Marie Louise Madeleine Victoire d'Argenton

Marie Louise Madeleine Victoire Le Bel de La Boissière de Séry, comtesse d'Argenton (* around 1684 in Rouen ; † March 4, 1748 ) was one of the first mistresses of Duke Philip of Orléans , who later acted as French regent.

Life

Marie Louise Madeleine Victoire Le Bel de La Boissière, called Mademoiselle de Séry , came from a noble family and was the daughter of Daniel le Bel, Lord of Boissière, and his wife Marie Anne Masparault. She was brought up in the Gomerfontaine monastery with one of her sisters who became a nun.

Through the mediation of her relatives Madame de Ventadour , Mademoiselle de Séry became a young lady of honor for Liselotte von der Pfalz , whom she described as friendly and amusing, but not beautiful. In another contemporary testimony, that of the Jesuit La Mothe, she is characterized as very graceful and witty. In any case, she became a mistress of Liselotte's son, Duke Philip of Orléans, who evidently loved her genuinely for a long time. Their first child was a miscarriage. After she became pregnant again, she was dismissed as Liselottes maid of honor in 1702. She then received a house near the Palais Royal from her lover . On August 28, 1702 she gave birth to a son, Jean Philippe François d'Orléans .

From then on, Mademoiselle de Séry received a small group of friends in her house. She often met, among others, the devoted Madame de Ventadour, who gave her advice and took care of her in other ways. After the recognition and legitimation of her son by his father in July 1706, she wished to be awarded a title of nobility. Philip of Orléans presented his mistress with the Argenton estate and with difficulty managed to get her to be made Countess of Argenton by his uncle and father-in-law, King Louis XIV . She took no part in court intrigues. Madame de Maintenon , who never liked her, accused her of causing a lot of offense when she traveled to Grenoble to meet the Duke of Orléans on his return from the army stationed in Italy ; but in doing so she had perhaps only complied with a wish of her lover, who wanted to see her again quickly after the long absence. At the end of 1709 she attended a splendid festival organized by her lover for the Bavarian Elector.

Due to the long-lasting liaison between the Duke of Orléans and the Countess of Argenton, rumors arose that the Duke was only waiting for the death of his wife in order to be able to marry his beloved or that he wanted to make her Queen of Spain. Although such ondits, often repeated by courtiers, were out of thin air, they contributed to the further alienation of Louis XIV from his nephew. Urged by the king, Madame de Maintenon and Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon , the Duke of Orléans finally ended his relationship with his mistress in 1710. Madame d'Argenton, who was badly hit by this, asked to be allowed to retire to her sister in the Gomerfontaine monastery. Since her request was rejected by Madame de Maintenon, she moved to her father in the area of Pont-Sainte-Maxence and left her son in the Palais Royal.

The ex-mistress received an annual pension of 45,000 pounds from the Duke of Orléans, which was almost entirely due to her young son Jean Philippe, as well as jewelry worth 400,000 pounds. In addition, her former lover paid off her debts. As a result, numerous suitors applied for them. She chose the Guard Officer Charles-Rodrigue Gonzague de Forbier, Chevalier d'Oppède, and secretly married him in 1713, but was treated roughly and beaten by him. Already widowed in 1717, she did not enter into another relationship, lived partly in Paris , partly in Argenton and died at the age of about 64 on March 4, 1748, three months before her son.

literature

• Argenton (Marie-Louise-Madeleine-Victoire Le Bel de La Boissière de Séry, comtesse d ') . In: Louis-Gabriel Michaud (Ed.): Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne , 2nd edition, Vol. 2 (1854), pp. 189f. ( online ).

Web links

• Biography of the Countess of Argenton at Les Favorites Royales