The Kings’ Mistresses: The Liberated Lives of Marie Mancini, Princess Colonna, and Her Sister Hortense, Duchess Mazarinis the fascinating dual biography of two of the most controversial women of the seventeenth century. Marie and Hortense Mancini were the nieces of Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino, who rose to power in France as Cardinal Jules Mazarin, advisor to Anne of Austria, King Louis XIV’s mother and the regent during his minority. The Cardinal used his wealth and influence to advance his relatives, bringing his sister’s daughters to the French court and arranging their marriages to powerful noblemen. As the title of Goldsmith’s work implies, both women ultimately gained notoriety as royal mistresses. Marie was the first love of Louis XIV and Hortense eventually traveled to England, where she became the mistress of his cousin, King Charles II of England and Scotland.

The royal romances of the Mancini sisters have been discussed in other popular works including Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King by Antonia Fraser and The Mistresses of Charles II by Brian Masters. Hortense Mancini herself was the first non-royal woman in France to write her Memoirs. Goldsmith, however, brings a fresh approach and new source material to her analysis of the historical significance of the Mancini sisters. Instead of viewing Marie and Hortense exclusively as royal mistresses, Goldsmith devotes much of The Kings’ Mistresses to their determination to escape their unhappy marriages and enjoy independent travels, social lives and cultural patronage. At a time when the French state exerted close control over the institution of marriage, particularly the unions of the nobility, and legal separation was difficult to obtain, the Mancini sisters defiantly asserted their independence.

Goldsmith is a Professor of French at Boston University, who has worked on research projects involving the writings and experiences of the Mancini sisters since 1995 . She accessed the Colonna archive, donated by Marie’s descendants to the Santa Scolastica library in Subiaco, Italy, discovering the sisters’ unpublished correspondence. Marie’s and Hortense’s voices are central to the text as Goldsmith integrates extensive excerpts from their writings into her account of their struggles for autonomy.

Despite their immense wealth, patronage and influence, both women experienced significant mistreatment in their marriages as Marie’s husband Constable Lorenzo  Colonna possessed a violent temperament (he was rumoured to have attempted to poison his wife) and Hortense’s husband Armand-Charles, Duke Mazarin suffered from religious mania and obsessive jealousy. Goldsmith’s description of Duke Mazarin’s destruction of the priceless art collection Hortense inherited from her uncle is particularly chilling, highlighting her inability to protect the wealth she received from Cardinal Mazarin.

The travels of Marie and Hortense Mancini encompassed the full geography of seventeenth century Western Europe including London, Madrid, Paris, Rome and Brussels. In a book that only contains 226 pages of text, Goldsmith understandably focuses closely on their experiences, discussing the broader context of their times in a brief historical prologue. Other influential women of the period including the former Queen Christina of Sweden and Henrietta-Anne, Duchess d’Orleans are discussed briefly when their activities intersect with those of the Mancini sisters but there are only passing comparisons to other seventeenth century elite European women who sought to escape unhappy marriages. Mazarin’s own exercise of political influence, which has been discussed extensively in other works, is also summarized within a single chapter.

I found Goldsmith’s comparison of the social lives of noblewomen in different regions of Europe fascinating and wished there had been more material about the people who frequented the Mancini salons. I would also have been interested to read an epilogue about Marie’s and Hortense’s descendants, encompassing the history of the Colonna papers, which are so integral to the book. The Kings’ Mistresses: The Liberated Lives of Marie Mancini, Princess Colonna, and Her Sister Hortense, Duchess Mazarin is a well researched and well written dual biography of two of the seventeenth century’s most controversial women. Through their letters and memoirs, the adventures of Marie and Hortense Mancini, mistresses to Kings and runaway wives to unbalanced noblemen, come to life.

The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc is a fascinating dual biography of two extraordinary women who shaped the course of the Hundred Years War between England and France. The Maid, Joan of Arc, has passed into legend. Ever since she was exonerated in 1456 of the charges of witchcraft and heresy that led to her execution in 1431, a narrative of her singular divine mission has been accepted by scholars and popular audiences alike.

Statue of Joan of Arc outside the Cathedral at Rheims where Charles VII was crowned.

In most accounts of the Hundred Years War, Joan is described as a peasant girl from the remote town of Domrémy who believed she heard the voices of St. Michael, St. Margaret and St. Catherine calling on her to save France. According to this version of events, she miraculously recognized the Dauphin in a hall crowded with nobles, persuaded him to be crowned at Rheims as Charles VII and inspired the French to defeat the English at Orleans without any assistance from the various powerful noble factions who exerted influence in fifteenth century France.

Goldstone places Joan in the context of her times, demonstrating that her divine mission was part of the earthly design of the Dauphin’s most powerful supporter, his mother-in-law, Queen Yolande of Sicily, Duchess of Provence and Countess of Anjou. Charles VII might never have regained his throne if it had not been for the Queen’s patronage of the Maid. Dohremy was not a remote village but part of the Duchy of Bar, ruled by Yolande’s son René of Anjou, and court politics were as significant to Joan’s success as divine inspiration.

Goldstone effectively challenges the traditional portrayal of Joan of Arc as a lone warrior, providing convincing evidence that she would never have had access to the Dauphin without the assistance of Queen Yolande. The English invasion threatened her daughter Marie`s queenship and her own extensive lands in Provence and the Loire Valley. The indecisive Dauphin was seeking divine guidance for his campaign and Yolande provided it in the form of Joan of Arc.

The Chateau Saumur in France's Loire Valley, part of Queen Yolande's dower estates.

Despite Charles VII’s eventual description of his mother-in-law as “The late Yolande, of good memory, queen of Jerusalem and Sicily, in our youth did us great services in many ways that we hold in perpetual memory,” the Queen has been largely forgotten. As demonstrated by her previous works, Goldstone has a gift for uncovering the historical significance of little known medieval Queens. The Lady Queenilluminated the reign of Joanna I of Sicily and Jerusalem who ultimately bequeathed her possessions to the Counts of Provence, while Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe revealed the connections between the thirteenth century consorts of England, France, Sicily and the Holy Roman Empire. Although The Maid and the Queen is subtitled “The Secret History of Joan of Arc” its great accomplishment is the restoration of Queen Yolande to her rightful place in French history.

By placing Joan of Arc in context as part of Yolande’s political and diplomatic policy, Goldstone also reveals the full complexity of the conflict between France and England. The military prowess of Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, immortalized by William Shakespeare, is tempered by a sensitive portrayal of his opponent King Charles VI, who began his reign with great promise before suffering from a debilitating mental illness. A wide range of medieval source material is incorporated into the narrative including the literature beloved by Yolande’s parents and her son René of Anjou and the full transcripts of Joan of Arc’s trial. Goldstone also writes with a dry wit, noting that English history might have taken a difference course if Yolande had married another one of her suitors, the unlucky King Richard II.

The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc is an engaging account of how two powerful women changed the course of French history. Nancy Goldstone places Joan of Arc in her rightful context and provides the full scope of Queen Yolande’s power and political influence during the Hundred Years War.