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| Chiara Spinucci by Domenico Cardelli, 1787 |
Italian aristocrat, dancer & singer.
"Signora Spinucci: Countess Chiara Rosa Maria Spinucci (1741-1792), Lady-in-Waiting at the Court of the Elector of Saxony; she married Prince Franz Xavier in 1765. The marriage was not recognized by the Courts of Europe until 1777." (Casanova and Trusk, 1997, p. 670)
Her lover was:
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| Franz Xaver von Sachsen by Piero Antonio Rotari |
Franz Xaver von Sachsen (1730-1806)
Graf von der Lausitz
Lieutenant-General & Marshal of France 1758
Won the Battle of Lutzelbrg 1762
Regent of Saxony 1763-1768
Founded the School of Mines in Freiberg
the oldest engineering school in Germany 1765.
Won the Battle of Lutzelbrg 1762
Regent of Saxony 1763-1768
Founded the School of Mines in Freiberg
the oldest engineering school in Germany 1765.
Son of: Friedrich August II von Sachsen, a.k.a. Augustus III of Poland, & Maria Josepha von Osterreich
Husband of: Chiara Maria Spinucci
"Among the handsomest and most distinguished women in Rome towards the close of the eighteenth century were four sisters, who have been already frequently mentioned in these pages as the Saxon Princesses. They were the daughters of Prince Saverio of Saxony, son of the King of Poland, Frederick Augustus II, and the Countess Clara Spinucci, of Fermo, a beautiful, well-educated, and accomplished woman, who, however, was considered by no means a fitting match for a member of the reigning house. Prince Saverio met her at Dresden, where she had gone from Vienna to enter the service of the widowed Electress of Saxony, Maria Valburga of Bavaria, daughter of the Emperor Charles VII. Struck by her good looks and her talents, he at once fell in love with her, and insisted on a speedy morganatic marriage, to the intense disgust of the various archduchesses and German princesses, who thought it would have shown quite condescension enough on Prince Saverio's part to have made her his mistress. His family were especially furious, and there was nothing for the young couple to do but to retire to the Castle of Pont, on the Senna, where they lived extremely quietly until the French Revolution broke out in 1791. When twelve years had passed this, the submission of Donna Clara and the constancy of her husband brought their reward. The marriage was publicly acknowledged with 'the consent of the Courts of Europe,' Donna Clara was permitted to assume the title of Princess, was accorded her place at Court, and was allowed to take her husband's courtesy title of Countess of Lusazia, a province of Saxony. All this was formally ratified by an Act passed on St. Clara's day, the 12th August 1777, and Donna clara wrote the good news to her mother in a perfect ecstasy of joy. . . ." (Rome: Its Princes, Priests and People, Volume 2: 65-66)
"...Then there arrived the three famous Saxon Princesses, notorious for their beauty, gallantry, and extravagance. They were the daughters of Saverio, Elector of Saxony...who was himself the son of Frederick Augustus, King of Poland... The mother of these enterprising damsels was the Countess Clara Spinucci of Fermo, a most beautiful woman, to judge from her monument, which still exists in the cathedral at Fermo, and from a bust of her preserved in the Palace of the Commune...." (Silvagni, 1885, p. 45) [Bio2] [Fam1] [Fam2]
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(1639-1722)
French-German courtier
Countess of Wilhelmsburg
Also known as:
Madame de Harburg
Countess Eleanor of Esmiere-Olbreuse
the Shepherdess from Poitou (by Duchess Sophia, her sister-in-law)
Daughter of: Alexandre Desmier, Seigneur d'Obroire et d'Olbreuse & Jacquette Poussard de Vendree.
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| Georg Wilhelm of Brunswick-Luneburg @Wikipedia |
Georg Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Luneburg
First encounter.
" . . . Visiting the court at Kassel, he had encountered Eleonore Desmier D'Olbreuse, a French Huguenot of noble extraction, who was in the entourage of the princess of Tarente. Georg Wilhelm was so taken with her that he persuaded Ernst August to invite Eleonore and her companion Mademoiselle de la Motte to join Sophia's suite for their journey to Italy in the winter of 1664-5. . . Mademoiselle de la Motte agreed but Eleonore preferred to follow her mistress to The Hague. Georg Wilhelm was besotted enough to abandon his Italian excursion and travel to the United Provinces instead. He then persuaded Ernst August to ask his wife to invite Eleonore to Osnabruck as a lady-in-waiting, which she did. Eleonore accompanied Ernst August and Sophia to Celle where she entered into a morganatic marriage with Georg Wilhelm. . . ." (George II: King and Elector: 13)
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
". . . Eleonore is described as a happy person of exceptional beauty. . . . " (The Huguenots: France, Exile and Diaspora: 66)
Character or persona.
"Dorothea's mother Countess Eleanor was an expatriate of France. She was a Protestant Huguenot who fled from Paris when the persecution of Huguenots intensified after 1661. Countess Eleanor was responsible for transforming Celle from a farm village into a center for culture. She supervised renovation of the ducal residence Schloss Celle in the Italian Renaissance style with in a formal garden surrounding it." (Lives of England's Reigning and Consort Queens: 527)
Personal & family background.
"Eleonore Desmier d'Olbreuse was born. . . in the little chateau d'Olbreuse in Poitou, about 50 kilometres from La Rochelle. The noble family into which she was born had belonged to the French Reformed faith for generations. Her parents, Alexandre Desmier, seigneur d'Obroire et d'Olbreuse, and Jacquette Poussard de Vendree, had four children: Alexandre, Charles, Angelique and Eleonore, the youngest."(The Huguenots: France, Exile and Diaspora: 65)
Georg Wilhelm's other affairs.
"The eldest, Duke Christian, settled down to a fairly quiet life at Celle ; " his only fault," we hear, " was drinking," a very venial offence in those days. But the second brother, Duke George William, found life at Hanover unbearably tedious. He had little liking for the stiff and monotonous routine of his German court ; the simple lives of his subjects bored him, and their rude manners and coarse habit of living disgusted him. Though all his life strongly anti-French in his politics, he belonged to the newer school of German princes and affected the society and fashions of the French, so much so that on one occasion a French envoy said to him at his own table : " But, Monsigneur, this is charming ; there is no foreigner here but you ". Though a young man, George William had already travelled in Italy, and acquired a certain polish of manners and superficial refinement not usually to be found among German princes of his time. The first use he made of his freedom was to escape from the tedium of his uninteresting little principality, and, in company with his youngest brother, Ernest Augustus, who was then his boon companion, and largely dependent upon his bounty, he made another tour in Italy, visiting Milan and Venice. At Venice, then at its zenith, the brothers plunged into the delights and dissipations which the gay city offered. George William formed an intimacy with a Venetian woman, one Signora Buccolini, by whom he had a son. For many years he was devoted to her, and maintained her in considerable affluence; for, with all his faults, he was of a generous disposition. But the lady was of so passionate, jealous, and exacting a temperament that at last she tired the patience of her protector. After many quarrels he made an arrangement by which he settled a sum of money upon the mother, and took the charge of the boy's education upon himself. This was the final separation. He took back the young Lucas Buccolini with him to Hanover, clipped his Italian name into Bucco." (The Love of An Uncrowned Queen: 2)
References:
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