March 3

History Workshop: Prof. Matthew Lauzon

“The Ambassador’s Wife: The Marquise de Villars and the Uses of Matrimonial Teams in Louis XIV’s Diplomacy”
Friday, March 3
2:30 PM
Sakamaki Hall A-201, History Department Seminar Room

This talk will focus on some of the ways that women participated in early modern European diplomacy when they were typically excluded from acting officially as diplomatic representatives. By focusing on archival traces left by or about Marie Gigault de Bellefonds, the marquise de Villars, (1624-1706), who was the wife of one of Louis XIV’s ambassadors, the talk will explore the reasons for which wives of diplomats either joined their husbands on their diplomatic missions or chose to remain behind. Professor Lauzon will also examine the concerns and struggles that shaped Mme de Villars’s experiences of being the wife of one of Louis XIV’s diplomats. The talk will also show because the Marquise de Villars was explicitly expected to participate—actively but informally—in her husband’s diplomatic missions, we should view Marie as part of a diplomatic ‘matrimonial team’ at the courts of Savoy and Spain during the late 1670s. The paper will conclude by considering how the use of matrimonial teams, like the Villars, created opportunities but also dangers for Louis XIV’s diplomacy.