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| Louis XIV of France 1661 @Wikipedia |
King of France
1638-1715.
Husband of:
1. Maria Teresa of Spain, mar 1660
2. Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, mar 1683.
Louis XIV & his parents Anne of Austria
& Louis XIII
@Pinterest
The Sun King's physical appearance & personal qualities.
The Sun King's physical appearance & personal qualities.
"At eighteen Louis XIV, the Dieudonne, was of middle height, with somewhat broad shoulders, and his walk was very dignified. He threw his foot forward with a proud and at the same time graceful step. He was slightly pitted with the small-pox; his hair was dark and hung in richly-flowing waves; his eyes were at once soft and brilliant; his lips red and full. He spoke well and deliberately---sometimes with kindling warmth, and in animated gestures expressed with energy the dominant passion of his soul." (Royal Favourites, Vol 2: 386)
Astonishingly handsome.
" . . . All contemporary accounts agree that he was astonishingly handsome at this stage. The beautiful, curling hair, sentimentally praised by the Grande Mademoiselle, was only one of his physical assets, but it was much prized at the time. . . Louis's figure was described as 'tall, free, ample and robust'. . . ." (Love and Louis XIV: 34)
" . . . Louis was attractive to women. This was partly because he was the king. But he was also charming and handsome, at any rate between 1655 when he first had sex and 1683 when he remarried. For nearly thirty years he was irresistible and had no hesitation in exploiting his good fortune. . . ." (Louis XIV)
Husband of: Maria Teresa de Espana (1638-1683), mar 1660
"Maria Teresa led a sad and languid life in the court of Versailles. The Duke of Beaufort, who was Admiral of the French fleet, presented him with a black pygmy slave, who was baptized with the name of Nabo. Then Maria Teresa and Nabo developed an intense relationship." (Nueva Tribuna)
"It was said that the black child was fathered by an African dwarf named Nabo, a young man from Dahomey brought from his country to France he became one of the Queen's favorites. No less than 6 memorialists have devoted paragraphs to Louise Marie-Thérèse : she is mentioned in the memoirs of Madame de Maintenon, the Grande Mademoiselle, Madame de Montespan (whose so-called memoirs were written by Philippe Musoni years after Montespan's death), Duke of Saint-Simon, Voltaire and Cardinal Dubois (who is probably not the author of his own Memoirs)." (Andrew Hopkins Art)
Daughter of: Felipe IV de Espana & Elisabeth de France.
" . . . Louis was attractive to women. This was partly because he was the king. But he was also charming and handsome, at any rate between 1655 when he first had sex and 1683 when he remarried. For nearly thirty years he was irresistible and had no hesitation in exploiting his good fortune. . . ." (Louis XIV)
Husband of: Maria Teresa de Espana (1638-1683), mar 1660
"Maria Teresa led a sad and languid life in the court of Versailles. The Duke of Beaufort, who was Admiral of the French fleet, presented him with a black pygmy slave, who was baptized with the name of Nabo. Then Maria Teresa and Nabo developed an intense relationship." (Nueva Tribuna)
"It was said that the black child was fathered by an African dwarf named Nabo, a young man from Dahomey brought from his country to France he became one of the Queen's favorites. No less than 6 memorialists have devoted paragraphs to Louise Marie-Thérèse : she is mentioned in the memoirs of Madame de Maintenon, the Grande Mademoiselle, Madame de Montespan (whose so-called memoirs were written by Philippe Musoni years after Montespan's death), Duke of Saint-Simon, Voltaire and Cardinal Dubois (who is probably not the author of his own Memoirs)." (Andrew Hopkins Art)
Daughter of: Felipe IV de Espana & Elisabeth de France.
[See the Black Nun of Moret below]
A not unhappy marriage.
"The marriage in June 1660 between Louis XIV and Maria-Theresa was not unhappy. Louis found his fair-skinned, Spanish-speaking wife pleasant, devoted, and dull, while Maria-Theresa found her husband the most impressive and certainty the most handsome man in France. From their first meeting, at the Spanish frontier, Maria-Theresa adored Louis. On their honeymoon she begged him never to leave her, and Louis never did. Throughout their twenty-three-year marriage, Louis displayed a respect and affection for his wife, but he found her more girlish than womanly and certainly never felt the obligations of fidelity. Undoubtedly, such a royal marriage was not unusual; it would have been the exception if Louis had remained a dutiful, faithful husband. His brilliant and openly sensual court demanded sparkling feminine conversation, gaiety, and high fashion. Although feminine nudity and the bare-breasted decolletage of late sixteenth-century France were no longer fashionable at court, with and Rubenesque sensuality very much were ein vogue." (A Lust for Virtue: 85)
"Queen Marie Therese was a plain if not ugly woman, devoutly religious but determined to do her 'duty'---at least twice a month---by her husband, even if it meant sharing their living quarters with his mistresses. She bore xix of Louis' children, although only one, the Dauphin Louis, survived infancy. The solitary suggestion of scandal to mar her married life occurred when a rival for Louis' affections, Madame de Montespan, claimed that Marie Therese had borne a black child after being given a black dwarf by an African prince. The queen said that during her pregnancy the dwarf once frightened her, and that that incident caused the child to be born black. . . ." (The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People: 339)
A not unhappy marriage.
"The marriage in June 1660 between Louis XIV and Maria-Theresa was not unhappy. Louis found his fair-skinned, Spanish-speaking wife pleasant, devoted, and dull, while Maria-Theresa found her husband the most impressive and certainty the most handsome man in France. From their first meeting, at the Spanish frontier, Maria-Theresa adored Louis. On their honeymoon she begged him never to leave her, and Louis never did. Throughout their twenty-three-year marriage, Louis displayed a respect and affection for his wife, but he found her more girlish than womanly and certainly never felt the obligations of fidelity. Undoubtedly, such a royal marriage was not unusual; it would have been the exception if Louis had remained a dutiful, faithful husband. His brilliant and openly sensual court demanded sparkling feminine conversation, gaiety, and high fashion. Although feminine nudity and the bare-breasted decolletage of late sixteenth-century France were no longer fashionable at court, with and Rubenesque sensuality very much were ein vogue." (A Lust for Virtue: 85)
"Queen Marie Therese was a plain if not ugly woman, devoutly religious but determined to do her 'duty'---at least twice a month---by her husband, even if it meant sharing their living quarters with his mistresses. She bore xix of Louis' children, although only one, the Dauphin Louis, survived infancy. The solitary suggestion of scandal to mar her married life occurred when a rival for Louis' affections, Madame de Montespan, claimed that Marie Therese had borne a black child after being given a black dwarf by an African prince. The queen said that during her pregnancy the dwarf once frightened her, and that that incident caused the child to be born black. . . ." (The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People: 339)
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| Louis XIV & family at Versailles Palace @Wikipedia |
" . . . While acknowledged three official mistresses -- Louise de La Valliere (1661-8), Athenais de Montespan (1668-92) and Francoise de Maintenon (1682-1715) whom he married morganatically -- he had numerous other mistresses, some for a few weeks, others for a few moments. Louise sired thirteen bastards at least, and there may well have been more. . . Each of Louis's official mistresses had worked for and was older than her predecessor. All three were aristocratic. But Louis slept with plenty of women who were not so well born. 'Hope of capturing the king's affections was open to any woman since he democratically slept with the very humblest as well as the most exalted, of his subjects.' . . . While he cast his net far and wide, he acknowledged three mistresses en titre in the meantime. By allowing them to sit next to him in church, he flagged up their 'official' status. There three women, in their different ways, symbolised the moods and ambiances of the personal rule. It was not too much to think of them as personifying the seasons of the reign." (Louis XIV)
Energetically acquiring beautiful women after initiation into sex.
" . . . His virginity having been removed obligingly by his mother's faithful servant, Catherine Bellier, Louis had swiftly become sexually disenchanted with his plain Spanish bride, once she had produced him an heir, and---in the way of French monarchs---had energetically set to acquiring beautiful young women from the court. First there came Louise de la Valliere, with whom Louis fell passionately in love almost simultaneously with the beginnings of his obsession with Versailles. There there arrived the extraordinary, tall blonde beauty, Marie-Angelique de Fontanges (described by the arch-gossip, Mme. de Sevigne, as being 'belle comme une ange, sotte comme un paniere'). Poor Louise was forced to take flight to a convent. She was succeeded by infinitely wilier, sexually adept and more conniving Athenais de Montespan. . . ." (La Belle France)
His women were confidantes --- as well as lovers.
"Although facially scarred by a childhood bout with smallpox, Louis XIV was an athletic and witty charmer and an indefatigable lover. Married twice, he had innumerable affairs with noblewomen and palace servants alike and was generous to them all, ignoring scandal while he rewarded them with jewels, estates, and rank. His women were confidantes as well as lovers, and he decreed legitimate his many children born out of wedlock. . . ." (The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People: 339)
"Although facially scarred by a childhood bout with smallpox, Louis XIV was an athletic and witty charmer and an indefatigable lover. Married twice, he had innumerable affairs with noblewomen and palace servants alike and was generous to them all, ignoring scandal while he rewarded them with jewels, estates, and rank. His women were confidantes as well as lovers, and he decreed legitimate his many children born out of wedlock. . . ." (The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People: 339)
They're all his.
" . . . [T]he King continued with the many amours he regarded as his due: young Anne Lucie de la Mothe; mature and lovely Lydie de Rochefort; the 'divine nymph' Marie du Fresnoy, daughter of a laundress, elevated to the King's bed via that of his minister Louvois; lively Olympe de Soissons, niece of the late Cardinal Mazarin; Anne de Soubise in a particular pair of emerald earrings, indicating her husband's absence and her own availability; red-haired, blue-eyed Isabelle de Ludres. . . ." (The Secret Wife of Louis XIV)
Precocious fondness for sex.
" . . . Precocious in his fondness for the female sex, and frivolous in his objects of pursuit, his whole time was spent in new and ever-varying pleasures, into which the new court was plunged. As one new fancy chased another in this round of voluptuous enjoyment, and as each fair face and graceful form received in its turn the homage of the young ruler, the most acute observer could have detected little in the court, that augured of future greatness, either to the crown or to the people." (The American Review, Vol. 2: 486)
Royal quickies.
" . . . [T]he King continued with the many amours he regarded as his due: young Anne Lucie de la Mothe; mature and lovely Lydie de Rochefort; the 'divine nymph' Marie du Fresnoy, daughter of a laundress, elevated to the King's bed via that of his minister Louvois; lively Olympe de Soissons, niece of the late Cardinal Mazarin; Anne de Soubise in a particular pair of emerald earrings, indicating her husband's absence and her own availability; red-haired, blue-eyed Isabelle de Ludres. . . ." (The Secret Wife of Louis XIV)
Precocious fondness for sex.
