mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Eleanor Herman
grew angry but as they were leaving said, ‘Perhaps he has not yet spoken
to Donna Olimpia.’ ” 8
In addition to her work as a cardinal, Olimpia had three children to
think about and had, for some time, been plotting their futures. There
was her only son, seventeen-year-old Camillo, now the official head of
the family, although Olimpia would always hold the real power. And
then there were two daughters. None of the three, she vowed, would
enter the church. That would be a waste. Olimpia didn’t mind paying a
large dowry for her girls as long as they married into powerful families,
creating a network of support and prestige for her.
Olimpia’s daughters remain a cipher and seem to have lived in their
mother’s shadow. There are no known portraits of them. Neither are
there any descriptions whatsoever of their beauty or lack thereof, which
might indicate they were average-looking, neither waddlingly fat nor
anorexically thin, neither radiantly beautiful nor clock-stoppingly ugly.
Ambassadorial reports treat Maria and Costanza Pamphili as extras in
the family saga, sweeping in and out of church ceremonies and family
banquets with long silken skirts.
A few years later, one diplomat reported that of Olimpia’s three children,
the pious elder daughter, Maria, was Gianbattista’s favorite. The
youngest child, Costanza, “has no influence but is a good lady, and cannot
be decried without doing her injustice, but neither can she be praised
without exaggeration.” 9 Given the universal lack of comment on their
personalities, it is clear that they were in no way like their mother,
whose forceful intelligence was much remarked upon.
In 1640 the twenty-one-year-old Maria married a promising young
man of excellent family. The marquess Andrea Giustiniani was attractive
and likeable, and even if he was not rich himself, he had very rich
relatives. But Gianbattista thought the groom had uncouth manners
and put up with him only for Maria’s sake. The marriage soon proved
fruitful. Within the year Maria had her first child, whom she named
after her mother. But to distinguish the two Olimpias, the baby was
called by the Italian diminutive, Olimpiuccia. She would prove much
like her namesake in terms of her willfulness.
Olimpia fell in love with the infant at first sight. Here was someone
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