Jeanne-Françoise de Coeme, Lady of Lucé and Bonnétable

Jeanne de Coëme, Dame de Lucé and de Bonnétable (1555–1601) was a French noble and courtier. She was the daughter of Louis de Coesme and a member of the House of Bourbon. She married François de Bourbon, titled the Prince of Conti. As such, after her marriage she was the Princess of Conti.

Jeanne-Françoise de Coëme
Princess of Conti
Born	1555
Died	26 December 1601 (aged 46) Chartres, France
Spouse	Louis de Montafié François de Bourbon, Prince of Conti
Issue	Anne de Montafié
Father	Louis de Coesme
Mother	Anne de Pisseleu
Religion	Roman Catholic

Biography

Jeanne was born in 1555. Her father Louis de Coesme was the Seigneur of Lucé. Her mother Anne de Pisseleu was the niece of Anne de Pisseleu, Duchess of Étampes, the celebrated mistress of Francis I of France. Jeanne was the heiress of Bonnétable, a commune in the Sarthe department in the region of Pays de la Loire in north-western France.

Her first marriage, in January 1576, was with Louis de Montafié, Count of Montafié, Lord of Piedmont, Prince of Carignano.[1] Together they had one son and two daughters,[2] including Anne de Montafié born on July 21, 1577. On October 6, 1577, when Anne was less than three months old, her father was assassinated at Aix-en-Provence while in the service of King Henry III of France as his lieutenant. Her mother required the intervention of the King and Pope Pius V to ensure that she regained the succession to her father's estate of Bonnétable.

On December 17, 1581, Jeanne de Coesme married a second time, to François de Bourbon, Prince of Conti at the Palais du Louvre. In 1585, Nicolas de Montreux dedicated the first edition of the first volume of his novel the Bergeries de Julliette to her.[2][3] The letters written by Jeanne during the 1580s and 1590s provide historians with an insight into the state of affairs in the province of Maine at that period.[4] Jeanne died in 1601 and had no children with François.

Jeanne's daughter, Anne de Montafié became the Countess of Soissons after marrying Charles de Bourbon, Count of Soissons on December 27, 1601. In this marriage, Anne brought her inheritance of the countship of Montafié in Piedmont as well as her mother's seigneuries of Bonnétable and Lucé to the Bourbons. Sadly, her mother had contracted smallpox while travelling to her estate at Lucé to negotiate Anne's marriage,[5] and died at Saint-Arnoul, near Chartres, the day before Anne's wedding.[6]

References

1. de Béthune (duc de Sully), Maximilien (1778). Memoires de Maximilien de Bethune, duc de Sully. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
2. Barbier, Jean Paul (1973). Ma bibliothèque poétique: ptie., t. 1. Contemporains et disciples de Ronsard: D'Aubigné à Des Masures. t. 2. Contemporains et successeurs de Ronsard: de Desportes à La Boétie. t. 3. Contemporains et successeurs de Ronsard: de La Gessée à Malherbe. t. 4. Contemporains et successeurs de Ronsard: de Marquets à Pasquier (in French). Librairie Droz. p. 241. ISBN 9782600009850. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
3. Daele, Rose Marie (1946). Nicolas de Montreulx (Ollenix Du Mont-Sacré): Arbiter of European Literary Vogues of the Late Renaissance. Moretus Press Incorporated. pp. 31, 50, etc. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
4. Société des archives historiques du Maine; Société des archives historiques du Cogner (1940). La Province de Maine (in French). pp. 76–80.
5. Freer, Martha Walker (1861). History of the Reign of Henry IV., King of France and Navarre: From Numerous Unpublished Sources. Hurst and Blackett. p. 308. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
6. Eglises, Chateaux, beffrois et hotels-de-ville, les plus remarquables de la Picardie et de l'Artois (in French). typogr. d'A. Caron. 1849. p. 72. Retrieved 25 February 2019.