11) Anne de Conty d'Argencourt (1638-1718)
Lover in 1662.
Maid-of-Honour to Anne of Austria, Queen of France 1657.
Daughter of: Pierre de Conty d'Argencourt & Madeleine de Chaumont Berticheres.
First encounter in 1654.
"When Louis was but sixteen, his attention was attracted by a certain Mlle. de la Motte d'Argencourt, 'who had neither dazzling beauty nor extraordinary intelligence, but whose whole person was agreeable.' His predilection for her society became so very marked that the Queen and Mazarin grew uneasy, and the former, one evening when Louis had conversed with the young lady rather longer than she deemed prudent, rebuked him sharply and openly. The monarch received the maternal reprimand 'with respect and gentleness'; but it would not appear to have had much effect, for, shortly afterwards, we hear of him speaking to Mlle. de la Motte 'as a man in love, who was no longer virtuous,' and assuring her that, if she would only return his affection, he would defy both the Queen and the Cardinal. The lady, however, from motives either of virtue or policy, declined to entertain his proposals, and the Queen having pointed out to her son that 'he was wandering from the path of innocence,' the King was moved to fears, confessed himself in his oratory, and then departed for Vincennes, in the hope that a change of scene might assist him in subjugating his passion. After a few days' absence, he returned, fully determine never to speak to Mlle. de la Motte again; but, 'not being yet wholly strengthened,' so far departed from his resolution as to dance with her at a ball, with the result that he was on the point of succumbing once more, when the Queen and the Cardinal put an end to the affair by packing the damsel off to a convent at Chaillot, where, Madame de Motteville assures us, 'she led a life that was very tranquil and very happy.'" (Five Fair Sisters: 65-66)
"After the marriage of Olympe Mancini [1657], the King cast a favourable eye upon a certain Mademoiselle de La Motte d'Argencourt, 'who had neither dazzling beauty nor extraordinary intelligence, but whose whole person was agreeable.' (Madame de Montespan & Louis XIV, p.5)
" . . . According to Bussy Rabutin in his 'Histoire amoureuse des Gaulles' she had an affair with the young Louis XIV of France before she became the mistress of Jean-Baptiste Amador de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu, marquis de Richelieu (1632-1662)." (Les Chroniques de Loulou)
12) Catherine-Charlotte de Gramont
Princesse de Monaco
(1639-1678)
Lover in 1665.
Daughter of: Antoine III Agenor, Duc de Gramont, Marshal of France & Francoise-Marguerite du Plessis.
Wife of: Louis I de Monaco mar 1660
Lover in 1662.
Maid-of-Honour to Anne of Austria, Queen of France 1657.
Daughter of: Pierre de Conty d'Argencourt & Madeleine de Chaumont Berticheres.
First encounter in 1654.
"When Louis was but sixteen, his attention was attracted by a certain Mlle. de la Motte d'Argencourt, 'who had neither dazzling beauty nor extraordinary intelligence, but whose whole person was agreeable.' His predilection for her society became so very marked that the Queen and Mazarin grew uneasy, and the former, one evening when Louis had conversed with the young lady rather longer than she deemed prudent, rebuked him sharply and openly. The monarch received the maternal reprimand 'with respect and gentleness'; but it would not appear to have had much effect, for, shortly afterwards, we hear of him speaking to Mlle. de la Motte 'as a man in love, who was no longer virtuous,' and assuring her that, if she would only return his affection, he would defy both the Queen and the Cardinal. The lady, however, from motives either of virtue or policy, declined to entertain his proposals, and the Queen having pointed out to her son that 'he was wandering from the path of innocence,' the King was moved to fears, confessed himself in his oratory, and then departed for Vincennes, in the hope that a change of scene might assist him in subjugating his passion. After a few days' absence, he returned, fully determine never to speak to Mlle. de la Motte again; but, 'not being yet wholly strengthened,' so far departed from his resolution as to dance with her at a ball, with the result that he was on the point of succumbing once more, when the Queen and the Cardinal put an end to the affair by packing the damsel off to a convent at Chaillot, where, Madame de Motteville assures us, 'she led a life that was very tranquil and very happy.'" (Five Fair Sisters: 65-66)
"After the marriage of Olympe Mancini [1657], the King cast a favourable eye upon a certain Mademoiselle de La Motte d'Argencourt, 'who had neither dazzling beauty nor extraordinary intelligence, but whose whole person was agreeable.' (Madame de Montespan & Louis XIV, p.5)
" . . . According to Bussy Rabutin in his 'Histoire amoureuse des Gaulles' she had an affair with the young Louis XIV of France before she became the mistress of Jean-Baptiste Amador de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu, marquis de Richelieu (1632-1662)." (Les Chroniques de Loulou)
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| Charlotte de Gramont Princesse de Monaco |
12) Catherine-Charlotte de Gramont
Princesse de Monaco
(1639-1678)
Lover in 1665.
Daughter of: Antoine III Agenor, Duc de Gramont, Marshal of France & Francoise-Marguerite du Plessis.
Wife of: Louis I de Monaco mar 1660
"Catherine Charlotte de Gramont, sister of the celebrated Philibert de Gramont, and wife of Louis I, Prince de Monaco. Leaving her consort to the enjoyment of his miniature sovereignty, she loved a gay life at the French Court, where he was renowned for the rapid succession of her lovers, every one of whom was regularly hung in effigy by the prince in the avenue leading to his palace at Monaco, with a label around his neck for the information of passers-by. The number became so great that strangers flocked from far and near to admire the spectacle, and at length Louis XIV felt constrained to interfere. He ordered the prince to remove the effigies; but the latter turned a deaf ear to his suzerain's commands and continued to add to his collection, until Louis, finding that his threats were vain and the scandal on the increase, had recourse to conciliatory methods, and promised that a strict guard should be kept over the princess, upon which understanding his Highness consented to do as he was required." (Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV: 129)
Lover in 1667-1681.
French royal mistress
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Francoise-Athenais Marquise de Montespan |
Lover in 1667-1681.
French royal mistress
Daughter of: Gabriel de Rochechouart, Duc de Mortemart, Governor of Paris & Diane de Gandseigne, Lady-in-waiting to Anne of Austria, Queen of France.
Wife of: Louis-Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin, Marquis de Montespan, mar 1663.
