Madame de Montespan

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Françoise de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan, as Iris Signature Madame de Montespan.PNG

Françoise de Rochechouart, marquise de Montespan (born October 5, 1640 in Lussac ; † May 27, 1707 in Bourbon-l'Archambault ) was a mistress of Louis XIV . Under the influence of the contemporary, witty Parisian salon culture (the so-called " Precious ") and in allusion to the Greek goddess Athena , she called herself Athénaïs and is therefore also called Athénaïs de Montespan . She is best known as Madame de Montespan .

Life

Childhood and youth

Françoise de Rochechouart, later Madame de Montespan (before or around 1660). Workshop of Charles and Henri Beaubrun

Françoise de Rochechouart was born in the castle of Lussac-les-Châteaux as the third of five children of Gabriel de Rochechouart de Mortemart , Duke of Mortemart , and Diane de Grandseigne. Her father was a confidante of Louis XIII. and first chamberlain of the king ( premier gentilhomme de la chambre du roi ), her mother was a very pious woman and for a time was the lady of honor of Queen Anna of Austria . Her siblings were: Gabrielle, later Marquise de Thianges (* 1633); Louis Victor , later known as the Duc de Vivonne (1636–1688); Marie Madeleine Gabrielle (* 1645), later abbess of Fontevrault, and Marie Christine.

Françoise was born in the Ste. Marie was raised in Saintes and introduced to the French court as Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente. At the age of twenty she became Queen Marie Therese's maid of honor . In January 1663 she married Louis-Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin, Marquis de Montespan , who was a year younger than her. From him she had two children, Louis-Antoine de Pardaillan de Gondrin (* 1665), later Duc d 'Antin, and a daughter, Marie Christine (* 1663). The marriage with Louis-Henri was annulled in 1674.

Personality and character

She was considered a beautiful, cultured and charming entertainer and won the admiration of Madame de Sévigné and other leading spirits of the era, and later also of Saint-Simon . Like her entire family, the Montespan was gifted with the proverbial esprit mortemart (spirit of Mortemart): her witty and witty puns, brilliantly ironic and often very pointed remarks made her famous and notorious at the court of the Sun King.

Madame de Montespan has also been described as calculating, selfish, hard-hearted and cold at times; for example, Madame de Caylus said of her: "This beautiful woman's heart was hard". Liselotte von der Pfalz wrote:

“The Montespan had whiter skin than the La Vallière, she had a beautiful mouth and beautiful teeth, but she was bold. You could tell from her face that she always had some kind of plan. She had beautiful blonde hair, beautiful hands, beautiful arms, which La Vallière did not have, but she was very clean and the Montespan an unclean person. (...) "

- Liselotte of the Palatinate

Elsewhere Liselotte describes the Montespan as “a capricious creature who could not control himself, loved all kinds of pleasures, was bored of being alone with the king; she loved him only out of selfishness and ambition and cared very little about himself ”. Others also accused her of selfishness and extravagance, so Languet de Gergy spoke of the "insatiable greed of Madame de Montespan", and Madame de Sévigné called her in several of her letters, alluding to her greed for money, "Quanto" or "Quantova" (Italian: "How much?" Or "How much does it cost?"). Like many other courtiers, the Montespan lost or won huge sums of money playing: “The game of Madame de Montespan has grown to such an extent that losses of a hundred thousand thalers are not unusual: on Christmas day she lost seven hundred thousand thalers , on which she played three cards one hundred and fifty pistols and won them. "

Rise and life as maitresse en titre

Athénais de Montespan seems to have deliberately set out to become the king's mistress. As the queen's lady-in-waiting and as she also made friends with Louise de La Vallière , the official lover ( French: maîtresse royale en titre ) of Louis XIV, she was basically always in the presence of the king - who was also flirting with him anyway and had amours (including with the Princesse de Monaco). But Primi Visconti said:

“At first the king did not like this beautiful and mocking lady (= the Montespan). One day he even joked about it on the blackboard with Monsieur , his brother, and when she tried to please him with some affectation, he is said to have said: "She does what she can, but I don't want to."