" . . . Precocious in his fondness for the female sex, and frivolous in his objects of pursuit, his whole time was spent in new and ever-varying pleasures, into which the new court was plunged. As one new fancy chased another in this round of voluptuous enjoyment, and as each fair face and graceful form received in its turn the homage of the young ruler, the most acute observer could have detected little in the court, that augured of future greatness, either to the crown or to the people." (The American Review, Vol. 2: 486)
Royal quickies.
"By 1667 the tell-tale signs of royal ennui with Athenais were evident to many courtiers. In the next three years the king went through a series of brief adulteries beginning with Mlle Claude de Vin des Oeillets, a chambermaid in service to Mme de Montespan. Next came Mme de Soubise, who court wits noted ironically suffered from the 'king's evil' (the skin disease of scrofula), but not for want of having been touched by the king. Then there was an erstwhile nun, Mme de Ludre, who served as royal mistress for only eighteen months, and finally the beautiful but noticeably slow-witted Mlle Marie Angelique de Fontanges. This sorry state of royal philandering epitomized Athenais's failure to hold the king's attention." (A Lust for Virtue: 90)
Sex can't wait.
" . . . When Louis XIV once had to wait while one of his upper-class mistresses got ready, he'd impatiently gestured to her maid to get undressed: he'd have sex with her first, while he was there. . . ." (Passionate Minds: 202)
"In the hierarchy of Versailles, the most coveted position for a woman was without doubt that of official mistress or favorite. 'All the women,' Primi Visconti claimed, 'want to be the king's mistress,' and no wonder. The advantages were enormous: jewels, estates, chateaux, and coveted positions for relatives. These benefits accrued only if the union endured, however. In the fifty-five years of Louis XIV's personal reign, he had sexual relations with at least three dozen women of various ranks. Most were passing flirtations of which he tired within a few months or even weeks. The problem was not attracting the king's attention but keeping it. His distractions were numerous. First there were the mistresses from the past who suddenly reappeared, like Marie Mancini. Then there were the unmarried girls who attended the royal women. These maidens were not numerous: Anne of Austria kept only five in her household, but a few found a lover first in the king." (Servants of the Dynasty: 203)
Made love to 3 mademoiselles all at once.
" . . . [I]t was determined that Louis should enact the part of lover to some of the ladies of the household. To select an object for this feigned passion, the king, the princess, and their confidants chose several girls well calculated by their grace and beauty really to attract the attention of the king. The three who more particularly attracted attention were, Mademoiselle de Pons, who, we are told, was very handsome, but was not particularly clever; Mademoiselle de Chemerault, one of the queen's maids of honour, likewise handsome, but rather too clever; and Mademoiselle de la Valliere, one of the ladies of honour to Henrietta of England, who is described well by Madame de la Fayette as very pretty, very gentle, and very innocent. Madame de Motteville enters more into the detail of her appearance, and days, ' Her beauty had great attractions, by the brilliant fairness and the carnation of her complexion; by the blue of her eyes, which were full of sweetness; and by the beauty of her flaxen hair, which increased that of her countenance.' Her person, however, was not without defects; for though her figure was good and graceful, she was slightly lame. These three having been selected as worthy of being the ostensible objects of those gallantries on the part of the king which were only intended to cover more real and more dangerous feelings, Louis went rather farther than he had agreed upon with his fair sister-in-law, and instead of choosing one of the three to pay his court to, he made love to all three at once. . . ." (The Life & Times of Louis XIV: 104)
Series of brief adulteries by 1677-1670.
"By 1677 the tell-tale signs of royal ennui with Athenais were evident to many courtiers. In the next three years the king went through a series of brief adulteries beginning with Mlle Claude de Vin des Oeillets, a chambermaid in service to Mme de Montespan. Next came Mme de Soubise, who court wits noted ironically suffered from the 'king's evil' (the skin disease of scrofula), but not for want of having been touched by the king. Then there was an erstwhile nun, Mme de Ludre, who served as royal mistress for only eighteen months, and finally the beautiful but noticeably slow-witted Mlle Marie Angelique de Fontanges. This sorry state of royal philandering epitomized Athenais's failure to hold the king's attention." (A Lust for Virtue: 90)
Louis XIV's spouses & children.
Louis XIV's spouses & children.
"Unfortunately as it happened, the wife who shared the Grand Monarque's throne was singularly ill-fitted to be the partner of this able and aspiring king. The marriage in which Anne of Austria saw the fulfillment of all her hopes, and which the Cardinal held to be the final triumph of his diplomacy, proved a signal failure in this respect. Marie Therese was dull, ignorant, and bigoted. She had been brought up in the most cramping traditions of Spanish etiquette, and had not a wish or thought beyond the narrow circle in which she moved. All her actions and movements were governed by the most rigid regard for ceremonial. She referred to Court Chamberlains for leave to embrace her father, and held out her skirt to be kissed by her own children. She fenced herself in, with a new code of minute regulations, and withdrew herself as much as possible from contact with any but her immediate attendants. Her time was divided between eating and dressing, cards, and church-going. She ate voraciously, and was greedily afraid lest her favorite morels should be handed to others at table. She had a passion for cards, and played extremely badly, much to the satisfaction of her ladies, who won large sums from their royal mistress. But she had a kind heart, and was a pious and devout woman. It was her misfortune to be fondly attached to the husband with whom she had so little in common, and whose infidelities were destined to give her such deep and constant distress. Even in these early days of her wedded life, she already watched his conduct with jealous suspicion, and was alive to the first symptoms of neglect on his part. And now, to increase the King's sense of his wife's deficiencies, this young and brilliant Madame appeared suddenly on the scene." (Madame: A Life of Henrietta Duchess of Orleans: 96)
Louis XIV's lovers were:
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| Catherine-Henriette Baronne de Beauvais |
1) Catherine-Henriette de Beauvais
(1614-1689)
Lover in 1653.
Lover in 1653.
First mistress of Louis XIV
Lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne of AustriaDaughter of: Martin Bellier.
Wife of: Pierre de Beauvais, Baron de Beauvais.
The one-eyed woman who initiated the king into sex.
" . . . Now fifteen, Louis was ready. Just as Charles II, while still Prince of Wales, had been seduced by the opulent Mrs. Christabella Wyndham, Louis is always supposed to have been initiated by one of his mother's trusted ladies-in-waiting (she had taken part in the flight from the Palais-Royal on that fateful night). 'One-eyed Kate', as the Baronne de Beauvais was nicknamed, was about twenty-four years older that Louis, much closer to this mother's age that his own. The incident was said to have taken place as Louis was on the way back from the baths -- 'she ravished him or at least surprised him' -- and to have bee enjoyable enough to be repeated on several more occasions." (Love & Louis XIV: 37)
The king's first sexual encounter at age 15.
"The Queen's vigilance was, however, powerless to save the young sovereign from the wiles of the intriguing femme de chambre, Madame de Beauvais, the same lady who had lent herself to the schemes of the presumptuous Jarze, and had received a term of exile for her pains. Madame de Beauvais, called by her royal mistress 'Cateau la borgnesse,' was very far from being beautiful, while her youth was only a memory; but she was 'a woman of experience,' who possessed 'l'humeur galante au dernier point'; and she had the distinction of opening that famous list which contains the names of La Valliere and Montespan." (Five Fair Sisters: 66)
The woman asked to relieve the king of his virginity.
" . . . Catherine Bellier, handmaiden to Queen Anne of Austria, Louis XIV's mother, was assigned the responsibility of relieving the young king of his virginity at the bequest of his mother. Amazingly, Catherine Bellier was extremely ugly. She was nicknamed 'One-Eyed' Caton. It was specifically because of her ugliness that she had access to the king's private chambers with raising suspicions of any 'hanky panky'. (The Man Who Stole Louis XIV's Virginity)
Personal & family background.
"Madame de Beauvais served at the court as chief lady-in-waiting to Anne of Austria, the wife of Louis XIII. She later became the first mistress of the young Louis XIV, thirty years her junior. She was the mother of Andre de la Betoulout (1629 – 1693), Seigneur de Frementau and Comte de La Vauguyon who was married the wealthy older widow Marie de Stuer de Caussade de Saint-Maigrin (c1611 – 1693), Comtesse de Broutay. Madame de Beauvais always retained the affection and regard of King Louis and was mentioned in the Memoires of the court historian the Duc de Saint-Simon." (Russell)
"Anquetil tells us that his Majesty next paid his addresses to La Beauvais, the first lady in waiting to the queen, 'a woman of experience,' and nicknamed by Anne of Austria La Borgnesse. She was dismissed [from] the service, but was soon afterwards reinstated, her Majesty being unable to get on without her. This matter would hardly deserve a remark, but for the fact of St. Simon having seen her at the toilette of Madame la Dauphine when she was old, 'was minus one eye, and wept with the other,' and yet 'accomplished marvels at Court, because from time to time she went to Versailles and saw the king, who spoke with her in private, and treated her with the greatest consideration. Her daughter,' adds Anquetil, ' was quite the contrary to her mother---she was exceedingly graceful and virtuous, and afterwards became Duchesse de Richelieu...." (Bingham, Vol., 1: 433)
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Hotel Beauvais A Grateful Queen Mother's Gift |
Affair's benefits to Mme de Beauvais.
". . . Catherine Bellier ended up being ennobled with the title of Baroness de Beauvais. She obviously must have done something spectacular to gain the queen's favor." (The Man Who Stole Louis XIV's Virginity)
"Queen Anne provided her with the stones that would help Baroness de Beauvais and her husband build an elegant townhouse at 68 Rue Francois Miron designed by the architect Le Pautre. To this day, the sculpted faces of the major 'players' in this royal story decorate the courtyard walls. . . . " (The Man Who Stole Louis XIV's Virginity)
" . . . Madame de Beauvais was rewarded with a house and pension -- conceivably for services to the mother rather than the son, or possibly both. More cogently, the young Saint-Simon remembered her, wrinkled and by this time almost entirely blind, being treated with great respect at Versailles by Louis XIV and accorded that ultimate mark of favour, a talk with the king 'privately'." (Love & Louis XIV: 38)
Superintendent of the Queen's Household
Daughter of: Lorenzo Mancini & Geronima Mazzarini.
Wife of: Eugenio Maurizio di Savoia-Carignano, mar 1657.
". . . Catherine Bellier ended up being ennobled with the title of Baroness de Beauvais. She obviously must have done something spectacular to gain the queen's favor." (The Man Who Stole Louis XIV's Virginity)
"Queen Anne provided her with the stones that would help Baroness de Beauvais and her husband build an elegant townhouse at 68 Rue Francois Miron designed by the architect Le Pautre. To this day, the sculpted faces of the major 'players' in this royal story decorate the courtyard walls. . . . " (The Man Who Stole Louis XIV's Virginity)
" . . . Madame de Beauvais was rewarded with a house and pension -- conceivably for services to the mother rather than the son, or possibly both. More cogently, the young Saint-Simon remembered her, wrinkled and by this time almost entirely blind, being treated with great respect at Versailles by Louis XIV and accorded that ultimate mark of favour, a talk with the king 'privately'." (Love & Louis XIV: 38)
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Olympe Mancini Comtesse de Soissons |
Superintendent of the Queen's Household
Daughter of: Lorenzo Mancini & Geronima Mazzarini.
