Marie was the ninth of fourteen children born to Louis of Lorraine, Count of Armagnac and his wife, Catherine de Neufville-Villeroy (1639-1707).

[1] Her mother was a daughter of Nicolas de Neufville, Duke of Villeroy, a marshal of France and the governor of Louis XIV during the latter's youth.

In a ceremony conducted by Pierre du Cambout de Coislin in the royal chapel of Versailles, Marie married Antonio Grimaldi, Duke of Valentinois on 13 June 1688.

[3] As part of the marriage contract, Louis XIV gave the House of Grimaldi the official rank of Foreign Princes at court.

Antonio was described as a brute who had affairs with singers from the Opera when he visited Paris between his military assignments, and Marie responded by finding lovers of her own.

Her husband, very sensibly, realised he hadn't the upper hand",[5] and Madame de La Fayette described her as "more of an elegant flirt than all of the ladies of the kingdom put together".

In reality, they lived apart; Antoine in the Giardinetto, a cottage he had built for his lover, Mademoiselle Montespan, and Marie in her pavilion, Mon Desert.

She married Jacques Goyon, Count de Matignon and is a direct ancestress of the reigning Prince Albert II of Monaco.