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| Louis XIV & Montespan |
Madame Montespan's physical appearance and personal qualities
" . . . She was astonishingly beautiful. She had long, thick, corn-coloured hair which curled artlessly about her shoulders when she was in a state of deshabille. Her eyes were huge, blue and very slightly exophthalmic; she had a pouting mouth. There was something at once sexy and imperious about her appearance that ravished the eye while her lusciously curved figure appealed to contemporary taste in contrast to that of slender Louise. This voluptuousness makes plausible at least one story by which Louis plotted to spy on her at her bath disguised as a servant; awestruck, he gave away his presence, at which Athenais laughingly dropped her towel... "But Athenais was far, far more than a mere beauty, of whom there were, after all, large numbers at Versailles. She was high-spirited and amusing. . . ." (Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King)
"La Montespan had a whiter complexion than La Valliere; she had a beautiful mouth and fine teeth, but her expression was always insolent. One had only to look at her to see that she was scheming something. She had beautiful blonde hair and lovely hands and arms, which La Valliere did not have, but at least La Valliere was clean in her person, whereas La Montespan was filthy." (Louis XIV)
One of the three most beautiful women in France
". . . Francoise Athenais Rochechouart came to the court in 1661, served the Queen as a maid of honor, and married the Marquis de Montespan (1663). According to Voltaire she was one of the three most beautiful women in France, and the other two were her sisters. Her pearl-studded blonde curls, her languorous proud eyes, her sensuous lips and laughing mouth, her caressing hands, her skin with the color and texture of lilies---so her contemporaries breathlessly describe her, and so Henri Gascard painted her in a famous portrait. She was pious, she fasted strictly on fast days, and attended church devoutly and frequently. She had a bad temper and a cutting wit, but that was at first a challenge." (The Age of Louis XIV: The Story of Civilization)
" . . . By 1677 Madame de Montespan had been a royal mistress for more than a decade, and this tenure now became a liability. When Athenais first became the king's mistress, she was twenty-six years old and perhaps the most string beauty at court. During the ten years she had served the king, her physical charms had paled; she had endured nine pregnancies, borne eight children, and added a great deal of weight. Primi Visconti, never one to miss such detail, coyly noted that one day he spied Mme de Montespan's thigh as she ascended her carriage and estimated it was as thick as his waist. Madame de Montespan was an intelligent woman who had provided the king with a decade of companionship and intense physical pleasure, but she was no longer unique in a court filled with younger women eager to displace a fading and all too Rubenesque royal mistress." (A Lust for Virtue: Louis XIV's Attack on Sin in Seventeenth-century France: 90)
Montespan's natural offspring
"La Montespan had a whiter complexion than La Valliere; she had a beautiful mouth and fine teeth, but her expression was always insolent. One had only to look at her to see that she was scheming something. She had beautiful blonde hair and lovely hands and arms, which La Valliere did not have, but at least La Valliere was clean in her person, whereas La Montespan was filthy." (Louis XIV)
One of the three most beautiful women in France
". . . Francoise Athenais Rochechouart came to the court in 1661, served the Queen as a maid of honor, and married the Marquis de Montespan (1663). According to Voltaire she was one of the three most beautiful women in France, and the other two were her sisters. Her pearl-studded blonde curls, her languorous proud eyes, her sensuous lips and laughing mouth, her caressing hands, her skin with the color and texture of lilies---so her contemporaries breathlessly describe her, and so Henri Gascard painted her in a famous portrait. She was pious, she fasted strictly on fast days, and attended church devoutly and frequently. She had a bad temper and a cutting wit, but that was at first a challenge." (The Age of Louis XIV: The Story of Civilization)
" . . . By 1677 Madame de Montespan had been a royal mistress for more than a decade, and this tenure now became a liability. When Athenais first became the king's mistress, she was twenty-six years old and perhaps the most string beauty at court. During the ten years she had served the king, her physical charms had paled; she had endured nine pregnancies, borne eight children, and added a great deal of weight. Primi Visconti, never one to miss such detail, coyly noted that one day he spied Mme de Montespan's thigh as she ascended her carriage and estimated it was as thick as his waist. Madame de Montespan was an intelligent woman who had provided the king with a decade of companionship and intense physical pleasure, but she was no longer unique in a court filled with younger women eager to displace a fading and all too Rubenesque royal mistress." (A Lust for Virtue: Louis XIV's Attack on Sin in Seventeenth-century France: 90)
Montespan's natural offspring
She had the following illegitimate children with Louis XIV: Louis Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine (1670-1736); Louis César de Bourbon, comte de Vexin; Louise Françoise de Bourbon, mademoiselle de Nantes (1673-1743); Louise Marie Anne de Bourbon, mademoiselle de Tours (1674-1681); Françoise Marie de Bourbon, mademoiselle de Blois (1677-1749); Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse (1678-1737).
Personal & family background
Personal & family background
"The Rochechouart-Mortemart of Lussac in Poitou were of ancient lineage and proud of it, the two grand families having been joined together by marriage in the thirteenth century. . . ." (Love & Louis XIV: 105)
Effects on Other People and Society
"Mme. de Montespan was of noble birth, being the youngest daughter of Rochechouart, first Duke of Mortemart. She was born in 1641, at the grand old chateau of Tonnay-Charente, and was educated at the convent of Saint-Marie... She was known first as Mlle. Tonnay-Charente, and was maid of honor to the Duchess of Orleans. When, at age of twenty-two, she married the Marquis de Montespan and became lady in waiting to the queen, her beauty, with and brilliant conversational powers at once made her the centre of attraction; for several years, however, the king scarcely noticed her. Upon secretly becoming his mistress in 1668 and openly being declared as such two years later, her husband attempted to interfered, and was unceremoniously banished to his estates; in 1676 he was legally separated from her. She persuaded the king to legitimize their children, who were confided to Mme. Scarron,---afterward Mme. de Maintenon,---who later influenced the king to abandon his mistress. Mme. de Montespan's power, lasting fourteen years, was almost unlimited, and was the epoch of courtiers intoxicated with passion and consumed by vice, infatuated with the king and his mistress, whose title as maitresse-en-titre was considered an official one, conferring the same privileges and demanding the same ceremonies and etiquette as did a high court position...." (Women of Modern France: 77)
Affair's benefits & beneficiaries.
Effects on Other People and Society
"Mme. de Montespan was of noble birth, being the youngest daughter of Rochechouart, first Duke of Mortemart. She was born in 1641, at the grand old chateau of Tonnay-Charente, and was educated at the convent of Saint-Marie... She was known first as Mlle. Tonnay-Charente, and was maid of honor to the Duchess of Orleans. When, at age of twenty-two, she married the Marquis de Montespan and became lady in waiting to the queen, her beauty, with and brilliant conversational powers at once made her the centre of attraction; for several years, however, the king scarcely noticed her. Upon secretly becoming his mistress in 1668 and openly being declared as such two years later, her husband attempted to interfered, and was unceremoniously banished to his estates; in 1676 he was legally separated from her. She persuaded the king to legitimize their children, who were confided to Mme. Scarron,---afterward Mme. de Maintenon,---who later influenced the king to abandon his mistress. Mme. de Montespan's power, lasting fourteen years, was almost unlimited, and was the epoch of courtiers intoxicated with passion and consumed by vice, infatuated with the king and his mistress, whose title as maitresse-en-titre was considered an official one, conferring the same privileges and demanding the same ceremonies and etiquette as did a high court position...." (Women of Modern France: 77)
Affair's benefits & beneficiaries.
