Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minkie. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: It was after the restoration of the monarchy in England
Speaker 1: at the end of the seventeenth century, and two women
Speaker 1: were fencing in Saint James Park. The fencing match wasn't violent.
Speaker 1: Neither woman parried or lunged with any attempt to maim.
Speaker 1: They were giggling and twirling around each other as they
Speaker 1: fought with their training swords, gathering a small crowd of
Speaker 1: spectators around them. I'm sure it's easy for you to
Speaker 1: imagine why they attracted so much tension, after all, they
Speaker 1: were two women publicly fencing in a park in the
Speaker 1: sixteen hundreds. But there was another reason the crowds were
Speaker 1: drawn to the fencers. Both women were famous. One was
Speaker 1: Anne Leonard, Countess of Sussex, the illegitimate daughter of the
Speaker 1: King Charles the Second and one of his long time mistresses,
Speaker 1: the Duchess of Cleveland. Rumor had it that Anne was
Speaker 1: conceived on the night of the king's coronation. The other
Speaker 1: woman was one of the biggest celebrities in Europe at
Speaker 1: the time. A woman famous across multiple countries for her
Speaker 1: charm and looks and her outlandish gallivanting. This woman was
Speaker 1: Hortense Mancini, Horton's. Mancini was born in Italy but raised
Speaker 1: and educated in France as one of the seven nieces
Speaker 1: of the influential minister Cardinal Mazarin. Mazarin's nieces, called the Mazarinettes,
Speaker 1: were all well regarded in French court for their good looks,
Speaker 1: but Hortense was considered the most beautiful. Before Horton's was
Speaker 1: twenty five, she was married to one of the richest
Speaker 1: men in Europe. She ran away from her husband disguised
Speaker 1: as a man, and she became the first woman, after
Speaker 1: Margaret of Valois to write her memoir. Certainly she was
Speaker 1: the first to publish it within her lifetime under her
Speaker 1: own name. Horton's memoir was a runaway hit, widely translated
Speaker 1: and widely read, the modern day equivalent of a bestseller.
Speaker 1: But Mancini's story didn't end there. To continue to escape
Speaker 1: her abuse of husband's control, she fled to England, where
Speaker 1: she became mistress to King Charles the Second. She also
Speaker 1: began a relationship, most likely sexual, but certainly romantic with
Speaker 1: Charles's illegitimate daughter, and the two women took fencing lessons together,
Speaker 1: hence the whimsical practice in the park, all of which
Speaker 1: brings us to the final reason that people were staring
Speaker 1: at the Countess of Sussex and the Duchess Mazarine fencing
Speaker 1: in St James Park. The two women were wearing only
Speaker 1: their undergarments. Horton's story has fascinated historians and biographers for centuries.
Speaker 1: It's the type of story of a woman in the
Speaker 1: six teen hundreds that seems tailor made for people to
Speaker 1: describe as quote badass, a woman with multiple lovers of
Speaker 1: both genders, a woman who dressed as a man, who
Speaker 1: enjoyed a life of freedom, almost unheard of for a
Speaker 1: woman of her era. Freedom certainly only afforded her because
Speaker 1: of her privileged birth and good looks. It always struck
Speaker 1: me as a shame that the vast majority of interesting
Speaker 1: women who led lives that were written about in the
Speaker 1: early modern era also happened to be the ones whom
Speaker 1: people remark were unusually attractive. For centuries, the path to
Speaker 1: power for women was proximity to power. In other words,
Speaker 1: marriage or sexual relationships with powerful men. But Horton's case,
Speaker 1: being able to charm royals wasn't merely a path to
Speaker 1: notoriety or relevance. It was essential to her very survival.
Speaker 1: When Horton's attempted to wrestle herself away from her domineering husband,
Speaker 1: the league system held her vast inheritance entirely in his control.
Speaker 1: It was the men whom Morton's charmed who provided her
Speaker 1: political and financial security. That her story ends in tragedy
Speaker 1: only makes all of this seem like some misbegotten morality tale,
Speaker 1: as in see Foolish Modern Women The Cost of a
Speaker 1: Life of Freedom. But I do hope that if this
Speaker 1: podcast serves as anything, it's a reminder that historical figures
Speaker 1: are people, not heroes or idols, not quote badass girls
Speaker 1: to be molded into plastic action figures. Hortons took the
Speaker 1: cards that she was dealt and played them to the
Speaker 1: best of her magnificent ability. The results well nothing short
Speaker 1: of scandalous. I'm Danis Schwartz and this is noble blood.
