Note 96 — Chapter XVIII · THE SUPREMACY OF MAZARIN

[Micheletb believes that the love affair of Mazarin and the queen began even earlier than their contemporaries think. He says: “It has been said that Louis XIV was the son of Mazarin—this is certainly wrong. He was of France, ballasted by Austria. But his brother, the second duke of Orleans (born September 22nd, 1640), like the first, Gaston, was thoroughly Italian in spirit and in manner. He was as much Mazarin as Gaston was Concini. I fully appreciate the difficulties. Their contemporaries believe that she did not give herself to him until later. There was at least one entr’acte in her favour.” To a court tradition, related, among others, by the Princess Palatine,n mother of the regent, is due a belief that Mazarin’s continued hold over the queen-mother is explained by the fact that they had been secretly married. Kitchino says “there is no reason to doubt that they were actually married.” But Martin assures us that “there is not the slightest indication of this, either in their correspondence or in what we know of the Carnetsp of Mazarin.”]