"As might be expected, the King's bounty was far from being confined to Madame de Montespan herself; honours and riches were showered upon her relatives and her children. Her father, Duc de Mortemart, was made Governor of Paris; her brother, the Duc de Vivonne, general of the galleys, governor of Champagne, and marechal de France; one of her sisters, the Marquise de Thianges, was granted a pension of 9000 livres and a gratification of 6000 livres; another, Gabrielle de Rochechouart, a nun of Poissy, who had only pronounce her vows fours years before, was made abbess of Fontevrault, to the disgust of the nuns and 'the astonishment and affliction of the Pope.' As for the children, the Comte de Vexin was hardly out of the nursery before his royal father made him abbot of both Saint-Denis and Saint-Germaine-des-Pres, in spite of vigorous remonstrances from the Vatican, and even talked of giving him the Abbey of Cluny as well, though this establishment was the chief of its Order and its superior had always been an ecclesiastic; but the little count's early death prevented this scandal. His elder brother, the Duc de Maine, as an earnest of what he might expect when he arrived at man's estate, was appointed captain of the Hundred Swiss, colonel of a regiment which henceforth bore his name, and governor of Languedoc. Nor this his good fortune, even as a boy, by any change end there." (Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV: 124)
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Anne de Rohan-Chabot Princesse de Soubise |
Lover in 1669 & 1673-1676.
Lady in waiting to the Queen
Dame de Soubise
Dame de Frontenay.
Daughter of: Henri Chabot, Duc de Rohan & Marie de Rohan, Duchesse de Rohan, Duchess of Soubise, Lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie-Therese 1674
Wife of: Francois de Rohan, Prince de Soubise (1630-1712), mar 1663.
Lieutenant-General
A short-term mistress?.
"It is said that Anne became Louis XIV's short term mistress in 1669 when the court was sojourning at Chambord at which Anne was present. At the time, Louis' full affections were between the Louise de La Vallière and her future successor Madame de Montespan. At the same time, she gave birth to her second son,Hercule Mériadec de Rohan (future Prince of Soubise yet styled as the Duke of Rohan-Rohan)." (Wikipedia)
She preferred 'flirtatious friendship.
" . . . Another candidate for a fling was the rather more agreeable Anne de Rohan-Chabot, Princesse de Soubise, with her reddish hair, white skin and her slanting brown eyes. 'La belle Florice', as she was known to her friends, maintained her beauty by a strict diet, surprising for her time, of chicken and salad, fruit, some milky foods and water only occasionally tinctured with wine. A devoted wife, still very young, at this stage she probably did reject the advances of the gallant King in favour of a flirtatious friendship." (Love and Louix XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King: 95)
First encounter.
" . . . (T)here were rumours that the King was paying attention to the Princess Anne de Soubise, nee de Rohan-Chabot, who held office as a dame du palais in the Queen's household. Anne and Louis met, it seems, in the private rooms of one of the former's colleagues in the Queen's establishment, that is the Marechale de Rochefort, who willingly placed her apartments at the lovers' disposal. . . When she first attracted the King's attention she was in her twenty-eighth year, and it has been held . . . that she continued to meet the King secretly, from time to time, until the period of his marriage with Mme. de Maintenon. . . . " (The Favourites of Louis XIV: 231)
"During his [Louis XIV] wife's first pregnancy he took a fancy to her seventeen-year-old lady-in-waiting, the blond, club-footed Madame de Soubisse. The affair lasted for several years; the King didn't completely go off her until her front teeth went black and fell out. She later fell seriously ill with a glandular disease known as 'King's Evil.'The was the name given to scrofula, or tuberculosis of the lymph glands, which causes swellings in the neck and was originally associated with Edward the Confessor. It was believed that all royals could cure the disease by touch. . . Madame de Soubisse's illness was not, it was noted, for want of being touched by the King." (Royal Babylon: The Alarming History of European Royalty: 93)
Beneficiary of royal favours.
"The 'fresh game' in question was Anne de Rohan, Princesse de Soubisse, dame du palais to the Queen, very beautiful, very discreet, and very greedy. She loved the King out of love for her husband, a very complaisant old gentleman indeed, nearly forty years her senior, who, unlike the poor Marquis de Montespan, had not the smallest objection to share with Jupiter, so long as Jupiter was prepared to make it worth his while. He was rarely seen at Court, was wholly occupied in the management of his estates, and never appeared to entertain the slightest suspicion of his wife's infidelity. After collecting for him all the honours, dignities, and hard cash, she could lay her hands on, Madame de Soubise, her object accomplished, retired from the field, though, if Saint-Simon is to be believed, there were occasional returns to favour, extending over a period of several years." (Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV: 184)
Pimp Hubby?.
She preferred 'flirtatious friendship.
" . . . Another candidate for a fling was the rather more agreeable Anne de Rohan-Chabot, Princesse de Soubise, with her reddish hair, white skin and her slanting brown eyes. 'La belle Florice', as she was known to her friends, maintained her beauty by a strict diet, surprising for her time, of chicken and salad, fruit, some milky foods and water only occasionally tinctured with wine. A devoted wife, still very young, at this stage she probably did reject the advances of the gallant King in favour of a flirtatious friendship." (Love and Louix XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King: 95)
First encounter.
" . . . (T)here were rumours that the King was paying attention to the Princess Anne de Soubise, nee de Rohan-Chabot, who held office as a dame du palais in the Queen's household. Anne and Louis met, it seems, in the private rooms of one of the former's colleagues in the Queen's establishment, that is the Marechale de Rochefort, who willingly placed her apartments at the lovers' disposal. . . When she first attracted the King's attention she was in her twenty-eighth year, and it has been held . . . that she continued to meet the King secretly, from time to time, until the period of his marriage with Mme. de Maintenon. . . . " (The Favourites of Louis XIV: 231)
"During his [Louis XIV] wife's first pregnancy he took a fancy to her seventeen-year-old lady-in-waiting, the blond, club-footed Madame de Soubisse. The affair lasted for several years; the King didn't completely go off her until her front teeth went black and fell out. She later fell seriously ill with a glandular disease known as 'King's Evil.'The was the name given to scrofula, or tuberculosis of the lymph glands, which causes swellings in the neck and was originally associated with Edward the Confessor. It was believed that all royals could cure the disease by touch. . . Madame de Soubisse's illness was not, it was noted, for want of being touched by the King." (Royal Babylon: The Alarming History of European Royalty: 93)
Beneficiary of royal favours.
"The 'fresh game' in question was Anne de Rohan, Princesse de Soubisse, dame du palais to the Queen, very beautiful, very discreet, and very greedy. She loved the King out of love for her husband, a very complaisant old gentleman indeed, nearly forty years her senior, who, unlike the poor Marquis de Montespan, had not the smallest objection to share with Jupiter, so long as Jupiter was prepared to make it worth his while. He was rarely seen at Court, was wholly occupied in the management of his estates, and never appeared to entertain the slightest suspicion of his wife's infidelity. After collecting for him all the honours, dignities, and hard cash, she could lay her hands on, Madame de Soubise, her object accomplished, retired from the field, though, if Saint-Simon is to be believed, there were occasional returns to favour, extending over a period of several years." (Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV: 184)
Pimp Hubby?.