- Primi Visconti

In July 1667, during the Flanders Campaign, the Montespan reached its goal and ousted Louise de La Vallière (initially still secretly) as the lover of Louis XIV. The Montespan pulled out all the stops of a real intriguer : In contrast to the rather shy , pious , and La Vallière, often tormented by remorse, the Montespan seemed to have no problem riding in the same carriage with the queen and the king who had just become her lover , or shouting to the queen in mock and hypocritical indignation: "God forbid me to become the king's mistress. If I were so unhappy I would never have the audacity to show myself to the Queen. "

Outwardly, Louise de La Vallière initially remained the king's official maîtresse en titre , presumably because it was hoped to deceive the public and the jealous husband of the Montespan. The two women had to live "side by side" for six years from 1668 to 1674 and dine at the same table. This difficult situation for both women created a lot of tension, and the Montespan complained about it to the king and made scenes for him; on the other hand, Madame de Caylus suspected, for example , that the Montespan and the king would have enjoyed humiliating the La Vallière. Liselotte von der Pfalz watched how he only used the room of La Vallière to get to the Montespan without being seen, and with an ironic remark he tossed his former lover a lap dog .

At a time when most noble husbands were flattered by the king's interest in their own wife and tried to take advantage of it, the Marquis de Montespan astonished the court by openly revolting at his wife's infidelity. He sparked a scandal by accusing Madame de Montausier of selfish pimp. He even wore mourning clothes for his wife and had a pair of horns attached to his carriage as a public sign that she had betrayed him. Montespan was arrested but released a few days later. According to Madame Caylus, he was seen at court “for a rude person and for a fool”, and the Montespan herself complained: “He is here telling stories at court. I'm so ashamed that my parrot and he is the scum are for amusement. "

Madame de Montespan, after Pierre Mignard

The first of the seven children that Athénaïs de Montespan gave birth to the king was born in March 1669 and was entrusted to Madame Scarron, the future Madame de Maintenon ; this child died after only three years, but from 1670 onwards the Montespan gave birth to a royal child almost every year. In 1673 the king legitimized his first three surviving children with the Montespan, but without naming the mother, because it was feared that Monsieur de Montespan might claim them for himself. The eldest, Louis Auguste (* 1670), became Duc du Maine; the second, Louis César (* 1672), Comte de Vexin ; the third, Louise Françoise (* 1673), Demoiselle de Nantes (later Duchess of Bourbon).

In the meantime the Marquis had been exiled to Spain, and in 1674 an official separation was declared by the General Procurator Achille de Harlay, assisted by six judges at the Châtelet .

Even after Louise de La Vallière left the court in 1674 to enter a monastery, and despite her position as maîtresse en titre , the Montespan did not only have to share the king with the queen, because he was an extremely volatile lover and wanted to be Enjoyment at the same time with various court ladies. Some of them were not entirely harmless rivals for the Montespan , like the Princess de Soubise or "the beautiful de Ludres ". Of all people, her confidante and governess of her children with the king, Madame Scarron, who was treated almost like a servant by the Montespan herself, rose so much in royal favor that he was promoted to Marquise de Maintenon by him in 1674. This gradually became the Montespan's greatest rival, and jealousy , enmity developed between the two women - and new reasons for quarrels between the Montespan and the king.

The eternal infidelity of the king, her position as maîtresse en titre , constantly endangered , led Madame de Montespan to seek help in love potions and very likely also in magic . So she (like many other people at the court) became a secret regular customer of the notorious midwife , poisoner and ' witch ' Catherine Mauvoisin, known as La Voisin .

In 1675 there was an embarrassing incident when a priest refused absolution to the Montespan on Maundy Thursday of all places because of her double adultery with the king ; she complained about it to the king, but found a powerful opponent in Bossuet , the then bishop of Meaux, who took the priest under protection. This was such a scandal and so shameful for the king himself that she had to leave the court for a while. After her return, however, the love flared up again, and she had two more children from the king: Françoise Marie (1677–1749) and Louis Alexandre , later comte de Toulouse (1678–1737).

