Marguerite Courtin, Madame de Vantelet

Marguerite Courtin, Madame de Vantelet (died after 1647), was a French aristocrat and courtier in service of Queen Henrietta Maria of England.

She was the only French lady-in-waiting the Queen was allowed to keep after the purging of her French household.

Favoured lady-in-waiting Both she and her husband had been with the Queen since childhood. Marguerite Courtin was the daughter of Pierre Courtin and Diane de Mary, the daughter of Jean-Ascagne de Mary. Marguerite married Jacques de Lux, Sieur de Vantelet by a marriage contract dated 7 June 1617.

According to Tanneguy II Le Veneur, Comte de Tillières (d.1652), the Queen's original Lord Chamberlain, the intention was to deprive the Queen of all her French attendants, but as she refused all food and drink unless she had at least one, they allowed her Madame de Vantelet.

The fact that the Queen, of all of her French retinue, singled out Marguerite, Madame de Vantelet, shows her importance to the Queen.

According to the French ambassador Châteauneuf in a dispatch from 1629, "the queen in her private hours enjoyed the company of the 'ladies of the Chamber', particularly Mesdames Vantelet and Coignet", while Madame de Vantelet "sleeps inside the Chamber", presumably with Queen Henrietta Maria.

Relationship with the French and intrigues Because of her closeness to the Queen, Madame de Vantelet was courted by the French, the opposing parties Marie de' Medici, the mother of Queen Henrietta Maria and Louis XIII, on the one side, and Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu on the other. Madame de Vantelet received a pension from the French King which ebbed and flowed with her relationship with them.

As Chamberer, Madame de Vantelet had considerable influence in filtering incoming requests and providing an audience with the Queen, brokering communication and access to Queen Henrietta Maria. The Queen's attachment to her was so strong that she survived the discovery of thirty-four letters in her own hand with her signature, found among the papers of Châteauneuf, more than implicating her in his plot against Cardinal Richelieu. Charles I, Louis XIII and the Cardinal all wanted her gone, but Queen Henrietta Maria won out. The Ambassador Poygni parries the attack with the arguments supplied to him, but they do not meet the point. He also has instructions from his Court to demand the expulsion from this Court of the Vantelletta, favourite of the queen here, who had a hand in the intrigue carried on here in the time of the Ambassador extraordinary Castelnovo, afterwards Garde des Sceaux in France and of the Chevalier di Giar. This office is displeasing to their Majesties, and so the ambassador is beginning to be looked at askance, without any hope of being able to obtain what he asks, the king being unwilling, as Poygni was told, to order his household for the satisfaction of others.

Flight from England with the Queen When Queen Henrietta Maria had to flee England due to the Civil War, of those accompanying her to France was Marguerite de Vantelet,

Like the Vantelet family, the Coignet family was also long-time servants at the French court. A Seigneur Coignet, another one of Henrietta Maria's gentleman ushers, also accompanied the Queen in 1644 on her perilous journey back to France. He, too, and his wife had been a part of her marriage entourage in 1626. James or Jacquet Coignet was from an old Auxerre family whose presence at court dated back to the time of Catherine de Médici. He was married to Elizabeth, the daughter of Jean Garnier, master of Queen Henrietta Maria's wardrobe, and Lady Françoise de Monbodiac, Queen Henrietta Maria’s nurse when she was young and who also followed her to England. Together, Jacques and Elizabeth Coignet were the parents of Henriette Marie Coignet, undoubtedly named for the Queen.

The younger de Vantelets were also in the employ of the Queen, and later the Dowager Queen, Henrietta Maria.

Henrietta Maria de Vantelet, dresser to the late Queen Mother, also received an annual pension of 300l. It was granted on 28 February and 30 March 1662/3, while the Queen Dowager was still alive, and apparently still being paid as late as 9 October 1686.

The kings Charles II and James II and their mother did not always see eye to eye, but in valuing her French household they apparently agreed.

Both the Madame de Vantelets' signatures have survived on the marriage contract from 1647, signed February 20 in Paris where they celebrated the wedding together with the Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland and the future King Charles II. After "Henriette Marie R" and "Charles P" they sign themselves "Marguerite Courtin" and "Henriette Marie/Coignet". Fellow attendant to Henrietta Maria, and mother to Henriette Marie, Madame Elizabeth Coignet also attended, signing herself "Elizabeth Garnier". Her mother, Françoise de Monbodiac, and two of her sisters, Catherine Garnier, Madame Arpe as the wife of Thomas Arpe, provider of the robes to Henrietta Maria, and Louise Garnier, Madame de Plancy as the wife of Pierre de Plancy, apothecary and valet of the Queen of England, were also present. Marguerite Courtin, Madame de Vantelet seems very much to have been in the Queen's inner circle, if not even foremost in that circle.

Henrietta Maria Coignet, Madame de Vantelet, wife of the Sieur Vantelet, mentioned in the long marriage contract of Louis Belin, King's Counselor and auditor in his Chamber of Accounts, and Henriette Marie de Plancy, daughter of the Queen's apothecary, in 1655 when they all resided in France. Which 26 signatories include Henrietta Maria and her daughter Henrietta of England. Her mother was the aunt of the above-mentioned bride Henriette Marie de Plancy. ), daughter of Jean-Ascagne de Mary, seigneur de Beaulieu, goldsmith to Henry II and Benvenuto Cellini, who talks of him in his famous autobiography, and the late Constance della Robbia, la Robie, the daughter of Girolamo della Robbia and the granddaughter of Andrea della Robbia. Diane de Mary, Madame Courtin was under-governess to the young princess Henrietta Maria from at least 19 October 1612, when the young princess was not three years old. In her testament she gives the Queen of England a gift of a small enamelled gold bracelet with a clasp of 17 diamonds and begs her to transfer to her children and grandchildren the affection that she has always shown her.

Marguerite was one of four sisters; Jeanne married Pierre Testard, Esquire, Madeleine married Jean d’Aubusson, chevalier, and Marie married Nicolas Billard, seigneur de Carouge. Marie was his widow in 1649 and founded the priory of the Bénédictines mitigées du Faubourg Saint-Victor in Paris.

Jacques le Lux, sieur de Vantelet was dead before the signing of his son's marriage contract on 20 February 1647/8, when Marguerite is his veuve; widow. Jane l’Espervanche is granted a pension at the same time as the younger Madame de Vantelet. Christina de Vantelet, who Thomas Amaulry in 1684 in Mercure galant, dédié à Monseigneur le Dauphin triumphantly declares married the Comte de Schelay, "which is one of the best houses in England". Both titles are still extant.