Historical
and Commemorative Medals
Collection of Benjamin Weiss
MARRIAGE OF MARIE-ANNE DE BOURBON by Chéron, Charles-Jean-François, France, ND (1680),
Bronze, 70 mm Marie-Anne de Bourbon (1666-1739), dowager princess of Conti, was the eldest legitimized daughter of Louis XIV and his mistress the Duchess Louise de La Vallière. She first bore the title of "Mademoiselle de Blois". The favorite daughter of Louis XIV, she was beautiful, tall and majestic, and an excellent ballet dancer, even surpassing the dancers of the Opera. In 1680, when she was only fourteen years old, the king married her to her cousin Louis Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, and as such she was the Princess of Conti by marriage. When the Prince de Conti died five years later, she became the Dowager Princess of Conti. She then led a fairly free life and refused second marriage offers made to her; the last, in 1699, came from the Sultan of Morocco. The medal was issued in 1680 on her marriage to the Prince de Conti. As the princess was so beautiful, she is compared to Aurora, who in Roman mythology is the goddess of dawn, an image of whom is on the reverse of the medal.
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