Milady de Winter
Encyclopedia
Milady
Clarick de Winter, often referred to as simply Milady, is a fictional character
in the novel The Three Musketeers
(1844) by Alexandre Dumas, père
. She acts as a spy
for Cardinal Richelieu and is one of the chief antagonist
s of the story.
, one of the musketeer
s in the title of the novel. A teenager forced to enter the convent, she falls in love with a priest and escapes with stolen church property to fund their new life in another part of the country, for which both of them were branded
by a legal official. She was with a man in Athos' village, and pretending to be his sister, when Athos, a nobleman (the Comte de La Fère), fell in love with her and, despite her obscure origins, married her. Out in the forest one day, he discovered the brand on her shoulder, identifying her as a convicted criminal. Thinking she had married him only for his money, and feeling dishonored, Athos hanged her from a tree on the spot, but she survived.
, wife of King Louis XIII, entrusted to her lover, the English
minister Duke of Buckingham
, but the intended scandal is averted.
D'Artagnan
himself later meets Milady and falls under her spell, though he also pursues an affair with her maid, Kitty.
When the French troops lays siege
to the Hugenot city of La Rochelle
, the Duke of Buckingham leads an unsuccessful expedition to assist the besieged. In a house near La Rochelle, Athos and his friends Porthos and Aramis overhear a conversation between the Cardinal and Milady, plotting to kill Buckingham before he can make another attempt.
Even if he is the enemy of France, the musketeers regard Buckingham, the man, as a friend. They commit treason to the crown, and thus warn him of the threat and upon arriving in England, Milady is arrested and imprisoned in a house by her hostile brother-in-law, the new Lord de Winter. She seduces her jailer, John Felton, persuading him that she is a Puritan at heart and that Buckingham is persecuting her because she refused his advances. Felton has his own grievances against Buckingham, whom he blames for his lack of promotion in the army. He thus proceeds to murder the Duke (a historical event), but after carrying out the murder he is aghast to see Milady's ship sailing away without him. He is later hanged.
Returning to France, Milady murders d'Artagnan
's lover, Constance Bonacieux, when the two happen upon one another in a convent. The musketeers and Lord de Winter hunt Milady and track her at Lille
, where she is beheaded after a mock trial.
, Milady's son Mordaunt reprises her role as one of the chief antagonists. As twisted and as deceitful as his mother, he sets about avenging her death, murdering the executioner while posing as a monk taking his confession. He also murders Lord de Winter, Milady's brother-in-law, who raised him after the death of both his parents.
Mordaunt later gets involved in the English Civil War
and executes King Charles I
after d'Artagnan and the three former Musketeers have kidnapped the real executioner in order to prevent this.
D'Artagnan and his friends later confront Mordaunt at Cromwell
's London residence, but in the course of a duel he escapes through a secret passage.
The Frenchmen and their menservants leave England by ship, but Mordaunt gets aboard and blows it up. As the survivors leave in a rowing boat, Mordaunt pleads for them to let him aboard. With the exception of Athos, they contemptuously reject his appeals. Athos insists on saving him however, but as he helps him into the boat, Mordaunt deliberately drags him back into the water where they struggle and Mordaunt is killed.
Athos rejoins the others claiming that "I had a son... I wanted to live". They assume of course that he means Raoul de Bragelonne, his adopted son (though in fact the product of a one-night stand
). Athos further states that "It was not me who killed him... It was fate" (which can be read to imply that Mordaunt was, in fact, Athos' son).
. In Courtilz's novel (one of the literary sources for the more famous novel by Dumas), Milady is one of the exiled English Queen Henrietta Maria's ladies-in-waiting. Dumas changed Milady's background significantly; from another Courtilz novel (Mémoires de M. le Comte de Rochforte, 1687) Dumas partly derived the idea of the branded woman, which he applied to his version of Milady. There appears to be a possible historical precedent for the character of Milady: the memoirs of François de La Rochefoucauld
and Hubert de Brienne, Comte de Conflans
as well as Volume I of Chroniques de l'Œil de Bœuf by Touchard-Lafosse describe Milady's antagonistic role in the diamond studs plot which Dumas reworked in The Three Musketeers. In La Rochefoucauld's volume, Milady is "the Countess of Carlisle
", in de Brienne she is "Lady Clarick de Winter," and in Touchard-Lafosse, she is "Lady de Clarick." Milady - or rather, her historical/literary precursors - play relatively minor roles in Courtilz's novel and the aforementioned memoirs and pseudo-memoirs. Her activities in the first half of The Three Musketeers (being a source of d'Artagnan
's infatuation and her role in the diamond studs plot) are accounted for in the earlier works Dumas borrowed from. Milady's activities in the second half of the book (in which she is arguably the narrative's most dominant character) are largely the result of Dumas' own imagination.
