Madame de Montespan, was born as Françoise de Rochechouart de Mortemart on October 5, 1641 in Lussac-les-Châteaux. Her family, the house of Rochechouart, was one of the oldest noble families and served the king and queen of France. As a child she was sent to the Convent of Saint Mary in Saintes alongside other noble children and at 17 years old she was working in the court of the Palais du Louvre.
In 1658 as the lady-in-waiting to the sister-in-law to Louis XIV, Henriette of England, the young Francoise was now close to king Louis XIV. A role given to her by Anne of Austria who her mother served as her lady-in-waiting, it was the family business after all.
On January 28, 1663 she married Louis Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin, Marquis de Montespan, although she was in love with Louis de la Frémoille. A lady didn’t have much of a choice back then and was forced to marry Louis Henri. The wedding took place at the Église Saint Eustache before a large group of Paris society. When they realized they forgot their marital kneeling pillows, they had to use dog cushions instead, not a great way to start. The couple would have two children, Marie in 1663 and Louis Antoine in 1665.
The couple lived near the Palais du Louvre which kept her close as she was now the lady-in-waiting to queen Marie-Therese of Spain, wife of Louis XIV. Extremely beautiful but also very cultured, smart with a witty personality she was hard to miss by everyone at court including the king. In 1667, the king's brothers held a ball at Versaille where Louis XIV asked her to dance. Louise de la Valliere was his current headmistress and had befriended Montespan. When Louise and also the queen became pregnant by the king at the same time, she asked Montespan to dine with the king each evening. It was sending the fox into the hen house and after the birth of the illegitimate child of the king, Louise left court as Montespan had moved into her place.
Her husband wasn’t taking the news well and one day he held a funeral for their marriage and decorated a coach in black and drove it to court causing a scene. Around Paris he was telling everyone about their affair and of course it spread to court. When the king asked him what he was doing in his black carriage, he had him arrested and thrown into jail.
The king would father seven children with Montespan each of them illegitimate. Taken from court they were raised in Paris by Montespan’s friend Madame Scarron. Scarron would become Madame de Maintenon, we will have much more about her next week. Maintenon helped convince the king to legitimize the children, each of them later known as de Bourbon. Since Montespan was still married she had to be left off the certificates of her own children.
Louis XIV gave her the Château de Clagny and his gardener Andre Le Notre, who designed Versailles, Vaux-le-Vicomte and the Tuileries. At Versailles far from the chateau he had a small pavilion built of porcelain. The Trianon de Porcelain was the first Chinoiserie structure in Europe, built with delicate porcelain tiles; it was the perfect place for the two lovers to hide. Sadly, the material was so fragile it was torn down, later to be replaced by the Trianon built by Louis XV for Madame de Pompadour.
In 1674, thanks to the king, Montespan and her husband were legally separated. It took convincing six judges and officials to finally authorize it and end her marriage. Montespan’s influence over the king bothered everyone at court including all his ministers. With her cunning moves she alienated his advisors and made many enemies, so when her fall came none of them was upset. In 1681 the Affair of the Poison spread through the court, killing many people. When one of the mistresses of Louis XIV, the Duchess of Fontanges died, Montespan was the first to be accused. Montespan had been demoted to the head of the queen's household and was not pleased to leave her lofty status at court.
However, it wasn’t just this one incident that drew the suspicion of the kings guards and the rumors at court. Montespan was close with Catherine Monovoisin or La Voisin as she was called. Voisin was known as a fortune teller, sorceress and also performed rituals and abortions. This is when this story takes a very dark turn.
In 1665, Montespan visited La Voisin and asked her to create a love potion that she could use on the king. This wasn’t just any potion. A dark mass had to be held with a priest and La Voisine would ask the devil for the love of the king. In the ritual, a baby had to be sacrificed and bled and even worse things and added to the poison. If you watched the tv series Versailles that is currently on Netflix, they even touched on this horrific act.
It was discovered that Louis XIV had been poisoned for 13 years. La Voisin was arrested and when they searched her home they found more than two-thousand babies buried in her garden. Montespan was sent from court and all her gifts the king had given to her stripped away. In 1691, she was exiled to the Abbey of Fontevrault where her sister Marie-Madeleine was the director.
Montespan traveled in 1707 to Bourbon-l’Archambault to take in the healing waters but would die while there on May 28, 1707. She was left alone, without any of her children in the final years of her life. Louis XIV wouldn’t allow any of theres to have any contact with her, and as he was paying for their life, they didn’t have any problems obliging.
Montespan was thought to be the “unofficial queen” of France for a short time, but it was the next head mistress that would in fact hold that title.
More next week…