". . . Francois de Rohan-Montbazon, prince de Soubise (1631-1712), counted among his ancestors of the previous century the bastard son of the last duke of Brittany. . . But that was not all: even worse was the allegation that Soubise had acted as pimp for his wife, whom he had supposedly prostituted to Louis XIV in exchange for substantial rewards. (T)he charges were largely false and slanderous. Soubise and his wife were honorable people, not the Sun King's pimp and whore. Indeed, the lady had never been the king's mistress. . . . " (Saint-Simon and the Court of Louis XIV: 103)
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| Claude de Vin des OEillets |
(1637-1687)
Daughter of: actors Nicolas de Vin and Louise Faviot.
Natural Offspring: Louise de Maisonblanche (1675-1718)
Baronne de La Queue, who was adopted by Philippe de Maisonblanche, a cavalry captain, & his wife Gabrielle de La Tour.
Lover in 1670-1676.
Chambermaid of Madame de Montespan
Chambermaid of Madame de Montespan
Daughter of: actors Nicolas de Vin and Louise Faviot.
Natural Offspring: Louise de Maisonblanche (1675-1718)
Baronne de La Queue, who was adopted by Philippe de Maisonblanche, a cavalry captain, & his wife Gabrielle de La Tour.
16) Marie du Fresnoy.
Lover in 1673.
Lover in 1673.
Lady-in-waiting to the Queen
Daughter of a laundress
Wife of: Elie du Fresnoy, Louvois's first clerk and his mistress
"Humiliated, she [Madame de Maintenon] watched as the King continued with the many amours he regarded as his due: . . . the 'divine nymph' Marie du Fresnoy, daughter of a laundress, elevated to the King's bed via that of his minister Louvois . . . " (The Secret Wife of Louis XIV)
When Louvois proposed to the King, for the first time, that he should appoint Madame Dufresnoy, his mistress, a lady of the Queen's bed-chamber, his Majesty replied, 'would you then have them laugh at both of us?' Louvois however persisted so earnestly in his request, that the King at length granted it." (Secret Memoirs of the Court of Louis XIV and of the Regency: 72)
From a minister's lover to His Majesty's.
"Besides giving the Le Tellier prestige and some long-term social security, court offices crucially kept the avenues of communication to the king open to Louvois at all times through his kin. Mistresses fulfilled the same role. . . Another of Louvois's mistresses, the wife of Elie du Fresnoy, one of his chief clerks, had been installed in 1673 as a bedchamber attendant of the queen." (The Dynastic State and the Army under Louis XIV: 45)
17) Lydie de Rochefort-Theobon, Comtesse de Beuvron (1638-1708)
Lover in 1673-1677.
Marquise de Maintenon
Lover in 1674-1715.
French aristocrat & royal mistress
Daughter of Constant d'Aubigné & Jeanne de Cardilhac.
Wife of:
1. Paul Scarron, mar 1652–1660
2. Louis XIV of France, mar 1683–1715
French aristocrat & royal mistress
Daughter of Constant d'Aubigné & Jeanne de Cardilhac.
Wife of:
1. Paul Scarron, mar 1652–1660
2. Louis XIV of France, mar 1683–1715
Personal & family background.
"Francoise d'Aubigne, afterwards Madame Scarron, and later Madame de Maintenon, come of an ancient family originally from Anjou, the most distinguished member of which was her grandfather, the famous old Huguenot, Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne, 'for whom nothing was too hot or too cold,' and who wielded sword and pen with equal facility. The accomplished old gentleman had a most unworthy don, Constant by name, who, not content with wasting his substance in riotous living, committed various crimes, in consequence of which he passed a considerable part of his life in gaol. In the year 1635 he was serving a term of imprisonment at Niort, and here, on November 27, his second wife, Jeanne de Cardillac, a brave and devoted woman, who had obtained permission to share his punishment, gave birth to Francoise." (Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV: 88)
" . . . Descended from a Protestant family, born in a prison, educated in poverty, wedded in early life to the deformed and impotent Scarron, left a poor and friendless widow at the age of twenty-five, obliged to accept the situation of governess to keep herself from starvation, forsaking her religion to avoid the persecutions of her relations, and herself afterwards the bitterest persecutor of the faith of her fathers, raised at length to independence, opulence, the highest honors and the most unlimited power, the life of Madame de Maintenon presents incidents more various and alternating than are to be found in the imagination, poetry, and wild romance of the middle ages. . . ." (The American Review, Vol. 2: 438)
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Francoise d'Aubigne, |
Madame Maintenon's love life.
"Among the 'great' courtesans and mistresses, there was but one who ended up a moralist and prostitution reformer. This was Francoise d'Aubigne, best known as Madame de Maintenon. Among her lovers were the writer Paul Scarron and Louis XIV. In her old age, she became a defender of French classicism's ethical dramatist Jean Racine...." (Ringdal & Daly: 192)
Affair's benefits.
" . . . He first made her a present of 100,000 livres, with which she purchased the estate of Maintenon. . . ." (The American Review, Vol. 2: 438)
" . . . He first made her a present of 100,000 livres, with which she purchased the estate of Maintenon. . . ." (The American Review, Vol. 2: 438)
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Louis de Mornay Marquis de Villarceaux |
Marquise de Maintenon's other lovers were:
Louis de Mornay (1619-1691)
Marquis de Villarceaux
Son of: Pierre de Mornay & Anne Olivier de Leuville.
Husband of: Denise de la Fontaine d'Esche, mar 1643.
"Ninon was so little imbued with jealousy that when she discovered a liaison between her own lover, Marquis de Villarceaux and her friend, Madame Scarron, she was not even angry. The two were carrying on their amour in secret, and as they supposed without Ninon's knowledge, whose presence, indeed, they deemed a restraint upon their freedom of action... Both the Marquis and his mistress made Ninon their confidante, and thereafter lived in perfect amity until the lovers grew tired of each other. . . ." (Ninon's Life)
French aristocrat & royal mistress
Lover in 1675-1678.
