Mornay, Charlotte Arbaleste Duplessis (Charlotte Duplessis-Mornay; 1550-1606)

Huguenot, author of monumental Memoires et lettres

Best known for her Memoires chronicling the life and times of her husband, the Huguenot diplomat Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, Charlotte Arbaleste Duplessis-Mornay began the work on her massive memoir in 1579, the same year her son Philippe was born: “so that you will not lack for a guide, here is one which I offer you with my own hand. . . ; it is the example of your father, which I urge you to have always before your eyes” (Mornay 1969, 3). She ceased writing when their son died in October 1606 at the age of twenty-six. The author herself is vividly present in this exemplary portrait of her husband. She incorporates the act of writing into her text (“as I was writing this . . . ”;“I pick up my story again in 1601”) and recounts her own life from the time she met her fUture husband, also filling in some of the details of their early lives. As well, Duplessis-Mornay’s complete Memoires et lettres include the letters they exchanged.

Because the couple played such a central role in the political and religious life of their country, the Memoires are a precious source for an understanding of both public and private life at the time. Charlotte writes with energy and zest, and gives vivid accounts of the events in which she and her husband were involved (including a particulary striking first-person account of the St. Bartholemew’s Day Massacre in August 1572). It is clear that she understood well the complexities of the political and religious situation through which she was living. The Memoires were written under the aegis of “a single God, creator of Heaven and Earth, . . . who governs all things through his Providence” (Mornay 1969,5). It is to Providence that Charlotte attributes her meeting with her future husband and indeed his entire career. Recently widowed, Charlotte had fully intended not to remarry when Philippe Duplessis-Mornay was introduced to her in 1574. She found his words “good and honest,” and for eight months, they spent two or three hours a day together, in companionable intellectual discussions. Dup-lessis-Mornay proposed in 1575, on the eve of his departure to join the duke d’Alenjon’s army in the Netherlands. They were married when he returned in January 1576, but not before he had been taken prisoner and she had paid his ransom. Charlotte emphasizes the fact that her husband chose her, although she had no dowry, for her virtue, her fear of God, and her good reputation.

Charlotte often accompanied her husband on his travels as a negotiator and diplomat. In 1577 and 1578, they spent eighteen months in England, joining friends such as Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Francis Walsingham, and probably also Sydney’s sister, Mary Sydney Herbert. She accompanied him to Anvers, where hostilities between the Spanish and the Dutch claimed his attention and where their son Philippe was born. Later, the family enjoyed a short period of tranquility in Nerac, but much of their time was spent in Paris or with the French court. Just as often, they were separated, as Duplessis-Mornay carried out his duties on behalf of Henri IV. They regularly exchanged letters, dealing with personal matters and also with political and religious issues. Duplessis-Mor-nay valued his wife’s advice and counted on her to transmit important messages to and from him while he was away. Charlotte saw to the preparation and publication of his manuscripts and filed and concealed secret papers that she had deciphered. She was entirely responsible for their domestic and financial affairs; her husband gave her the legal means to manage them in his absence.

The couple had complete confidence in each other and also shared genuine affection. Sometimes the letters Duplessis-Mornay sent to his wife were written in cipher to prevent others from reading them. At least one of these conceals not diplomatic secrets but a message for Charlotte, telling her how much he missed her and what pleasure they would take in each other’s company when they were reunited. Charlotte had one daughter from her first marriage and gave birth to four more daughters and four sons. Two daughters and three sons died in infancy. Her husband tried to be present for the births of their children; en route to Charlotte’s bedside for the birth of their first daughter, he sensed the very moment at which she had given birth. Their shared anguish on the loss of their first and only surviving son was profound. Always in fragile health, Charlotte Duplessis-Mornay died only seven months later, in May 1606.

Jane Couchman

See also Literary Culture and Women; Sidney, Mary Herbert.

Bibliography

Primary Works

Mornay, Charlotte Duplessis. A Huguenot Family in the XVIe Century. The Memoires of Philippe de

Mornay. . . Written by his wife. Translated by L. Crumb. London: Routledge, 1926.

Mornay, Charlotte Duplessis. Memoires. Edited and critiqued by Nadine Kuperty-Tsur. Paris: Champion, forthcoming.

Mornay, Charlotte Duplessis. Memoires de Madame de Mornay. 2 vols. Edited by Mme. de Witt. Paris: Renouard, 1868-1869.

Mornay, Philippe de, seigneur du Plessis-Marly. Memoires et correspondance. 12 vols. Geneva: Slatkine, 1969. (Reprint of Paris edition, 1824-1825.)

Secondary Works

Berriot-Salvadore, Evelyne. “Charlotte Arbaleste Du Plessis Mornay.” In Les Femmes dans la so-ciete frangaise de la Renaissance. Pages 127-133. Geneva: Droz, 1990.

Kuperty-Tsur, Nadine.“Rhetorique des te-moignages protestants autour de la Saint-Barthelemy: le cas des Memoires de Charlotte Duplessis-Mornay.” In Se raconter, temoigner: Elseneur 17 (September 2001): 159-178.