Wife of: Eugenio Maurizio di Savoia-Carignano, mar 1657.
Captivated by a romantic flirt.
"Where romantic flirtation as opposed to sex was concerned, Louis was originally captivated by Olympe Mancini, with her delicious fossettes or dimples and her 'eyes full of fire'. Olympe had a dubious reputation: she was described as having a nature 'little touched with Christian maxims', and there were rumours that Louis slept with her. It was certainly possible. It is true that this was an age when in the marriage-market all girls had to enter, virginity was highly prized and virgins closely watched: the Cardinal's men were after all everywhere. Yet Olympe's subsequent career would show her to be a bold and even amoral woman, not afraid to barter her physical charms for her own advantage -- or for her own pleasure. . . ." (Love & Louis XIV: 38)
"Olympia Mancini, like Maria Mancini, who afterwards was forced to marry a Colonna, had been one of the numerous mistresses of Louis XIV. Having, however, been soon supplanted by Madame La Valliere, she revenged herself by a satire on the inconstancy of the king, and on some secret love-passages in the life of her more fortunate rival. Being, therefore, banished the court, she went to Brussels. . . ." (Memoirs of the Court, Aristocracy, and Diplomacy of Austria, Vol 2: 117)
"Where romantic flirtation as opposed to sex was concerned, Louis was originally captivated by Olympe Mancini, with her delicious fossettes or dimples and her 'eyes full of fire'. Olympe had a dubious reputation: she was described as having a nature 'little touched with Christian maxims', and there were rumours that Louis slept with her. It was certainly possible. It is true that this was an age when in the marriage-market all girls had to enter, virginity was highly prized and virgins closely watched: the Cardinal's men were after all everywhere. Yet Olympe's subsequent career would show her to be a bold and even amoral woman, not afraid to barter her physical charms for her own advantage -- or for her own pleasure. . . ." (Love & Louis XIV: 38)
"Olympia Mancini, like Maria Mancini, who afterwards was forced to marry a Colonna, had been one of the numerous mistresses of Louis XIV. Having, however, been soon supplanted by Madame La Valliere, she revenged herself by a satire on the inconstancy of the king, and on some secret love-passages in the life of her more fortunate rival. Being, therefore, banished the court, she went to Brussels. . . ." (Memoirs of the Court, Aristocracy, and Diplomacy of Austria, Vol 2: 117)
Dangling the Prospect of Delights Upon a Teenager-King
"Emotionally as well as intellectually, Louis came slowly to maturity, and he was already in his eighteenth year when he found himself in love for the first time. The lady of his choice was Olympe Mancini, the most beautiful of Mazarin's nieces, and already at sixteen a woman of the world; she saw at once the impossibility of marrying the kind, and the prejudice to a brilliant match which any other relations with him might produce. With admirable skill she tantalized him with the prospect of delights which she had no intention of affording him, and whilst so doing rendered him the considerable service of educating him socially. The ABC of that politeness and savoir vivre for which Louis was to be so famous was learnt in Olympe's boudoir." (The Sunset of the Splendid Century: 14)
"To judge by the Comtesse de Soisson's subsequent history, she was not the kind of woman to be over fastidious as to the means she employed to retain in her chains this illustrious captive. It is true that other chains often drew him away; but Olympe knew how to make the most of her good fortune. It was much that the King remained constant, at least in his visits, and left her all the prestige of favour." (Five Fair Sisters: 66)
Olympe's physical appearance & personal qualities.
". . . First of them to catch the King's eye was Olympe, wife of Prince Eugene-Maurice of Savoy-Carignano. the affair with the Kings (sic) had began before her marriage and she was never described as especially beautiful but as very charming and fascinating with shiny black hair, black and vivacious eyes and a round and plump figure. . . . " (Reinette)
First encounter.
"The chief event of the campaign of 1654 was the defeat of the Spaniards at Arras, which was celebrated at the Court with great splendour. It was during the fetes given upon this occasion, and after the king had recovered from an illness contracted during the campaign, that the admiration of the young sovereign for Olympe Mancini, one of Mazarin's nieces, was first remarked. The young lady is said to have been no beauty---Capefigue says that none of the mistresses of Louis XIV were; she had dark hair, a long face, a pointed chin, small but expressive eyes; was stout for her eighteen years, had fine arms, pretty hands, and dressed with taste. . . ." (The Marriages of the Bourbons, Vol. 1: 431)
"The chief event of the campaign of 1654 was the defeat of the Spaniards at Arras, which was celebrated at the Court with great splendour. It was during the fetes given upon this occasion, and after the king had recovered from an illness contracted during the campaign, that the admiration of the young sovereign for Olympe Mancini, one of Mazarin's nieces, was first remarked. The young lady is said to have been no beauty---Capefigue says that none of the mistresses of Louis XIV were; she had dark hair, a long face, a pointed chin, small but expressive eyes; was stout for her eighteen years, had fine arms, pretty hands, and dressed with taste. . . ." (The Marriages of the Bourbons, Vol. 1: 431)
Olympe's character/persona.
" . . .Accomplished beyond her years, gentle, pious, and affectionate to the queen-mother, but full of life, coquetry and repartee with the young noblemen of the court in the palace, Louis, then eighteen years old, full of susceptibility to the charms of the sex, and ardent in his attachments, had shown the fair Italian for man months pointed and constant attentions.. . . ." (The American Review, Vol. 2: 487)
A coquette by nature & education.
"Olympia de Mancini, one of the nieces of Cardinal Mazarin (was) an Italian girl (who) was among the first to whom the boy-king of fifteen became specially attached. Olympia was very beautiful, and her personal fascinations were rivaled by her mental brilliance, with, and fact. She was by nature and education a thorough coquette, amiable and endearing to an unusual degree. . . . " (Louis XIV: Makers of History Series)
Olympe's spouse & children.
" . . . The monarch [Louis XIV] himself had been in love with her in his youth. When his transitory passion yielded to other attractions, Olympia Mancini gave her hand to the Comte de Soissons, a descendant of the House of Bourbon, general-in-chief of the Swiss regiments in the Royal service, and Governor of Champagne. The count appears to have been a brave bonhomme; he had served well under Turenne, and was always ready to fight a duel on his wife's behalf; and think no scandal.To him was ascribed by the wits the honour of being the first inventor of M. Jourdain's great discovery---that he talked prose for forty years without knowing it.The marriage, however, was a good one for Olympia. As the wife of a Prince of the Blood she had a splendid position and establishment. Though she lost the love, she preserved the friendship, of the King, who, when the fervour of his first amourettes was exhausted, became a daily visitor at her apartment, which was the haunt of the most brilliant society of France. On the marriage of the King she was made superintendante of the Queen's household, and, as dame de la cour, was one of the chief ladies in France. . . ." (Edinburgh Review, Vol.: 506)
3) Anne Madeleine de L'Isle Marivaux (d.1698)
Daughter of: Francois de L'Isle Marivaux, Marquis de Marivaux & Catherine de Caillebot.
"In 1657, Mademoiselle Marivaux had a brief affair with Louis XIV, then aged 19 years. In his Diary of a trip to Paris in 1657-1658, de Villers said in January 1657: 'On the 17th, we learned that the King had gone in mask to the dear Madame d'Argencourt, and having met Mademoiselle de Marivaux, concentrated on telling him about it, and he testified that he had so much pleasure in these kinds of conversations. who were more reigled and less tumultuous than those of his court, adieuxtant that although he did not compel himself to nowhere, he nevertheless wanted to see that one in this way, and having urged him to tell him where the next day she would spend the night. After dinner, he did not fail to go there. To entertain the King of this conversation, he was taken to Vincennes, and this little distance made him forget this inclination." (Les Favorites Royales)
4) Lucie de La Motte-Argencourt.
Lover in 1657.
Wife of: Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna
Wife of: Armand-Charles de La Porte, Duc de La Meilleraye (1632-1713)
"His first love was Maria Mancini. She was the niece of Cardinal Mazarin. . . Louis fell in love with her and they were several years together until he had to marry Marie-Therese of Austria." (Louis XIV's Women)
Marquise de Calvisson.
Lover in 1657.
Daughter of: Francois de L'Isle Marivaux, Marquis de Marivaux & Catherine de Caillebot.
Wife of: Jean-Louis Louet de Calvisson (1630-1700)
"In 1657, Mademoiselle Marivaux had a brief affair with Louis XIV, then aged 19 years. In his Diary of a trip to Paris in 1657-1658, de Villers said in January 1657: 'On the 17th, we learned that the King had gone in mask to the dear Madame d'Argencourt, and having met Mademoiselle de Marivaux, concentrated on telling him about it, and he testified that he had so much pleasure in these kinds of conversations. who were more reigled and less tumultuous than those of his court, adieuxtant that although he did not compel himself to nowhere, he nevertheless wanted to see that one in this way, and having urged him to tell him where the next day she would spend the night. After dinner, he did not fail to go there. To entertain the King of this conversation, he was taken to Vincennes, and this little distance made him forget this inclination." (Les Favorites Royales)
4) Lucie de La Motte-Argencourt.
Lover in 1657.
"Louis XIV leaves Olympe for quite another young girl, Lucie de La Motte-Argencourt, even prettier than Olympe by the criteria of the time. She is blond and has blue eyes. And mademoiselle Mancini married the comte de Soissons. But only six months later she has a baby boy. Some will think that the baby was Louis', but the comte de Soissons recognizes the baby as his." (Louis XIV and the Land of Love and Adventure)
"In 1657, another girl caught her attention. It is Lucie de la Motte-Argencourt who, without having much wit, presents a pleasant and graceful physiognomy. Olympe Mancini is brunette, the young lady is blonde with blue eyes. Mademoiselle de la Motte-Argencourt seduces the king by her gentle and pleasant way of speaking as well as because of her taste for dance, an area where she excels. This new passion worries Anne of Austria who, when she tries to resonate with her son, is told that he is the king and that he does as he sees fit. The case takes another turn when Mazarin discovers that Lucie is the mistress of the Marquis de Richelieu and may be that of Mr. de Chamarante. When Louis XIV learned of it, he turned away from Mlle de la Motte-Agencourt." (Geneanet)
Lover in 1658-1660.
Daughter of: Lorenzo Mancini & Geronima Mazzarini, Cardinal Mazarin's sister.