Speaker 1: Horton's man seen, born in Italy, was brought to France
Speaker 1: at six years old because her uncle, the Cardinal Mazarin,
Speaker 1: was incredibly powerful and incredibly wealthy, both important factors when
Speaker 1: it came to arranging marriages for young women. And the
Speaker 1: Mancinese had five young women that they needed to marry off,
Speaker 1: the arrangement was mutually beneficial for the cardinal as well.
Speaker 1: Muzzerin was a man who had clawed his way up
Speaker 1: from nothing with only his intelligence and a preternatural gift
Speaker 1: for knowing the right people to befriend. The son of
Speaker 1: a chamberlain to a powerful Italian family, Muzerin studied at
Speaker 1: college in Rome and Madrid before eventually coming to France
Speaker 1: as part of a diplomatic envoy from the Vatican. He
Speaker 1: was taken under the wing of the famous statesman Cardinal Rishelieu,
Speaker 1: who served as first Minister to King Louis. When Rischelieu died,
Speaker 1: Muserin took his place. When King Louis died, Muserin served
Speaker 1: as the de facto head of the government while young
Speaker 1: King Louis was too young to rule. But being a
Speaker 1: man of the cloth, the cardinal had no heirs to
Speaker 1: inherit the massive fortune he had massed or to continue
Speaker 1: on his title or legacy, but he did have nieces,
Speaker 1: seven of them, five from one sister and two of
Speaker 1: the others, along with a handful of nephews daughters, were
Speaker 1: important diplomatic tools to forge alliances with other powerful families,
Speaker 1: something Muserin was especially in need of at the moment.
Speaker 1: Muserin was acutely aware that he was a new voreche,
Speaker 1: so to speak, an outsider among the highly born noble
Speaker 1: French families, and tensions were especially high after a rebellion
Speaker 1: called the Fronde, during which several high born princes rebelled
Speaker 1: against the control of the monarchy. Really Muserin's power because
Speaker 1: Louis the fourteenth had yet to reach the age of
Speaker 1: major party, and so Mozerin needed all of the weapons
Speaker 1: at his disposal to solidify his place in French society.
Speaker 1: To use the common metaphor of chess for social climbing,
Speaker 1: Cardinal Mazarin was simply importing seven ponds from Italy. The
Speaker 1: girls came in three shipments. Hortens was in the middle batch,
Speaker 1: aged six, traveling with her older sister Marie. Hortons should
Speaker 1: have been too young to come to French court, but
Speaker 1: even at that early age she was precocious and considered
Speaker 1: the best looking of the lot. Muserin met his nieces
Speaker 1: outside of Paris to size them up. When they first arrived,
Speaker 1: the girls had come by galleon ship from Italy rode
Speaker 1: by twenty slaves, which Hortense conveniently neglects to mention in
Speaker 1: her memoirs, although perhaps she was too young to understand.
Speaker 1: Before the girls formerly came to court, Mauserin wanted to
Speaker 1: make sure that they were well trained enough in basic
Speaker 1: French etiquette to hold their own. The young girls giggled
Speaker 1: as he reminded them of the French habit of kissing
Speaker 1: on the cheeks and greeting. They passed Mazarin's inspection, but
Speaker 1: Hortense and Marie wouldn't remain at court for long. Marie,
Speaker 1: suffering from preteen angst or something more severe, was considered
Speaker 1: unruly and too skinny. Some sources describe her as having
Speaker 1: an eating disorder, and so in order to try to
Speaker 1: straighten her out, Marie was sent to a convent for
Speaker 1: her education, with Hortense along with her. The pair of
Speaker 1: sisters bonded through the experience, which meant that Horton's would
Speaker 1: witness first hand and feel it acutely when Marie would
Speaker 1: suffer her first disastrous heartbreak back at court after their education,
Speaker 1: the seven nieces of Cardinal Mauserin became known as the Mazerinettes,
Speaker 1: a group of girls charming and pretty and distinctly Italian
Speaker 1: in French court, where blonde beauties had dominated the social scene.
Speaker 1: The girls caught the eyes of several admirers, which made
Speaker 1: Mazarin's job of securing marriages easy enough. But then Marie
Speaker 1: caught the eye of the wrong person, or rather an
Speaker 1: impossible person. She fell in love with the young King
Speaker 1: Louis the four. He was just a year older than
Speaker 1: her twenty at the time, and the feeling was absolutely mutual.
