Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart , Marchioness of Montespan (5 October 1641 – 27 May 1707), better known as Madame de Montespan , was one of the most celebrated maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XIV of France
Born into one of the oldest noble families of France, the House of Rochechouart , Madame de Montespan was called by some the true Queen of France during her romantic relationship with Louis XIV due to the pervasiveness of her influence at court during that time.
Her so-called reign lasted from around 1667, when she first danced with Louis XIV at a ball hosted by the king's younger brother, Monsieur , at the Louvre, until her alleged involvement in the notorious Affaire des Poisons in the late 1670s to 1680's. She is an ancestress of several royal houses in Europe, including those of Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and Portugal.
Early life
Françoise de Rochechouart de Mortemart was born on 5 October 1641 at the Château of Lussac-les-Châteaux in today's Vienne department, in the Poitou-Charentes region in France, Françoise (as a précieuse , she later adopted the name "Athénaïs"), Mlle de Tonnay-Charente, possessed the blood of two of the oldest noble families of France through her parents, Gabriel de Rochechouart, Duke of Mortemart, Prince of Tonnay-Charente, and Diane de Grandseigne.
From her father, she inherited the famous Mortemart esprit ("wit"). As a young girl, she often travelled with her mother between the family estates and the court at the Louvre in Paris. At the age of twelve, she began her formal education at the Convent of St Mary at Saintes, where her sister Gabrielle had started hers almost a decade earlier. Her siblings were:
- Gabrielle (1633-1693), who married Claude Léonor Damas de Thianges , Marquess of Thianges and had issue.
- Louis Victor (25 August 1636-1688), known as the Marquess of Vivonne , who was an enfant d'honneur and a friend of Louis XIV of France in his youth.
- Marie Madeleine Gabrielle Adélaïde (1645-1704), who due to her relationship with Françoise-Athénaïs, was known as the Queen of Abbesses.
At the age of twenty, Françoise-Athénaïs became a maid-of-honour to the king's sister-in-law, Princess Henrietta Anne of England, who was known at court by the traditional honorific of Madame . Later, because of the relationship between her mother and the queen dowager, Anne d'Autriche, Françoise-Athénaïs was appointed to be a lady-in-waiting to the king's wife, Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche.
Marriage
On 28 January, 1663, Françoise married Louis Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin, Marquess of Montespan (1640-1701), who was a year older than she was. Françoise had previously been engaged to his brother, but the brother had been killed in a duel after a ball at the Louvre. After his death, it was decided that Françoise should marry his younger sibling. The wedding ceremony took place in a chapel at the Église Saint-Eustache in Paris. The couple had two children:
- Marie Christine de Pardaillan de Gondrin (1663-1675), who died at the Château de Bonnefont, one of her father's castles in Gascony.
- Louis Antoine de Pardaillan de Gondrin, Marquess of Antin (1665-1736); later Duke of Antin. Louis Antoine had a cordial relationship with his younger half-brothers, the Duke of Maine and the Count of Toulouse.
The couple lived in a small house close to the Louvre, which allowed Madame de Montespan to attend court and carry out her duties there as a lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Orléans. Beauty was only one of Madame de Montespan's many charms. She was a cultured and amusing conversationalist, who won the admiration of such literary figures as letter-writer Madame de Sévigné and diarist Saint-Simon. In addition, she kept abreast of political events. This had the effect of making her even more appealing to men of intellect and power.
It was said that she once had an affair with the reknown chef François Vatel during festivities at the Château de Chantilly.
Rise as Maîtresse-en-titre
Madame de Montespan astounded the court by openly resenting the position of queen Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche, the daughter of the king and queen of Spain, Philip IV and Elisabeth de France. A scandal arose when the Duchess of Montausier, governess of the royal children and lady-in-waiting to the queen, was accused of acting as a go-between in order to secure the governorship of the Dauphin for her husband, the Duke of Montausier.
By 1666, Madame de Montespan was trying to take the place of Louis XIV's current mistress, Louise de La Vallière. Using her wit and charm, she sought to ingratiate herself with the king. She also became close to the Dauphin, whose affection for her never wavered.
She also became friends at court with another lady-in-waiting to the queen, Louise Boyer, the wife of Anne, Duke of Noailles. Montespan's youngest son, the Count of Toulouse, would later marry one of Boyer's grand-daughters.