Wife of: Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
" . . . She had very red lips, very white teeth, very black hair, and a complexion not as swarthy as it had been. She was not yet beautiful, far from it. Her nose was too large, her mouth and her eyes both turned up at the corners in a way that was very odd, almost ridiculous. Her cheeks were flat, and her air bourgeois. But what mattered her plainness? Could she have done more had her face been ever so lovely? Her power, of which many other men experienced the effects after Louis XIV, was in a sort of voluptuous attraction which deprived her male victims of both will and reason, and gave them over to her be her prey and her servitors. Happily for them, she was as capricious as she was attractive. Caprice rarely allowed her to follow out any idea." (The Living Age, Vol 187: 470)
More than the royal infatuation.
"Anne and Mazarin's gravest concern about Louis XIV's amours surfaced in 1659, on the eve of his marriage to the Spanish infanta, when the young king's passionate attachment to Mazarin's youngest niece, the dark-eyed, ever-so-sylph, Marie Mancini, appeared to be much more than the usual royal infatuations. Eighteen-year-old Marie, along with her two sisters, had come to France to polish her French and to learn the court etiquette. When her adolescent friendship with the king blossomed into love, Anne and Mazarin moved swiftly to separate the pair. Louis begged Mazarin to allow him to marry the sparkling Italian beauty and forgo the diplomatic advantages of a marriage with Anne of Austria's plump Spanish niece, Maria-Theresa. Mazarin refused. Despite the young king's wishes and the famous tears of Marie Mancini, the young lovers parted and bowed to the realities of state. Marie left for Italy to marry the prince of Colonna, and Louis accepted his twenty-two-year-old Spanish cousin as his bride." (A Lust for Virtue: 84)
"Anne and Mazarin's gravest concern about Louis XIV's amours surfaced in 1659, on the eve of his marriage to the Spanish infanta, when the young king's passionate attachment to Mazarin's youngest niece, the dark-eyed, ever-so-sylph, Marie Mancini, appeared to be much more than the usual royal infatuations. Eighteen-year-old Marie, along with her two sisters, had come to France to polish her French and to learn the court etiquette. When her adolescent friendship with the king blossomed into love, Anne and Mazarin moved swiftly to separate the pair. Louis begged Mazarin to allow him to marry the sparkling Italian beauty and forgo the diplomatic advantages of a marriage with Anne of Austria's plump Spanish niece, Maria-Theresa. Mazarin refused. Despite the young king's wishes and the famous tears of Marie Mancini, the young lovers parted and bowed to the realities of state. Marie left for Italy to marry the prince of Colonna, and Louis accepted his twenty-two-year-old Spanish cousin as his bride." (A Lust for Virtue: 84)
Affair's effects on Louis XIV.
"She bound the king to her so fast that he could not escape even in case of absence. She did not choose that the love-episode of Lyons should be renewed. The little self-possession left to the hyoung prince was drowned in a torrent of passion. Burning vows, fierce exhibitions of temper, charming avowals --- all were his. He was surfeited with all of them and became beside himself. He was no longer his own. He belonged to the black eyes ever gazing into his from his rising to his retiring, at table, in walks and rides, at cards, in the dance, in every corner of the Louvre --- and the burning glances of of those eyes were enforced by the screams or the murmurs of a vouce tender or tragic by turns." (The Living Age, Vol 187: 470)
First Encounter in 1656.
" . . . Then, as Marie attended her dying mother in late 1656, she was 'discovered' by the young king, who made daily visits to her mother's bedside. He was struck by her lively wit; love blossomed and so did Marie herself; and for two years she lived a life of idyllic romance. . . ." (Memoirs: 3)
Marie Mancini Gallery.
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| Marie Mancini |
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| Marie Mancini |
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| Marie Mancini |
Wife of: Armand-Charles de La Porte, Duc de La Meilleraye (1632-1713)
"His first love was Maria Mancini. She was the niece of Cardinal Mazarin. . . Louis fell in love with her and they were several years together until he had to marry Marie-Therese of Austria." (Louis XIV's Women)
"His first major mistress was Marie Mancini between 1657 to 1660. . . ." (Louis XIV)
"For a brief while it looked as though the loveliest of the Mancini girls, Marie, would end up married to Louis XIV himself -- she was his first love ever, but it was not to be and instead she was packed off back to Italy to marry the Prince of Colonna." (The Stuart Kings)
"A few years later, Louis XIV fell in love with Marie Mancini, Mazarin's niece. Ultimately choosing duty over love, in 1660 he married the daughter of the king of Spain, Marie-Therese of Austria, instead. . . ." (Louis XIV Biography)
7) Henrietta of England (1644-1670)
Duchesse d'Orleans
Lover in 1661.
Daughter of Charles I of England & Henriette-Marie de France.
Wife of Philippe de France, Duc d'Orleans, mar 1661.
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
"'Never,' exclaims that finished courtier and man of the world, l'Abbe de Choisy, 'has France had a Princess as attractive as Henriette d'Angleterre. when she became the wife of Monsieur. Never was there a Princess so fascinating, and so ready to please all who approached her. Her eyes were black and brilliant, full of the fire which kindles a prompt response in other hearts. Her whole person seemed full of charm. You felt interested in her, you loved her without being able to help yourself. When you met her for the first time, her eyes sought your own, as if she had no other desire in the world but how best to please you. When she spoke, she appeared absorbed in the wish to oblige you. She had all the wit necessary to make a woman charming, and what is more, all the talent necessary for conducting important affairs, had this been required of her. But at the Court of our young King in those days, pleasure was the order of the day. and to be charming was enough.'" (Madame: A Life of Henrietta, Daughter of Charles I and Duchess of Orleans: 88)
The most adorable object on the face of the earth.
"Another courtier who knew her well in these early days of her marriage, the writer of a libel which afterwards made a great noise, speaks of her fascinating manners in almost the same terms. 'There is a sweetness and gentleness about her, which no one can resist. When she speaks to you, she seems to ask for your heart at once, however trifling are the words that she has to say. Young as she is, her mind is vigorous and cultivated, her sentiments are great and noble, and the result of so many fine qualities is, that she seems rather an angel than a mortal creature. Do not think that I speak as a lover, for if I could make you realise half the charm of her wit and gaiety, you would agree with me, that she is the most adorable object on the face of the earth.'"(Madame: 89)
What other contemporary writers and detractors say.
"But contemporary writers are unanimous on this point. They all in turn praise her dark and sparkling eyes, her pearly teeth, and enchanting smile, her complexion of lilies and roses, the charm of her cultivated intellect. Even her detractors own that she had the power of captivating all who approached her. Her regular beauty, they say, was a surprise to those who had known her in her younger days. Or else they insist, with her successor, the original and sharp-tongued Princess Palatine, that Madame had no actual beauty, but so much grace, that everything she did became her. Her chestnut hair was always dressed in a style that suited her exactly. The slight defect in her figure was so artfully concealed that, as Mademoiselle remarks, she even managed to make people praise its elegance, and Monsieur never discovered that she was crooked until after his marriage. 'If it had not been for that slight deformity,' says de Beaumelle, 'she would have been a masterpiece of Nature. As it was, there was no one at Court to compare with her.'" (Madame: 89)
The principal ornament of the Sun King's court.
"Henriette Maria, youngest daughter of Charles I of England, was born at Exeter in 1644. She was removed to London and then to France, where she was educated in a convent. Upon the Restoration she was taken to England with her mother, but returned to France soon after and married, Duke of Anjou, brother of Louis XIV, afterwards called Duke of Orleans, the first of the existing branch of the House of Orleans. At the time of her marriage, Anne of Austria was much attached to her, but she was disregarded bu the king at first. Her home was removed to Fontainebleau, where she then threw off the restraints of her youth, and was suddenly transformed into a lovely and dignified woman. Tall and graceful, with a complexion of the most exquisite beauty, possessed of a refined taste which taught her to profit by her personal and acquired advantages, she became at once the principal ornament of the court, and a model upon which all the great ladies of the royal circle strove to fashion both their dresses and deportment. . . ." (Sobriquets and Nicknames, Vol 1888: 221)
An adorable flirt and great fun.
" . . . Minette was an adorable flirt. . . Louis had first met Minette when she was a gawky teenager. He had cruelly nicknamed her 'the Bones of the Holy Innocents' -- a cemetery in suburban Paris. Now she had filled out physically and mentally. She was great fun. While Louis may or may not have slept with her, the relationship infuriated her husband, his mother and his wife. Louis had to clamber across the roof to spend time with her. Then they had a better idea. Louis would pretend to be attracted to one of Minette's ladies-in-waiting so that he could ostentatiously visit her while stealing time with Minette. . . Given that the idea was to shield Minette from the wrath of her husband, the scheme worked a treat. . . ." (Louis XIV)
" . . . Her arrival at the Tuileries was hailed bu splendid wedding gifts from the different members of the ryal family, and became the signal for a fresh round of festivities. . . Madame soon found herself the leader of the fashionable world, and the Tuileries became the centre of the Court. All the men were at her feet, all the women adored her. Foremost among her admirers was the King himself. For the first time, he recognised the charms which in his early youth he had refused to own, and declared aloud that he must have been the most unjust of men, not to think Madame the fairest and best of women. He paid daily visits to his young sister-in-law, and took increasing delight in her company." (Madame: 90)
What the Grand Monarch liked in her.
" . . . His sister-in-laws high spirits and innocent gaiety delighted him. Her lively wit amused him. In her more serious moments her conversation was full of charm. He soon discovered that quick perception and real love of letters which she had inherited from her ancestors, and admired her accomplishments the more, from the keen sense which he had the defects of his own education. . . ." (Madame: 90)
Passions springing up in their hearts.
