Louise de La Vallière

Louise de la Vallière, portrait by Jean Nocret , ca 1665-1672

Françoise Louise de La Baume Le Blanc , Duchess of La Vallière and Vaujours, known as Louise de La Vallière (born August 6, 1644 in Tours , † June 6, 1710 in Paris ) was mistress of the French King Louis XIV from 1661. She gave birth to several Children and was ousted in his favor by Madame de Montespan in 1667 , after which she had to stay at court until 1674. At the age of 30 she entered a Carmelite monastery and lived there until her death 36 years later.

Life

Early life

Françoise Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, who was soon called by her middle name, came from an old but impoverished nobility who actually lived in Bourbonnais . She was the daughter of a cavalry officer, Laurent de la Baume le Blanc, Seigneur of La Vallière, Governor of the Royal Castle of Amboise , and Françoise Le Prévost. She spent her childhood on two family estates, namely the Hôtel de la Crouzille in Tours and the lovely La Vallière Castle in Reugny . She grew up in deep Catholic provincial nobility; so her uncle Gilles became Bishop of Nantes in 1668 and she herself received her first primarily literary education from two aunts, the Ursuline nuns Élisabeth and Charlotte.

Louise's father died in 1651 or 1654, and her mother married Jacques de Courtavel, Marquis de Saint Rémy, first steward of the Duke Gaston d'Orléans , on March 2, 1655, by third marriage , to whom Louise became a good stepfather. With him Louise came to Blois at Gaston's court. The Duke and his second wife Margaret of Lorraine had three daughters, Marguerite-Louise , Françoise-Madeleine and Élisabeth-Marguerite , who were about the same age as Louise. Louise was raised with these three princesses and was their playmate. The lessons led by the Abbé de Rancé included literature as well as visual arts and music. So Louise learned court etiquette, as well as singing, dancing, riding and writing correctly.

After the death of Duke Gaston of Orléans, his widow moved with her daughters to the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris, and they were accompanied by Louise, now 16, and her parents. Louise remained the friend of Gaston's daughters, among whom Marguerite-Louise was particularly fond. Even if she limped slightly since an injury to her heel and, in the judgment of the Abbé de Choisy , a childhood friend, was not outstandingly beautiful and had no great spirit, Louise had grown into a charming, level-headed and reserved girl of winning modesty read a lot to educate yourself. She had blonde hair, blue eyes and a melodic voice, advanced to become a skilled horsewoman and knew how to handle a pistol accurately.

Mistress of Louis XIV.

Through the influence of a distant relative, Madame de Choisy, Louise de La Vallière became the maid of honor of Henrietta Anne Stuart , called Madame , who was the sister of King Charles II of England , was about the same age as Louise and was just on March 31, 1661 Duke Philip of Orléans , brother of King Louis XIV, had married. Henrietta was very attractive, was soon on the best of terms with her royal brother-in-law at court in Fontainebleau, and spent a lot of time with him every day amid all sorts of distractions, so that rumors of a romance arose. The Queen Mother Anna of Austria felt compelled to intervene because of the jealousy of Ludwig's wife, Queen Marie Therese , and the anger of Henrietta's husband.

In order to avoid a scandal and further irritation with her parents, Henrietta agreed with Louis XIV in July 1661 that he should give his attention to three of her chosen ladies-in-waiting. In addition to two ladies-in-waiting from the Queen's entourage, Mademoiselle de Pons and Mademoiselle de Chimerault, Henrietta's maid of honor Louise was also provided for this diversion from the affair between Ludwig and his sister-in-law. The unsuspecting Louise was not privy to the intrigue and believed in the sincerity of the favor given by the monarch, who was six years her senior. As a result, however, the king fell in love with Louise just as she did with him. While Henrietta was left behind, Louise had only been in Fontainebleau for two months when she became the king's mistress. It was Louise's first serious relationship, and she was an innocent, pious girl who was not self-interested in their relationship. She was not interested in money or titles that could get her the situation, but only wanted - as Madame de Caylus and Madame de La Fayette assessed them - the love of the king.

