Françoise Athenais de Rochechouard de Mortemar (born October 5, 1641, died May 27, 1707), known in history as the Marquise de Montespan - the official favorite of the French king Louis XIV.
Françoise Athenais, nee de Tonne-Charente, nee Duchess de Mortemard of the Rochechouard family, Marquis de Montespan. The favorite of Louis XIV, here, unlike other favorites of the king, there is the highest nobility of the kingdom, and not the ordinary, in fact, provincial nobility.
The Mortemard Françoise family was not the only child. Her brother, Louis Victor de Rochechouard, Duke of Vivogne, was the king's aide-de-camp. The older sister, Gabrielle, the Marquise de Thiange, having married Claudius de Dame, became a lady of the court, and the younger sister, Magdalene, was the abbess of the convent of Fontervo.
When Françoise first arrived at the court, she was 22 years old and was already married. 1663 - the maiden Tonne-Charente was married by King Louis himself to the chamberlain of the court of the Duke of Orleans, Henry Louis de Pardaillan de Gondrain, Marquis de Montespan and was granted a lady of state. Her appearance met the ideals of beauty for those times - she was plump, blonde, with blue eyes.
Arriving at the court, the young wife immediately attracted the attention of the monarch. At first, the Marquise pretended to be annoyed by Louis' close attention. But soon she reciprocated the sovereign, and the marquis continued to arrange scenes of jealousy for Louis, complain about him to the courtiers, break into the king's office in order to find him with his Françoise.
However, the court already lived according to the laws of the new morality and, of course, was on the side of the adored king. The uncompromising marquis was all amicably persuaded to come to his senses. The marquis did not listen to the advice - he even wanted not to abandon the children of Louis and Montespan, who legally belonged to him, and take them with him to Gnein. (The firstborn of the royal blood, Louis-Auguste, the future Duke of Manx, will be born in 1670. There will be four children in total: Louis-Auguste, whom the king will give in marriage to the Princess of Condé, the Count of Toulouse and two daughters - one will marry the Prince of Condé, the second - for Duke of Chartres, future Duke of Orleans. Thus, the children of the Marquise will become related to the highest nobility. In addition, the king legitimizes all four with the rights of princes of the blood, and after a special edict recognizes their right to the throne.)
In the end, Louis got tired of it, and he planted the Marquis in the Bastille. True, not for long. Soon, the Marquis was released from the Bastille and sent to his estates. Here he announced the death of his wife and arranged a funeral for her - the empty coffin was buried in the ground and the name of the Marquis was carved on the headstone.
With this kind of relationship among the spouses, their divorce was rather difficult, although the monarch insisted on this (precisely because Montespan was married, she remained a marquise, and did not, for example, become a duchess like Louise de Lavalier). But freedom was given to the unfaithful wife - the Attorney General of the Paris Parliament decided to terminate the marriage of the de Montespan spouses.
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At the court of the Marquis, de Montespan had the nickname "sultana", which was pronounced in a whisper because she was feared. She was vindictive, witty, loved fame and did not forgive mockery of herself, she herself loved to make fun of everyone. She was a person of extremes, she recognized only love or only hate.
Louis XIV (1667)
The monarch indulged her in everything, women assimilated the grace of her tone, conversation, manner, which bore a certain imprint of unusual attractiveness. In the future, this period, which began when the marquis ruled the court, will go down in history with the name of the gallant age. Paradise was created on earth, naturally, not for everyone, but for a select society, for which the only possible way of life was increased sociability, balls, parties and entertainment - in a word, a great endless holiday.
Life went on in a never-ending stream of pleasure and entertainment. Everything was subject to love, and the Marquise de Montespan herself was her personification, her ideal and her main priestess. For ten whole years Françoise will reign in the heart of the sovereign. For a whole decade, the court will live under the rule of a despotic, capricious woman, vain and narcissistic. In her presence, even the duchess had no right to sit on chairs, but only on stools.
Her chambers at Versailles were twice as large as those of the French queen. The Marquise de Montespan had her own court, which was attended by ministers, ambassadors, and generals. Her desires were law for the king, and even more so for everyone else.
The Marquise loved to play cards, and gambled. Her loss was always paid for by Louis, and she kept the winnings for herself. Over the years of her favor, she spent so much money from the treasury that her contemporary put it this way: "This metressa cost France three times more than all scientists in Europe." The expenses on her estate alone were 405,000 livres.
And for all that, the marquise was distinguished by great piety - remembering her sin, she often left the king in order to immerse herself in prayer and solitude, believing that such absences from the royal bed could reconcile her with God.
Such is one of its incarnations - the official one, but there was also another, about which there were rumors not only in Paris, but throughout France. We are talking about her connection with the sect of devil worshipers. They said that she entered into secret relations with sorcerers, used their "charms", performed dark rites of worship, during which the blood of innocent babies was used, that she ordered potions in order to bewitch the monarch and keep his love.