French aristocrat & royal mistress
Lady-in-waiting to Henrietta of England, Duchesse d'Orleans 1666
Lady-in-waiting to Maria Theresa of Spain, Queen of France 1670
Lady-in-waiting to Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Duchesse d'Orleans 1673
Lady-in-waiting to Maria Theresa of Spain, Queen of France 1670
Lady-in-waiting to Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Duchesse d'Orleans 1673
"At the beginning of the following year a new and very formidable pretender to the royal heart appeared upon the scene. This was a certain Isabelle de Ludres, a lady from Lorraine, fille d'honneur to the Princess Palatine, the second Madame. Her contemporaries describe her as a very beautiful woman and very witty, but with a disagreeable voice and a strong German accent. When she was quite a young girl she had attracted the notice of the susceptible Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, who fell so madly in love with her that he sent away his mistress, Beatrix de Cusance, who died of grief shortly afterwards, and determined to make her his duchess. However, before the date fixed for the nuptials he transferred his affections to another damsel, a Mademoiselle de Nanteuil, and announced his intention of espousing her instead. The fair Isabelle, who had a number of very passionate letters from the duke in her possession, and was no means inclined to surrender the crown matrimonial without a struggle, prepared to oppose the marriage; but, on being threatened with a persecution for lese majeste, a capital offence in those days, thought better of it and resolved to try her fortune at the French Court, where she made a number of conquests, including Madame de Montespan's brother, the Duc de Vivonne, the Chevalier de Vendome, and the young Marquis de Sevigne, and, finally Louis XIV himself." (Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV: 186)
20) Marie-Charlotte de Castelnau (1648-1694)
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Marie-Charlotte de Castelnau Dame de Joinville |
20) Marie-Charlotte de Castelnau (1648-1694)
Duchesse de Gramont
Lover in 1676-1677
Daughter of: Jacques, Marquis de Castelnau & Marie Girard de l'Espinay
Wife of: Antoine-Charles IV, 3rd Duc de Gramont (1641-1720), mar 1668,
"She became the mistress of Louis XIV when the Marquise de Montespan was pregnant with the future Duchesse d'Orleans." (Les Chroniques de Loulou)
Spouse & children.
Wife of: Antoine-Charles IV, 3rd Duc de Gramont (1641-1720), mar 1668,
"She became the mistress of Louis XIV when the Marquise de Montespan was pregnant with the future Duchesse d'Orleans." (Les Chroniques de Loulou)
Spouse & children.
Antoine-Charles IV, 3rd Duc de Gramont (1641-1720)
French general & diplomat
Comte de Guiche, 3rd Duc de Gramont, Comte de Louvigny & Souverain de Bidache.
Knight of the King's Order & Knight of the Golden Fleece
Ambassador to Spain, Viceroy of Navarre & Bearn & Governor of Bayonne.
21) Elizabeth Hamilton
French general & diplomat
Comte de Guiche, 3rd Duc de Gramont, Comte de Louvigny & Souverain de Bidache.
Knight of the King's Order & Knight of the Golden Fleece
Ambassador to Spain, Viceroy of Navarre & Bearn & Governor of Bayonne.
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| Antoine-Charles IV 3rd Duc de Gramont @Wikipedia |
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Elizabeth Hamilton Comtesse de Gramont |
21) Elizabeth Hamilton
(1640-1708)
Comtesse de Gramont
Lover in 1678.
Irish courtier & royal mistress.
Wife of: Philibert, Comte de Gramont.
Comtesse de Gramont
Lover in 1678.
Irish courtier & royal mistress.
Lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie-Therese of France.
Daughter of: Sir George Hamilton, son of Earl of Abercorn. & Mary Butler, daughter of James, Duke of Ormonde.
Wife of: Philibert, Comte de Gramont.
An acknowledged beauty untainted by suspicion
" . . . Miss Hamilton was one of the few ladies attached to the court of Charles II who appear to have preserved a reputation, in spite of acknowledged beauty, untainted by suspicion. In the brilliant pages of the 'Memoires de Grammont,' she is style, 'the chief ornament of the court, worthy of the most ardent and sincere affection---nobody could boast a nobler birth, nothing could be more charming than her person.' She had many noble offers of marriage, and after refusing the duke of Richmond, Jermyn, nephew of the earl of St. Albans, and Henry Howard, afterwards the duke of Norfolk, she married Philibert, count de Grammont, brother of the duke of that name, and hero of the 'Memoires de Grammont.' . . . After her marriage to the Count de Grammont, she was appointed dame du palais to Maria Theresa of Austria, queen of Louis XIV. Her husband died January 3, 1708, aged 67. . . ." (The Scottish Nation: 440)
Physical appearance & personal qualities
"'Miss Hamilton,' he says, 'was at the happy age when the charms of the fair sex begin to bloom; she had the finest chapre, the loveliest neck, and most beautiful arms in the world; she was majestic and graceful if all her movements; and she was the original after which all the ladies copied in their taste, and air of dress. Her forehead was open, white, and smooth; her hair was well set, and fell with ease into that natural order which it is so difficult to imitate. Her complexion was possessed of a certain freshness, not to be equalled by borrowed colours; her eyes were not large, but they were lively, and capable of expressing whatever she pleased; her mouth was full of graces, and her contour uncommonly perfect; nor was her nose, which was small, delicate, and retrousse, the least ornament of so lovely a face. . . . Her mind was as proper companion for such a form; she did not endeavour to shine in conversation by those sprightly sallies which only puzzle, and with still greater care she avoided that affected solemnity in her discourse, which produces stupidity; but, without any eagerness to talk, she just said what she ought, and no more. She had an admirable discernment in distinguishing between solid and false wit; and far from making an ostentatious display of her abilities, she was reserved, though very just in her decisions; her sentiments were always noble, and even lofty to the highest extent, when there was occasion; nevertheless, she was less prepossessed with her own merit than is usually the case with those who have so much. Formed, as we have described, she could not fail of commanding love; but so far was she from courting it, that she was scrupulously nice with those whose merit might entitle them to cherish any pretensions to her.'" (Famous Beauties and Historic Women: A Gallery of Croquis Biographiques, Volume 1: 68-69)
Her admirers and wooers
" ... Her rare personal charms, united with no ordinary degree of wit, judgement and sensibility, made her at once an object of admiration, and exposed her to the degrading homage of the loose courtiers of a voluptuous sovereign. Her virtue---or her prudence---repulsed every comer, and the biographer of De Grammont enumerates will ill-concealed satisfaction the many distinguished wooers whose addresses she rejected. The highest in rank and the most important of her lovers, was the Duke of York, who had been captivated by a glance at her portrait in Lely's studio. His proposals, however, being neither flattering nor honourable, were haughtily rejected. The Duke of Richmond, a gamester and a drunkard; the heir of Norfolk, a wealthy simpleton; the brave and handsome Falmouth, who afterwards died a hero's death in one of the great sea fights with the Dutch; the two Russells, uncle and nephew; and the invincible Henry Jermyn, in succession acknowledged the power of her charms, and offered her their hands. They were refused. The Count of Grammont next presented himself, and was more successful, though in moral character he was not superior to his predecessors, and in fortune was their inferior." (Famous Beauties and Historic Women: Vol. 1: 70)
Elizabeth Hamilton's husband
"The celebrated with, who has become so familiar to us through the graphic pages of Count Hamilton's Memoirs, was born in 1621. Having been banished from France by Louis XIV for entering himself against that monarch in the lists of love with Mademoiselle de La Motte Houdancourt, he repaired to the court of Charles II, where he immediately became the 'observed of all the observers.' He was handsome, graceful, and accomplished; his manners possessed an indescribable fascination; his address was polished and easy; his conversation light and amusing. But his enemies accused him of being treacherous in his friendships, cruel in his jealousies, and trifling in his loves. He was assuredly a man of unprincipled character, and as falsely towards a friend as he was fickle to his mistress; but an undefinable brilliancy of manner, which dazzled every eye, imposed on the judgment of all whom he came in contact, and it was only those whom he had defrauded or betrayed that could distinguish the cliquant from the pure metal." (Famous Beauties and Historic Women: A Gallery of Croquis Biographiques, Vol. 1: 71)
22) Marie-Angelique de Scorailles (1661-1681)
Duchesse de Fontanges
Lover in 1679-1681.
