Madam de Montespan

Francoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marchioness of Montespan , born on October 5th, 1640 with the castle of Lussac-the-Castles, dead on May 26th, 1707 with Bourbon-the Archambault, more known like Madam de Montespan , was favorite of Louis {{XIV}}.

A tempting courtesan

Girl of the duke of Mortemart and Diane de Grandseigne, Francoise, who took later the name of Athénaïs under the influence of the preciosity, was initially high in a convent with Saintes. She left in 1658 there, under the name of Miss of Tonnay-Charente . Arrived at the Court of France a little later thanks to the intervention of Anne of Austria (thanks to the aunt of Francoise de Montespan, Anne de Rochechouart de Mortemart, which was one of his/her playmates), the young girl are attached to the service of Henriette of England, sister-in-law of Louis {{XIV}}. She married in February 1663 Louis Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin, marquis de Montespan (†   1701), of which it had Marie-Christine de Gondrin de Montespan (1663 - 1675) and the duke of Antin (1665 - 1736). She met Louis {{XIV}}, with the autumn 1666. Occupied of its love for its Favorite you, the duchess Louise of Vallière, it did not pay first of all attention to her. But when it bound with the duchess, the king, often meeting it at its mistress and the queen, its prickly, natural and enjouée conversation noticed. " With more surprising beauty, she united the sharpest spirit, finest, best cultivated, this hereditary spirit in her famille" will say Mrs. de Sévigné. Imperceptibly, Louis let himself charm by the beautiful marchioness, corrosive without spite and pleasant narrator. It is agreed that Mrs. de Montespan ridiculed many people, only to amuse the king. Its sarcastic remarks were however not without danger. The courtiers feared them. They especially avoided being let see under its windows when Louis was with it; they called that " to pass by the armes". It became its mistress in May 1667. Her husband, who had tried to initially draw advantage from the situation, made a scandal at the court when he learned the news. He was promptly locked up with the Fort-l' Évêque, then exiled on his grounds, out of Champagne, from where he did not leave almost any more until his death.

Favorite of the Sun king

One realized soon connection become intimate which existed between it and the king. It had an apartment with little distance from that of the monarch and the clear-sighted courtiers did not have a sorrow to explain why one and the other was concealed at the same time with the circle of the queen. Sensitive Vallière was not the last to realize that it did not occupy only any more the heart of Louis. There was only the queen who did not want to suspect it. Madam de Montespan had known to persuade it of her virtue. It was into 1670 that its favor burst officially at the time of a voyage in Spain where it made part of the voyage in the car of the king and the queen. And when it went up in his, four bodyguards surrounded the doors.

In 1674, Mrs. of Vallière left the court. Mrs. de Montespan then became the favorite one in title of Louis {{XIV}} (1638 - 1715) king de France and of Navarre. She made remove the presence of the girls of honor of the queen, as well by fear as she had in front of the taste of the innovation of her lover - she could find more than one rival among the young graduates who followed one another quickly - who by the concern of hiding the birth of the newborns of their passion. They indeed had seven children, among whom six were legitimated and four reached the adulthood:

  • a girl, Louise Francoise (1669-1672),
  • Louis Auguste of Bourbon, duke of Maine (1670-1736),
  • Louis César de Bourbon, count de Vexin, abbot of Saint-Germain-of-Meadows (1672-1683),
  • Louise Francoise de Bourbon, Miss de Nantes (1673-1743), which married Louis {{III}} of Bourbon-Cop, duke of Bourbon, 6th prince de Condé,
  • Louise Marie Anne of Bourbon, Miss de Tours (1674-1681),
  • Francoise Marie de Bourbon, the second Miss de Blois (1677-1749), which married Philippe of Orleans, future regent,
  • Louis Alexandre of Bourbon (1678-1737), count de Toulouse.
She then entrusted their education to Mrs. Scarron, future the Madam de Maintenon, which became its rival thereafter. But with time, the marchioness, tired this awkward decency got rid some and did not take any more the trouble to conceal with the public his/her children.

A sumptuous reign

The empire that the proud mistress exerted on the heart of the king made it soon claim to obtain authority in the businesses. It had as well means of influencing the spirit of the king as the ministers and the courtiers subjected themselves to it. One asked and one took his advice. Louis, itself deceived by promptness and connect it thoughtlessness of the marchioness showed it to the ministers like a child. This child thus knew all the secrecies of the State. Mrs. de Montespan was also impassioned by the luxury which, during its favor, extended everywhere, polishes manners, by perhaps corrupting them, printed such an amount of activity to the trade, with manufactures, and gave a so great rise to the genius of the fine arts. It is allowed to believe that she contributed to develop at Louis this taste of the large things and the magnificence. The marchioness in addition created around it a brilliant court where the beautiful spirit dominated, the spirit of Mortemart. the Fountain, Molière, Quinault were protected and encouraged by it which gave to the king the idea to make write its history by Racine and Boileau.

Disgrace

With the age, Louis tested the need for a more regular life, encouraged in this direction by Mrs. de Maintenon, become the friend of the king meanwhile. This one, feeling strong a reputation without spot, borrowed the voice of the religion and morals to bring back Louis of its errors. The severe exhortations of Mrs. de Maintenon struck the king by their accuracy; but accustomed for a long time to the attraction of the pleasure, it was let there involve with Mrs. de Montespan to then return to deplore its brittleness near Mrs. de Maintenon. Such was the cause of the reciprocal jealousy between the two women. Louis itself was obliged to intervene in their quarrels for the racommoder, to again see them scrambling itself the following day. But it is a third woman who caused the disgrace of Mrs. de Montespan. Louis fell passionately in love with Miss de Fontanges, old only twenty years. In fact one was protected Madam de Montespan had believed to be able to retain the king by presenting a young white goose to him. The trap was turned over against it. Miss de Fontanges found herself quickly pregnant but was confined prematurely of a little boy who did not survive. She was in her turn taken of a slow evil which weakened it day in day and ends up killing it. It is this event which launched the Affaire of the poisons. Compromised (wrongly or rightly?) in this murky story, the marchioness was forsaken by the king.

Since 1683, Mrs. de Montespan did not have any more a title but it remained however at the Court, not being able to be solved to move away from the king. It followed the way of life, giving great festivals, always living on a large foot. In 1685, his/her daughter M of Nantes married the duke of Bourbon, Louis de Bourbon-Cop. In 1692, his/her Maine son married with a grand-daughter of the Large Cop and his/her daughter M of Blois became the wife of the duke of Chartres, nephew of the king. She was proud brilliances marriages of her children. The king himself considered besides that the duke of Maine goes up on the throne in the event of extinction of the Bourbons and, with his death it wished that this one and his/her brother, the count of Toulouse, ensure the Régence future Louis {{XV}}. In 1691, Madam de Montespan withdrew herself in Paris where she lived in the devotion, the generosity and the will of expier her last wrongs. She said herself always sick, without the being truly, and she showed the sharpest fear constantly to die. Its apartment remained enlightened during the night, and it was taken care all the night if its sleep had suddenly stopped. She died in 1707, at the time of a cure with Bourbon, in the most complete lapse of memory.

See too

  • Madam de Monstespan is interpreted by Lysa Ansaldi in the musical production the Sun king put in scene by Kamel Ouali.

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