A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Coligni, Henrietta, Countess de la Luze

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4120213A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography — Coligni, Henrietta, Countess de la Luze

COLIGNI, HENRIETTA, COUNTESS DE LA LUZE,

Famous for her poetry, which was printed with the works of Pellison and others, in 1695 and 1725, in two duodecimo volumes, was the daughter of Gaspar de Coligni, Marshal of France, and Colonel-general of infantry. She married, when very young, Thomas Hamilton, a Scotch nobleman, and, after his death, his Count de la Luze, of an illustrious house in Champagne.

The jealousy of her second husband embittered her life, and his severities towards her induced her to abjure Protestantism and embrace the Roman Catholic faith, which caused Queen Christina of Sweden to say "That the Countess had changed her religion, that she might not see her husband, neither in this world nor the next." Their antipathy at last became so great that the Countess offered her husband twenty-five thousand crowns to disannul the marriage, which he accepted, and it was dissolved by parliament. She then devoted herself to the study of poetry; and her writings, which were principally in the elegiac strain, were much admired. Her other works were songs, madrigals, and odes. The wits of her time ascribed to her the majesty of Juno, with Minerva's wit, and Venus' beauty. She died at Paris, March 10th., 1673.