MARQUISE DE JEANNE

AGNES

See also:

• BERTHELOT, MARCELLIN PIERRE EUGENE (1827–1907)

BERTHELOT DE PLENEUF

See also:

• MARQUISE DE JEANNE AGNES BERTHELOT DE PLENEUF PRIE (1698-1727)

PRIE (1698-1727)  , French adventuress, was the daughter of a rich but unscrupulous father and an immoral mother . At the age of fifteen she was married to Louis, marquis de Prie, and went with him to the court of Savoy at Turin, where he was ambassador . She was twenty-one when she returned to France, and was soon the declared mistress of Louis Henri, duc de Bourbon . During his ministry (1723-1725) she was in several respects the real ruler of France, her most notable triumph being the marriage of Louis XV. to Marie Leszczynska instead of to Mlle de Vermandois . But when, in 1725, she sought to have Bourbon's rival Fleury exiled, her ascendancy came to an end . After Fleury's recall and the banishment of Bourbon to Chantilly Mme de Prie was exiled to Courbepine, where she committed suicide the next year . See M . H . Thirion, Madame de Prie (Paris, 1905) . PRIE-DIEU, literally " pray God," strictly a prayer desk, primarily intended for private use, but often found in churches of the European continent . It is a small ornamental wooden desk furnished with a sloping shelf for books, and a cushioned kneeling piece . It appears not to have received its present name until the early part of the 17th century .

At that

period in France a small room or oratory was sometimes known by the same name . A similar form of chair, in domestic furniture, is called prie-dieu by analogy .