La Grande Mademoiselle, 1627-1652

An intimate biography of a high-born seventeenth-century French princess that follows her from childhood and courtly education through salon life, literary and theatrical influences, and repeated marriage projects to active involvement in factional conflict. The narrative examines her personal ambitions, religious impulses, and moments of military leadership and exile, while using contemporary theatre and moral literature to illuminate a broader cultural shift in manners and mentality across a generation. The portrait emphasizes how individual temperament and social change intertwined to reshape aristocratic identity during a turbulent regency and civil unrest.