French noblewoman & royal mistress
Lady-in-waiting to Elisabeth-Charlotte, Duchesse d 'Orleans
Daughter of: Jean-Rigal de Scorailles, a lieutenant of the king in Auvergne & Eleonore de Plas.
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Marie Angelique Duchesse de Fontanges |
22) Marie-Angelique de Scorailles (1661-1681)
Duchesse de Fontanges
Lover in 1679-1681.
Lady-in-waiting to Elisabeth-Charlotte, Duchesse d 'Orleans
Daughter of: Jean-Rigal de Scorailles, a lieutenant of the king in Auvergne & Eleonore de Plas.
A lover of the King in the style of a heroine of romance.
". . . At the beginning of March, we find Madame de Maintenon imploring the Abbe Gobelin 'to pray and to have prayers said for the King, who is on the brink of a deep precipice.' This 'deep precipice' was the heart of Marie Angelique d'Escorailles de Roussille, Demoiselle de Fontanges, a young beauty of eighteen summers and maid of honour to Madame, who supplies us with the following details: 'I had a fille d'honneur named Beauvais. She was a very honest creature. The King became enamoured of her, but she remained virtuous. Then he turned his attention to the Fontanges girl, who was also a very pretty, but without any intelligence. At first he said, laughing: 'Here is a wolf who will not eat me up'; and forthwith fell in love with her. Before she came to me, she had dreamt all that was to befall her, and a pious Capuchin had explained her dream to her. She told me all about it herself before she became the King's mistress. She dreamt that she had ascended a high mountain, and having cloud; then she found herself in such profound darkness that she awoke in an agony of fear. She told her confessor, who said to her: 'Be on your guard. That mountain is the Court, where some great distinction awaits you. It will, however, be of short duration, if you abandon God, he will abandon you, and you will fall into eternal darkness.' . . . The Fontanges girl was a silly little creature, but with a warm heart, and beautiful as an angel from head to foot. She was terribly sentimental and loved the King passionately in the style of a heroine of romance.'" (Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV: 221)
"The daughter of the noble but impoverished comte de Rousille, Marie-Angelique had been graced with such astonishing good looks that her relatives, 'having more love for their fortune than for their honor,' according the the court wit Roger de Rabutin, comte de Bussy, ''clubbed together to fit her out for Court, and to provide her with means corresponding to the position she was entering.' In October 1678, they obtained for her the highly visible position of lady-in-waiting to Madame Palatine, the second wife of the king's brother, Monsieur, whose first wife was Henrietta, the subject of our last chapter. In her new position at court, Marie-Angelique became known as Mademoiselle de Fontanges for a property her family owned." (Herman. The Royal Art of Poison: 203)
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
"And then Mademoiselle de Fontanges landed on the scene. The girl's looks caused courtiers to burst into fits of poetry. One ambassador wrote: 'An extraordinary blonde beauty, the like of which has not been seen at Versailles in many a year. A form, a daring, an air to astonish and charm even that gallant and sophisticated Court.' The king was immediately smitten when he saw the girl in his sister-in-law's fragrant retinue of lovely ladies and made her his mistress by early 1679. . . ."
Beautiful as an angel and stupid as a basket.
" . . . Those who spoke to Mademoiselle de Fontanges, however, were deeply disappointed the moment she opened her mouth. Once courtier called the new mistress 'beautiful as an angel and stupid as a basket.' A resident noblewoman at court, Marthe-Marguerite de Caylus, wrote, 'The King, in truth, was attracted solely by her face. . . ." (Herman. The Royal Art of Poison: 204)
The affair's effects on other mistresses.
" . . . Madame de Montespan pretended to find solace in religion---fasting, praying, and meeting with her confessors. Many a cast-off royal mistress did the same, bestowing the dregs of her beauty on Jesus Christ,' as the English wit, Sir Horace Walpole, put it. But the tempestuous marquise couldn't always keep up this display of admirably piety. Sometimes she broke down in tears and, oblivious to the irony, decried 'the great sin committed by Mademoiselle de Fontanges.' Courtiers were treated to the sound of the king and his longtime mistress berating each other, their angry voices echoing down gilded palace halls." (Herman. The Royal Art of Poison: 204)
The affair's beneficiaries.
"Gradually Mademoiselle de Fontanges began to take a more prominent place at Court, where she astonished every one by her arrogance and ostentation. She drove about in a magnificent coach drawn by eight horses (Madame de Montespan had been content with six); she presented herself a the King's mass on New Year's Day; 'extraordinarily adorned with diamonds, over a dress made from the same material as that of her Majesty'; she passed in front of the Queen without curtseying to or even taking the slightest notice of her. Honours and riches were showered upon her and her relatives. She was created a duchess, with a pension in proportion to her rank; one of her sisters was appointed Abbess of Chelles, just as Madame de Montespan had been made Abbess of Fontevrault; another received on her marriage a dowry of 400,000 livres from the King; people hastened to solicit her good offices with his Majesty; and the capricious La Fontaine, who only a year before had dedicated to her predecessor in the royal favour his second collection of Fables, addressed to her an 'Epistle' in which he styled her 'digne present des cieux' and besought her to present his verses 'au dompteur des humains.'" (Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV: 225)
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| Mademoiselle de Fontanges |
Mlle. de Fontanges personal & family background.
Poisoned' by a rival lover?
"One of the many paramours of Louis XIV of France, she was a lady in waiting to Maria Theresa of Spain who became his lover in 1679. She gave birth to a stillborn child and afterwards left the court for a convent, although many believed that Françoise-Athénaïs, Marquise de Montespan had her poisoned. Mlle de Fontanges died in June 1681 in Port-Royal. The fontange, a headdress worn by women in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, was named after her. It is said that she tied her hair up with a ribbon after losing her cap while horseback riding, and the king liked the look." (Chateaubriand's Memoirs)
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| Duchesse de Fontanges |
Not suitable as official mistress.
"The unfortunate affair of Angelique de Fontanges, twenty years younger than the King, beautiful as her angelic name indicated but rather stupid, may be regarded as Louis's last thing before he settled for the virtuous domestic existence preached to him for so long. Angelique, although a virgin, was not a victim, except to her own tragic gynecological history: with a taste for grandeur, she was eager to fill the place of the maitresse en titre for which no one, and finally not Louis himself, thought her suitable." (Fraser: 327)
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| Duchesse de Fontanges |
Royal favours.
In 1678, 100,000 crowns a month. In 1679, the title of Duchesse de Fontanges, 800,000 livres as pension.