Illegitimate children
The first of the seven children that Madame de Montespan bore to the king was born in March 1669. The new-born child, a girl, Louise Françoise de Bourbon (1669-1672), was entrusted to one of Madame de Montespan's friends, Madame Scarron (the future marquise de Maintenon ) to raise. The King bought a small house in the village of Vaugirard, on the outskirts of Paris.
In 1673, the couple's three living illegitimate children, given the royal surname of de Bourbon , were legitimatised by Louis XIV. Their mother's name, however, was not mentioned in the legitimisation documents. This was because Madame de Montespan was still married to the marquis de Montespan at the time. If their maternal parentage had been revealed, the marquis could have claimed Madame de Montespan's illegitimate children with the king as legally his own. The eldest, a son, Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, became the duc du Maine ; the second child, a son, Louis-César de Bourbon, became the comte de Vexin ; and the third, a daughter, Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, became Mademoiselle de Nantes . As Madame de Montespan spent the majority of her time immersed in the social whirl of the court, the three had little contact with their busy mother and spent most of their childhood with their governess, Madame Scarron.
In 1674, an official separation with her husband was declared by the Procureur général Achille de Harlay, assisted by six judges at the Châtelet. When Louis's affections showed signs of cooling, Madame de Montespan is alleged to have resorted to Black Magic in order to get him back. Some have supposed that she may have started to consider using poison against potential rivals for the king's affections as early as 1676. Her adversary turned out to be the Roman Catholic Church. In 1675, the priest Lécuyer refused to give her absolution which was necessary for her to make her Easter communion, a requisite for all Catholics. Father Lécuyer demanded in the confessional,
"Is this the Madame that scandalises all France? Go abandon your shocking life and then come throw yourself at the feet of the ministers of Jesus Christ."
The king appealed to the priest's superiors but the Church refused to yield to the king's demands. After a short separation, the king and Madame de Montespan resumed their relationship which resulted in the birth of two more children, Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Blois , in 1677, and Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse , in 1678, both of whom were to be legitimised in 1681. However, the Affaire des Poisons , which had burst upon the scene in September 1677, was to be the beginning of the end of the reign of La Montespan .
Louis' budding romance with the Duchess of Fontanges and Madame de Montespan's relegation to the position of superintendent of the Queen's household brought matters to a crisis. Mlle de Fontanges died in 1681 and poisoning was suspected by many at the time, although none could prove it. It is now believed that Mlle de Fontanges died from natural causes.
Royal scandal and fall
Affaire des Poisons
Long assumed to have been involved in the infamous Affaire des Poisons , Madame de Montespan has never been conclusively implicated. Gabriel Nicolas de La Reynie, Paris' first Lieutenant General of Police and the chief judge of the court, before whom the famous poisoning cases were brought, heard testimony that placed Madame de Montespan's first visits to the so-called witch Catherine Monvoisin, known as La Voisin, in 1665. Initially, La Voisin reportedly just gave Madame de Montespan love potions concocted of repulsive ingredients for Louis XIV to take, in the hope that such magic would gain Madame de Montespan the king's love and help her replace Louise de La Vallière in her role as maîtresse-en-titre.
In 1666, Madame de Montespan supposedly went so far as to allow a priest, Etienne Guibourg, to perform a black mass over her nude body in a blood-soaked ceremony, which was also said to have included infant sacrifice. Whatever the truth in these allegations, in July 1667, Madame de Montespan became the king's new mistress even though Louise was carrying his child, Louis de Bourbon, comte de Vermandois .
In addition to seeking Louis' love, some charged Madame de Montespan with al
Madame de Montespan - Palace of Versailles
The Marquise de Montespan met Louis XIV in the autumn of 1666 and became his mistress the following year. After being introduced at the Château de Versailles thanks to Anne of ...
Madame de Montespan - Wikipédia
Françoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise de Montespan, née le 5 octobre 1640 au château de Lussac-les-Châteaux, morte le 26 mai 1707 à Bourbon-l'Archambault ...
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Category:Madame de Montespan - Wikimedia Commons
English: Françoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, marquise de Montespan (1640-1707), aka Madame de Montespan, mistress of Louis XIV of France
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MADAME DE MONTESPAN
SECTION V.—MADAME DE MONTESPAN . The King at first could not bear Madame de Montespan,—[Daughter of Gabriel de Roche Chouart, first Duc de Mortemart.]—and blamed Monsieur and ...
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Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan - Wikipedia, the free ...
Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marchioness of Montespan (5 October 1641 – 27 May 1707), better known as Madame de Montespan, was one of the most celebrated ...
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