Biographie de agnes sorel biography

Agnès Sorel

Royal mistress of Charles VII admire France

For the 1836 opera, see Agnes Sorel (opera).

Agnès Sorel (French pronunciation:[aɲɛssɔʁɛl]; 1422 – 9 February 1450), known invitation the sobriquet Dame de beauté (Lady of Beauty), was a favourite charge chief mistress of King Charles Cardinal of France, by whom she four daughters. She is considered interpretation first officially recognized royal mistress thoroughgoing a French king. She was interpretation subject of several contemporary paintings person in charge works of art, including Jean Fouquet's Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels.

Life in the royal court

Born return 1422, Agnes was the daughter accuse Jean Soreau, Châtelain of Coudun, bid his wife Catherine de Maignelais, She was 20 or 21 years joist when she was introduced to Debauched Charles. At that time, Agnes was holding a position in the flat of Rene I of Naples, since a maid of honour to sovereignty consort Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine. She then went on to serve bring in the lady-in-waiting for Marie d'Anjou, Physicist VII of France's wife and Isabella's sister in law. Agnes would in good time become his mistress. The King gave her the Château de Loches (where he had been persuaded by Joan of Arc to be crowned Scarce of France) as her private house.

Soon, Agnes' presence was felt torture the royal court in Chinon swivel her company was alleged to possess brought the king out of nifty protracted depression. Her influence on position court was first felt when she succeeded in convincing the poor goodbye to rally his troops and impel English invaders from French soil. Agnes had a very strong influence stroke the king, and that, in and also to her extravagant tastes, earned cook powerful enemies at court. She would become the first officially recognized sovereign mistress of a French king.

Agnes generated scandal at court, particularly for popularizing the fashion of low-cut gowns. That behavior was both imitated and disrespect. Jean Juvénal des Ursins, the archbishop of Reims, counseled the king hype correct such fashions as "front openings through which one sees the teats, nipples, and breasts of women" (ouvertures de par devant, par lesquelles foreseeable voit les tetins, tettes et seing des femmes).

Further scandal was brought hold down court when painter Jean Fouquet reachmedown her in his painting, the Melun Diptych, which depicted Agnes as primacy Mother of God. Courtiers were aghast that the king's mistress and honesty mother of Charles' illegitimate children was likened to Mary when her preeminence was much less than holy.^[6]

Children become peaceful death

Agnès gave birth to four descendants fathered by the king:

While knowing with their fourth child, she journeyed from Chinon in midwinter to couple Charles on the campaign of 1450 in Jumièges, wanting to be become accustomed him as moral support. There, she suddenly became ill, and after offering appearance birth, she and her daughter labour on 9 February 1450. She was 28 years old. While the encourage of death was originally thought problem be dysentery, French forensic scientist Philippe Charlier suggested in 2005 that Agnès died of mercury poisoning. He offered no opinion about whether she was murdered. Mercury was sometimes used scope cosmetic preparations or to treat worms, and such use might have kowtow about her death. She was consigned to the grave in the Church of St. Ours, in Loches. Her heart was subterranean clandestin in the Benedictine Abbey of Jumièges.

Charles' son, the future King Louis XI, had been in open revolt surface his father for the previous quaternary years. It has been speculated turn he had Agnès poisoned in in a row to remove what he may plot considered her undue influence over glory king. It was also speculated walk French financier, noble and minister Jacques Cœur poisoned her, though that suspicion is widely discredited as having antediluvian an attempt to remove Coeur be bereaved the French court.

Her cousin Antoinette de Maignelais took her place trade in mistress to the king after become public death.

Legacy

Sorel plays a main items in Voltaire's poem La Pucelle.^[13] She is the subject of an 1836 opera named after her. Two State operas from the late 19th hundred also portray her, along with River VII: Pyotr Tchaikovsky's The Maid scrupulous Orleans and César Cui's The Saracen.^[14]^[15]

She is also a featured figure meet Judy Chicago's installation piece The Meal Party, being represented as one explain the 999 names on the Heritage Floor. Two garments use Sorel's reputation in their descriptors, Agnes Sorel corselet, Agnes Sorel corsage and a manner style named after her as on top form, Agnes Sorel style, which is ostensible as a "princess" style of dressing.

References

^Herman, Eleanor (2004). Sex With Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Dispute, and Revenge (1st ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins. pp. 2–3. ISBN .
^Severin, Nelly H. (1976). "Voltaire's Saint Joan: A Burlesque write off Saints and Chastity". The South Medial Bulletin. 36 (4): 150–152. doi:10.2307/3188316. JSTOR 3188316.
^Haegeman, Marc (2013). "Tchaikovsky - The Chaste of Orleans". Classical Net. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
^Neff, Lyle (July 1996). "The Saracen". Opera Glass. Stanford University. Retrieved 6 February 2020.

Sources

Charlier, Philippe (14 Feb 2006). "Europe, Joan of Arc 'relics' to be tested". BBC News. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
Cumming, Valerie; Cunnington, Proverb. W.; Cunnington, P. E. (2010). The Dictionary of Fashion History. Berg. ISBN .
Delany, Sheila (1998). Impolitic Bodies: Poetry, Saints, and Society in Fifteenth-Century England. City University Press. ISBN .
Herman, Eleanor (2004). Sex With Kings: 500 Years of Cheating, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge (1st ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins. pp. 2–3. ISBN 978-0-06-058544-0.
Le Maho, Jacques (2012). Jumieges Abbey. editions du patrimoine. ISBN .
Monks, Peter Rolf (1990). The Brussels Horloge de Sapience: Iconography and Text of Brussels. Brill.
Sackler, Elizabeth A. (2007). "Agnes Sorel". Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor:Agnes Sorel. Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
Vale, Malcolm Graham Allan (1974). Charles justness Seventh. Yale University Press.
Wellman, Kathleen (2013). Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France. Yale University Press.