Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon

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Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon as Saint Francis (1694). Painting by Pierre Mignard . Like the members of the Bourbon family, she wears a hermelin-lined blue coat, but without the usual bourbon lilies.

Françoise d'Aubigné signature:
Signature Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon.PNG

Françoise d'Aubigné, married Madame Scarron, from 1688 Marquise de Maintenon , called Madame de Maintenon (born  November 27, 1635 in Niort ; † April 15, 1719 in Saint-Cyr-l'École ), is considered the last mistress of Louis XIV. from France, and was, probably from 1683, his second wife in a morganatic marriage that was always kept secret .

Life

Childhood and youth

Françoise d'Aubigné was born in Niort prison as the daughter of the Huguenot Constant d'Aubigné and Jeanne de Cardilhac who were imprisoned there . Her mother was Catholic and came from a respectable family; Constant d'Aubigné was considered an adventurer, gambler and drinker, he was a son of the Huguenot general and well-known author Théodore Agrippa d'Aubigné .

Château de Mursay

Up to the age of seven, Françoise, like her two older brothers, grew up with her Huguenot aunt Louise-Arthémise de Villette, a sister of her father; she spent a happy childhood at Castle Mursay (in today's Deux-Sèvres ). After her father was released from prison in 1642, he took his three children to Paris, where Françoise was treated very severely by their mother. In 1645, Constant d'Aubigné, now sixty years old, decided to set off for the Antilles ( West Indies ); he hoped to find a governor on the island of Marie-Galante . When it turned out that the post was already filled, the father left his family on Marie-Galante to try his luck again in Europe; he died in 1647. The completely overwhelmed mother only managed to survive with the help of the West India Company and only returned to France with her children two years later, where Françoise was taken in again by her beloved Huguenot aunt Madame de Villette. At that moment, however, a Madame de Neuillant, a great aunt on her mother's side, interfered because she could not accept that Françoise, who was baptized as a Catholic, received a Huguenot upbringing. She first sent the girl to the Ursulines in Niort, but did not want to pay the bills and then took the girl into her own house, where Françoise is said to have "lived a Cinderella ".

Madame Scarron

Paul Scarron

In 1652 she went to Paris with Madame de Neuillant, where she met the 42-year-old brilliant and famous comedy writer Paul Scarron . He suffered from progressive muscle paralysis, sat in a wheelchair and, in his own words, looked "like a Z"; Françoise is said to have burst into tears at the sight of him. Scarron noticed not only the beauty but also the unusual intelligence of the shy and reserved girl, and he proposed to her, which the sixteen-year-old accepted. Scarron trained her eloquence and wit, and taught her Spanish, Italian and some Latin. As his wife, through the many witty guests who frequented Scarron's house, she found access to high-ranking Parisian circles, where she was perceived as an interesting and pleasant conversationalist. Because of her unusual and adventurous past in the West Indies she was also called “ La belle Indienne ” (“The beautiful Indian woman”). During this time she met the famous and witty courtesan Ninon de Lenclos , among others .

After Scarron's death in 1660, his widow ran into financial difficulties. Since she had many noble friends who constantly stood up for her with the Queen Mother Anne d'Autriche and with the king, the latter granted her a pension of 2000 livres from his casket  , from which she is still "cramped", but at least living with a maid could. In the years that followed, Madame Scarron sometimes took on duties as a maid for her noble friends or, for example, looked after the children of the Marquise de Montchevreuil. During this time she also met the Marquise de Montespan , who a few years later became the king's mistress.

When the former Madame Scarron later became the king's favorite herself, the Montespan and other hostile people attempted to vilify her by spreading rumors that the widow Scarron had been "endured" by various admirers (that is, she had to prostitutes ); this was also later claimed by Saint-Simon , who hated the Maintenon and was too young to know firsthand. However, other people asserted that she was virtuous ; one of her former admirers, the Marquis de Marsilly, said she "rejected thirty thousand thalers from the superintendent Lorme, although she was poor". However, a relationship between Madame Scarron and the Marquis de Villarceaux has been proven, with Ninon de Lenclos being the "key witness":

“Scarron was my friend. His wife gave me a lot of joy through their entertainment, and I found her far too clumsy to love at the time. As for the details, I don't know anything, I haven't seen anything, but I have often made my yellow room available to her and Villarceaux. "

- Ninon de Lenclos in a letter to Saint-Evremond

Villarceaux is said to have refused to marry her because he was afraid of making a fool of himself, since she was "only" the widow of the poet Scarron; therefore she ended this relationship in 1664.

