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Marquis d'Ancre Biography

Marquis d'Ancre Image

ANCRE, CONCINO CONCINI, MARQUIS D'. (?-1617). A Florentine adventurer, who went to the French court in 1600 with Maria de' Medici, Queen of Henry IV. With his wife, Leonora Galigai, he exercised an unhappy influence in promoting the disagreement between the King and Queen. When, after Henry's death, the Queen became regent, Concini, as her favorite, obtained possession of the reins of government and in 1613 was made a Marshal and Prime Minister. He bought the marquisate of Ancre, in Picardy, and took his title from it. Because of his rapacity he became an object of detestation equally to the nobility and the people. A conspiracy was formed against him, to which the young King, Louis XIII, was privy, and he was assassinated in April, 1617, on the bridge of the Louvre just as he was leaving it. Vitry, a captain of the royal bodyguard, accomplished the murder. His wife was soon afterward accused of witchcraft and was executed. Consult Bazin, Histoire de France sous le règne de Louis XIII (Paris, 1837-42).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. I. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 608.