Speaker 1: The two were besotted with one another, and as they
Speaker 1: strolled through the gardens of Fulton Blue at midnight, they
Speaker 1: comforted each other with the fantasy that they would get
Speaker 1: married and lived together forever as king and queen. Quietly,
Speaker 1: I imagine, even Horton's knew that her sister's fantasy was ridiculous,
Speaker 1: but she never would have told Marie so. So So what
Speaker 1: mattered was that Cardinal mazar And knew it, and the
Speaker 1: King's mother, Anne of Austria, certainly knew it. The King
Speaker 1: of France was never going to marry such a low
Speaker 1: born girl from an all but random Italian family. Eventually
Speaker 1: the King would learn it too. Their love was idealistic
Speaker 1: and childish and most likely never consummated, but it was
Speaker 1: love nevertheless. When the Queen forcibly separated the pair, sending
Speaker 1: Marie and Hortons to La Rochelle for a temporary exile,
Speaker 1: it said that Louis sobbed while Marie entered the carriage.
Speaker 1: He desperately tried to press his final gift of pearls
Speaker 1: into her hands. The secret letters back and forth continued
Speaker 1: for a while, as did the gifts that Louise sent
Speaker 1: to his Marie, including a tiny pet dog. But then
Speaker 1: the letters became more distant, more cordial, than they slowed.
Speaker 1: Even Louis understood the truth of the situation, the inevitability
Speaker 1: of his important, high ranking marriage. I imagine it probably
Speaker 1: affected King Louis when Mauserin wrote him a letter describing
Speaker 1: his own niece by saying, quote, she has an ambition
Speaker 1: without bounds, a restless and awkward spirit, a contempt for
Speaker 1: all the world, no prudence in her conduct, and inclination
Speaker 1: to all extravagancies end quote. The marriages of his nieces,
Speaker 1: the Cardinal ensured would be on his terms and for
Speaker 1: his own advantage. Murray was heartbroken, and Hortense listened to
Speaker 1: her sobbing every night. Her sister was in love with
Speaker 1: a king, and a king loved her, and yet even
Speaker 1: God's own vessel on earth wasn't more powerful than the
Speaker 1: laws of family dynasty that compelled him to marry a
Speaker 1: foreign princess. Louis Fourte was quickly married off to a cousin,
Speaker 1: Maria Theres of Spain, and Muserin equally quickly arranged a
Speaker 1: marriage between Marie and an important Italian nobleman, Lorenzo on
Speaker 1: Frio Cologna, who apparently was shocked to find that his
Speaker 1: bride was still a virgin, coming from the den of
Speaker 1: sin that was France. Finally, it was Hortense's turn for
Speaker 1: marriage for her uncle Mazerin, a man these sisters would
Speaker 1: come to loathe for his coldness and disciplinarian manner. To
Speaker 1: pick one of the many glittering offers on the table
Speaker 1: for the prettiest of the Mazzarinets. One of the offers
Speaker 1: was from the exiled Charles the Second, the son of
Speaker 1: the executed English king Charles the First. Charles the Second
Speaker 1: had escaped England after the rise of Oliver Cromwell. While
Speaker 1: in France, Charles had been captivated by the young Hortens,
Speaker 1: but Mazarin rejected his proposal. He didn't believe a man
Speaker 1: in exile would have much to offer his young niece.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he was kicking himself just a few months later,
Speaker 1: when the English monarchy was restored and Charles b hime
Speaker 1: King Charles the Second. Another of the proposals was from
Speaker 1: Charles Emmanuel the Second, the Duke of Savoy, but his
Speaker 1: squabble over the inclusion of an important castle in Horton's
Speaker 1: dowry caused the Duke to withdraw his offer. Still, no
Speaker 1: one doubted that Hortens would make a fantastic marriage. Horton's
Speaker 1: was Mauserin's personal favorite of the girls for her beauty,
Speaker 1: her wit, and intelligence, and he decided that she, more
Speaker 1: than the others, would be his primary heir. This may
Speaker 1: be partly explained why the husband he chose for her
Speaker 1: was a rich, prominent man, the son of an important
Speaker 1: military officer, but surprisingly not a man with an illustrious
Speaker 1: family history. Mazarin knew that he was approaching death, and
Speaker 1: he wanted Horton's husband to be able to take on
Speaker 1: the mauserin title and so at her uncle's behest, fifteen
Speaker 1: year old Hortens married a twenty a year old man
Speaker 1: named Armand Charles de Lamour de la Millier. Eight days later,
Speaker 1: Mazerin died, Armand became the new Duke de Mazarin, and,
Speaker 1: with the combined wealth of his new bride, became one
Speaker 1: of the richest men in Europe. Armand was an awful man.