Madame de Maintenon with the children of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan (the Comte de Vexin on her lap, the Duc du Maine with the Lamb of God ), ca.1685, Pierre Mignard

Governess and confidante of the king

Madame Scarron's situation improved from 1669 when, at the request of Montespan, who had meanwhile become the lover of Louis XIV and had secretly given birth to a child of his, she was appointed his tutor . By Mademoiselle de Scudéry the widow Scarron was described at the time as follows:

“She was tall and in good shape. Her complexion was smooth and beautiful, her hair was a light chestnut brown, her nose and mouth were shapely and her eyes were the most beautiful in the world, dark, shiny, gentle and spirited. Her expression had a certain something that cannot be described. "

- Mademoiselle de Scudéry

From 1670 the band of her little royal protégés grew regularly; Madame Scarron lived with them in a house in Vaugirard on the outskirts of Paris for several years and developed a sincere maternal affection for them. She was particularly fond of the Duc du Maine , who was born in 1670 and was slightly handicapped , and whom she also accompanied to bathing cures in Barèges (in the summer of 1675). When Ludwig legitimized his illegitimate children, who had been born up until then, in December 1673 and had them come to court, their governess was also admitted to the court. She won the king's trust, which led to a dispute with Madame de Montespan, who increasingly assumed the role of absolute maîtresse en titre , the king's official lover. Over the years, Ludwig's contact with his children's educator became indispensable. She rose in his favor and in 1674 was able to buy the possession of Schloss Maintenon in the west of Paris from his donation of 25,000 livres , which in 1688 was raised for her to a marquisate with peerage ( French marquisat-pairie ). Madame Scarron had the dilapidated complex completely restored. Madame de Montespan gave birth to her daughter Mademoiselle de Blois on May 4, 1677 .

If Madame Scarron was initially neglected at court because of her subordinate position and despite her friendship with Madame de Montespan, her growing influence on the king did not remain hidden from the courtiers. But at the time, she seemed above suspicion of a sexual relationship with him. Languet de Gergy said that the king's inclination towards the Maintenon was “always limited to respect”.

Maintenon Castle

Madame de Maintenon was considered modest, reserved, discreet and pious; Virtues which, according to Languet de Gergy, “were so rare among the courtiers”. She always tried to mobilize the king's religious sentiments. When the king offered her a few years later to raise her to the rank of duchess, she refused. Her personality stood in a special contrast to the brilliant but mocking, irritable, arrogant, coolly calculating and wasteful character of the Montespan, from whom Ludwig finally broke away because after a number of scandals, and especially an involvement in the notorious poison affair , it became a burden had become.
Little by little it became the habit of the king to spend several hours a day with Madame de Maintenon in order to have "endless conversations" with her and to "chat amicably and quite freely and freely". Madame de Sévigné stated: "He seems enchanted by it".

Favorite

Madame de Maintenon. Engraving by Nicolas de Larmessin after Pierre Mignard

In 1680, on the occasion of the wedding of the Grand Dauphin Louis to Marie Anne Christine of Bavaria , the widow Scarron was appointed the second dame d'atours ( maid of honor ) of the future Dauphine . This was a clear sign of royal favor. Although Louis XIV at that time had already “spent most of his time near Madame de Maintenon”, Primi Visconti said, “The whole court was amazed” and called her “an unknown, the widow of the poet Scarron, to whom the post of educator for the king's natural children seemed to be the height of happiness ”. Visconti reports how the Maintenon and their relationship with the king were perceived at court at this time:

“Nobody knew what to think of it, because she was already old (she was 44 years old at the time, author's note), some thought she was the king's confidante, the other his subcarrier, and still others a skillful person whom the king uses to edit the memoirs of his government. It is clear that from their clothes, their get-up, and their demeanor, you didn't know who you were dealing with. Some believed that there were men whose senses were more attracted to the elderly than to the young. That is why Madame de Montespan and the enemies of the new favorite tried to highlight the flaws of her birth and her person, as is customary with those who rise up. "

- Primi Visconti

Although the secret wife, who had been raised to Marquise de Maintenon in 1688, was three years older than the king and no longer a young woman, she was still very good-looking, and she was now so much in his favor that she was rolled into one at court ironic pun called Madame de Maintenant (Madame of today = "the current one"). Nevertheless, it is not known at what point in time or whether she ever became the mistress (in the true sense of the word) of the Sun King; their character and behavior seemed so incompatible with such a condition and were so discreet that contemporaries and posterity could only speculate.
She also made the king turn to his wife, Queen Marie Therese , and show her more attention and consideration. The Queen was so happy about it that she said: "God has called Madame de Maintenon to give me back the heart of the King."

Secret wife of Louis XIV.

Louis XIV (1701)

After the Queen's death on July 30, 1683, Ludwig secretly entered into a morganatic marriage or a marriage to the left with the widow Scarron . Much has been speculated about the exact time, but most historians tend to assume that the marriage took place in October 1683. Only a few people were present: the Archbishop of Paris , François Harlay de Champvallon , and Father de la Chaise , who performed the wedding; and as witnesses : Alexandre Bontemps , the king's valet and manager of the Palace of Versailles , possibly Louvois and one or two other people. The reasons for this secrecy lay in the fact that she was not befitting an official consort of the king and was also a widowed woman (her official name was "Madame Scarron" even a few years after her marriage). He lived with her until his death in 1715 and visited her daily in her rooms and often at Maintenon Castle. The outwardly unclear relationship between the two, and the fact that she was a little older than him, led to talk at court and in Europe. In addition, there was her reserved manner and at the same time constant presence in the life of the king. B. claimed Anne Marguerite Dunoyer that the Maintenon “never shows herself in public, except when she accompanies the King on the drive. Then you can see her in the back of the body with glasses on, working on embroidery . "

Saint-Cyr

Louis XIV and Madame de Maintenon visit the Maison Royale de Saint-Louis (c. 1690)

In 1685, Madame de Maintenon founded a boarding school for 300 daughters of impoverished noblemen in the parish of Saint-Cyr-l'École , just like she had once been - the Maison Royale de Saint-Louis . She also took care of the marriage of some of her protégés, in such a way that four girls with different colored ribbons were allowed to “review” in front of a “cavalier” who was standing behind a gate; when the gentleman made his choice, the girl was asked “if she had no dislike for the husband” and the marriage contract was then drawn up without the parents' involvement. Madame de Maintenon had the girls of Saint-Cyr appear in theater performances before the whole court, and for this she engaged Racine , who wrote his tragedy Esther for this purpose . The educational work of the Maintenon was by no means welcomed on all sides, so François Hébert complained about the performances of Racines Esther because they were a temptation for the male audience, and d'Argenson , later Councilor of State and Minister, made the monstrous allegation that she had Saint-Cyr came into being only in order to have "a lot of handsome subjects of His Majesty, which she would make available to him if necessary".

Madame de Maintenon and the King lived side by side for over 30 years, and she tended to him when the King was ill. In 1698 she donated Maintenon Castle to her niece Françoise Charlotte d'Aubigné on the occasion of her wedding to Adrien-Maurice de Noailles .

After the king's death in September 1715, she retired to Saint-Cyr, where she lived until her death in 1719 and was also buried.

The Marquise de Maintenon with her niece Françoise Charlotte d'Aubigné. Painting by Louis Ferdinand Elle

Influence and work

Already during his lifetime, but also posthumously, the marquise was often said to have had a considerable and often negative influence on the politics of Louis XIV. She was not infrequently described as a bigoted (or hypocritical) bigot in the background, who was allegedly responsible for every misstep by the king. This applies particularly to the repeal of the Edict of Nantes by the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685 and the subsequent expulsion and persecution of the Huguenots - although Madame de Maintenon herself had Huguenot ancestors, like her aunt Madame de Villette, with whom she also grew up in part .

