Building and Writing: Strategies of Self-Construction
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This chapter explores the links between Montpensier’s memoirs and her architectural patronage and reviews important events of her life, including her participation in the Fronde, her conflicted relationship with her father, and her exile to Saint-Fargeau. It focuses on the process whereby, at the outset of her exile in the ruined fortress, the reconstruction process involved both the transformation of this medieval fortress into a courtly château and the writing of a life narrative, her attention to which ended only shortly before her death in 1693. In the section of her memoirs written at Saint-Fargeau, she casts herself as a strong woman through an account of her role in the Fronde, an exposure of her father’s flaws, an emphasis on her dynastic lineage, and the adoption of key female figures as role models. In architectural terms, this reconstruction process entailed transforming Champigny-sur-Veude and Saint-Fargeau into châteaux that emphasized her princely and royal lineages as well as her ties with powerful women.