Mignot, Claudine Françoise (c. 1617–1711)

French adventurer. Name variations: commonly called Marie. Born near Grenoble, at Meylan, around 1617; died on November 30, 1711; married Pierre des Portes d'Amblérieux (treasurer of the province of Dauphiny); married François de l'Hôpital (a marshal of France); morganatic marriage with John Casimir, ex-king of Poland, in 1672.

Claudine Françoise Mignot, known as Marie Mignot, was born near Grenoble, at Meylan, around 1617. At age 16, she caught the eye of the secretary of Pierre des Portes d'Amblérieux, who was treasurer of the province of Dauphiny. Though Amblérieux promised his secretary that he would champion a marriage, he married the young woman himself and left her his fortune. His will, however, was disputed by his family, and Mignot went to Paris in 1653 to secure its fulfilment. She sought the protection of François de l'Hôpital, marshal of France, who was then a man of 75. They were married within a week of their first meeting, and after seven years of marriage he died, leaving her part of his estate. By a third and morganatic marriage in 1672 with John Casimir, the ex-king of Poland, a few weeks before his death, Mignot received a third fortune. Immediately on her marriage with Amblérieux, she had begun to educate herself, and her wealth and talents assured her a welcome in Paris. She retired in her old age to a Carmelite convent in the city, where she died on November 30, 1711. The history of her life, freely revised, was the subject of a play by Bayard and Paul Duport, Marie Mignot (1829).