Madame de Montespan

Madame de Montespan
Portrait c. 1670
Full name
Françoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart
BornOctober 1640
Lussac-les-Châteaux, Poitou, France
Baptised5 October 1640
Lussac-les-Châteaux, France
Died27 May 1707(1707-05-27) (aged 66)
Bourbon-l'Archambault, France
Noble familyRochechouart (by birth)
Pardaillan de Gondrin (by marriage)
Spouse(s)
(m. 1663; died 1691)
Issue
Detail
FatherGabriel de Rochechouart de Mortemart
MotherDiane de Grandseigne
Signature
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Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan (5 October 1640 – 27 May 1707), commonly known as Madame de Montespan (French: [madam mɔ̃tɛspɑ̃]), was a French noblewoman and the most celebrated royal mistress of King Louis XIV. During their romantic relationship, which lasted from the late 1660s to the late 1670s, she was sometimes referred to as the "true Queen of France"[by whom?] due to the pervasiveness of her influence at court.[1]

Born into the House of Rochechouart, one of the oldest noble families of France, Françoise-Athénaïs married the Marquis of Montespan in 1663. She then became a maid of honour to Princess Henrietta, Duchess of Orléans, and later a lady-in-waiting to Queen Maria Theresa. Noted for her great beauty and wit, she carefully cultivated a relationship with Louis XIV and eventually supplanted Louise de La Vallière as his favourite. She had seven children by the king, six of them later legitimised but only four survived infancy .

Madame de Montespan's alleged involvement in the Affair of the Poisons, which began in 1677, severely damaged her reputation and resulted in her fall from royal favour. In 1691, she withdrew to the convent of Filles de Saint-Joseph in Paris, but left thirteen years later when she relocated to the Château d'Oiron. She devoted the rest of her life to charity, patronage and penance until her death in 1707 at the age of 66. She is an ancestress of several royal houses in Europe, including those of Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg.

  1. ^ Lisa Hilton, Athénaïs: The Life of Louis XIV's Mistress – the Real Queen of France, Little, Brown 2002, 4.

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