‘The quintessence of her flattery’: libel, publicity and noble patronage in the writings of Madame Du Noyer

Abstract A French Protestant refugee in the Dutch Republic, Anne-Marguerite Du Noyer published the Lettres historiques et galantes, her Mémoires, the Nouveau Mercure galant des Cours de l’Europe and directed the Quintessence des Nouvelles. Although her detractors dismissed her work as libels against aristocrats, Du Noyer’s writings suggest a more nuanced, less antagonistic relationship with the nobility. This article considers the representation of nobility in Du Noyer’s corpus. It suggests that Du Noyer’s participation in the literary public sphere provided a significant opportunity for her to discursively align herself with aristocratic milieux, appeal to potential patrons as a means of self-advancement and publicly negotiate her liminal status in religious exile and as a woman who defied gendered social norms. However, Du Noyer’s attempts to benefit from noble patronage yielded limited results in part due to her failure to adhere to norms, and this left her vulnerable to critiques from her contemporaries.