Achievements & Honours: Lady-in-waiting to the Duchess d'Orleans; Duchesse de Fontanges.
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| Diane-Gabrielle Duchess de Nevers |
23) Diane-Gabrielle Damas de Thianges (1656-1715)
Duchesse de Nevers
Lover in 1680 (rumour)
Daughter of: Leonor de Damas, Marquis de Thianges & Gabrielle de Rochechoaurt.
Wife of: Philippe-Julien Mancini Mazarin, mar 1670.
Wife of: Philippe-Julien Mancini Mazarin, mar 1670.
24) Marie-Madeleine Agnès de Gontaut Biron (1653-1724).
Marquise de Nogaret
Lover in 1680-1683.
Maid of Honour to the Dauphine 1679
Daughter of Francois de Gontaut, Marquis de Biron; Lieutenant-General of the King's armies & Elisabeth de Cosse-Brissac, daughter of the Duc de Brissac & Grand Penetier de France
Wife of Jean-Louis III de Louet de Calvisson, Marquis de Nogaret [Both his mother, Anne-Madeleine L'Isle Miravaux, and his wife (above) were mistresses of Louis XIV.]
"Although Marie and Louis' affair lasted on and off for three years very little is known about their time together. She never managed - or wanted for that matter - to attempt to take the position of the king's declared mistress." (This is Versailles)
25) Louise-Elisabeth de Rouxel (1653-1711)
Mademoiselle de Grancey.
Lover in 1681.
Daughter of: Jacques III de Rouxel, Comte de Grancey & Comte de Medavy, & Charlotte de Mornay-Villarceaux.
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Gabrielle Marquise de Thianges |
(1633-1693)
Marquise de Thianges
Marquise de Thianges
Lover in 1682-1683.
French aristocrat & royal mistress.
Daughter of: Gabriel de Rochechouart, Duc de Mortemart & Diane de Gandseigne.
Wife of: Claude Leonor Damas de Thianges, Marquis de Thianges, mar 1655.
"After a brief interval of pensive regret, consequent upon the final retirement of the Duchess de la Valliere, Louis XIV gradually resumed his Grand Turk mode of life. The kith and kin of the reigning favourite, the Mortemarts, obtained all and every title and distinction they coveted---in fact, absolute power. For, independently of Madame de Montespan, two sisters next appeared at court with a rank and splendour commensurate with their wit and beauty. The first was the charming Marchioness de Thianges; the second, the wise and witty Abbess of Fontevrault, to whom the king granted a dispensation of non-residence in her convent. Louis, although still in the prime of life, had already begun to show traces of age in his handsome features. At the fetes of Versailles, bedecked with ribbons and lace like a page, he appeared, always surrounded by the three sisters, rivaling each other in grace and majesty; and even at chapel Louis did not scruple to seat himself beside them in the same tribune. The Duke de Vivonne was alone wanting in his retinue to include the entire family of the Mortemarts under the royal roof." (Royal Favourites, Volume 2: 404-405)
27) Jeanne de Rouvroy (1650-1689)
27) Jeanne de Rouvroy (1650-1689)
Marquise de Chevrieres
Lover in 1681.
Maid-of-Honour to Queen Maria-Theresa 1671-73
Maid of Honour to Duchesse d'Orleans 1673-75
Daughter of: Pierre de Rouvroy, Seigneur de Puys & Ursule de Gontery.
Wife of: Pierre-Felix de La Croix de Chevrieres (1644-1699), Comte de Saint-Vallier, Marquis de Chevrieres, mar 1675.
"Jeanne's affair with Louis was very brief - she was even described as a "passing mistress" of the king's in 1681.The king had personally signed her marriage contract so they had at least been acquainted since 1675. She died just eight years later." (This is Versailles)
Lover in 1681.
Maid-of-Honour to Queen Maria-Theresa 1671-73
Maid of Honour to Duchesse d'Orleans 1673-75
Daughter of: Pierre de Rouvroy, Seigneur de Puys & Ursule de Gontery.
Wife of: Pierre-Felix de La Croix de Chevrieres (1644-1699), Comte de Saint-Vallier, Marquis de Chevrieres, mar 1675.
"Jeanne's affair with Louis was very brief - she was even described as a "passing mistress" of the king's in 1681.The king had personally signed her marriage contract so they had at least been acquainted since 1675. She died just eight years later." (This is Versailles)
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Charlotte-Eleonore Duchesse de Ventadour @Pinterest |
28) Charlotte-Eleonore de la Mothe-Houdancourt
Duchesse de Ventadour
(1654-1744)
Lover in 1681.
Governess of Louis XV 1704
Marquise d'Annonay
Comtesse de La Voulte.
Daughter of: Philippe de La Mothe Houdancourt, Duc de Cardona, Marechal de France & Louise de Prie, Marquise de Toucy, Duchesse de La Motte Houdancourt.
Wife of: Louis-Charles de Levis, Duc de Ventadour, Governor of Limousin, mar 1671.
29) Marie-Anne von Wurttemberg (1652-1693)
Lover in 1681.
Daughter of Ulrich won Wurttemberg & Isabelle de Ligne.
30) Françoise Thérèse de Voyer de Dorée.
Lover in 1681.
31) Marie-Antoinette de Rouvroy.(1660-?)
Lover in 1681.
Daughter of: Pierre de Rouvroy, Sire de Puys & Ursule de Gontery.
32) Marie-Rosalie de Piennes (1665-1735)
Marquise de Chatillon
32) Marie-Rosalie de Piennes (1665-1735)
Marquise de Chatillon
Lover in 1682.
" . . . Then we hear of a galanterie with the beautiful Duchesse de Chatillon, beloved of the great Conde; of an unsuccessful attack upon that impregnable fortress of virtue, the Princesse de Conti; and of an equally abortive attempt to woo a marvellous young beauty, Elizabeth de Tarneau by name, 'who had the prudence to refuse him so much as an interview.'" (Five Fair Sisters: 66)
Marquise de Chatillon's Spouse & Children: "Chatillon had married Mlle de Piennes for love. This pair was by general agreement the handsomest couple at court, the best and nobles looking of all. They quarreled and separated, never to see each other again. She [the wife] was lady-in-waiting to Madame and sister of the marquise de Villequier, who also married for love." (Saint-Simon & the Court of Louis XIV, p. 183)
Natural daughter of Henri-Jules de Bourbon-Conde & Francoise-Charlotte de Montalais, the governess of his children.
Wife of Armand de Madaillan de Lesparre, Marquis de Lassay, mar 1696.