Louise and the king tried to keep their liaison a secret, but it soon became an open secret at court. For example, when Ludwig won a diamond-studded bracelet at a lottery arranged by his mother, he gave it to Louise, who returned it but received the compliment from the king that her hands were too beautiful not to keep it. Louise, for her part, gave the king a fur coat acquired from her low wages as a lady-in-waiting. She felt profoundly guilty towards the French queen and God because of her extramarital relationship and therefore suffered torments of conscience. She rejected applications from various court lords such as Loménie de Brienne. Nicolas Fouquet's curiosity about the mistress was one of the reasons he fell out of favor. He tried to bribe Louise to spy on the king for him, but Louise indignantly refused and complained to Ludwig about it.

With his mistress, the king often went on horseback excursions to the Palace of Versailles , which had not been expanded at the time and which served as the couple's love hiding place. In February 1662, however, a serious conflict broke out between Ludwig and his lover because Louise refused to tell him about her meeting with her scheming friend Anne-Constance de Montalais. From this, Louise had learned about the relationship between Henrietta Anne Stuart and Count Armand de Guiche , who allegedly also had homosexual relations with Henrietta's husband; and Louise, who had pledged herself to keep Madame's liaison secret , but did not want to lie either, stubbornly remained silent about the king. Ludwig was very angry about this. Louise sadly withdrew to the Salesian convent of Sainte-Périne in Chaillot , where the king quickly followed her, reconciled with her and persuaded her to return to the Palais des Tuileries . At this time, however, the cleric Jacques Bénigne Bossuet held several fasting sermons in which he castigated the immoral activities of the king using the example of the adultery of the Jewish king David . Because of these reproaches, the pious Louise went through internal conflicts.

In 1662, Ludwig organized an equestrian festival for his courtiers, called Caroussel , in honor of his mistress in front of the Palais des Tuileries . Louise, who took part in various celebrations organized by the king, was much hostile to and the target of malicious intrigues. Olympia Mancini , Comtesse de Soissons and niece of Cardinal Mazarins , was somewhat hostile to her and tried to achieve her downfall by sending an anonymous letter to Queen Marie Therese in November 1662, in which the king's liaison with Louise was reported. However, the letter first came into the hands of Doña Molina, a lady-in-waiting of the queen, who did not hand it over to her mistress, who thus remained one of the few who remained hidden from her husband's extramarital affair. Meanwhile, Ludwig also had affairs with other women such as the Princess of Monaco, a sister of the Count of Guiche. Finally, Olympia Mancini explained to the queen in a direct conversation about the infidelities of her husband, about which Marie Therese was very angry. However, the king used this situation, without changing his love behavior, to now be more open to his wife, which enabled him, for example, to bring Louise more into the public eye.

During her first pregnancy, Louise was released from Henrietta's service and had to move to a small country house that Ludwig had given her, the Palais Brion in the garden of the Palais Royal . There everything was prepared for the secret confinement under the supervision of Finance Minister Colbert , and on December 19, 1663, Louise gave birth to her son Charles, who was immediately taken to the church of Saint-Leu for baptism and then placed in the care of two faithful servants of Colbert. Monsieur de Lincourt and Demoiselle Élisabeth de Beux were entered in the baptismal register as the supposed parents of the newborn. Despite the attempted secrecy of this move, organized by the doctor Boucher who was present when Charles was born, the story quickly spread in Paris. The public sneer at a midnight mass held on December 24, 1663, dismayed Louise, who fled home from church.