" . . . The king admired and began to wonder at her grace, was amused and pleased at her wit, and found a charm in her society which led him somewhat more from that of the queen than was pleasing to the latter or to the queen-mother. The duke complained of this attention to his wife by his brother, to his mother: the queen became jealous, and the attention of the court was drawn to it. Anne of Austria lectured her son upon the impropriety of his conduct, forgetting that he was no longer a youth, but a man of strong and commanding mind, who felt his power and considered himself a monarch. This drove him more than ever from his mother's influence and his wife's society, while it opened his eyes, as well as Henriette's, to the passions that were springing up in their hearts, and more firmly established the link of secret feeling between them, which was becoming more dangerous than the public gallantry which had before taken place. The duchess rejoiced in the conviction that she could sway at will the feelings of the sovereign, before whose insults, in her youth she had quailed. She was also piqued and annoyed at some reproofs she had lately received from the queen-mother, and therefore exerted her influence to draw the king to her own secret circle, which she made the centre of pleasure and attraction. . . ." (Sobriquets and Nicknames, Vol 1888: 221)
" . . . His favorite amusements were those of most frequent recurrence in her apartments, while the friends whom she selected were precisely those best calculated to interest and occupy him. To calm the jealousy of her husband, and conceal from the world in general as much as possible the intimacy between herself and the king, she induced the latter to enact the part of lover to one of the ladies of her household. This lady was Mlle. de la Valliere, and the pretended affection on the king's part soon ripened into love, much to the vexation of Henriette. An intrigue was at once commenced for sowing dissensions in the royal family, which brought punishment upon all but the duchess. The king believed her to have been actuated by motives which flattered his vanity, and continued to confide to her the most secret springs of his policy and government. The duke himself, an effeminate, capricious prince, weak in mind and heart, dissatisfied with his brother, who refused him all provincial government, jealous of his wife, less on account of the homage which she received than of the ability which she possessed and which he did not share, was abandoned to unworthy creatures, who unceasingly excited him against her, fanned his fits of suspicion, and drove her to seek pleasure in intrigue and state-craft. . . ." (Sobriquets and Nicknames, Vol 1888: 221)
"When the new Monsieur and Madame were invited to attend the king at his court in Fontainebleau, the marriage broke irrevocably. Madame had turned her attentions to the ultimate prize, the one whose affections would incense and humiliate her husband the most: the king. The physical nature of their relationship is fiercely debated by historians, and court gossip did not serve to make them seem innocent. They at the very least had an emotional affair, spending far much more time together than was seen as appropriate; a pamphlet by noble at court Roger de Rabutin circulated at the time detailing Madam’s affairs said “I daily observed the King’s courtship to Madame, and with heavy regret, perceived she received it with joy (1660, p. 14).” Madame de Lafayette, who did not believe the affair had a physical component, admitted in her biography of Henriette, “il paroissoit que le roi n’y avoit de plaisir que par celui qu’elle en recevoit (1880, p. 43).” The relationship was only tempered when Henrietta Maria and Anne intervened to stop the actions of their children. Louis attempted to stem the gossip by pretending to take a different mistress, one of Henriette Anne’s ladies, Louise de la Valliere. Ironically, Louise ended up becoming his real mistress, supplanting his sister-in-law." (Brother of the King: A Privilege and a Prison)
8) Bonne de Pons (1641-1709)
Marquise d'Heudicourt
Lover in 1661-1674.
French aristocrat & royal mistress
Wife of: Michel III Sublet, Marquis d'Heudicourt, Master of the Hunt at the Court, mar 1666.
Duchesse d'Orleans
Lover in 1661.
Daughter of Charles I of England & Henriette-Marie de France.
Wife of Philippe de France, Duc d'Orleans, mar 1661.
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
"'Never,' exclaims that finished courtier and man of the world, l'Abbe de Choisy, 'has France had a Princess as attractive as Henriette d'Angleterre. when she became the wife of Monsieur. Never was there a Princess so fascinating, and so ready to please all who approached her. Her eyes were black and brilliant, full of the fire which kindles a prompt response in other hearts. Her whole person seemed full of charm. You felt interested in her, you loved her without being able to help yourself. When you met her for the first time, her eyes sought your own, as if she had no other desire in the world but how best to please you. When she spoke, she appeared absorbed in the wish to oblige you. She had all the wit necessary to make a woman charming, and what is more, all the talent necessary for conducting important affairs, had this been required of her. But at the Court of our young King in those days, pleasure was the order of the day. and to be charming was enough.'" (Madame: A Life of Henrietta, Daughter of Charles I and Duchess of Orleans: 88)
The most adorable object on the face of the earth.
"Another courtier who knew her well in these early days of her marriage, the writer of a libel which afterwards made a great noise, speaks of her fascinating manners in almost the same terms. 'There is a sweetness and gentleness about her, which no one can resist. When she speaks to you, she seems to ask for your heart at once, however trifling are the words that she has to say. Young as she is, her mind is vigorous and cultivated, her sentiments are great and noble, and the result of so many fine qualities is, that she seems rather an angel than a mortal creature. Do not think that I speak as a lover, for if I could make you realise half the charm of her wit and gaiety, you would agree with me, that she is the most adorable object on the face of the earth.'"(Madame: 89)
What other contemporary writers and detractors say.
"But contemporary writers are unanimous on this point. They all in turn praise her dark and sparkling eyes, her pearly teeth, and enchanting smile, her complexion of lilies and roses, the charm of her cultivated intellect. Even her detractors own that she had the power of captivating all who approached her. Her regular beauty, they say, was a surprise to those who had known her in her younger days. Or else they insist, with her successor, the original and sharp-tongued Princess Palatine, that Madame had no actual beauty, but so much grace, that everything she did became her. Her chestnut hair was always dressed in a style that suited her exactly. The slight defect in her figure was so artfully concealed that, as Mademoiselle remarks, she even managed to make people praise its elegance, and Monsieur never discovered that she was crooked until after his marriage. 'If it had not been for that slight deformity,' says de Beaumelle, 'she would have been a masterpiece of Nature. As it was, there was no one at Court to compare with her.'" (Madame: 89)
The principal ornament of the Sun King's court.
"Henriette Maria, youngest daughter of Charles I of England, was born at Exeter in 1644. She was removed to London and then to France, where she was educated in a convent. Upon the Restoration she was taken to England with her mother, but returned to France soon after and married, Duke of Anjou, brother of Louis XIV, afterwards called Duke of Orleans, the first of the existing branch of the House of Orleans. At the time of her marriage, Anne of Austria was much attached to her, but she was disregarded bu the king at first. Her home was removed to Fontainebleau, where she then threw off the restraints of her youth, and was suddenly transformed into a lovely and dignified woman. Tall and graceful, with a complexion of the most exquisite beauty, possessed of a refined taste which taught her to profit by her personal and acquired advantages, she became at once the principal ornament of the court, and a model upon which all the great ladies of the royal circle strove to fashion both their dresses and deportment. . . ." (Sobriquets and Nicknames, Vol 1888: 221)
An adorable flirt and great fun.
" . . . Minette was an adorable flirt. . . Louis had first met Minette when she was a gawky teenager. He had cruelly nicknamed her 'the Bones of the Holy Innocents' -- a cemetery in suburban Paris. Now she had filled out physically and mentally. She was great fun. While Louis may or may not have slept with her, the relationship infuriated her husband, his mother and his wife. Louis had to clamber across the roof to spend time with her. Then they had a better idea. Louis would pretend to be attracted to one of Minette's ladies-in-waiting so that he could ostentatiously visit her while stealing time with Minette. . . Given that the idea was to shield Minette from the wrath of her husband, the scheme worked a treat. . . ." (Louis XIV)
" . . . Her arrival at the Tuileries was hailed bu splendid wedding gifts from the different members of the ryal family, and became the signal for a fresh round of festivities. . . Madame soon found herself the leader of the fashionable world, and the Tuileries became the centre of the Court. All the men were at her feet, all the women adored her. Foremost among her admirers was the King himself. For the first time, he recognised the charms which in his early youth he had refused to own, and declared aloud that he must have been the most unjust of men, not to think Madame the fairest and best of women. He paid daily visits to his young sister-in-law, and took increasing delight in her company." (Madame: 90)
What the Grand Monarch liked in her.
" . . . His sister-in-laws high spirits and innocent gaiety delighted him. Her lively wit amused him. In her more serious moments her conversation was full of charm. He soon discovered that quick perception and real love of letters which she had inherited from her ancestors, and admired her accomplishments the more, from the keen sense which he had the defects of his own education. . . ." (Madame: 90)
Passions springing up in their hearts.
" . . . The king admired and began to wonder at her grace, was amused and pleased at her wit, and found a charm in her society which led him somewhat more from that of the queen than was pleasing to the latter or to the queen-mother. The duke complained of this attention to his wife by his brother, to his mother: the queen became jealous, and the attention of the court was drawn to it. Anne of Austria lectured her son upon the impropriety of his conduct, forgetting that he was no longer a youth, but a man of strong and commanding mind, who felt his power and considered himself a monarch. This drove him more than ever from his mother's influence and his wife's society, while it opened his eyes, as well as Henriette's, to the passions that were springing up in their hearts, and more firmly established the link of secret feeling between them, which was becoming more dangerous than the public gallantry which had before taken place. The duchess rejoiced in the conviction that she could sway at will the feelings of the sovereign, before whose insults, in her youth she had quailed. She was also piqued and annoyed at some reproofs she had lately received from the queen-mother, and therefore exerted her influence to draw the king to her own secret circle, which she made the centre of pleasure and attraction. . . ." (Sobriquets and Nicknames, Vol 1888: 221)
" . . . His favorite amusements were those of most frequent recurrence in her apartments, while the friends whom she selected were precisely those best calculated to interest and occupy him. To calm the jealousy of her husband, and conceal from the world in general as much as possible the intimacy between herself and the king, she induced the latter to enact the part of lover to one of the ladies of her household. This lady was Mlle. de la Valliere, and the pretended affection on the king's part soon ripened into love, much to the vexation of Henriette. An intrigue was at once commenced for sowing dissensions in the royal family, which brought punishment upon all but the duchess. The king believed her to have been actuated by motives which flattered his vanity, and continued to confide to her the most secret springs of his policy and government. The duke himself, an effeminate, capricious prince, weak in mind and heart, dissatisfied with his brother, who refused him all provincial government, jealous of his wife, less on account of the homage which she received than of the ability which she possessed and which he did not share, was abandoned to unworthy creatures, who unceasingly excited him against her, fanned his fits of suspicion, and drove her to seek pleasure in intrigue and state-craft. . . ." (Sobriquets and Nicknames, Vol 1888: 221)
"When the new Monsieur and Madame were invited to attend the king at his court in Fontainebleau, the marriage broke irrevocably. Madame had turned her attentions to the ultimate prize, the one whose affections would incense and humiliate her husband the most: the king. The physical nature of their relationship is fiercely debated by historians, and court gossip did not serve to make them seem innocent. They at the very least had an emotional affair, spending far much more time together than was seen as appropriate; a pamphlet by noble at court Roger de Rabutin circulated at the time detailing Madam’s affairs said “I daily observed the King’s courtship to Madame, and with heavy regret, perceived she received it with joy (1660, p. 14).” Madame de Lafayette, who did not believe the affair had a physical component, admitted in her biography of Henriette, “il paroissoit que le roi n’y avoit de plaisir que par celui qu’elle en recevoit (1880, p. 43).” The relationship was only tempered when Henrietta Maria and Anne intervened to stop the actions of their children. Louis attempted to stem the gossip by pretending to take a different mistress, one of Henriette Anne’s ladies, Louise de la Valliere. Ironically, Louise ended up becoming his real mistress, supplanting his sister-in-law." (Brother of the King: A Privilege and a Prison)
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Bonne de Pons |
8) Bonne de Pons (1641-1709)
Marquise d'Heudicourt
Lover in 1661-1674.
French aristocrat & royal mistress
Lady-in-waiting to Queen Maria Theresia
Daughter of: Pons de Pons & Elisabeth de Puyrigauld.
Wife of: Michel III Sublet, Marquis d'Heudicourt, Master of the Hunt at the Court, mar 1666.
Famous for her beauty & coquetry.
