Coligny, Henriette de (1618–1683)

views updated

Coligny, Henriette de (1618–1683)

French writer and poet. Name variations: Comtesse de la Suze; countess of La Suze. Born Henriette de Coligny in 1618; died in 1683; eldest daughter of Gaspard III de Coligny, maréchal de Châtillon (1584–1646, a marshal of France under Louis XIII and nephew of Louise de Coligny ); great granddaughter of Gaspard II de Coligny (1519–1572, an admiral and leader of the Huguenots); married Thomas Hamilton, earl of Haddington (died one year later); married compte de La Suze.

With Paul Pellisson and others, Henriette de Coligny wrote Recueil de pièces galantes (also known as Recueil La Suze-Pellisson) in 1663; it became one of the most popular miscellanies of 17th-century verse and prose. Born a Protestant, Henriette turned Catholic. Soon after, her marriage to the comte de La Suze, notorious for his drunken debauches and jealous temperament, was over. The countess is said to have been a cosmopolitan beauty who corresponded with Balzac and Saint-Evremond; her salon was a kind of extension of Hôtel de Rambouillet.

More From encyclopedia.com