Louise now led a lonely life and the ladies avoided her, which annoyed the monarch. The splendid seven-day festivities held in the newly opened gardens of Versailles in May 1664, the Plaisirs de l'Île enchantée ("Pleasure of the Enchanted Island"), a series of uninterrupted theater performances (including the first performance of Molières Tartuffe ), concerts, ballets, etc., were held in honor of the Queen and Queen Mother, but were de facto an homage to Louise. Although she tried to keep modestly in the background, Ludwig openly showed his love for his favorite, her brother Jean-François de La Vallière as well participated in these celebrations. She became the recognized mistress and ultimately had to be officially received by the Queen Mother, no matter how reluctant she was. Queen Marie Therese sank into despair, but in vain asked her husband to return to her and to marry Louise. The Vatican legate stated that Ludwig visits his mistress every day, but that this does not make her arrogant. On January 7, 1665 Louise gave birth to another son of the king in Brion, who was baptized as Philippe, son of the citizen François Derssy, and given back into foster care.

In 1665 Louise was at the top of her social rise, wandered through the Fontainebleau forest in sight of the whole court and was the envy of many. During these years as a royal mistress, she also devoted herself to intellectual interests, attended performances of pieces by Molière and Racine as well as painting courses at the Académie Royale , was enthusiastic about philosophy and interacted with free-spirited intellectuals like Benserade .

Seven days after the death of Queen Mother Anna of Austria, who died of breast cancer on January 20, 1666 after a long suffering , Louise was allowed to sit in the honorary gallery of the chapel to the right of Marie Therese during the funeral mass celebrated in Saint-Germain. This was a great humiliation for the queen; she remained jealous and complained. But after the death of his mother, Ludwig's affection for his mistress was already waning after five years. Since he was now bored with Louise, from 1666 or early 1667 he increasingly turned his gaze to the very different, very beautiful lady -in- waiting Françoise-Athénaïs, Marquise de Montespan .

Displacement by Madame de Montespan

Failing to secure financial support and an influential group of friends to draw on in emergencies, Louise de La Vallière found herself in a precarious position when the king's attention turned away from her. Her first two children died of infancy before autumn 1666, but she gave birth to a daughter on October 2, 1666 in Vincennes Castle , who was named Marie Anne .

Despite his waning passion for Louise and his quest to make Madame de Montespan his new lover, Ludwig decided to commit Louise even longer by increasing her hierarchical position shortly before the outbreak of the War of Devolution . He had her elevated to duchess on May 14, 1667 and acquired the Vaujours estate in northern Touraine associated with this title for her . He further confessed himself to be the father of Marie Anne and declared her legitimate; she was given the name Mademoiselle de Blois . Louise received all the honorary markings of a duchess and was allowed to sit on a stool in the presence of the queen, which was a great privilege. But Louise, who was called Duchess of La Vallière instead of Vaujours after her new estate, suspected that the king's favors were a kind of extravagant parting gift.

After the beginning of the war of devolution, Ludwig went to his army on the theater of war in the Spanish Netherlands and ordered his wife and her entourage, including Madame de Montespan, to follow suit later. Louise, however, had to stay behind in Paris. But she did not submit, left without authorization and met the Queen's entourage in La Fère , which angered Marie Therese, and the ladies-in-waiting also criticized Louise's behavior. Nevertheless, Louise traveled on to Avesnes with the Queen and her companions and met the sovereign there in June 1667, who, however, received her coldly. Ludwig probably began his intimate relationship with Madame de Montespan at that time. During his journey to the siege of Lille , which began on August 14, the queen accompanying him had to sit in a carriage with both of her husband's mistresses, whereupon Ludwig's subjects spoke of the "three queens". Louise then had to return to Paris. On October 2, 1667, in the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye , she quietly gave birth to a son, Louis , who was immediately taken away in order to keep the birth a secret.

As a result, Louise had to fulfill tough representational duties at court until 1674, especially during this time living in rooms adjoining that of Madame de Montespan, who had once been her "friend". The monarch continued to pass her off as his mistress and tried to keep appearances and to hide his relationship with Madame de Montespan. She was married and her husband, Louis-Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin, Marquis de Montespan, was unwilling to condone his wife's extramarital affair; he even threatened to take her away from the court. In order not to offer the angry Gascogner legal recourse against his wife, such as the accusation of adultery, Ludwig, if he wanted to hang out with Madame de Montespan, officially went to Louise and only then, protected from prying eyes, to his favorite. Louise's relationship with Ludwig ended in the same way as it had begun; for at first she was supposed to divert the court from Ludwig's relationship with Henrietta from England, now from that with Madame de Montespan.

