Marion Delorme was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 courtesan

Courtesan

A courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...

 known for her relationships with the important men of her time.

Early life, life as a courtesan, early death

She was the daughter of Jean de Lou, sieur de l'Orme, president of the treasurers of France in Champagne

Champagne (province)

The Champagne wine region is a historic province within the Champagne administrative province in the northeast of France. The area is best known for the production of the sparkling white wine that bears the region's name...

, and of Marie Chastelain. She was born at her father's château near Champaubert

Champaubert

Champaubert is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France....

. Initiated into the philosophy of physical pleasures by the epicurean and atheist Jacques Valle, sieur Desbarreaux, she soon left him for Cinq Mars, at that time at the height of his popularity, and succeeded, it is said, in marrying him in secret. She began hosting a salon, and was introduced into the life of being a courtesan.

From this time Marion Delorme's salon became one of the most brilliant centres of elegant Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

ian society. After the execution of Cinq Mars she is said to have numbered among her lovers and benefactors Charles de St Evremond (1610-1703) the wit and littrateur, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé (called The Great Condé), and even Cardinal Richelieu. Under the Fronde

Fronde

The Fronde was a civil war in France, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The word fronde means sling, which Parisian mobs used to smash the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin....

 her salon became a meeting place for the disaffected, and Mazarin is said to have sent officials to arrest her when she suddenly died. The cause of her death, and whether she actually did die then, or rather later, is still debated.

Legend

Her last years have been adorned with considerable legend (cf. Merecourt, Confessions de Marie Delorme, Paris, 1856). It seems established that she died in 1650. But she was believed to have lived until 1706 or even 1741, after having had the most fantastic adventures, including marriage with an English lord, and an old age spent in poverty in Paris. Her name has been popularized by various authors, especially by Alfred de Vigny

Alfred de Vigny

Alfred Victor de Vigny was a French poet, playwright, and novelist.-Life:Alfred de Vigny was born in Loches into an aristocratic family...

 in his novel Cinq Mars, by Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

 in the drama Marion Delorme

Marion Delorme (Hugo)

Marion Delorme is a play by Victor Hugo in 5 acts, about the famous French courtesan of that name. It was first presented in 1831....

, and by Amilcare Ponchielli

Amilcare Ponchielli

Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...

 and Giovanni Bottesini

Giovanni Bottesini

Giovanni Bottesini was an Italian Romantic composer, conductor, and a double bass virtuoso.-Biography:Born in Crema, Lombardy, he was taught the rudiments of music by his father, an accomplished clarinetist and composer, at a young age and had played timpani in Crema with the Teatro Sociale before...

in two operas of the same title.