"Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orleans - a cousin to Louis XIV and known in her time and to posterity as "La Grande Mademoiselle"is still remembered in France today for her unconventional life and heroic deeds. A participant in the factional struggles known as the Fronde, which nearly consumed France during the minority of Louis XIV, Mademoiselle ultimately sided with a coalition of princes and great noblemen who sought to depose the king's prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, and seize control of the state.".

"In La Grande Mademoiselle at the Court of France, Vincent Pitts presents a biography of this woman which draws upon Mademoiselle's writings and his own impressive command of her times.

Viewed through her writings, the events of Mademoiselle's life offer a unique perspective on several aspects of seventeenth-century France: the evolution of the Bourbon monarchy over the course of the century, the dynamics of aristocratic resistance to the centralizing power of the state, and the debate over the role of women in public and private life.

As both an active participant in and a keen observer of the great events of her time, La Grande Mademoiselle helped define her age even as she challenged the limitations it placed upon her, as Pitts's account of her life makes clear."--BOOK JACKET.