Louise de La Vallière with her children. Copy of a painting by Pierre Mignard from the 19th century (by Schmitz, 1865, today: Palace of Versailles )

Of course, Louise still hoped to regain Ludwig's love. Not only did she have to lodge next to Madame de Montespan, but both rivals for the king's favor also had to share in the same amusements, trying to outdo each other in their attention to the ruler while hating each other. But in Ludwig's favor, Louise withdrew more and more from Madame de Montespan, who treated her more and more arrogantly like a servant. When Louise complained to Ludwig about her lot, the monarch informed her coolly that he did not love any rules, but would always let her fate be a matter of concern. Over time, she seemed to come to terms with the rise of her rival. At least she managed to get the king to improve her economic situation and, on February 20, 1669, to legitimize her youngest son, Louis, Count of Vermandois, to whom he also awarded the completed post of Admiral of France in November 1669 . Louise donated a lot for the poor, led a splendid life herself, richly funded by Colbert, bought precious stones, but also studied philosophy.

Inner conversion

Jean-Charles Nocret : Le renoncement de Louise de la Vallière , 1675, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest

At the end of March or beginning of April 1670, Louise suddenly suffered a serious illness. After she recovered, she regretted her previous walk and in just three days, in a state of rapturous excitement, wrote a thirty-page theological text based on the following of Christ . In this semi-autobiographical booklet, which was published anonymously under the title Réflexions sur la Miséricorde de Dieu (“Reflections on the Mercy of God”) in 1680, after Louise joined the monastery, the author deals with the mercy of God for penitent sinners towards, especially courtesans who want to lead a new life of repentance away from courtly debauchery.

In 1670, Louise did not yet consider joining a monastery. She thanked the Creator for her healing, asked him for a steadfast faith and from then on wanted to lead a godly life as atonement, which, according to her conviction, initially consisted of atoning for her sins at court in view of the triumph of Madame de Montespan and daily abuse suffer. She later explained to the Electress of the Palatinate that in atonement she had to endure what was most torturous for her, namely to share the king's love with another and to feel his contempt, and this in public, since her sins were just as public committed. However, she was not yet ready for religious life because she was still very attached to Ludwig.

Apparently these living conditions became unbearable after almost a year, because on February 11, 1671, Ash Wednesday , after writing a letter to Louis, she secretly left the Tuileries and retired to the monastery of Sainte-Marie de Chaillot because she no longer wanted to live at court. Ludwig, who was on the hunt, sent the Duke of Lauzun to ask them to return, but Louise abruptly refused him. The pious Marshal Bernardin Gigault de Bellefonds could not persuade her to resume her life at court either, but only the Finance Minister Colbert, who informed her that the King wanted a discussion with her, after which he would leave it up to her whether to stay or go wool. Ludwig received her warmly and was able to persuade her to linger near him. Madame de Sevigné doubted the seriousness of Louise's intentions to withdraw from court.

The behavior of the monarch and Madame de Montespan towards Louise did not change; Ludwig devoted himself exclusively to the Montespan, which Louise treated extremely arrogantly. The Duchess of La Vallière continued to endure all this and wore a penitential shirt under her clothes, but was now determined to join a convent. On December 29, 1671, the king had Louise, the Count of Vermandois, verify the question of his last child's salary in the accounting chamber. Louise then went to the Dutch War with Ludwig and his mistress and served as a cover for their double adultery.