"Bourbon, Julie de – (1668 – 1710), French courtier
Julie de Bourbon was was the illegitimate daughter of Henry Jules de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, and his mistress, Francoise de Montalais. Originally known as Mademoiselle de Guenani, Julie was legitimated and granted the title of Mademoiselle de Chateaubriant. Julie was married (1696) in Paris, to Armand de Madaillan de Lesparre, Marquis de Lassay (May 28, 1652 – Feb 21, 1738), and their daughter, Anne Louise Felicite de Madaillan de Lesparre (1698 – 1723), became the wife of Gabriel Simon d’O, Marquis de Franconville. Julie de Bourbon died (March 10, 1710) aged forty-one, in Paris." (A Bit of History)
" . . . As she was fifteen years old, pretty, witty, capricious, and a bit fickle, she apparently became the mistress of Louis XIV for a brief time, which would make her his last one. According to rumour, her papa shoved her into the King's direction in hopes to regain a bit of favour." (Party Like 1660)
Marquise de Lassay's other lover was:
1. Abbé Guillaume Anfrie de Chaulieu (1639-1720), Prieur d ’Oleron
[Pix]
Maid-of-Honour to Dauphine Marie-Anne Christine of Bavaria, c1683.
Wife of Armand de Madaillan de Lesparre, Marquis de Lassay, mar 1696.
"Bourbon, Julie de – (1668 – 1710), French courtier
Julie de Bourbon was was the illegitimate daughter of Henry Jules de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, and his mistress, Francoise de Montalais. Originally known as Mademoiselle de Guenani, Julie was legitimated and granted the title of Mademoiselle de Chateaubriant. Julie was married (1696) in Paris, to Armand de Madaillan de Lesparre, Marquis de Lassay (May 28, 1652 – Feb 21, 1738), and their daughter, Anne Louise Felicite de Madaillan de Lesparre (1698 – 1723), became the wife of Gabriel Simon d’O, Marquis de Franconville. Julie de Bourbon died (March 10, 1710) aged forty-one, in Paris." (A Bit of History)
" . . . As she was fifteen years old, pretty, witty, capricious, and a bit fickle, she apparently became the mistress of Louis XIV for a brief time, which would make her his last one. According to rumour, her papa shoved her into the King's direction in hopes to regain a bit of favour." (Party Like 1660)
Marquise de Lassay's other lover was:
1. Abbé Guillaume Anfrie de Chaulieu (1639-1720), Prieur d ’Oleron
[Pix]
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Marie-Louise Duchess of Roquelaure |
Maid-of-Honour to Dauphine Marie-Anne Christine of Bavaria, c1683.
Daughter of Guy-Urbain de Laval, Marquis de Laval-Lessay & Françoise de Sesmaisons.
Wife of Antoine-Gaston, Duc de Roquelaure (1656-1738), mar 1683, with 2 daughters.
Wife of Antoine-Gaston, Duc de Roquelaure (1656-1738), mar 1683, with 2 daughters.
The Duchess of Roquelaure's other lovers:
2. Xaintrailles.
"At the court, Marie Louise de Laval was named before 1683 maid of honor of the dauphine Marie-Anne-Christine of Bavaria. She gave up her charge that year, having become pregnant with the works of King Louis XIV, of which she was one of the temporary mistresses. Became a mistress of Louis XIV, she soon became pregnant with his works and the king did not want to legitimize the child, married the mother in a hurry to Antoine Gaston, Duke of Roquelaure (1656-1738) while giving this last a large sum of money to buy his silence. The marriage was celebrated on May 19, 1683 and two daughters were born of this union: Francoise (1683-1740) and Elisabeth (1688-1752). At the birth of his first daughter (born perhaps of the king's love affairs), the Duke de Roquelaure exclaimed: "Mademoiselle, welcome. I did not expect you so soon. Became Madame de Roquelaure, Marie Louise de Laval became the mistress of François de Neufville, marshal of Villeroy, then of Xaintrailles." (Le Favorites Royales)
35) Elizabeth Ternan.
Daughter of: Sieur de Ternan, King's master of the household.
"The king's first known passion . . . was for Mademoiselle Elizabeth Ternan, but that affair proved altogether inconsequential. . . ." (Royal Favourites, Vol 2: 386)
36) Jeanne.
" . . . The first lover of Louis XIV (1643-1715), the Sun King, stated historian J. Michelet, was an African woman named Jeanne. . . ." (Sertimaz: 141)
Louis XIV's Other or Minor Mistresses.
Louis XIV's Other or Minor Mistresses.
See Bourg:221]
37) Baronne de Salis.
38) Comtesse de Sades.
39) Duchesse de Chaulnes.
40) Duchesse de La Rochefoucauld.
41) Madame de Beaunoir.
42) Madame de Lussan
43) Madame de Gramont.
44) Madame de La Rure.
45) Madame de Louvigny.
Lover in 1676-1677.
46) Madame de Martinville.
47) Madame de Saint-Martin.
Lover around 1682.
48) Madame de Villemant.
49) Mademoiselle de Blaru.
50) Mademoiselle de Bomango.
47) Madame de Saint-Martin.
Lover around 1682.
48) Madame de Villemant.
49) Mademoiselle de Blaru.
50) Mademoiselle de Bomango.
51) Mademoiselle de Chateau-Thiers.
52) Mademoiselle de Coulanges.
53) Mademoiselle de Grandi.
54) Mademoiselle de George Weymer.
55) Mademoiselle de Lefevre.
56) Mademoiselle de Lescot, Italian comedienne
57) Mademoiselle de Lise R.
58) Mademoiselle de Malignan.
59) Mademoiselle d'Ore.
Lover in 1681.
Lover in 1681.
60) Mademoiselle de Romans.
61) Mademoiselle Ricardo.
62) Mademoiselle de Sainte-Helene.
Creole beauty.
Creole beauty.
63) Mademoiselle Theresia Campini.
64) Mademoiselle Tiercelin.
65) Marquise d'Eslignac.
66) Mademoiselle Witist.
"The preface to this strange incident, says Le Notre, went back twenty years before when the Grand Admiral of France arrived from Dahomey bringing with him a dwarf which the King of that country had sent as a present for the Queen. The Queen, pleased with the little black, dressed him in silken robes, ornamented with precious stones, costly bracelets and armbands, and a magnificent turban for which Madame de Maintenon gave him an aigrette of rubies, pearls, and diamonds. Sonn other ladies of the kingdom, following the Queen's example got little Negroes, too, to carry their trains and to show off the whiteness of their skins. This explains, says Le Notre, why Mignard and other painters of the time included Negroes in their canvasses. 'It was the mode, and became a veritable frenzy among the fashionable which lasted until a misadventure befell the Queen.' (Sex and Race, Volume 1: 2248)
Louis XIV Gallery.
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| Louis XIV |
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| Louis XIV in Coronation Robes by Pierre Mignard |
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| Louis XIV at 24 by Le Brun, 1662 |
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| Louis XIV, as a child by Jean Petitot, c1648 Burghley Collections |
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| Louis XIV at 8 |
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| Louis XIV @ 16 |
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| Louis XIV at 16 by Charles Le Brun, 1661 at Versailles Palace @Wikipedia |
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| Louis XIV by Joseph Werner |
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| Louis XIV by Wallerand Vaillant, 1660 at Chateau de Versailles |
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| Louis XIV at the Academy of Sciences, 1666 |
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| Louis XIV |
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