And the king was really drunk. Hardly any other king endured so much from his mistress. She gave him a lot of trouble. Her pretentiousness, pride, selfishness, thirst for honor, whims, exorbitant exactingness, her malice and irritability, which she more and more often ripped off on Louis himself - truly the king can only be pitied.
Her power determined the fate of people, shaped etiquette and fashion. The most high-ranking sovereign nobles feared her anger, for she could bestow titles, titles, fortunes, and drive out and ruin the daring and rebellious. Even the royals were wary of her anger.
Louis's love for the Marquis de Montespan was devoted, although sometimes the king allowed himself to be carried away by another. The Marquis was jealous and terribly angry, but the monarch's new relationship quickly ended, and he was again with the Marquis de Montespan. This intoxicated her, inspired confidence in her omnipotence and permissiveness, which will always be. She could not even imagine that she would destroy her happiness with her own hands and that she would introduce the king to her successor herself. She will be Mrs. Scarron - the teacher of her older children from the king.
Madame de Maintenon (the king's favorite)
Françoise had known Scarron for a long time, when she was still with her husband, the Marquis. She remembered the respectful manner, servility, intelligence and courtesy of Scarron, and when her first children were born, the king's favorite remembered her. Scarron bought a house in the capital, gave money, and she took up raising royal children. Later, the children were brought to the palace to Françoise, recognized by the monarch and established at the court. Together with them, their teacher was established here. Louis did not favor Scarron with attention, and he gave small gifts to the teacher only to please the marquis.
When the Mentenon land went on sale, Montespan obtained the sovereign's consent to purchase it for Madame Scarron. Having become the owner of this land, Mrs. Scarron took the surname Mentenon, with which she went down in history as the last favorite of the king.
The caprices and irritability of the Marquise de Montespan, her absurd disposition and intemperance brought suffering to the monarch. He still loved the marquis and it was from her that he learned that de Maintenon often reproaches her for her whims and sympathizes with the king. Yes, and from the outside, he also received information about her efforts to tame his beloved. The king appreciated this and began to pay more attention to the former teacher.
He talked a lot with her, began to share his sorrows and discontent, and even consulted. Mentenon cleverly took advantage of this confidence and gradually pushed Madame de Montespan aside, who noticed it too late. Having reached a special position, Mentenon, in turn, began to complain to the king about everything that she had to endure from the marquise, and soon she was able to finally take the place of Montespan and forever strengthen him for herself.
When in 1678 the Marquis de Montespan left for the waters at the resort of Bourbon-l'Arshambaut for several months, Mentenon became the king's official favorite. Returning from the waters, Françoise was presented with a fait accompli. For some time they "existed" three together. Montespan did not want to admit that her place in the heart of Louis was taken by a woman less beautiful than she, and older than her age. And the monarch, tired of the noise and energy of de Montespan, already aged, wanted peace and quiet. Mentenon gave it to him. As well as the idea of a measured, normal life without frills and various frills.
The Marquise de Montespan began to rapidly recede into the shadows. Its fall was only a matter of time. And then she was dealt another - the last, final blow. She was involved in the "poison case"! The investigation of this case began in 1677. Naturally, while Montespan was in force, no one dared to bring any charges against her. Although after the arrest of several "sorceresses" it was revealed that she - together with Mazarin's nieces, the Countess of Soissons, the Duchess of Bouillon, Marshal of Luxembourg, many courtiers, high officials - were part of the community of murderers and poisoners.
This "circle of pharmacology lovers" was headed by the famous poisoner Voisin (she was burned on February 22, 1680, 35 more people shared her fate). And now Voisin's daughter - Marguerite - accused Montespan of wanting to poison the monarch. The charges were brought forward in a timely manner.
Mentenon formally survived her from the palace in which she appeared, but the king no longer wanted and was afraid to meet her. Gradually, the fear passed, but the desire for communication no longer arose. Although Louis met with the Marquis almost daily, he tried to make these visits as short as possible. Finally, Archbishop Bossuet, who had previously sought from the monarch to periodically terminate his relationship with Françoise, this time finally persuaded Louis to remove the Marquis from the court.
It was 1691. The royal order, which everyone was afraid to convey to the Marquis de Montespan, undertook to convey to her her son - the Duke of Manx. He had long been on the side of Mentenon and was now proving his utmost loyalty. For this, the widow Scarron "adopted him in her heart" and, because she had no children of her own, treated him like a son, always protecting him. From that day on, mother and son will harbor hatred for each other until the death of the marquise, which will not upset her son in the least.
In her time, the Marquis built a house in Paris for the community of the Virgins of St. Joseph, which she established to educate young girls and teach them various handicrafts. Now she settled here and after a while surrendered to God. 1707 - she went once again to the water, went with confidence in imminent death. Therefore, she distributed all her money for pensions and alms, so that those who depended on her would not suffer as a result of her death.
On the night of May 27, she felt unwell. Before her death, she thanked God that she was dying far from the children of her sin. Her body was transported to Poitiers and dropped into the family crypt.
Y. Lubchenkov