Louise now received spiritual assistance from the Abbé de Rancé and the Bishop Bossuet . She also found a confidante in Marshal de Bellefonds, an important representative of the submissive court party. He advised Louise to make Father César, a Carmelite , her confessor . After living in Tournai during the campaign with the Queen in 1673 , she returned to Paris and struggled with the conversation for a long time, as the first of her 48 letters to Marshal de Bellefonds written between June 1673 and November 1693 shows to look with Ludwig in order to get permission from him to permanently renounce worldly life. Bossuet encouraged her in her plan. She was separated from her children, Colbert managed their assets and Louise only saw them temporarily. She wanted to live according to the rule of the order of St. Teresa and enter the Carmelite convent in the Paris suburb of Saint-Jacques. The Paris convention , which was very suspicious of the Duchess of La Vallière because of her earlier way of life, was convinced by an aunt of Marshal von Bellefonds of the sincerity of the penitentiality of the former favorite of the Sun King. When Louise was asked by the later Madame de Maintenon whether she was aware of the hardships facing her with the Carmelites, she replied that she only had to remember the torments she had suffered at court in order to be able to endure any suffering easily.

In December 1673 Louise became the godmother of Louise Françoise de Bourbon , a daughter of Ludwig and Madame de Montespan. Perhaps it was the beginning of next year that Louise and her two children Marie Anne and Louis had Pierre Mignard paint them. In mid-March 1674, she finally managed to ask the king for permission to enter the monastery, which she was allowed to do. Due to great generosity and love of splendor, however, she owed around 150,000 livres that she had to pay off before entering. Apparently Ludwig did not want to settle it; finally he ordered their son, the Count of Vermandois, to lend his mother the amount in exchange for interest. Louise sent her jewelry to the king to distribute among her children and asked him to take on many pensions, such as those for her mother, sister, servants and others; a request that the king complied with.

On April 18, 1674, Louise began her farewell visits, the one at Ludwig's first on the program. The king seemed moved and even cried a little. Then Louise went to the Queen, threw herself at her feet and begged her forgiveness. Marie Therese replied that she had already done this and hugged her. Finally, Madame de Montespan hosted a farewell dinner. The following day, Louise took part in Holy Mass in Versailles, then said goodbye to the court and, accompanied by her two children, drove in a carriage to the Carmelite convent on Rue d'Enfer in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, to which she, after greeting the The crowd gathered there entered.

Life in Carmel

Profession picture of Sr. Louise de La Vallières

Louise de La Vallière asked for a shortening of the postulate after joining , was dressed as a novice on June 2, 1674, the third Sunday after Pentecost, and took the religious name Louise de la Miséricorde (Louise of Mercy). The Bishop of Aire, Jean-Louis de Fromentières , preached a sermon on the parable of the lost sheep . From the monastery she wrote with joy to Marshal de Bellefonds, her advisor. According to the order of the Order, all nuns had to rise at five in the morning, but Louise was allowed to get up an hour or two earlier to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament .

On June 3, 1675 Louise made her solemn profession in the chapter , and in the presence of many representatives of the court, with the exception of the king, the veil festival took place the next day. Louise was sitting next to the queen when she heard Bishop Bossuet's sermon on the subject of renewal from the gallery of the monastery church. Then the queen handed her the black veil that the prioress put on her.

Louise subjected herself to many hardships and mortifications and always kept a cheerful, amiable nature. Sometimes she received visits from the Queen, the Duchess of Orléans, and even Madame de Montespan; her childhood friend Marguerite Louise d'Orléans , the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and her brother were also allowed to see her once. Her brother, the Marquis Jean-François de La Vallière, died in debt on October 13, 1676 at the age of only 34 as governor of Bourbonnais; Louise had to turn to Louis XIV about the creditor, who complied with her request.

Louise loved her children very much. Their daughter Marie Anne married Louis Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti , on January 16, 1680 . The young couple visited Louise in the monastery and received from her an expensive gift from the queen. When her Réflexions sur la Miséricorde de Dieu, par une dame pénitente appeared in print in Paris in 1680 without specifying the author, the name of the author soon became known and the font caused a sensation. It was reprinted in Belgium and translated in Italy and Germany with the name of the author. Several revised editions were published, such as that by Romain Cornut (Paris, 1854) and a critical edition by Ferdinand Daulnoy (1928).

