Marie Anne Mancini  Marie Anne Mancini, duchesse de Bouillon (1649 – 20 June 1714), was an Italian-French aristocrat and culture mecenate, the youngest of the five famous Mancini sisters, who along with two of their female Martinozzi cousins, were known at the court of King Louis XIV of France as the "Mazarinettes", because their uncle was the king's chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin. She is known for her involvement in the famous Poison Affair, and as the patron of La Fontaine. The parents of Marie Anne Mancini were Lorenzo Mancini, a Roman baron, necromancer and astrologer, and Geronima Mazzarini, sister of Cardinal Mazarin. Her four famous sisters were: The Mancinis were not the only female family members that Cardinal Mazarin brought to the French court. The others were Marie Anne's first cousins, daughters of Mazarin's eldest sister. The elder, Laura Martinozzi, married Alfonso IV d'Este, duke of Modena and was the mother of Mary of Modena, second wife of James II of England. The younger, Anne Marie Martinozzi, married Armand, Prince de Conti. The Mancini also had three brothers: Paul, Philippe, and Alphonse. Philippe Jules Mancini was a lover of Philippe de France, brother of Louis XIV. Marie Anne reached Paris much later than her sisters, in 1655, when she was a mere child of six. The last "Mazarinette" became the "spoiled darling" of the French court and of her uncle, who was greatly amused by the literary six-year-old's verses and "bon mots". She was considered a wit and a beauty. Even more than her older sister Hortense, Cardinal Mazarin's favorite niece, Marie Anne is often referred to as "the wittiest and most vivacious of the sisters." According to a contemporary, she was, "said to be quite divine, having infinite appeal." Self-possessed, she excelled at such courtly diversions as dancing and plays. In 1657, her eldest sister, Laure, died in childbirth. Marie Anne, despite her young age, was given her sister's three sons to raise. Marie Anne was only a few years older than her nephews. The youngest child, Jules César, died three years later in 1660.