winterhalters:Generally overlooked, when she’s not simply mistaken for two of her younger sisters, G

winterhalters:Generally overlooked, when she’s not simply mistaken for two of her younger sisters, Gabrielle de Rochechouart de Mortemart, eldest child of Gabriel, then Marquis de Mortemart and Diane de Grandsaigne, was one of the most prominent figures of her time and perhaps the closest companion of Louis XIV alongside her brother, the Duc de Vivonne. She was first introduced at Court in 1651, and quickly became an important part of the private circle of the young King and his brother Philippe. Mademoiselle, Gaston d'Orléans’ turbulent daughter, counted among her closest friends and described her as ‘handsome, haughty and wild, brilliant too with the far-famed esprit des Mortemart’. Saint-Simon, who had known her during his childhood, recounted that “Madame de Thianges, the eldest sister, amused the King even more than the others, and had perhaps more influence over him [than Montespan].“ Married to the bland Claude Leonor de Damas de Thianges, Gabrielle profoundly disliked her husband’s need for calm and quietness, and refused to follow him in his Burgundian estates. "After a son and two daughters had been born of this marriage, his wife left him to attach herself to the favor of her sister, and became as powerful and as much trusted as she was, without their affection for each other being diminished in the slightest degree,” wrote Saint-Simon. Contemporary sources suggest that Thianges, Montespan and their brother Vivonne worked together for nearly thirty years to ensure the success and the triumph of their house, both sisters functioning as a two-headed mother for their children. Eventually, after the Affaire des Poisons that contributed to cast aside Montespan and their political faction led by Colbert, Thianges well and truly outranked her sister. Even though she already was a member of the King’s inner circle since their late teens, she was then considered a member of the Royal Family, and was bestowed honors and privileges that even her nieces and nephews, legitimised children of the King, were not entitled to receive, such as the right to sit in the King’s presence. She was notably at war with Mme de Maintenon (’guelfi e ghibellini’, as Mme de Sévigné called them) and the Princesse Palatine, though she was greatly esteemed by Monsieur and Monseigneur, the Grand Dauphin, whose apartments in Versailles were adjacent to hers. -- source link

More pics about