Louise's son, the Count of Vermandois, was banished from court in 1682, then sought to regain the affection of his royal father and, at his request, was allowed to participate in the French campaign of 1683 in Flanders, but died of a high after the storm on Kortrijk on November 18, 1683 Fever; he was only 16 years old. When Louise was informed of the death of her son by the Bishop of Meaux, she felt that she should mourn his birth rather than his passing. She had to put his estate in order; At the same time she saw that her daughter's marriage had turned out very little for good, and on November 9, 1685, her son-in-law, the Prince of Conti, passed away; Louise's mother also died in April 1686.

From the monastery, Sr. Louise took a great interest in the well-being of her family. She received numerous visits from members of the royal family, princes and envoys. Madame de Montespan, who had meanwhile lost the favor of the Sun King, sought her advice and was comforted by her; Madame de Sevigné describes them with delight after their visit, Madame de Caylus expresses himself as well; Louise instilled common love and awe.

Sr. Louise, contrary to the advice of the prioress , imposed many hardships and additional work. She wanted to be sent to one of the poorest convents, but this was not granted to her. The other nuns saw her as a model of sincere repentance. Over time, many of her acquaintances died and Sr. Louise received fewer and fewer visits. She usually endured physical suffering without complaint and continued to hold on to her mortifications. She lived as a Carmelite for a total of 36 years. Mourned by her fellow sisters, she died on June 6, 1710 at the age of 65 after receiving the sacraments and seeing her daughter again. She was buried in the convent cemetery.

The letters of the Duchess de La Vallière to Marshal de Bellefonds were first published in 1767 in a very flawed edition; it was not until 1860 that Pierre Clément obtained the first reliable edition of these letters in his two-volume publication of their works.

progeny

Louise de La Vallière and Louis XIV had four children:

• Charles (December 19, 1663 - July 15, 1665)
• Philippe (7 January 1665 - 1666)
• Marie Anne (* October 2, 1666; † May 3, 1739), called Mademoiselle de Blois , was legitimized in 1667, ∞ since 1680 Louis Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti
• Louis de Bourbon (October 2, 1667 - November 18, 1683), comte de Vermandois, was legitimized in 1669

reception

La Valière and her love story with the king play a central role in Alexandre Dumas' novel The Viscount of Bragelonne (also known as The Man in the Iron Mask ; original title: Le vicomte de Bragelonne ).

Film adaptations

year	Feature film and television film titles	Country of production	Director	Actress of Louise de La Valliere
1922	Louise de Lavallière - At the court of love of the Sun King	Germany		Emmy Schaeff
1939	The man in the iron mask	United States	James Whale	Marion Martin
1954	Versailles - kings and women	France	Sacha Guitry	Gisèle Pascal
1966	The seizure of power by Louis XIV.	France		Françoise Ponty
1973	Le château perdu	France	François Chatel	Claude Jade
1977	The secret of the iron mask	United States Austria	Ken Annakin	Ursula Andress
1977	The man in the iron mask	United Kingdom United States	Mike Newell	Jenny Agutter
2000	The king is dancing	France	Gérard Corbiau	Ségolène Piaton
2000	Vatel	France	Roland Joffé	Emilie Ohana
2015	Versailles	France ,  Canada	Jalil Lespert , Christoph Schrewe , Thomas Vincent, Daniel Roby	Sarah Winter

See also

• List of mistresses of the kings of France

literature

Non-fiction

• Jean-Christian Petitfils: Louise de La Vallière. Perrin, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-262-01854-5 .
• Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Duchesse d'Orléans, Madame : The letters of Liselotte. Munich 1979.
• Eleanor Herman: Love in the Shadow of the Crown. The story of the royal mistresses. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-596-15987-3 .
• Benedetta Craveri : queens and mistresses. Milan 2005. (German: Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-446-23013-2 , pp. 193-218)
• F. Ferrier: La Vallière (François-Louise de la Baume le Blanc, duchesse de). In: Dictionnaire de biographie française. (DBF). Volume 20, 2011, Col. 14-17.

