight to ever grace Italian history.
41. She Made Hell On Earth
With this latest drama, Cosimo and Marguerite had yet another reason to spat. See, Cosimo sided with his mommie dearest in the fight, and officially locked Marguerite out of all-important talks. What’s more, none of this went down in private. The family arguments were so loud that one visitor remarked that the palace had become “the devil’s own abode”.
And just as the din reached deafening levels, Marguerite’s next act stunned the court into silence.
42. She Had A Surprise Baby
Marguerite d’Orléans sure kept everyone on their toes, because in 1670, she did another about face and reconciled enough with Cosimo to get pregnant again. This time, it was a boy, Gian Gastone, whom she named after her own father. Surprising no one, Cosimo and Marguerite were on the outs before the year was up. But THIS time—and I mean it here—there was no turning back.
43. She Manipulated The King Of France
In 1672, Marguerite kicked off the most infamous period of her life. Searching for a way out of her marriage and more desperate than ever before, she crossed an enormous line to get what she wanted. She wrote to her cousin King Louis of France again, but with a new tactic. She now claimed she was suffering from breast cancer—the same illness that had taken the king’s mother—and needed to come home to recuperate.
This was Marguerite’s end game, but there were more twists in store for her than a soap opera.
44. She Exaggerated An Illness
Concerned but also suspicious, Louis sent over the physician who had nursed his mother and got him to examine Marguerite. However, this man did not come to play. Over Marguerite’s loud pleas to go to France, the doctor informed her that what he saw was “in no wise malignant". As a result, she was going to stay in Tuscany whether she liked it or not.
Frustrated yet again, Marguerite didn’t take it lying down. Instead, she came up with even more bizarre revenge methods.
Versailles (2015-2018), Canal+
45. She Liked Risqué Pillow Fights
This time around, Marguerite played a desperate housewife to a tee, and struck up a saucy flirtation with one of her cooks in order to annoy Cosimo and make him jealous. Her flirtation notably consisted of tickling the man and having loud and public pillow fights with him where anyone could “catch” them in the act. Atta…girl? Then, when this didn’t scratch her itch, she played her Hail Mary card.
46. She Began Her Final Escape Plot
By late 1672, Marguerite d’Orléans was jumping out of her skin to escape her hated life, and she simply couldn’t take it anymore. One day, she asked Cosimo if she could visit a shrine that was near the Villa Poggio a Caiano, another one of the Medici properties. And what husband would deny his wife a pious field trip? Cosimo took the bait…and lived to regret it deeply.
47. She Had A Stand-Off
After this taste of freedom, Marguerite holed herself up in the villa and refused to come back. Yes, this was reminiscent of her earlier abandonment of the Medici palace—except for one crucial difference. This time, she stuck it out for two whole years, withstanding several pleas from both her husband and envoys from King Louis of France.
Finally, everyone had to admit there was nothing more to be done, and Marguerite’s life changed forever.
48. She Had To Enter A Convent
In December of 1674, Marguerite’s husband finally caved and signed a contract that let her leave for France with a hefty allowance. Not that she got off scot-free: She was still his wife, and he couldn’t have her cavorting about with all the cooks in the country. Instead, Marguerite had to live like a nun at the Abbey of St Peter in Montmartre, Paris.
At that point, Marguerite couldn’t have cared less where she went in France, as long as it was away from Cosimo. She agreed readily—and still found time to enact one last revenge before she left.
49. She Got The Last Laugh In Her Marriage
As Marguerite finally left the villa, she made sure to pack up many of its furnishings and fixtures. By the time she was done, she’d practically emptied it out, essentially stealing wholesale from her in-laws. After all, as she put it, there was no way she was going to “[set] forth without her proper wages”. Yet all of this came with a great cost.
50. She Abandoned Her Children
Throughout all this, you may be wondering: What about Marguerite’s three young children? The cold, hard truth is that she dropped them entirely. By the summer of 1675, Marguerite had disappeared from their lives—they were all under the age of 13 at the time—and never saw them again. And if you think Marguerite’s upcoming life in a convent made her repent…think again.
51. She Was A Drama Queen
While in Montmartre, Marguerite caused an entirely new scandal. Although she acted like she wanted to rebrand herself as a pious saint, that’s not what happened. She was, at this point, still barely in her 30s, and she quickly took up the French joie de vivre with abandon, wearing rouge (a marker of a loose woman at the time) and lemon-yellow wigs. But that wasn’t all.
52. She Snuck Out Of The Convent
Marguerite d’Orléans was nothing if not persuasive, so it wasn’t long before her cousin King Louis took even more pity on her and—against the contract Cosimo had drawn up—let her journey away from the convent to visit his court. Of course, Marguerite wasted no time gambling for high-stakes with courtiers, and became infamous for her Bohemian lifestyle.
And yes, the word “Bohemian” there is an enormous euphemism.