"Bonne de Pons, a relation of the marshal d'Albret and wife of the marquis d'Heudicourt, was a lady famous for her beauty and her coquetry. Louis Xiv seems for some time to have divided his attentions between her and Mlle. de la Valliere. . . ." (A Manual of French Literature: 143)
"When young she and her sister go to live with their uncle, the marechal d'Albret. . . Bonne de Pons starts to appear at the Court and becomes a maid of honor for Marie-Therese, thanks to the protection of Philippe. Very beautiful (a red-head, skin as white as milk, pretty breast), it doesn't take long and she gets the King's attention, and becomes his mistress in 1661. But her uncle, with whom she is very close, calls her to his side again because he is sick and needs her to take care of him. In the salon of the hotel d'albret, she socializes with the most interesting people in Paris. . . ." (Louis XIV and the Land of Love and Adventure)
A bit mad, but as beautiful as the day.
"Francoise's friend Bonne de Pons, 'a bit mad' but ' as beautiful as the day,' had narrowly missed becoming the King's mistress, and she was quite annoyed about it. In 1661, at the age of sixteen, she had been taken to court with the wine-loving marechale d'Albret, and while there had engaged the interest of the twenty-three-year-old King, one year married and already desperately disenamoured of his podgy Spanish wife. The marechale's friends, 'perhaps pushed by the marechal,' persuaded her to pack her niece swiftly off home before anything untoward could happen, and so, on the pretext of an illness on the past of the marechal, she went. Bonne's dismay was great when she found her uncle-cousin d'Albret in perfect health, but he managed to console her, 'or so the gossips say,' by taking her as his own mistress instead. By the time she had managed to return to court in the mid-1660s, Bonne's hopeful bark had sailed: the King had already chosen a mistress, Louise de la Valliere, another sixteen-year-old virgin, sweet, shy, and attractive despite a small bust, uneven teeth, and a slight limp, these last to Bonne's sure disgust. . . ." (The Secret Wife of Louis XIV)
9) Louise de la Beaume-Leblanc (1644-1710)
Duchesse de La Valliere
First Official Mistress
Maid-of-Honour to Henrietta of England
Louise's personal & family background.
The loveliness became a nature and quality so exquisite and tender.
"Louise Francoise de la Baume Le Blanc de la Valliere was born in 1644, in the centre of the garden of France, near the gates of Tours, of a noble stem, originally from the Bourbonnais and established in Touraine. Having lost her father in childhood, she had been brought up in the old chateau of Blois, the residence of the king's uncle, Gaston. The mother of Louise had remarried with the duke's chief maitre d'hotel, Jacques de Courtravel, Marquis de Saint-Remy. At fifteen, when the English princess Henrietta formed her court, on her marriage with Philip d'Orleans, the king's brother, Mademoiselle de la Valliere was enrolled amongst the duchess's maids-of-honour. She was then a childish-looking girl, with only slightly regular features, but whose features bore an expression of ineffable sweetness. An air of languor, probably arising from physical delicacy, gave a somewhat peculiar charm to her slender figure, though she was slightly lame with one foot. It was upon her the well-known bitter line was penned---'Soyez boiteuse, ayez quinze ans.' Added to this, all her companions praised her graceful, witty, animated, and at the same time amiable conversation; full, also, as it was of those pungent sallies which frequently constitute the best feature of high-bred social intercourse. Somewhat later, the loveliness of Mademoiselle de la Valliere became a nature and quality so exquisite and tender that all contemporary writers are unanimous on the subject. The engravings or even painted portraits of her will hardly now convey a just idea of that species of beauty which was entirely her own. Freshness and delicate brilliancy of complexion, a vivacious yet soft and subdued manner, constituted an essential part of her fascination. 'She was very amiable, writes Madame de Motteville, 'and her beauty had great fascination through the dazzling pink and white of her complexion, through the gentle glance of her blue eyes, and by the radiance of her glossy hair, which strikingly enhanced the lustre of her expressive countenance. Her soft gaze was accompanied by a touching tone of voice that went straight to the heart.'. . . ." (Royal Favourites, Vol 2: 376)
Louise de La Vallière – The pious mistress.
"Louise had not been at French court for long when she became the mistress of King Louis. It is not known how this union came about, but it is likely that Louise was plucked by the king from Henriette’s ‘flower garden’; her staff of beautiful young women. Louise was not the typical mistress type, she was shy, quiet, and virtuous and she did not seek the king’s favour to advance herself at court. Louise fell in love with Louis as a normal man and not as the king of France; she was overheard saying to another lady at court that ‘the crown adds nothing to the charm of his person’. The king had countless mistresses during his reign but Louise was the only one to show him love in this way. Louise kept her distance from Louis for a while as she did not want to enter a sexual relationship; unlike Barbara Villiers, mistress to Charles II in England, Louise was not a mistress to be put on show; she wanted to keep her privacy and her dignity." (History of Royal Women)
Mademoiselle de La Valliere at age seventeen.
First encounter.
Natural Offspring:
"Bonne de Pons, a relation of the marshal d'Albret and wife of the marquis d'Heudicourt, was a lady famous for her beauty and her coquetry. Louis Xiv seems for some time to have divided his attentions between her and Mlle. de la Valliere. . . ." (A Manual of French Literature: 143)
"When young she and her sister go to live with their uncle, the marechal d'Albret. . . Bonne de Pons starts to appear at the Court and becomes a maid of honor for Marie-Therese, thanks to the protection of Philippe. Very beautiful (a red-head, skin as white as milk, pretty breast), it doesn't take long and she gets the King's attention, and becomes his mistress in 1661. But her uncle, with whom she is very close, calls her to his side again because he is sick and needs her to take care of him. In the salon of the hotel d'albret, she socializes with the most interesting people in Paris. . . ." (Louis XIV and the Land of Love and Adventure)
A bit mad, but as beautiful as the day.
"Francoise's friend Bonne de Pons, 'a bit mad' but ' as beautiful as the day,' had narrowly missed becoming the King's mistress, and she was quite annoyed about it. In 1661, at the age of sixteen, she had been taken to court with the wine-loving marechale d'Albret, and while there had engaged the interest of the twenty-three-year-old King, one year married and already desperately disenamoured of his podgy Spanish wife. The marechale's friends, 'perhaps pushed by the marechal,' persuaded her to pack her niece swiftly off home before anything untoward could happen, and so, on the pretext of an illness on the past of the marechal, she went. Bonne's dismay was great when she found her uncle-cousin d'Albret in perfect health, but he managed to console her, 'or so the gossips say,' by taking her as his own mistress instead. By the time she had managed to return to court in the mid-1660s, Bonne's hopeful bark had sailed: the King had already chosen a mistress, Louise de la Valliere, another sixteen-year-old virgin, sweet, shy, and attractive despite a small bust, uneven teeth, and a slight limp, these last to Bonne's sure disgust. . . ." (The Secret Wife of Louis XIV)
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Louise de La Baume Leblanc Duchesse de La Valliere |
9) Louise de la Beaume-Leblanc (1644-1710)
Duchesse de La Valliere
Lover in 1661-1667.
First Official Mistress
Maid-of-Honour to Henrietta of England
Duchesse d'Orleans 1661
Duchess of La Valliere 1667
Duchess of Vaujours 1667
Duchess of La Valliere 1667
Duchess of Vaujours 1667
Daughter of: Laurent de la Baume le Blanc, 3rd Marquis de la Valliere & Francoise le Prevot de la Coutelaye.
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Louise de La Valliere & children |
Louise's personal & family background.
"Louise Frances de la Beaume-Leblanc, duchess de la Valliere and de Vaujour, was daughter of the marquis de la Valliere, and born at Amboise, of which place her father was governor, in 1644. Her mother having on her third marriage united herself with the marquis de saint Remi, first maitre d'hotel to the duke of Orleans, Mademoiselle de la Valliere was brought up in the Palais Royal, and appointed maid of honour to Madame Henrietta, duchess of Orleans, in 1661."
Louise's physical appearance & personal qualities.
"Her function in that office frequently brought her into the society of the king. Simple and lively, she conceived an attachment the consequences of which she did not calculate, as she beheld in him a handsome and interesting young man whom in his exalted position she might freely admire. Her manners were modest and even timid; she spoke little, reach much. Her face is so well known, that a description of it is almost unnecessary; it has been described as that of the Christian Venus of France. Her eyes, blue as the virgin martyr's, and fringed with light silken lids, were seldom seen; her smile was gracious and closed; although her mouth was large, those who loved her admired it---but her rivals, and Bussy, the echo of all jealousy, attribute it to the irregularity of her teeth; her form was slight, but elegant and flexible; and her countenance expressed all that was amiable, notwithstanding her natural reserve: but she was marked with the small pox. The defect in her gait was scarcely perceptible; a modern author, in remarking this imperfection, likens her to 'a beautiful swan wounded.' Madame de Sevigne calls Mademoiselle de la Valliere 'l'humble violette, si touchante, si interesante, et si honteuse de l'etre.'" (Memoirs of the Queens of France: 154)
"The beauty of Mademoiselle de la Valliere rendered the arrangement he had made with his sister-in-law to affect a passion for her maid of honour no difficult task for the monarch; but other qualities than mere form or complexion soon rendered that real which had been at first assumed. 'She was not,' says the Abbe de Choisy, who knew her well, and had been her companion in infancy,---'She was not one of those perfect beauties that one often admires without loving. She was very lovable, and the words of La Fontaine, 'Et la Grace plus belle encore que la Beaute,' seemed made for her. She had a beautiful complexion, fair hair, a sweet smile, her eyes were blue, with an expression so tendere, but at the same time so modest, that it gained our heart and our esteem at the same moment. Farther, she had but little wit,---but that she did not fail to cultivate continually by reading: no ambition, no interested views, more taken up in dreaming of him she loved than attentive to please him, totally shut up in herself, and in her passion, which was the only one of her whole life.'" (The Life and Times of Louis XIV: 216)
No women actually rivaled her as queen of beauty.
" . . . Her beauty was so striking, of such an exquisitely tender type, that no women actually rivaled her as queen of beauty. Distinguished by blond hair, dark blue eyes, a most sympathetic voice, and a complexion of rare whiteness mingled with red, she was guileless, animated, gentle, modest, graceful, unaffected, and ingenuous; although slightly lame, she was...considered charming." (Women of Modern France: 75)
" . . . Her silvery, fair hair, her brown eyes, full cherry lips, lovely complexion, and slender figure gave her a delicate loveliness, which the modesty of her bearing and the real virtue of her heart served to accentuate. She was timid, unassuming, discreet, and sensitive, and prided herself not a little upon the sagacity of her mind and her conduct. . . ." (Every Woman's Encyclopedia)
" . . . Her beauty was so striking, of such an exquisitely tender type, that no women actually rivaled her as queen of beauty. Distinguished by blond hair, dark blue eyes, a most sympathetic voice, and a complexion of rare whiteness mingled with red, she was guileless, animated, gentle, modest, graceful, unaffected, and ingenuous; although slightly lame, she was...considered charming." (Women of Modern France: 75)
" . . . Her silvery, fair hair, her brown eyes, full cherry lips, lovely complexion, and slender figure gave her a delicate loveliness, which the modesty of her bearing and the real virtue of her heart served to accentuate. She was timid, unassuming, discreet, and sensitive, and prided herself not a little upon the sagacity of her mind and her conduct. . . ." (Every Woman's Encyclopedia)
The loveliness became a nature and quality so exquisite and tender.