In spite of all her beautiful rivals and although she was gaining weight and weight problems due to the many pregnancies, the Montespan triumphed again and again over the heart of the king, and demonstrated this demonstratively. This was described very graphically by Madame de Sévigné:

“Ah, my daughter, what a triumph at Versailles, what doubled pride! what a firmly established rule! which Duchess of Valentinois (= Diane de Poitiers , lover of Henry II ...). What an increase even through the temporary infidelity and absence, what repeated possession. I was in her room for an hour. She was in bed, adorned and with her hair dressed, she rested before the midnight meal ( Médianoche , after fasting days). I complimented her. She responded with kindness and praise. Her sister, who was standing above, all in the splendor of Nicaea sunning (figure from the Amadisroman ) made the poor Io (= Madame de Ludre) down and laughed about it that they have had the audacity to complain about them ... "

- Madame de Sévigné : in a letter dated June 11, 1677

For his part, the king had several castles built for the Montespan: the so-called Trianon de Porcelain near Versailles - so named because of its faience tiles - and the Clagny Castle , also in the immediate vicinity of Versailles. On 3 July 1675, Madame de Sévigné wrote again about the Montespan and the building work in Clagny: “You cannot imagine what a triumph it is, you, among your workers, who number twelve hundred. The Palace of Apollidor and the Gardens of Armida give only a faint idea of ​​it. The wife of her declared friend (= the queen) visits her and the whole family, one after the other. It has absolute priority over all duchesses. ”Today only memories of both castles remain, they were demolished in the 17th and 18th centuries.

At the height of their power, even the rules of etiquette were unhinged for the Montespan , according to Primi Visconti, "when they approached, all the princesses and duchesses rose even in the presence of the queen, and only sat down again" when she gave them a sign gave.

Her family also benefited from the royal favor of the Athénaïs de Montespan. In 1669, Louis XIV appointed her father governor of Paris and Île-de-France ; her brother Louis-Victor de Rochechouart, duc de Mortemart , duc de Vivonne and Marshal of France , was appointed governor of Champagne and Brie in 1674 , later also for a short time Viceroy of Sicily ; one of her younger sisters, Gabrielle, who had taken her vows only five years earlier, became abbess of the wealthy Fontevrault Abbey . Gabrielle was one of the most intelligent women of the time, was in correspondence with Louis XIV herself, and translated the first three volumes of the Iliad by Homer and, together with Racine, The Banquet by Plato .

Fall, injustice and end of life

In 1679 the Montespan position fell into serious crisis. Ludwig's affair with the beautiful 17-year-old Marie Angélique de Scoraille de Roussille from 1678 and the official elevation of Montespan to the position of superintendent of the queen's household in April of the same year were clear signs of this.

The so-called poison affair had already broken out - one of the biggest scandals in history - and Madame de Montespan's connection with Voisin and their dodgy dealings came to light, among other things, through statements made by Voisin's daughter. The police prefect La Reynie noted that the Montespan had first visited the Voisin in 1665. The name of her chambermaid, Claude Des Œillets , also appeared often in the testimony to the Chambre ardente . The Des Œillets had often served as a mediator and messenger between the Montespan and the Voisin and their accomplices. In an interrogation on August 20, 1680, Madame de Montespan was heavily incriminated when the Voisin's daughter claimed that the royal mistress herself had the priest Etienne Guiborg read black masses over her naked body , and had commissioned other black masses for herself at which she herself was not present, and where both her name and the name 'Louis de Bourbon' (ie the name of the king) were mentioned. She also brought the Montespan "... several times on behalf of her mother, powder that was held over the chalice [during a black mass], and other powders ..." which may have been made from moles . The Abbé Guiborg himself also reported on black masses that he had read over the body of a woman who had been introduced to him as Madame de Montespan - allegedly newborn children were also sacrificed in the process. The allegations became even more precarious when it emerged that the Voisin and their accomplices (allegedly) were planning to poison the king, and that they wanted to use the unsuspecting Madame de Montespan for this purpose and give her poison instead of love powder so that she could give him poisoned "... without her knowing what she was doing".

From the end of 1680, the Marquis de Louvois , Jean-Baptiste Colbert and Madame de Maintenon helped to cover up the affair and avoid another scandal over the mother of the king's legitimate children. In May 1681, in a secret operation, the king had the logs of the Chambre ardente in which the name of Montespan was mentioned burned. As a result, most of the records have been lost and the whole affair and role of Montespan will remain a secret forever.

To make matters worse, Mademoiselle de Fontanges died in 1681 a few months after the stillbirth of a child conceived by the king, and there was suspicion of poisoning - various people (including Fontanges herself and Liselotte from the Palatinate) believed Madame de Montespan to be guilty. In addition, several accomplices of Voisin, her own daughter, the valet Romani, his godfather Bertrand and the poisoner Filastre, testified that a poisoning of the Fontanges with fabrics and gloves was planned, and that Romani had tried to disguise himself as a fabric dealer House of Fontanges to arrive. However, the circumstances have never been fully resolved, and it is now believed that the Fontanges died of natural causes.