Speaker 1: For one, the report that he had an interest in
Speaker 1: Hortance from the time that she was nine years old,
Speaker 1: which is absolutely creepy enough, But after their marriage he
Speaker 1: became a downright terror. I don't know if it's worth
Speaker 1: diagnosing him posthumously with mental illness. Certainly some of his
Speaker 1: behavior comes across as erratic. Armand was wildly jealous of
Speaker 1: Hortens and possessive of her. He also became strangely religious
Speaker 1: and prudish in a way that veered into instability with
Speaker 1: her dowry. Horton's inherited from her uncle a vast art
Speaker 1: collection of masterpieces, paint things and sculptures. Screaming that they
Speaker 1: were immoral, her husband raced through the halls of the palace,
Speaker 1: using a knife to cut or scratch over the exposed
Speaker 1: genitals of any nude paintings and chipping away at the
Speaker 1: nude sculptures. Horton's had to watch in tears as her
Speaker 1: deranged husband destroyed some of the most beautiful art in
Speaker 1: the world. Armand also had it in mind that milking
Speaker 1: cows was too erotic for women, the utters he believed
Speaker 1: would lower them into immorality. He had all of the
Speaker 1: front teeth of all of his female servants knocked out
Speaker 1: so that they wouldn't attract any attention from the male servants.
Speaker 1: As for his wife, Horton's, well, she simply shined too
Speaker 1: brightly in social situations in Paris. Jealous of her happiness
Speaker 1: and the time she spent with others, Armand forced her
Speaker 1: away to travel with him to the distant rural corners
Speaker 1: of France where he had inherited property. Even when Horton's
Speaker 1: was eight months pregnant. He would burst in on her
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night to try to catch
Speaker 1: her cheating, and he had her followed nearly any time
Speaker 1: she left her chambers. But yes miserable as their marriage was,
Speaker 1: Hortense had four children with armand though in her memoirs
Speaker 1: her maternal warmth is somewhat lacking, the children are really
Speaker 1: only mentioned in regards to her own suffering, being forced
Speaker 1: to travel while pregnant, never allowed to rest. Perhaps that
Speaker 1: was a defense mechanism, distancing herself from her children because
Speaker 1: of what Hortons would do next. With the help of
Speaker 1: her brother, Hortens plotted her escape. Her brother procured the
Speaker 1: horses for her and arranged the secret travel. Dressed as
Speaker 1: a man, Hortense left France by carriage, leaving her four
Speaker 1: young children behind. Under cover of darkness, Hortens made her
Speaker 1: way to Rome to escape her husband and be with
Speaker 1: her sister Marie, by then the Princess Colonna. Horton's attempted
Speaker 1: to end her marriage legally, but she had no power
Speaker 1: or recourse against the demands of her husband, who insisted
Speaker 1: that she returned to him. Still, King Louis the fourteen
Speaker 1: took mercy on her, the girl he had grown up
Speaker 1: alongside at court and whose sister he had once loved.
Speaker 1: He offered Hortons his protection and an annual pension of
Speaker 1: twenty thousand livres. Hortens was also offered the protection of
Speaker 1: her former suitor, the Duke of Savoy, who allowed Hortons
Speaker 1: to come and live on his property and who may
Speaker 1: or may not have been having an affair with Horton's
Speaker 1: at the time, depending on who you read. It was
Speaker 1: there at the Duke's comfortable estate in Chambre that Hortense
Speaker 1: wrote her memoirs. It was a brilliant strategic move on
Speaker 1: her part, even though Horton was at this time still
Speaker 1: in her twenties. It was a chance for her to
Speaker 1: frame her life on her terms, to tell of her
Speaker 1: escape from her husband, which was already well known as
Speaker 1: a scandalous piece of gossip, but to tell it with
Speaker 1: her as the heroine. The book was a wild success,
Speaker 1: so popular that it actually spawned imitations. There were fake
Speaker 1: memoirs that claimed to be written by her sister Marie,
Speaker 1: who had also by this point run away from her
Speaker 1: own unhappy marriage. Marie actually eventually did follow Hortens's lead,
Speaker 1: and she wrote her own real memoir, claiming that she
Speaker 1: needed to set the record straight from all the fakes.
