p-andore:history week meme | day three: one woman Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon was bor

p-andore:history week meme | day three: one woman Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon was born on 27 November 1635, in or just outside the prison at Niort because her father, the Huguenot Constant d'Aubigné, was incarcerated there for conspiring against Cardinal Richelieu.Three years later, Françoise’s father was released from prison and went with his family to the island of Martinique in the West Indies, where they spent a few years before returning to France, which earned her the nickname of “la Belle Indienne”. Within months of her return to France, Francoise’s father died, and she returned to the care of her aunt, Madame de Villette, whom was whealthy and took god care of her. Later, she was brought to Paris by Madame de Neuillant who introduced her to sophisticated women and men, who became vital links that she would use in the future. In Paris, Françoise met Paul Scarron, who was 25 years her senior, and began to correspond with him. Scarron was an accomplished poet and novelist, and he offered Francoise marriage, or to pay her dowry so that she might enter a convent. Although Scarron suffered from acute and crippling pain, possibly from polio, she accepted his proposal and became Madame Scarron in 1652. The match permitted her to gain access to the highest levels of Paris society, something that would have otherwise been impossible for a girl from an impoverished background. For nine years, she was Scarron’s wife and nurse and a fixture in his social circle. She grew links and relationships among the finest nobility and intellectual circles of the capital. Scarron died in 1660, and Francoise was ready to leave Paris as she had no money left. But she met Madame de Montespan, who was secretly already the king’s lover. Madame de Montespan took such a fancy to Mme Scarron that she had the king reinstate her pension, which enabled Françoise to stay in Paris.In 1669, when Madame de Montespan’s first child by Louis XIV was born, she placed the baby with Madame Scarron in a house on Rue de Vaugirard, and provided her with a large income and staff of servants. Françoise took care to keep the house well guarded and discreet, even doing the domestic duties herself. Her care for the infant Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine, first brought her to the attention of Louis XIV, though he was initially put off by her strict religious practice. When Louis Auguste and his siblings were legitimized in 1673, she became the royal governess at Saint-Germain. As governess, she was one of very few people permitted to speak with the king as an equal, without holding back. Madame de Sévigné observed that the King was charmed by having someone who would speak to him in this way. Due to her hard work, the King rewarded her with 200,000 livres, and she purchased the property at Maintenon in 1674. A year later, he gave her the title of Marquise de Maintenon after the name of her estate. “Madame de Maintenon knows how to love. There would be great pleasure in being loved by her,” said the king. He probably asked her to become his mistress at that time. By the late 1670s, the king spent much of his spare time with her, discussing politics, religion and economics. He grew more and more fond of her, and after the disgrace of Madame de Montespan in the Affair of the Poisons, and the death of Queen Marie-Thérèse, she became the only woman in his life. On October 9, 1683, Madame de Maintenon, 48 years old, marries the “Greatest King in the World” out of love. Owing to the disparity in their social status, the marriage was morganatic, meaning that she was not openly acknowledged as the King’s wife and did not become Queen. Even so, she was very influential and respected at court, and was one of Louis’ closest advisers. She later founded the Maison royale de Saint-Louis, a school for girls from poorer noble families, in 1684. She retires there in 1715, three days before the King’s death, and remains there until her own death, in 1719.« Whatever the truth may be, what is certain is that the King never had for any of his mistresses the passion he has for her. It is something curious to see that the two of them together.» -- source link

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