So the Montespan fell out of favor with the king. Was a sure sign of the fact that they are in Versailles from their recent huge luxury -Appartement (about 20 rooms) located very close to the King's Chamber of the first floor in a privileged position Corp de Logis lay the ground into former 'bathing room' had to move. However, she stayed at court until she retired to Paris in 1691 with a pension of half a million francs to the St. Joseph's Convent (in the Faubourg Saint-Germain ), which she founded in 1681 . Her apartment in Versailles was taken over by the Duc du Maine, the eldest (surviving) son she had with the king - and a darling of Madame de Maintenon; he is said to have persuaded his mother to leave (at the request of the king) and, according to Liselotte von der Pfalz, he had the Montespan's furniture thrown out the window the morning after her departure, “so that she could no longer… return”.

The legitimate children of the Montespan with Louis XIV were married by him to members of the highest nobility, - which mostly happened against their will, despite the high dowries he gave his daughters. In 1685 Mademoiselle de Nantes married Duke Louis III. de Bourbon-Condé . In 1692 the King gave the Duc du Maine a granddaughter of the Grand Condé as wife, Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon-Condé , and Mademoiselle de Blois became the wife of the Duc de Chartres (later regent), nephew of the King and son of Liselotte of the Palatinate ; she slapped her son in front of the whole court because he consented to what she saw as an improper marriage to a 'royal bastard '. For Madame de Montespan the brilliant roles of her children were nevertheless an honor and cause for pride, but she was not invited to the weddings in 1692.

In addition to spending on her houses and their furnishings, Madame de Montespan spent huge sums on hospitals and charities. She was also a generous patron of the arts and was friends with Pierre Corneille , Jean Racine, and Jean de La Fontaine ; during her heyday at court, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre was one of her protégés.

The Montespan spent the last years of her life in penance, partly in the Saint Joseph's Convent in Paris, and partly with her sister, the Abbess of Fontevrault. On the advice of her confessor, she asked her husband, the Marquis de Montespan, for forgiveness, but the latter refused; shortly afterwards he died (1701). In 1707 she publicly confessed her sins and asked for forgiveness; in May of the same year she went to Bourbon to take a cure, where she fell ill and died. After her death the king forbade her children to wear mourning clothes. Genuine mourning for her was felt by the Duchess of Bourbon and her younger children: Louis Alexandre, Comte de Toulouse, and Françoise Marie, Mademoiselle de Blois.

children

The Montespan and four of their illegitimate children

Athénaïs de Montespan had two children from her marriage to Louis Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin, Marquis de Montespan († 1691):

  1. Marie Christine de Gondrin de Montespan (* 1663–1675)
  2. Louis-Antoine de Pardaillan de Gondrin (* 1665–1736), later Duc d'Antin.

With Louis XIV she had seven children, six of whom were legitimized:

  1. first child, kept secret and died early (1669–1672); it is not known exactly whether it was a daughter (Louise Françoise?) or a son (according to the biography of J.-Ch. Petitfils)
  2. Louis Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine (1670-1736), married in 1692 Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon-Condé
  3. Louis César de Bourbon, comte de Vexin (1672–10 January 1683)
  4. Louise Françoise de Bourbon , Mademoiselle de Nantes , (1673-1743); married Louis de Bourbon, prince de Condé, in Versailles in 1685
  5. Louise Marie Anne de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Tours (November 12, 1674 to September 15, 1681)
  6. Françoise Marie de Bourbon , Mademoiselle de Blois (1677-1749); married Philippe d'Orléans, duc d'Orléans in Versailles in 1692
  7. Louis Alexandre de Bourbon , comte de Toulouse (1678–1737)

Literary and cinematic adaptations

literature

  • Gertrud von le Fort : The last meeting . Novella . Insel-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1959 (The fictional meeting of the disgraced Marquise with her former rival, the Carmelite nun La Vallière).
  • Françoise Chandernagor : L'Allée du roi , Juillard, Paris 1981 (a fictional autobiography by Madame de Maintenon based on historical documents, adapted several times for the stage (under the title L'Ombre du soleil ), and in 1995 also for French television was filmed (see below)).
  • Clare Colvin : The Mirror Makers Guild. Historical novel ("The mirror makers", 2005). BLT, Bergisch Gladbach 2005, ISBN 3-404-92175-5 (the rise and fall of the mistress Montespan forms the main plot of the novel, woven with the life of a fictional Italian mirror maker at the court of the Sun King).
  • Romain Rolland : La Montespan. Drame en 3 acts . RADM, Paris 1904.