In the cartoon version, Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds
, Milady is a female cat, while most of the characters are dogs. With the exception of her real name (Countess de Winter), her origins were never revealed. It was hinted that 'only one man' knows of her past.
In the movie The Return of the Musketeers
, Kim Cattrall
plays Milady's daughter Justine de Winter as a female version of Mordaunt.
Milady
Milady is an English term of address to a noble woman.It is the female form of milord.Milady may also refer to:*Milady de Winter, fictional character in Alexandre Dumas, père's d'Artagnan Romances novels...
Clarick de Winter, often referred to as simply Milady, is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the novel The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, first serialized in March–July 1844. Set in the 17th century, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard...
(1844) by Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
. She acts as a spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
for Cardinal Richelieu and is one of the chief antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
s of the story.
Character overview
A capable and beautiful spy, Milady is remorseless and unrepentant for her countless "misdeeds". Late in the novel, she is revealed to be the wife of AthosAthos (fictional character)
Olivier d'Athos de la Fère, Comte de la Fère is a fictional character, a Musketeer of the Guard in the novels The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas, père....
, one of the musketeer
Musketeer
A musketeer was an early modern type of infantry soldier equipped with a musket. Musketeers were an important part of early modern armies, particularly in Europe. They sometimes could fight on horseback, like a dragoon or a cavalryman...
s in the title of the novel. A teenager forced to enter the convent, she falls in love with a priest and escapes with stolen church property to fund their new life in another part of the country, for which both of them were branded
Human branding
Human branding or stigmatizing is the process in which a mark, usually a symbol or ornamental pattern, is burned into the skin of a living person, with the intention that the resulting scar makes it permanent. This is performed using a hot or very cold branding iron...
by a legal official. She was with a man in Athos' village, and pretending to be his sister, when Athos, a nobleman (the Comte de La Fère), fell in love with her and, despite her obscure origins, married her. Out in the forest one day, he discovered the brand on her shoulder, identifying her as a convicted criminal. Thinking she had married him only for his money, and feeling dishonored, Athos hanged her from a tree on the spot, but she survived.
Role in the novel
After being expelled by Athos, she winds up in the employ of Cardinal Richelieu, working as his spy, assassin, and messenger. She steals the jewels that Anne of AustriaAnne of Austria
Anne of Austria was Queen consort of France and Navarre, regent for her son, Louis XIV of France, and a Spanish Infanta by birth...
, wife of King Louis XIII, entrusted to her lover, the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
minister Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham KG was the favourite, claimed by some to be the lover, of King James I of England. Despite a very patchy political and military record, he remained at the height of royal favour for the first two years of the reign of Charles I, until he was assassinated...
, but the intended scandal is averted.
D'Artagnan
D'Artagnan
Charles Ogier de Batz de Castelmore, Comte d'Artagnan served Louis XIV as captain of the Musketeers of the Guard and died at the Siege of Maastricht in the Franco-Dutch War. A fictionalized account of his life by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras formed the basis for the d'Artagnan Romances of...
himself later meets Milady and falls under her spell, though he also pursues an affair with her maid, Kitty.
When the French troops lays siege
Siege of La Rochelle
The Siege of La Rochelle was a result of a war between the French royal forces of Louis XIII of France and the Huguenots of La Rochelle in 1627-1628...
to the Hugenot city of La Rochelle
La Rochelle
La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a bridge completed on 19 May 1988...
, the Duke of Buckingham leads an unsuccessful expedition to assist the besieged. In a house near La Rochelle, Athos and his friends Porthos and Aramis overhear a conversation between the Cardinal and Milady, plotting to kill Buckingham before he can make another attempt.
Even if he is the enemy of France, the musketeers regard Buckingham, the man, as a friend. They commit treason to the crown, and thus warn him of the threat and upon arriving in England, Milady is arrested and imprisoned in a house by her hostile brother-in-law, the new Lord de Winter. She seduces her jailer, John Felton, persuading him that she is a Puritan at heart and that Buckingham is persecuting her because she refused his advances. Felton has his own grievances against Buckingham, whom he blames for his lack of promotion in the army. He thus proceeds to murder the Duke (a historical event), but after carrying out the murder he is aghast to see Milady's ship sailing away without him. He is later hanged.
Returning to France, Milady murders d'Artagnan
D'Artagnan
Charles Ogier de Batz de Castelmore, Comte d'Artagnan served Louis XIV as captain of the Musketeers of the Guard and died at the Siege of Maastricht in the Franco-Dutch War. A fictionalized account of his life by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras formed the basis for the d'Artagnan Romances of...
