Introduction

Hortense mansini was born in italy, but raised and educated in france as one of the seven nieces of the influential minister, cardinal mazarin. She ran away from her husband disguised as a man, and she became the first woman, after margaret of valois, to write her memoir. To continue to escape her abusive husband's control, she fled to england, where she became mistress to king charles the second. Tene's memoir was a runaway het, widely translated and widely read, the modern day equivalent of a best seller.