Descendants of the Stuarts

OF THE STUARTS. 273
having only left it a few months previously, on
the death of her husband, which had occurred in
the spring of the year.
It was on the eleventh of December, 1663, when
Anne, a bride of sunny fifteen, espoused Henry
Julius, due D'Enghien. The marriage was celebrated
with unparalleled magnificence; indeed, so great was
the display, that it excited the jealousy of the
Grande Mademoiselle, whose pride was wounded
from the fact, that the coaches and equipages used
on the occasion far exceeded her own in elegance
and number.*
Of the husband of Anne, nothing very favourable
can be recorded. He seems to have been an un-
worthy son of a great father, and but too loving
mother. His conduct to this latter parent, whose
strenuous exertions on behalf of her husband and
son constitute her one of the heroines of history,
is alone sufficient to render him contemptible.
Claire Clemence de Maille, Princess of Conde, Henry
Julius's mother, was no ordinary character ; a niece
of Richelieu's, and wedded by his powerful influence
to the first prince of the blood, Louis de Conde,
Clemence trembled before the husband who sullenly
and from compulsion only had wedded her. To a
great mind, the defect in Clemence' s birth would have
been forgotten in the remembrance of her famous
actions ; for, of all the incidents recorded in history,
none surpass in boldness and tender daring those
of Claire Clemence de Maille, on behalf of her hus-
* Memoirs of Mademoiselle de Montpensier.