Gabrielle de Rochechouart, dame de Lansac (27 October 1530 – 1580), was a lady-in-waiting, a Dame d'honneur or Dame du Palais to Catherine de' Medici.
Life She was the wife of Louis de Saint-Gelais, the seigneur de Lanssac (1515/13–1589), Seigneur de Lansac, Baron of La Motte Saint-Héray and of Précy. He was the natural son of King François I and his mistress Jacquette de Lansac, wife of Alexandre Saint-Gelais.Gérard Le Bouëdec, Christophe Cérino, Pouvoirs et littoraux du du xve au xxe siècle: actes du colloque international de Lorient, 24, 25, 26 septembre 1998, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2000Laurent Coste, Messieurs de Bordeaux : pouvoirs et hommes de pouvoir à l'hôtel de ville, 1548-1789, Fédération historique du Sud-Ouest, 2006Mickaël Augeron, Dominique Guillemet, Champlain ou les portes du nouveau-monde : cinq siècles d'échanges entre le centre-ouest français et l'Amérique du Nord, xvie – xxe siècles, Geste, 2004
Louis, Seigneur de Lansac, was State Councilor, Ambassador in 1554, captain of 100 men-at-arms, knight of the order of Saint-Michel on September and knight of the order of the Holy Spirit. Gabrielle was the niece of Aimery de Rochechouart, bishop of Sisteron, who had succeeded his uncle Albin de Rochechouart in that position.
Her parents were François de Rochechouart (b. 25 December 1502), Baron de Mortemart, Seigneur de Tonnay-Charente and Vivonne, knight of the order of the king, and Renée Taveau, only daughter and heiress of Leon Taveau, Baron de Mortemer, and Jeanne Frotier. Gabrielle's parents' marriage took place on 16 November 1509, when her father was seven years old. Gabrielle herself was either 16 (N.S.) or 17 (O.S.) at her first marriage to François de Goulaines, Seigneur de Martigné-Brittard. The marriage contract is dated 13 February 1547. Her second marriage, by contract dated 9 March 1558, was to François de Volvire, Chevalier, Baron de Ruffec, Vicomte du Bois-de-la-Roche, the son of René de Volvire, Baron de Ruffec and Catherine de Montauban, his first wife. Gabrielle's third and last marriage, to Louis de Saint-Gelais the seigneur de Lanssac, took place on 8 October 1565. Her sister Madeleine married in 1554 Baudouin de Goulaines, the brother of her sister's first husband.
Portraits Like her royal mistress Catherine de' Medici and fellow ladies-in-waiting Fulvia Pico della Mirandola, Comtesse de Randan and Louise d'Halluin, dame de Cipierre, Gabrielle de Rochechouart, dame de Lansac was the subject of several portraits famous today. Attributed to Corneille de Lyon, the workshop of Corneille de Lyon, or the school of Corneille de Lyon, two are today at the Musée Conde, while one is at the Frick art Museum, Pennsylvania. The painting now in the Frick Art Museum, Pennsylvania, was once known as Lady Jane Grey. Lee Porritt writes that a similar copy also with the blue background with an inscription and a plaque identifying the sitter as Gabrielle de Rochechouart, Dame de Lansac had been donated in 1897 to The Musée Condé by Henri d’Orléans, Duke of Aumale along with other paintings from the Duke of Sutherland's collection.
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