53. She Had Naughty Affairs
To the horror of the well-bred court, Marguerite consorted with “those of insignificant birth” during this time, striking up affairs with a groom, plus two men of the Luxembourg regiment. Not that she ignored titled men; to even the score, she also took the Count of Lovigny as her lover. I wish I could say all of this wasn’t going to bite her in the butt, but it very much did.
54. Her Husband Couldn’t Let Her Go
Throughout this carousing, Marguerite d’Orléans might have thought she was free from the prying eyes of her husband. But she soon discovered how wrong she was. Cosimo was in fact keeping a very close eye on all her sins. Every time he heard tell of something he didn’t like, he wrote letters complaining to King Louis about his scandalous wife. Eventually, this took a toll.
55. She Drove Her Husband To Disease
Now, Cosimo could have taken a chill pill—King Louis told him as much, snapping back after one too many complaining letters that he had “virtually relinquished any right” to judge Marguerite. Nonetheless, it’s also true that Marguerite’s actions gave Cosimo a lot to stress about. Either way, his health began to fail under duress…and Marguerite’s reaction was ruthless.
56. She Planned A Hostile Takeover
Absence had not made Marguerite’s heart grow fonder, and when she heard from her son that Cosimo was very ill, she practically crowed over the news. Her exact words were that “at the first notice of her detested husband's demise, she would fly to Florence to banish all hypocrites and hypocrisy and establish a new government". But Marguerite had another thing coming.
57. She Had To Beg For Money
In 1688, karma came for Marguerite d’Orléans in the most embarrassing way possible. After so many long nights at the card table, she was in debt up to her ears. Indeed, she was so desperate that she had to turn to her “detested husband” Cosimo, who was still very much alive, and beg for more allowance. After weeks of wheedling him, her charms worked their magic again, and he gave in.
But not everybody was so susceptible to her charisma, and she was about to find that out the hard way.
58. A Powerful Nun Hated Her
Up until now at her convent, Marguerite had gotten away with a lot, partly because the Abbess was a “don’t ask, don’t tell” kind of authoritarian. So when a new, tough-as-nails Abbess named Madame d’Harcourt rolled into the convent, Marguerite knew she was in deep trouble and that her luck had run out. Put it this way: She did not handle this problem like a lady.
59. She Plotted A Murder
Under threat, Marguerite lashed out at Madame d’Harcourt in high style. As in, she formed a mean girl clique and then threatened murder. Yes, really. Seeing that the new Abbess wasn’t going to let her play her usual games, Marguerite turned a bunch of nuns against the woman and then threatened to kill her very specifically, with an ax and then a pistol.
Somehow, though, she still came out on top.
60. She Left Her Convent In Disgrace
Remember this: The house always wins, and so does Marguerite. Her horrific behavior earned a surprising result. She got to call the shots about what happened next. Since staying in Montmartre was obviously untenable, Marguerite convinced the King to send her to yet another convent, this time Saint-Mande in Ile-de-France, another section of Paris.
At this point, though, things really were different. No, I mean it.
61. She Insisted On Being In Charge
Miraculously—or perhaps it was because she was reaching a more mellow middle age—Marguerite actually settled down at Saint-Mande. Well, sort of. She first cleared out the old Abbess and removed a series of nuns she thought were bad eggs. But then she settled down and seemed to genuinely devote herself to what she thought bettered the convent.
Except, the girl just couldn’t help herself. Through no fault of her own (and how often could you say that about her), she went out with a bang.
62. She Suffered A Terrifying Attack
In 1712, disaster truly struck Marguerite. She suffered an enormous attack of apoplexy that left one of her arms paralyzed and even caused her to foam at the mouth on occasion. Still, with her immense spirit, the Grand Duchess managed to pull through and even start recovering. But just as she began to turn the corner, tragedy hit her like a ton of bricks.
63. She Lost The One Thing She Loved
The next year after her attack, Marguerite got news that her firstborn son Ferdinando—the only child she actually bothered to stay in contact with—had passed. The heartbreaking tidings sent her into another fit of apoplexy that paralyzed her eyes and also made it difficult for her to speak for a good long while. This giant of high drama was now a shadow of her former self, and her end wasn’t pretty.
64. Her Husband Got The Last Word
For the next decade, the sick and aging Marguerite d’Orléans had to live the retiring existence she had spent so much of her life running from. Although she recovered her faculties, she spent most of her time corresponding and giving to charity rather than gambling or stirring the pot. Then in September 1721, she passed at the age of 76—yet that passing contained one final, cruel irony.
Her husband Cosimo, though he had been ill for so long, ultimately “won” the game of life and survived her by two years.
65. History Tried To Erase Her
Although Marguerite’s bad-girl reputation loomed large in France and Italy during her time, we’ve all but forgotten her today. This, as it happens, was likely by design. Some historians argue that King Louis and many of his courtiers purposefully left Marguerite out of their memoirs, feeling that a “conspiracy of silence” was the only way to properly control her antics.
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