Her intimate enemy, the king's sister-in-law, Liselotte von der Pfalz , later accused her of having persecuted the king, together with the Jesuit confessor, Father de la Chaise, and the archbishop of Paris. She also believed that the Maintenon had poisoned the War Minister Louvois. Liselotte thought the Maintenon was bigoted, greedy for power and corrupt; In letters to her relatives in Germany, she often complained that the Maintenon had expelled her from the king's immediate vicinity and that she liked to snub them publicly in order to provoke them to fail so that they could be banished from Versailles.

Today it is assumed that the marquise had hardly any direct influence on the king's policy. However, their attempts to exert influence through the targeted promotion of confidants are undisputed. She was instrumental in the selection of Marie-Anne de La Trémoille as the first lady-in-waiting of the young Queen of Spain, through whom she, at least initially, actively intervened in politics at the Spanish court. She also played a certain role in the power struggles between the bishops Bossuet and Fénelon at court, which were triggered by the quietist Madame de Guyon around 1690 .

She probably also let her influence on Louis XIV play when, after the deaths of most of his legitimate successors - his son, two grandchildren and great-grandchildren - his natural children with Madame de Montespan (and former protégés of Maintenon) became princes in July 1714 declared by blood ; and as a result she also got the king to change his will in favor of the Duc du Maine, whom she particularly loved, so that after the king's death he would rule over the underage little Louis XV. should take over - but this plan failed and instead the nephew of the king and son Liselotte, the Duke of Orléans , became regent in September 1715 , on whom the king had forced a sister of the Duc du Maine as his wife. The latter, however, became the personal guardian of the child king until the Duke of Orléans deposed him on August 26, 1718 in a throne court and declared his recognition as Prince of the Blood invalid; after the subsequent conspiracy of Cellamare , he had him arrested.

reception

The image of Madame de Maintenon has long been clouded by the very one-sided view of the Duke of Saint-Simon in his memoirs, who harbored an obvious dislike for her. After all, until the early 20th century, selected letters from her were included in the reading books of French high school students. In Germany she is more likely to be seen through the very partisan glasses of Liselotte von der Pfalz , the sister-in-law of Louis XIV. She despised Maintenon on the one hand out of class because of her low origin, on the other hand it was variously assumed that Liselotte herself fell in love with the king and was very jealous was; she made at least in her letters made no secret of their boundless hatred of the Marquise, backed by terms such as "old woman", "old Zott", "old hag", "old Schump" and "old hag ". After the death of Louis XIV in 1715 she wrote about his wife: “The devil in hell cannot be worse than she was”, and after the death of Maintenon himself: “This morning I find out that old Maintenon died , yesterday evening between 4 and 5 o'clock. It would have been very lucky if it would have happened 30 years ago ”.

The great interest shown in the person of Madame de Maintenon in English-speaking countries is explained by the rapid translation of Laurent Angliviel de La Beaumelles ' memoirs (1755–1756) by the well-known English writer Charlotte Lennox just one year after their publication.

Maintenon plays a not insignificant role as a character in ETA Hoffmann 's early crime novel Das Fräulein von Scuderi and in Conrad Ferdinand Meyer's novella The Suffering of a Boy .

The novelist Françoise Chandernagor has published a fictional autobiography based on historical documents under the title L'Allée du roi , which has been adapted several times for the stage. a. under the title L'Ombre du soleil in Brussels (1991 at the Théâtre royal du Parc ; 2008 at the Théâtre royal des Galeries ). The biography of Chandernagor was also filmed for French television in 1995 by the director Nina Companéez with Dominique Blanc as Madame de Maintenon.

In the film Saint-Cyr by Patricia Mazuy (2000) about the relationship between Madame de Maintenon and the “Demoiselles of Saint-Cyr”, Isabelle Huppert plays the marquise and gives a somewhat shady portrait.