"Louise Francoise de la Baume Le Blanc de la Valliere was born in 1644, in the centre of the garden of France, near the gates of Tours, of a noble stem, originally from the Bourbonnais and established in Touraine. Having lost her father in childhood, she had been brought up in the old chateau of Blois, the residence of the king's uncle, Gaston. The mother of Louise had remarried with the duke's chief maitre d'hotel, Jacques de Courtravel, Marquis de Saint-Remy. At fifteen, when the English princess Henrietta formed her court, on her marriage with Philip d'Orleans, the king's brother, Mademoiselle de la Valliere was enrolled amongst the duchess's maids-of-honour. She was then a childish-looking girl, with only slightly regular features, but whose features bore an expression of ineffable sweetness. An air of languor, probably arising from physical delicacy, gave a somewhat peculiar charm to her slender figure, though she was slightly lame with one foot. It was upon her the well-known bitter line was penned---'Soyez boiteuse, ayez quinze ans.' Added to this, all her companions praised her graceful, witty, animated, and at the same time amiable conversation; full, also, as it was of those pungent sallies which frequently constitute the best feature of high-bred social intercourse. Somewhat later, the loveliness of Mademoiselle de la Valliere became a nature and quality so exquisite and tender that all contemporary writers are unanimous on the subject. The engravings or even painted portraits of her will hardly now convey a just idea of that species of beauty which was entirely her own. Freshness and delicate brilliancy of complexion, a vivacious yet soft and subdued manner, constituted an essential part of her fascination. 'She was very amiable, writes Madame de Motteville, 'and her beauty had great fascination through the dazzling pink and white of her complexion, through the gentle glance of her blue eyes, and by the radiance of her glossy hair, which strikingly enhanced the lustre of her expressive countenance. Her soft gaze was accompanied by a touching tone of voice that went straight to the heart.'. . . ." (Royal Favourites, Vol 2: 376)
Louise de La Vallière – The pious mistress.
"Louise had not been at French court for long when she became the mistress of King Louis. It is not known how this union came about, but it is likely that Louise was plucked by the king from Henriette’s ‘flower garden’; her staff of beautiful young women. Louise was not the typical mistress type, she was shy, quiet, and virtuous and she did not seek the king’s favour to advance herself at court. Louise fell in love with Louis as a normal man and not as the king of France; she was overheard saying to another lady at court that ‘the crown adds nothing to the charm of his person’. The king had countless mistresses during his reign but Louise was the only one to show him love in this way. Louise kept her distance from Louis for a while as she did not want to enter a sexual relationship; unlike Barbara Villiers, mistress to Charles II in England, Louise was not a mistress to be put on show; she wanted to keep her privacy and her dignity." (History of Royal Women)
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Louise de La Valliere @Pinterest |
Mademoiselle de La Valliere at age seventeen.
"At this period she had just attained her seventeenth year; and while eclipsed in beauty by many of those about her, the charm of her unaffected modesty, the retiring timidity of her manner, the extreme purity of her complexion, her large and languishing blue eyes, and the profusion of flaxen hair which shaded her brow and bosom, gave a singular loveliness to her appearance, of which she alone was unconscious. Her figure, which was not yet formed, and a slight lameness, occasioned by a fall during her girlhood, were the only defects which even her enemies could discern in her appearance; save, perhaps, a slight trace of smallpox, which had in some degree impaired the smoothness of her skin; and, meanwhile, her peculiarly unobtrusive habits exempted her on all sides from either jealousy or suspicion." (Louis the Fourteenth and the Court of France in the Seventeenth Century, Vol 2: 339)
Adored the man, but hated the king as the enemy of her happiness.
" . . .(H)e turned to easier game in the person of one of her Maids-of-Honour, Louise de La Valliere, who became his mistress in the summer of 1661. Few royal favourites have been as sympathetically regarded as Louise, 'the modest violet,' who adored Louis the man, hated Louis the king as the enemy of her happiness, and never did anyone a bad turn in her life. By the callousness with which Louis discarded her, and the selfish brutality with which he treated her after she had ceased to be his mistress, she retains our pity to this day. . . By the winter of 1666 it was plain that the star of Mme. de Montespan was rising." (The Sunset of the Splendid Century: 18)
The personification of the ideal of a lover.
"First among the mistresses of Louis XIV was Mlle. de La Valliere, whom Sainte-Bauve mentions as the personification of the ideal of a lover, combining disinterestedness, fidelity, unique and delicate tenderness, with a touching and sincere kindness. When, at the age of seventeen, she was presented at court, the king immediately selected her as one of his victims. Her beauty was so striking, of such an exquisitely tender type, that no woman actually rivaled her as queen of beauty. Distinguished by blond hair, dark blue eyes, a most sympathetic voice, and a complexion of rare whiteness mingled with red, she was guileless, animated, gentle, modest, graceful, unaffected, and ingenuous; although slightly lame, she was, by everyone, considered charming." (Women of Modern France: 75)
"First among the mistresses of Louis XIV was Mlle. de La Valliere, whom Sainte-Bauve mentions as the personification of the ideal of a lover, combining disinterestedness, fidelity, unique and delicate tenderness, with a touching and sincere kindness. When, at the age of seventeen, she was presented at court, the king immediately selected her as one of his victims. Her beauty was so striking, of such an exquisitely tender type, that no woman actually rivaled her as queen of beauty. Distinguished by blond hair, dark blue eyes, a most sympathetic voice, and a complexion of rare whiteness mingled with red, she was guileless, animated, gentle, modest, graceful, unaffected, and ingenuous; although slightly lame, she was, by everyone, considered charming." (Women of Modern France: 75)
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Louis XIV & Louise de la Valliere |
First encounter.
"Louise saw Louis XIV for the first time amidst the gaieties of the little court of his sister-in-law, and her impression was as deep as it was instantaneous. It was never effaced, as will be seen, although she was at the time no older than fifteen. She was then in attendance on Henrietta of England at St. Cloud, where the Duchess d'Orleans was giving a series of fetes on occasion of the completion of large additions made to that palace, and when the waters of the fine cascade designed by the Chevalier de Lorraine were first seen descending in foaming torrents down a flight of marble stairs to join the calm course of the Seine." (Royal Favourites, Vol 2: 379)
The true object of royal affection.
"Shortly after the royal marriage, rumors began to circulate at court that the king was much more interested in his brother's new bride, the English Princess Henriette, that his own bride. But before any definite proof of romantic interest could be established, it became apparent that the true object of royal affection was Henriette's lady-in-waiting, Louise-Françoise de La Baume-le Blanc de La Valliere. Lithe and athletic, the seventeen-year-old La Valliere was a striking contrast to Queen Maria-Theresa. Although not overly beautiful she was a skilled horsewoman who loved the out-of-doors and possessed little courtly grace. Instead, Louise de La Valliere exuded that vulnerable quality of adolescent femininity that excited a king bent of lustful pleasure. Without any pretense, in 1661 she eagerly placed herself at his disposal. Their adultery lasted a little more than seven years and resulted in six pregnancies and two royal children." (A Lust for Virtue: 85)
"Shortly after the royal marriage, rumors began to circulate at court that the king was much more interested in his brother's new bride, the English Princess Henriette, that his own bride. But before any definite proof of romantic interest could be established, it became apparent that the true object of royal affection was Henriette's lady-in-waiting, Louise-Françoise de La Baume-le Blanc de La Valliere. Lithe and athletic, the seventeen-year-old La Valliere was a striking contrast to Queen Maria-Theresa. Although not overly beautiful she was a skilled horsewoman who loved the out-of-doors and possessed little courtly grace. Instead, Louise de La Valliere exuded that vulnerable quality of adolescent femininity that excited a king bent of lustful pleasure. Without any pretense, in 1661 she eagerly placed herself at his disposal. Their adultery lasted a little more than seven years and resulted in six pregnancies and two royal children." (A Lust for Virtue: 85)
Introduced by Henrietta of England, the Duchess of Orleans
"It was Henrietta who gave the King the first of his more public mistresses. Born at Tours in 1644, Louise de La Valliere received with unquestioning faith the religious education given her by her mother and her priestly uncle, the future bishop of Nantes. She had barely reached the age of First Communion when her father died. Her mother remarried; the new husband, maitre d'hotel for Gaston, Duc d'Orleans, secured a place for Louise as lady in waiting to the daughters of the Duke; and when, after Gaston's death, his nephew and successor Philippe married, he took Louise with him as maid of honor to Henrietta (1661). In that capacity she frequently saw the King. She was dazzled by his splendor, power, and personal fascination. Like a hundred other women she fell in love with him, but hardly dreamed of speaking to him. . . Henrietta, to discourage gossip that she herself was the royal mistress, had the King's attention drawn to Louise. The scheme worked too well; Louis was attracted by this timid girl of seventeen, so different from the proud and aggressive ladies who surrounded him at the court. One day, finding her along in the gardens of Fontainbleau, he offered himself to her, with no very honorable intentions. She surprised him by confessing the she loved him, but she long resisted his importunities. She pleaded with him not to make her betray both Henrietta and the Queen. Nevertheless, by August 1661, she was his mistress. Everything seemed good if it was the King's will." (The Age of Louis XIV: The Story of Civilization)
The affair's benefits to Louise de la Valliere.
"The king, who was wearied with this surveillance, took great pleasure in conducting his beloved mistress, far from etiquette and jealousy, to Versailles, which was then an inelegant little chateau in the middle of a wood, with nothing in the neighbourhood but a small tavern and a mill. He afterwards ornamented and magnificently furnished her a residence (the Hotel Biron at Paris_, and in 1662 gave most brilliant carousals in her honour in the place which still bears that name. His crown was ornamented with a half-blown brown rose, the emblem of his modest favourite, and his devise was, 'Quanto si mostra men, tanto e piu bella.'" (Memoirs of the Kings of France: 158)
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| Château de Vaujours, part of the Duchy de Valliere Louis XIV created for Louise in 1667 as a parting gift when he ended their relationship |
" . . . He [Louis XIV] his first two declared mistresses, Louise de La Valliere and Athenais de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise de Montespan, in a state of semi-imprisonment, forbidding them visitors for feat that these might persuade them to intercede with him and that it might be said that the women governed him. Mlle de La Valliere was universally celebrated for her disinterestedness, though this did not prevent her from accepting, among other trifles, the duchy of Vaujours and the sumptuously furnished Palais Brion for herself, the abbey of Chelles for her sister, a rich heiress for her brother and the elevation of her surviving bastard daughter to the rank of Princesse de Conti. . . ." (Women In 17th Century France: 145)
The Duchy of Vaujours.
