mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Eleanor Herman
Antonio in Paris. But now, given Innocent’s slide into decrepitude, the
Barberinis were in the driver’s seat. They demanded the standard enormous
dowry of a papal niece, which Olimpia readily agreed to provide.
They wanted the remainder of their confiscated property returned.
Olimpia consented.
With great excitement, Olimpia informed her granddaughter of the
glorious marriage she had arranged for her. Olimpiuccia would be a
princess in her own right, with a conspicuous dowry, living in her own
palace, allied to the most important family in Rome. But upon hearing
the news, she informed her grandmother that she had no intention of
marrying Maffeo Barberini. She wanted to become a nun.
Olimpia waved away this response as childish nonsense. Who in
their right mind would want to become a nun? She took Olimpiuccia
for a few days to meet the groom at the Barberini estate of Palestrina
outside Rome. But the little girl did not like the groom. And the groom
did not like the bride, who at twelve had a chest as flat as a board and a
figure as curvaceous as a pencil. He wearily assented to the marriage for
the good of his family. And there was always the hope that she would,
in time, fill out. But the bride was not as resigned to her fate. When she
and Olimpia returned to the Piazza Navona, Olimpiuccia ran away to
her parents’ house, the Villa Giustiniani.
At first Olimpiuccia’s father, Prince Andrea, refused to return her to
Olimpia. His mother-in-law’s interference with his daughter had always
irritated him. But finally he realized that the future of the Pamphili
family depended on the marriage. If the Pamphilis had any hope of
obtaining a friendly pope in the next conclave, Olimpiuccia must be sacrificed.
And so he reluctantly drove her back to the Piazza Navona but
told everyone who would listen that his daughter’s unhappy fate was
caused by his nasty, meddling mother-in-law, who had originally
planned to marry her to that imbecile Francesco Maidalchini, who had,
thank God, gone into the church.
In May 1653 the haughty Cardinal Antonio Barberini set out from
Paris with a great entourage to return to Rome, where he would be welcomed
with triumphal arches and numerous festivities. And on May 30,
the dowry documents, written in the florid style of the time, were signed.
[ 324 ]