Web links

Commons : Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Helga Thoma: 'Madame, my dear beloved' - the mistresses of the French kings , Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 110 f.
  2. ↑ a b c Helga Thoma: 'Madame, my dear beloved' - the mistresses of the French kings , Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 112 f.
  3. ↑ a b c Helga Thoma: 'Madame, my dear beloved' - the mistresses of the French kings , Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 114 f.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 175 f.
  5. ↑ a b c Helga Thoma: 'Madame, Meine teure Geliebte' - the mistresses of the French kings , Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 116 f.
  6. ↑ This is what Primi Visconti reports. Gilette Ziegler: The court of Louis XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 176.
  7. ↑ Renée Madinier: The ladies of the kings (French: Amours royales et impériales , Paris 1967), Berlin / Vienna 1967, p. 226. Here after: Helga Thoma: 'Madame, my dear beloved' - the mistresses of the French kings , Ueberreuter , Vienna 1996, p. 122.
  8. ↑ Helga Thoma: 'Madame, my dear beloved' - the mistresses of the French kings , Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 119
  9. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 129 below.
  10. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 100-101.
  11. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 130 and p. 177 f.
  12. ↑ De Gergy was a protégé of Bossuet . Gilette Ziegler: The court of Louis XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 203.
  13. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 203.
  14. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 180-189.
  15. ↑ a b Dirk van der Cruisse: "To be a madam is a great craft ...": Liselotte von der Pfalz - a German princess at the court of the Sun King , Piper, Munich 1990, unabridged paperback edition: 1997 (3rd edition), p 305.
  16. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 201-202.
  17. ↑ Dirk van der Cruisse: Madame sein ist ein ellendes Handwerck ... , Piper, ..., 1997 (3rd edition), p. 305.
  18. ↑ The reported z. B. Madame de Sévigné in a letter of September 18, 1680. Gilette Ziegler: The court of Louis XIV. In eyewitness accounts . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 201-202.
  19. ↑ Helga Thoma: 'Madame, my dear beloved' - the mistresses of the French kings , Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 125 (above), p. 126.
  20. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 204.
  21. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 206.
  22. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 209–213, here p. 211.
  23. ↑ Dirk van der Cruisse: Madame sein ist ein ellendes Handwerck ... , Piper, ..., 1997 (3rd edition), pp. 306-307
  24. ↑ The sources are not entirely in agreement about the witnesses - apart from Bontemps. Gilette Ziegler: The court of Louis XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 210-211.
  25. ^ Anne Marguerite Dunoyer: Lettres historiques et galantes , 1707. Here after: Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 213-214.
  26. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 238-239.
  27. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 239.
  28. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 249-251.
  29. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 212-213.
  30. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 209-210, p. 244, pp. 389-390, pp. 392-393.
  31. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 223-224
  32. ^ Letters from Liselotte von der Pfalz , ed. v. Helmuth Kiesel, Insel Verlag, Frankfurt / M., 1981, p. 222 (letter of July 9, 1719 to her half-sister Luise )
  33. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 267 f.
  34. ^ Letters from Liselotte von der Pfalz, ed. v. Helmuth Kiesel, Insel Verlag, 1981, p. 164f. (Letter of September 20, 1708 to her aunt Sophie von Hannover )
  35. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 382–385, here 384.
  36. ^ Gilette Ziegler: The court of Ludwig XIV. In eyewitness reports . Rauch, Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 385-388
  37. ↑ Dirk van der Cruisse: Madame sein ist ein ellendes Handwerck ... , Piper, ..., 1997 (3rd edition), p. 301, p. 308
  38. ↑ Dirk van der Cruisse: Madame sein ist ein ellendes Handwerck ... , Piper, ..., 1997 (3rd edition), pp. 212-216
  39. ↑ a b Dirk van der Cruisse: Madame sein ist ein ellendes Handwerck ... , Piper, ..., 1997 (3rd edition), p. 300 f.
  40. ↑ a b Dirk van der Cruisse: Madame sein ist ein ellendes Handwerck ... , Piper, ..., 1997 (3rd edition), p. 606
personal data
SURNAME Aubigné, Françoise d '
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maintenon, Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de; Madame de Maintenon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mistress and later secret wife of Louis XIV.
DATE OF BIRTH November 27, 1635
PLACE OF BIRTH Niort
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1719
Place of death Saint-Cyr-l'École