" . . . In 1667, the French Parlement was put on notice of the king's intentions with a letter patent that declared Louise the Duchesse de Vaujours, with the ability to hand down the title and all the wealth that went along with it---which included Vaujours and the barony of Saint-Christophe---'the two holdings equally considerable by their revenues---to her children and her children's children. Louis's generosity did not stop there. Even Louise's brother Jean-Francois, an anonymous cadet in a minor regiment, was suddenly elevated to command a new company, the Light Horse of the Dauphin, and spent a lot of time with the king." (Out of the Flames: The Remarkable Story of a Fearless Scholar, a Fatal Heresy, and One of the Rarest Books in the World)
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| Chateau de Valliere @Wikipedia |
"Under the Ancien Regime, the castle was bought by Louis XIV in 1666 and given in 1667 to his former mistress, Mademoiselle Louise de La Valliere; she became Duchesse de La Valliere et de Vaujours. In the 18th century, Louise de La Valliere left the castle and bequeathed it to the Davot family. . . . " (Wikipedia)
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Louise de La Valliere & children Marie-Anne de Bourbon, Princesse de Conti & Comte de Vermandois @Palais de Versailles |
a. Charles de La Baume Le Blanc (1663-1665)
b. Philippe de La Baume Le Blanc (1665-1666)
c. Marie Anne de Bourbon, Princesse de Conti (1666-1739)
d. Louis de Bourbon, Comte de Vermandois (1667-1683)
"The first child that Madame de la Valliere gave to the king was a son; it was on the occasion of the birth of a second---Mademoiselle de Blois, that he erected into a ducal peerage the lands of Vaujour and Saint-Christophe, situated in Touraine and Anjou, with reversion to Mademoiselle de Blois,' whose mother was created Duchess de la Valliere. . . ." (Royal Favourites, Vol 2: 383)
Affair's end & aftermath.
"Let us now turn from fields of blood to life in the palace. Madame de la Valliere, upon her return from the convent, soon found herself utterly miserable. She had hoped that reviving affection had been the inducement which led Louis to recall her. Instead of this, his attentions daily diminished. Madame de Montespan had accompanied the king in his brief trip to Holland, and returned with him to Paris. She was all-powerful at court, and seemed to delight, by word and deed, to add to the anguish of her vanquished rival. After a dreary year of wretchedness, Louise could endure no longer a residence in the palace. Her mother, who had been exceedingly distressed in view of the ignominious position occupied by her daughter, entreated her to retire to the Duchy of Vaujours with her children. Her mother promised to accompany her to that quiet and beautiful retreat. But the spirit of Louise was broken. She longed only to sever herself entirely from the world, and to seek a living burial in the glooms of the cloister. In those days of sorrow, penitence and the spirit of devotion sprang up in her weary heart. Louise was still young and beautiful. Her passionate love for the king still held strong dominion over her. Grief brought on a long and dangerous illness. For many days her life was in dancer. In view of the approaching judgment, shere she felt that she soon must stand, the greatness of her transgression harrowed her soul, and increased her desire to spend the rest of her life in works of piety and in prayer. When convalescent, the king consented to her retirement to the Carmelite convent. Like one in a dream, she took leave of her children without fear. Then, entering the apartment of the queen, she threw herself upon her knees, and with the sobbing of a remorseful and despairing heart implored her pardon for all the sorrow she had caused her. The generous Maria Theresa raised her up, embraced her, and declared her entirely forgiven. The morning of her departure arrived, The king, who was that day to leave Paris to visit the army in Flanders, attended high mass. Louise also attended. Absorbed in prayer, she did not raise her eyes during the service. She then, pale as death, and leaning upon the arms of her mother, but for whose support she must have fallen, advanced to take leave. . . ." (History of Louis XIV: 258)
10) Anne-Lucie de La Mothe-Houdancour (1646-1689)
Marquise de la Vieuville
Lover in 1662.
Blond, blue-eyed beauty.
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| Anne-Lucie de La Mothe-Houdancour |
Marquise de la Vieuville
Lover in 1662.
Blond, blue-eyed beauty.
" . . . One of them was Anne-Lucie de La Motte d'Argencourt, who, while not a startling beauty, had a bewitching combination of blue eyes, blonde hair and naturally very dark eyebrows (black eyebrows, unlike black hair, were much admired at the time). Furthermore, she shared Louis's 'violent passion' for dancing. . . ." (Fraser)
A perfect beauty.
A perfect beauty.
"The Marquis de Sourches describes Anne Lucie as a perfect beauty. . . Anne Lucie appears to have been a very sprightly and coquettish young person,and having been persuaded to try the effect of her allurements on the King, it seemed for a time as if she would really capture him." (The Favourites of Louis XIV: 126)
A diversionary affair.
"Another intrigue indeed supervened, and the King showed a strong disposition to add Mademoiselle de la Mothe Houdancourt to the number of those who yielded to his seductions; but some feelings of virtu on the part of the young lady herself, it would seem, fortified by the vigorous morality of the Duchess of Navailles, and some iron gratings which she caused to be placed on the roof of the palace around the apartments of the maids of honour, saved Mademoiselle de la Mothe, and left Mademoiselle de la Valliere in full possession of the field. Mademoiselle de Montpensier, however, states her firm conviction to have been, that Louis's attachment to Mademoiselle de la Mothe was merely affected, for the sake of concealing his more real passion for the unhappy Louise de la Valliere." (The Life and Times of Louis XIV: 219)
"Among the maids of honour of Anne of Austria was a young lady named Anne Lucie de la Mothe Houdancourt. Louis, though not long married, showed ns of others bring upon even the virtuous. The queen-dowager, Anne of Austria, was living at St. Germains when Mademoiselle de la Mothe Houdancourt was received in some symptoms of admiration for this debutante in the wicked ways of the court. Gay, radiant in the bloom of youth and innocence, the story of this young girl presents an instance of the unhappiness which, without guilt, the sin of others bring upon even the virtuous. The queen-dowager, Anne of Austria, was living at St. Germains when Mademoiselle de la Mothe Houdancourt was received into her household. The Duchess de Noailles, at that time Grande Maitresse, exercised a vigilant and kindly rule over the maids of honour; nevertheless, she could not prevent their being liable to the attentions of Louis: she forbade him however to loiter, or indeed even to be seen in the room appropriated to the young damsels under her charge; and when attracted by the beauty of Anne Lucie de la Mothe, Louis was obliged to speak to her through a hole behind a clock which stood in a corridor. Anne Lucie, notwithstanding this apparent encouragement of the king's addresses, was perfectly indifferent to his admiration. She was secretly attached to the Marquis de Richelieu, who had, or pretended to have, honourable intentions towards her. Everything was tried, but tried in vain, to induce the poor girl to give up all her predilections for the sake of a guilty distinction---that of being the king's mistress: even her mother reproached her with her coldness. A family council was held, in hopes of convincing her of her willfulness, and Anne Lucie was bitterly reproached by her female relatives; but her heart still clung to the faithless Marquis de Richelieu, who, however, when he saw that a royal lover was his rival, meanly withdrew. Her fall seemed inevitable; but the firmness of Anne of Austria saved her from her ruin. That queen insisted on her being sent away; and she resisted even the entreaties of the queen, her daughter-in-law, and the wife of Louis XIV; who, for some reasons not explained, entreated that the young lady might remain at the court. Anne was sent away in a sort of disgrace to the convent of Chaillot, which was then considered to be quite out of Paris, and sufficiently secluded to protect her from visitors. According to another account, a letter full of reproaches, which she wrote to the Marquis de Richelieu upbraiding him for his desertion, had been intercepted." (The Wits and Beaux of Society: 51)
A diversionary affair.
"Another intrigue indeed supervened, and the King showed a strong disposition to add Mademoiselle de la Mothe Houdancourt to the number of those who yielded to his seductions; but some feelings of virtu on the part of the young lady herself, it would seem, fortified by the vigorous morality of the Duchess of Navailles, and some iron gratings which she caused to be placed on the roof of the palace around the apartments of the maids of honour, saved Mademoiselle de la Mothe, and left Mademoiselle de la Valliere in full possession of the field. Mademoiselle de Montpensier, however, states her firm conviction to have been, that Louis's attachment to Mademoiselle de la Mothe was merely affected, for the sake of concealing his more real passion for the unhappy Louise de la Valliere." (The Life and Times of Louis XIV: 219)
"Among the maids of honour of Anne of Austria was a young lady named Anne Lucie de la Mothe Houdancourt. Louis, though not long married, showed ns of others bring upon even the virtuous. The queen-dowager, Anne of Austria, was living at St. Germains when Mademoiselle de la Mothe Houdancourt was received in some symptoms of admiration for this debutante in the wicked ways of the court. Gay, radiant in the bloom of youth and innocence, the story of this young girl presents an instance of the unhappiness which, without guilt, the sin of others bring upon even the virtuous. The queen-dowager, Anne of Austria, was living at St. Germains when Mademoiselle de la Mothe Houdancourt was received into her household. The Duchess de Noailles, at that time Grande Maitresse, exercised a vigilant and kindly rule over the maids of honour; nevertheless, she could not prevent their being liable to the attentions of Louis: she forbade him however to loiter, or indeed even to be seen in the room appropriated to the young damsels under her charge; and when attracted by the beauty of Anne Lucie de la Mothe, Louis was obliged to speak to her through a hole behind a clock which stood in a corridor. Anne Lucie, notwithstanding this apparent encouragement of the king's addresses, was perfectly indifferent to his admiration. She was secretly attached to the Marquis de Richelieu, who had, or pretended to have, honourable intentions towards her. Everything was tried, but tried in vain, to induce the poor girl to give up all her predilections for the sake of a guilty distinction---that of being the king's mistress: even her mother reproached her with her coldness. A family council was held, in hopes of convincing her of her willfulness, and Anne Lucie was bitterly reproached by her female relatives; but her heart still clung to the faithless Marquis de Richelieu, who, however, when he saw that a royal lover was his rival, meanly withdrew. Her fall seemed inevitable; but the firmness of Anne of Austria saved her from her ruin. That queen insisted on her being sent away; and she resisted even the entreaties of the queen, her daughter-in-law, and the wife of Louis XIV; who, for some reasons not explained, entreated that the young lady might remain at the court. Anne was sent away in a sort of disgrace to the convent of Chaillot, which was then considered to be quite out of Paris, and sufficiently secluded to protect her from visitors. According to another account, a letter full of reproaches, which she wrote to the Marquis de Richelieu upbraiding him for his desertion, had been intercepted." (The Wits and Beaux of Society: 51)
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