Armand Charles de La Porte, 2nd Duke of La Meilleraye

On 1 March 1661 he married Hortense Mancini, the favourite niece and heiress of the immensely wealthy Cardinal Mazarin.

His strange behaviour included preventing milkmaids from going about their job (to his mind, the cows' udders had strong sexual connotations),[1] having all of his female servants' front teeth knocked out to prevent them from attracting male attention, and chipping off and painting over all the "dirty bits" in his fantastic art collection.

He forbade his wife to keep company with other men, made midnight searches for hidden lovers, insisted she spend a quarter of her day at prayer, and forced her to leave Paris and move with him to the country.

In 1668 Hortense fled France, in order to escape her abusive husband and eventually settled in England, where she became a mistress of King Charles II.

He died in the castle of La Meilleraye, today in ruins, (Beaulieu-sous-Parthenay) in 1713.

Charles de La Porte depicted here in armour, with the blue ribbon of the Order of the Holy Spirit . The portrait, painted in enamel by the leading Swiss enamellist, Jean Petitot, derives from an oil painting by Justus van Egmont of 1648, known from an engraving by Robert Nanteuil (1662).