La faction au féminin La Montpensier, « gouvernante de la Ligue à Paris »

The behaviour of the Duchess of Montpensier during the Parisian League allows us to probe the female means of sustaining and maintaining factions. The Duchess presented herself as a spectacle, manipulating “feminine” gestures of mourning and devotion in order to communicate her political position and favour the revolt she supported. Yet she paid for this strategy with the myth of fanaticism which grew around her.