A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Conti, Margaret Louisa
CONTI, MARGARET LOUISA,
Of Lorraine, Princess de, daughter of Henry, Duke de Guise, surnamed the Balafre, or The Scarred, was born in 1577, and died in 1631. In 1605, she married, by the request of Henry the Fourth, who was in love with her and wished her to remain at court, Francis de Bourbon, Prince de Conti. They, however, left Henry's court secretly, on the wedding night, and went to Brussels. The Prince de Conti dying in 1614, Louisa devoted herself to literature, patronized the learned, and employed . her time in studying their works, and in writing. She was one of Cardinal Richelieu's enemies, and he banished her to Eu, where she died. She wrote the loves of Henry the Fourth, under the title of "Les Amoures du Grande Alexandre." She was suspected of having married tho Marshal de Bassompierre for her second husband.