Speaker 1: While in Chambre, Hortense wrote that she had finally found
Speaker 1: the piece that had eluded her for the early part
Speaker 1: of her life, but peace wouldn't last long. The Duke
Speaker 1: of Savoy died, and whether or not he and Hortense
Speaker 1: were actually lovers, his widow believed that they were, and
Speaker 1: she cast Hortense out. Horton's own husband took advantage of
Speaker 1: the tumultuous situation to freeze all of Horton's income, including
Speaker 1: the money that she was receiving from the king. Horton's
Speaker 1: options were running dry and she had few places left
Speaker 1: to turn. Fortunately for her, she was about to receive
Speaker 1: an interesting offer. The English ambassador to France, a weasel
Speaker 1: faced man named Ralph Montague, was unhappy with his position
Speaker 1: in England. He blamed it on Charles the Second's favorite mistress,
Speaker 1: Louise de Caral, Duchess of Portsmouth. Montague needed his own
Speaker 1: way to advance himself, to gain the King's favor to
Speaker 1: return to the inner circle. His answer was Horton's Mancini.
Speaker 1: By this point, Horton's was a bona fide celebrity, beautiful
Speaker 1: and rich in terms of clout, but poor in terms
Speaker 1: of money. Montague suggested a mutually beneficial arrangement. Try to
Speaker 1: become King Charles the Second's mistress. After all, he had
Speaker 1: been charmed by her a lifetime ago when he wanted
Speaker 1: to marry her, and now she was famous. So Hortons
Speaker 1: snuck into England on the pretense of visiting one of
Speaker 1: her nieces, Mary of Modina, who was married to King Charles,
Speaker 1: the second younger brother James, the Duke of York. The
Speaker 1: seduction plan worked almost instantly. Charles was appropriately charmed by
Speaker 1: Hortense and accepted her into his retinue of mistresses, an
Speaker 1: illustrious group of women that included Portsmouth, the Duchess of Cleveland,
Speaker 1: and the actress Nell Gwynn. Portsmouth was apparently distraught and
Speaker 1: came to Montague weeping when she found out that the
Speaker 1: king was giving his attention to Hortense instead of her,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure Montague did his best to conceal his glee.
Speaker 1: But Portsmouth didn't need to weep for long. Though Hortons
Speaker 1: was one of the king's mistresses, and though he gave
Speaker 1: a generous stipend to her, she didn't remain the favorite
Speaker 1: for long, and soon enough he returned to Louisa's portsmouths arms. Hortense,
Speaker 1: famous and attractive as she was, was too social for
Speaker 1: the King's tastes, and by that I mean she tended
Speaker 1: to flirt and do more than flirt with other men
Speaker 1: and women. There was the relationship with the King's illegitimate
Speaker 1: daughter and the daughter of one of her fellow mistresses,
Speaker 1: and which we discussed earlier. Anne's husband was so scandalized
Speaker 1: by the fencing in their underwear thing that he whisked
Speaker 1: her away from London to the country, where it said
Speaker 1: Anne spend weeks in bed doing nothing but crying and kissing.
Speaker 1: A portrait of Hortense. Hortens also had a relationship, whether
Speaker 1: flirtatious or more, with the Prince of Monico, which so
Speaker 1: miffed the King that he cut off Horton's salary, though
Speaker 1: he reinstated it a few days later. The King of England,
Speaker 1: for his part, liked Hortense plenty and couldn't, for the
Speaker 1: life of him understand why the King of France couldn't
Speaker 1: find a way to provide for this charming creature. But
Speaker 1: Hortons's real coup in England wasn't finding her way into
Speaker 1: the King's bed. It was the parties and society events
Speaker 1: that she held in her living room. The term salon
Speaker 1: is a little anachronistic here, but it's what best described
Speaker 1: what Hortons was doing, bringing scientists, philosophers and writers to
Speaker 1: talk and drink and gamble. The salons were wildly influential
Speaker 1: in terms of culture. The scientific articles that she brought
Speaker 1: up would become widely read and popular. In the case
Speaker 1: of a paper by Fontanelle, it actually led to it
Speaker 1: being translated, and Horton set London fashion what to wear,
Speaker 1: what to eat, what to drink. The salons were also
Speaker 1: tremendously important when it came to women. During a time
Speaker 1: when women were thought to be frivolous and unable to
Speaker 1: handle their own finances, Horton's and her friends were playing
Speaker 1: cards and gambling, women gambling alongside men, losing and winning
Speaker 1: money as equals. All the while her incredibly litigious, stubborn
Speaker 1: and jealous husband back in France was attempting to get
Speaker 1: the courts to force his wife to come back to him.