's lover, Constance Bonacieux, when the two happen upon one another in a convent. The musketeers and Lord de Winter hunt Milady and track her at Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
, where she is beheaded after a mock trial.
Alias
She uses or is referred to by the following names throughout the novel:- Charlotte Backson (the name Milady's brother-in-law, Lord de Winter, attempts to bestow upon her in his plan to banish her to the colonies)
- Anne de Breuil (the name by which Athos knew Milady when he met her)
- Comtesse de La Fère (the title and name Milady assumed when she married Athos, who was Comte de La Fère a the time)
- Milady de Winter, Baroness of SheffieldBaron SheffieldBaron Sheffield is a title that has been created four times: once in the Peerage of England, twice in the Peerage of Ireland, and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom....
(the general name Milady is referred to throughout the story) - Lady Clarick (a variation on the previous name; in some English translations, this is translated as Clarisse or Clarice)
Her son in the sequel
In the sequel Twenty Years AfterTwenty Years After
Twenty Years After is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père, first serialized from January to August, 1845. A book of the D'Artagnan Romances, it is a sequel to The Three Musketeers and precedes The Vicomte de Bragelonne .The novel follows events in France during La Fronde, during the childhood reign...
, Milady's son Mordaunt reprises her role as one of the chief antagonists. As twisted and as deceitful as his mother, he sets about avenging her death, murdering the executioner while posing as a monk taking his confession. He also murders Lord de Winter, Milady's brother-in-law, who raised him after the death of both his parents.
Mordaunt later gets involved in the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
and executes King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
after d'Artagnan and the three former Musketeers have kidnapped the real executioner in order to prevent this.
D'Artagnan and his friends later confront Mordaunt at Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
's London residence, but in the course of a duel he escapes through a secret passage.
The Frenchmen and their menservants leave England by ship, but Mordaunt gets aboard and blows it up. As the survivors leave in a rowing boat, Mordaunt pleads for them to let him aboard. With the exception of Athos, they contemptuously reject his appeals. Athos insists on saving him however, but as he helps him into the boat, Mordaunt deliberately drags him back into the water where they struggle and Mordaunt is killed.
Athos rejoins the others claiming that "I had a son... I wanted to live". They assume of course that he means Raoul de Bragelonne, his adopted son (though in fact the product of a one-night stand
One-night stand
Originally, a one-night stand was a single theatre performance, usually by a guest performer on tour, as opposed to an ongoing engagement. Today, however, the term is more commonly defined as a single sexual encounter, in which neither participant has any intention or expectation of a relationship...
). Athos further states that "It was not me who killed him... It was fate" (which can be read to imply that Mordaunt was, in fact, Athos' son).
Origin of the character
The character of Milady previously appeared in the Mémoires de M. d'Artagnan (1700), a historical novel by Gatien de Courtilz de SandrasGatien de Courtilz de Sandras
Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras was a French novelist, journalist, pamphleteer and memorialist.His abundant output includes short stories, gallant letters, tales of historical love affairs , historical and political works, biographies and semi-fictional "memoirs" Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras (1644,...
. In Courtilz's novel (one of the literary sources for the more famous novel by Dumas), Milady is one of the exiled English Queen Henrietta Maria's ladies-in-waiting. Dumas changed Milady's background significantly; from another Courtilz novel (Mémoires de M. le Comte de Rochforte, 1687) Dumas partly derived the idea of the branded woman, which he applied to his version of Milady. There appears to be a possible historical precedent for the character of Milady: the memoirs of François de La Rochefoucauld
François de La Rochefoucauld
François de La Rochefoucauld may be:* François de La Rochefoucauld , French author* François de La Rochefoucauld , French cardinal of the Catholic Church...
and Hubert de Brienne, Comte de Conflans
Hubert de Brienne, Comte de Conflans
Hubert de Brienne, Comte de Conflans was a French naval commander.-Early life:The son of Henri Jacob marquis de Conflans and Marie du Bouchet, at 15 he was made a knight of the Order of Saint Lazarus and the following year entered the Gardes de la Marine school at Brest...
as well as Volume I of Chroniques de l'Œil de Bœuf by Touchard-Lafosse describe Milady's antagonistic role in the diamond studs plot which Dumas reworked in The Three Musketeers. In La Rochefoucauld's volume, Milady is "the Countess of Carlisle
Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle
Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle was an English courtier known for her beauty and wit. She was involved in many political intrigues during the English Civil War.-Life:...