Fiction

• Sandra Gulland: The King's Sun. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009.
• Dora Duncker: Louise, lover of the Sun King. Area-Verlag, Erftstadt 2003, ISBN 3-89996-025-4 (repr. Of the Berlin 1930 edition).
• Gertrud von le Fort : The last meeting . Narrative. 1959.
• Felix Freiherr von Stenglin: Luise von Lavalliere. The youth novel of the Sun King , Berlin 1913.

Web links

Commons : Louise de La Vallière  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• John J. Conley:  Louise-Françoise de la Baume Le Blanc, marquise de La Vallière (1644-1710). In: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .

Remarks

1. ^ ^{A b c d} Arthur Kleinschmidt : Lavallière (Françoise Louise de Labaume Leblanc, Duchess of). In: Johann Samuelersch , Johann Gottfried Gruber (Hrsg.): General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts . Section 2, Volume 42 (1888), p. 287 (public domain text).
2. ^ ^{A b c d e} John J. Conley:  Louise-Françoise de la Baume Le Blanc, marquise de La Vallière (1644-1710). In: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
3. ^ F. Ferrier: Dictionnaire de biographie française. Volume 20, Col. 15.
4. ↑ Uwe Schultz : Ludwig XIV. And his time. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54989-6 , p. 156; Benedetta Craveri: queens and mistresses. P. 195.
5. ↑ Uwe Schultz: Ludwig XIV. And his time. P. 155ff; Benedetta Craveri: queens and mistresses. Pp. 194-199 and p. 206.
6. ↑ Uwe Schultz: Ludwig XIV. And his time. P. 157.
7. ↑ Klaus Malettke : The Bourbons. Volume 1, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-17-020581-9 , p. 249; Benedetta Craveri: queens and mistresses. P. 199.
8. ↑ Uwe Schultz: Ludwig XIV. And his time. P. 92.
9. ↑ Uwe Schultz: Ludwig XIV. And his time. P. 157ff .; Antonia Fraser : Love and Louis XIV. 2006, p. 81f.
10. ↑ Uwe Schultz: Ludwig XIV. And his time. P. 160f.
11. ↑ Uwe Schultz: Ludwig XIV. And his time. P. 162f.
12. ↑ Uwe Schultz: Ludwig XIV. And his time. P. 161f. and 189; Benedetta Craveri: queens and mistresses. P. 201f.
13. ↑ Uwe Schultz: Ludwig XIV. And his time. P. 163; Benedetta Craveri: queens and mistresses. P. 205.
14. ↑ Uwe Schultz: Ludwig XIV. And his time. P. 164; Benedetta Craveri: queens and mistresses. Pp. 207-210.
15. ↑ Benedetta Craveri: Queens and mistresses. P. 225f .; Uwe Schultz: Ludwig XIV. And his time. P. 167; Klaus Malettke: The Bourbons. Volume 1, p. 205.
16. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Arthur Kleinschmidt: General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts. Section 2, Volume 42 (1888), p. 288.
17. ↑ Uwe Schultz: Ludwig XIV. And his time. P. 166f .; Benedetta Craveri: queens and mistresses. P. 208f.
18. ↑ Benedetta Craveri: Queens and mistresses. P. 208f.
19. ↑ Benedetta Craveri: Queens and mistresses. P. 211f.
20. ↑ Benedetta Craveri: Queens and mistresses. P. 212f.
21. ↑ Benedetta Craveri: Queens and mistresses. P. 214f.
22. ↑ Benedetta Craveri: Queens and mistresses. P. 216f.
23. ↑ Benedetta Craveri: Queens and mistresses. P. 217f .; Arthur Kleinschmidt: General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts. Section 2, Volume 42 (1888), pp. 288f.
24. ^ Arthur Kleinschmidt: General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts. Section 2, Volume 42 (1888), p. 289; F. Ferrier: Dictionnaire de biographie française. Volume 20, Col. 16f.