Speaker 1: After the death of King Charles the Second in England,
Speaker 1: the throne went to his younger brother James, a Catholic,
Speaker 1: which didn't sit well with the Protestant population. In sixteen
Speaker 1: eighty eight, the Glorious Revolution in England bloodlessly overthrew James
Speaker 1: to leap frog the throne to his daughter and son
Speaker 1: in law, who ruled jointly as William and Mary. The
Speaker 1: next year, Hortons's husband Armand, filed a lawsuit in France
Speaker 1: which said that Hortons had no right to her dowry
Speaker 1: and either needed to return to him or be locked
Speaker 1: away in a convent. The court ruled in his favor,
Speaker 1: but Horton's lawyers had an angle. Horton's had racked up
Speaker 1: a considerable debt in England, and English law prevented her
Speaker 1: from leaving the country until those debts were paid. Well,
Speaker 1: that's ridiculous, Armand scoffed. My wife had no legal right
Speaker 1: to contract debts without her husband's permission. He refused to pay,
Speaker 1: let alone recognize those debts, and so legally he and
Speaker 1: Hortons were in a stalemate. Horton's remained in England through
Speaker 1: the brief reign of James into the rule of William
Speaker 1: and Mary, who still provided for her, albeit at a
Speaker 1: much reduced pension. They provided for her until Horton's died
Speaker 1: in six nine at age fifty three. Some euphemistically say
Speaker 1: that she drank herself to death but more realistic scholars
Speaker 1: understand that it was most likely suicide. The diarist John
Speaker 1: Evelyn wrote of her death that you was quote reported
Speaker 1: to have hastened her death by the intemperate drinking strong spirits.
Speaker 1: It's understood that the euphemism meant that she drank a
Speaker 1: number of tonics that were known to cause death. At last,
Speaker 1: her jealous husband Armand would be able to get his
Speaker 1: claws into her. After Hortense's death, he did pay her
Speaker 1: English debts, and he claimed her remains, carding her casket
Speaker 1: along to all of his remote visits to the French countryside,
Speaker 1: the way he had tried to take her in life.
Speaker 1: Only in a coffin was Hortense finally silent and obedient.
Speaker 1: Eventually she was buried with her uncle, as she had requested,
Speaker 1: but in the end that didn't matter. When the French
Speaker 1: Revolution came, her bones and Cardinal Mazarine's bones would be
Speaker 1: thrown into the river. So ends the strange, fantastic life
Speaker 1: of Horton's Mancini, who did all she could to live
Speaker 1: of her life on her own terms, who took lovers
Speaker 1: and charmed kings, and wrote her own story in her
Speaker 1: own words before anyone else fully understood the power of
Speaker 1: that stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear
Speaker 1: a little bit more about her legacy. One strange footnote
Speaker 1: in the story of Horton's Manzini is that her granddaughter
Speaker 1: would become the mother to five daughters herself, and four
Speaker 1: of those daughters would go on to become mistresses of Louis.
Speaker 1: There's another Hortons legacy that I find more personally relevant.
Speaker 1: While in England, her salons became the center of culture
Speaker 1: and trends. The food and beverages she served not only
Speaker 1: became trendy, but also became associated with the upper class
Speaker 1: and the intellectual elite. Hortons is final affair and affair
Speaker 1: of mind, not the body. Was with the older fellow
Speaker 1: French exile, Charles de Saint Evremond. Hortense and Evremonde shared
Speaker 1: a taste for a newly popular type of wine, sparkling
Speaker 1: and especially grown in France. Although the Benedictine monk most
Speaker 1: famous for making it was trying his best to rid
Speaker 1: his wine of the bubbles, that monk was dumb. Parignon
Speaker 1: and Horton's Mancini serving his wine at her party's helped
Speaker 1: to craft the drink's reputation for being sophisticated. He drink
Speaker 1: for bon vivants who enjoyed living life to the fullest.
Speaker 1: It's a reputation for the beverage that still persists to
Speaker 1: this day. I'm speaking, of course, of champagne. Noble Blood
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and
Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Minky. The show was written and hosted
Speaker 1: by Dana Schwartz. Executive producers include Aaron Manky, Alex Williams,
Speaker 1: and Matt Frederick. The show is produced by rema Ill
Speaker 1: Kali and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media
Speaker 1: at Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about
Speaker 1: the show over at Noble blood Tales dot com. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows. M