126 - Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, known as the Grande Mademoiselle, 1627–1693.

Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, known as the Grande Mademoiselle, 1627–1693. L.A., Aix, February 6, 1660, 1 p. in-4 with a black wax seal bearing the coat of arms on pale yellow silk, addressed to “Madame Royalle,” her aunt Christine of France, Dowager Duchess of Savoy, and sister of Gaston d’Orléans. “I believe Your Majesty will be no less surprised than I was when I learned of my father’s illness [...].” After receiving the news that he was “by the grace of God out of danger,” she wanted to “leave at once to go find him, but the Cardinal prevented me [...].” She would try to write him a longer letter. A moving letter written while Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orléans was in Aix-en-Provence with the Court, which had come to celebrate the Peace of the Pyrenees. There she learned that her father, Gaston d’Orléans, was seriously ill in Blois. Disturbed by the news she had received, she wished to leave immediately to join him and even began making arrangements for her journey; however, the Prince of Conti, and later Cardinal Mazarin, urged her to wait for more certain news before undertaking the long journey. She thus remained in Aix when the Court left the city on February 4 to travel to Toulon. On this date, February 6, Mademoiselle was still unaware that Gaston had in fact died in Blois four days earlier, on February 2, after a brief illness. She would not learn the news until later, upon the return of her messenger. Here, the Grande Mademoiselle shares with her aunt her concern about her father’s condition and the circumstances preventing her from going to him immediately.