", in de Brienne she is "Lady Clarick de Winter," and in Touchard-Lafosse, she is "Lady de Clarick." Milady - or rather, her historical/literary precursors - play relatively minor roles in Courtilz's novel and the aforementioned memoirs and pseudo-memoirs. Her activities in the first half of The Three Musketeers (being a source of d'Artagnan
D'Artagnan
Charles Ogier de Batz de Castelmore, Comte d'Artagnan served Louis XIV as captain of the Musketeers of the Guard and died at the Siege of Maastricht in the Franco-Dutch War. A fictionalized account of his life by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras formed the basis for the d'Artagnan Romances of...
's infatuation and her role in the diamond studs plot) are accounted for in the earlier works Dumas borrowed from. Milady's activities in the second half of the book (in which she is arguably the narrative's most dominant character) are largely the result of Dumas' own imagination.
Film and television
Actresses who have played Milady on screen include:- Barbara La MarrBarbara La MarrBarbara La Marr was an American stage and film actress, cabaret artist and screenwriter.La Marr was known as "The Girl Who Is Too Beautiful", after a Hearst newspaper feature writer, Adela Rogers St...
, in The Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers (1921 film)__notoc__The Three Musketeers is an American silent film based on the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père. It was directed by Fred Niblo and starred Douglas Fairbanks as d'Artagnan. The film originally had scenes filmed in the Handschiegl Color Process...
(1921) - Lana TurnerLana TurnerLana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
, in The Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers (1948 film)The Three Musketeers is a Technicolor adventure film adaptation of the classic novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père which starred Gene Kelly and Lana Turner...
(1948) - Mylène DemongeotMylène DemongeotMylène Demongeot is a French actress, who has appeared in 72 films since 1953. She was born Marie-Hélène Demongeot in Nice, Southern France....
, in Les trois mousquetaires: Premiere époque-Les ferrets de la reine and Les trois mousquetaires: La vengeance de Milady (aka “The Fighting Musketeers” and “The Vengeance of the Musketeers”) (both 1961) - Faye DunawayFaye DunawayFaye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...
, in The Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers (1973 film)The Three Musketeers is a 1973 film based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. It was directed by Richard Lester and written by George MacDonald Fraser . It was originally proposed in the 1960s as a vehicle for The Beatles, whom Lester had directed in two other films...
(1973) and The Four MusketeersThe Four Musketeers (film)The Four Musketeers is a 1974 Richard Lester film that follows upon his film of the year before, The Three Musketeers, and covers the second half of Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers...
(1974) - Margarita TerekhovaMargarita Terekhova-Selected filmography:* D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers * Mama, I'm Alive * Dog in the Manger * The Blue Bird * The Mirror * Monologue * Hello, That's Me! -External links:...
in D'Artagnan and Three MusketeersD'Artagnan and Three Musketeersd'Artagnan and Three Musketeers is a three-part musical miniseries produced in the Soviet Union and first aired in 1978. It is based on the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père....
(1978 miniseries) - Rebecca De MornayRebecca De MornayRebecca De Mornay is an American film and television actress. Her breakthrough film role came in 1983, when she played Lana in Risky Business opposite Tom Cruise...
, in The Three Musketeers (1993) - Pia DouwesPia DouwesPia Douwes is a Dutch musical theatre actress who is extremly successful in Europe.- Biography :Douwes was born in Amsterdam, North Holland as Petronella Irene Allegonda Douwes, to an arts dealer and a social worker and the grandniece of Doris Day...
in 3 Musketiers3 Musketiers3 Musketiers is a Dutch musical, also known as 3 Musketiere , 3 Musketeers and A 3 Testőr written by Ferdi Bolland and Rob Bolland. The story is based on Alexandre Dumas, père's novel The Three Musketeers...
(2003 musical) - Milla JovovichMilla JovovichMilla Jovovich December 17, 1975)is an American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action-themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt".Milla Jovovich began...
in The Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers (2011 film)The Three Musketeers is a 2011 3D action-adventure film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson which is a reinterpretation of the novel of the same title by Alexandre Dumas, the film was released in Germany, Austria, France & Switzerland on September 1, 2011, and in the U.S...
(2011)
In the cartoon version, Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds
Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds
Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds is an animated cartoon adaptation of the classic Alexandre Dumas story of d'Artagnan and The Three Musketeers. Most of the characters are anthropomorphizations of dogs, hence the title of the cartoon...
, Milady is a female cat, while most of the characters are dogs. With the exception of her real name (Countess de Winter), her origins were never revealed. It was hinted that 'only one man' knows of her past.
In the movie The Return of the Musketeers
The Return of the Musketeers
The Return of the Musketeers is a 1989 film adaptation loosely based on the novel Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas, père. It is the third Musketeers film directed by Richard Lester, following 1973's The Three Musketeers and 1974's The Four Musketeers...
, Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
plays Milady's daughter Justine de Winter as a female version of Mordaunt.