Movies

literature

Web links

Commons : Madame de Montespan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ernest Lavisse: Louis XIV. Laffont, Bouquins 1989, p. 705.
  2. ^ Primi Visconti: Mémoires sur la cour de Louis XIV, introduction et notes de Jean-François Solnon. Perrin, 1988, pp. 7 and 16.
  3. ^ Jean-Christian Petitfils: Louis XIV , Perrin-LGLDM 1995 & 1997, p. 301.
  4. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 118.
  5. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 122.
  6. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 122.
  7. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 204.
  8. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 203.
  9. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 127 (letter of June 28, 1675), p. 131 (letters of September 2 and September 30, 1676).
  10. ↑ The Marquis de Feuquières in a letter to his father, in: Gilette Ziegler: Der Hof Ludwigs XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 151.
  11. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 54-55.
  12. ↑ Note d. Author
  13. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 53
  14. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 57
  15. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 56
  16. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 59
  17. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 59
  18. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 59-60.
  19. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 93.
  20. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 60-61
  21. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 61.
  22. ↑ She officially took the veil on June 4, 1675. Gilette Ziegler: The court of Louis XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 126
  23. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 130-135
  24. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 129–130 and p. 177.
  25. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 180-187.
  26. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 122-125.
  27. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 125.
  28. ↑ z. B. according to the testimony of Primi Visconti. Gilette Ziegler: The court of Louis XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 160
  29. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 135
  30. ^ "Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 127
  31. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 134. The cited text passage (also) refers to Madame de Ludre, but with the addition “exactly like that with Madame de Montespan”.
  32. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 159-162.
  33. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 181-182.
  34. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 182.
  35. ↑ Statement by the historian and author Jean-Christian Petitfils (including biographies about Louis XIV and about Madame de Montespan) in the television program L'ombre d'un doute - Guerre des dames à la cour du roi-soleil ( shadow of a doubt - women's war at the court of the Sun King ) on France 2 (originally broadcast: 2015), on Youtube "L'ombre d'un doute - Guerre des dames à la cour du roi-soleil" , at approx. 1: 26.26 to 1:27 , 47. Seen on April 15, 2018. Petitfils, however, considers it doubtful whether the Montespan participated in black masses or whether the blood of newborns actually flowed.
  36. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 186-187
  37. ↑ Statement by the historian Agnès Walch in the television documentary L'ombre d'un doute - Guerre des dames à la cour du roi-soleil ("Shadow of a Doubt - Ladies' War at the Court of the Sun King") on France 2 (originally broadcast: 2015), L'ombre d'un doute - Guerre des dames à la cour du roi-soleil on Youtube.
  38. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 180, 183, 187.
  39. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 187.
  40. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 187–190 (assertion of the guilt of Montespan by Lieselotte von der Pfalz: p. 189).
  41. ↑ Statement by Hélène Delalex ( attachée de conservation in Versailles Palace) in the television documentary L'ombre d'un doute - Guerre des dames à la cour du roi-soleil ( shadow of a doubt - Women War at the court of the Sun King ) was originally on France 2 ( aired: 2015), on Youtube "L'ombre d'un doute - Guerre des dames à la cour du roi-soleil , at approx. 1: 31.10 to 1:32. Seen on April 15, 2018.
  42. ↑ Helga Thoma: 'Madame, my dear beloved' - the mistresses of the French kings. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 107 and p. 108.
  43. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 260.
  44. ↑ Helga Thoma: 'Madame, my dear beloved' - the mistresses of the French kings , Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 106
  45. ↑ Helga Thoma: 'Madame, my dear beloved' - the mistresses of the French kings. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 108
  46. ↑ Helga Thoma: 'Madame, my dear beloved' - the mistresses of the French kings , Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 108.
  47. ↑ Helga Thoma: 'Madame, my dear beloved' - the mistresses of the French kings , Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 108.
personal data
SURNAME Montespan, Madame de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Montespan, Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, marquise de; Montespan, Françoise de Rochechouart, marquise de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mistress of Louis XIV.
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1640
PLACE OF BIRTH Lussac
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 1707
Place of death Bourbon l'Archambault