Jeanne Baptiste | |
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Countess of Verua | |
Spouse(s) | Giuseppe Ignazio Scaglia, Conte di Verua |
Issue | |
Full name
Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes
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Noble family | House of Scaglia House of Albret |
Father | Louis Charles d'Albert de Luynes |
Mother | Anne de Rohan |
Born |
Hôtel de Luynes, Paris, France |
January 18, 1670
Died | November 18, 1736 Paris, France |
(aged 66)
Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, comtesse de Verrue (18 January 1670 – 18 November 1736) was a French noblewoman and the mistress of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia.
The daughter of Louis Charles d'Albert, Dukes of Luynes (1620–1690) and his second wife Anne de Rohan (1644–1684), she had five full siblings. She was the granddaughter of Marie de Rohan. Her older half-brother was Charles Honoré d'Albert de Luynes, a private advisor to Louis XIV and the builder of the infamous Château de Dampierre. Born at the Hôtel de Luynes in Paris, she was baptised at the Église Saint-Eustache. She was named after her godfather Jean-Baptiste Colbert.
After an education at the prestigious Abbey of Port-Royal in Paris, she was married Joseph Ignace Scaglia, Count of Verrua in between 23 August and 25 August 1683. She was just thirteen and a half years old at the time of her marriage. Her husband was a colonel de dragons and a prominent Piedmontese diplomat working for the Duke of Savoy.
Jeanne Baptiste and her husband eventually had four children. Her husband was, "young, handsome, rich, and honest". His mother was a lady-in-waiting to the French-born Duchess of Savoy, Anne Marie d'Orléans.
At the Savoyard capital of Turin, the Duke of Savoy became infatuated with the young countess and by 1688 he had fallen deeply in love with her. The piously brought up countess, at first, ignored the advances of the duke who would see her in attendance on his wife, Anne Marie. Later on, the duchess and her uncle, the French king Louis XIV, "encouraged" Madame de Verrue to take advantage of the Duke of Savoy's advances. In 1689, Jeanne Baptiste gave into the duke's overtures. The lovers became the parents of two children. The future Princess of Carignan was born in 1690. A son, Vittorio Francesco, was born in 1694 and was later given the title Marquis of Suza.