They are called Louise de la Vallières, Madame de Montespan, Madame de Maintenon or even Mademoiselle de Fontanges their names necessarily tell you something they are some of the mistresses of Louis XIV they are called favorites because they lived as close as possible of the greatest of the kings of France.
The story begins exactly three hundred and sixty years ago in 1653 in Paris at the Palais-royal du Louvre (currently a museum); Louis XIV is 14 years old officially he is the king but in reality it is his mother who governs, the king will lose his virginity and it is his own mother who will orchestrate everything. Queen Anne of Austria will choose the ugliest woman among the ladies-in-waiting “Madame de Beauvais”, she had a missing eye and she was 20 years older than the king. Why this choice ? : The queen did not want the king to get attached to this woman, Madame de Beauvais was a trustworthy woman with a lot of experience.
The loss of the king’s virginity is a matter of state, for the continuation of the dynasty must be ensured.
If Queen Anne of Austria is so concerned about her son’s sex education, it is because she has long been neglected by her husband.
Once Madame Beauvais’s task is accomplished, we will pay her with stone, which will allow her to build the famous Hôtel de Beauvais in Paris. Thus the young king spent his adolescence in the most total recklessness with a great even very great sexual appetite “he was a ladies’ man”.
Queen Anne of Austria has two children Louis and Philippes, they will receive a very different education Philippes, he is a sweet sensitive child with a certain femininity he is the opposite of his brother. The queen loves her two children obviously but naturally with a preference for Louis called to wear the crown. Philipe, neglected, will develop a somewhat atypical personality, quite immature capricious and a penchant for men, this will seriously displease his brother.
First Love of Louis XIV
Anne of Austria will continue to rule France for a few more years with Cardinal Mazarin as the prime minister of the kingdom. Louis will understand that a sovereign as powerful as he is does not always do what he wants after an experience.
In 1658 Louis XIV is 20 years old, at that time France is at war. The young king fell seriously ill, the doctors diagnosed typhoid fever. Trembling with fever, love at first sight fell on the famous little Marie Mancini, niece of Cardinal Mazarin. She was a beautiful young girl with very black hair and a very sharp eye, very fine and tall. The two young people are madly in love, Louis wants to marry her. Alas, the mother queen and her prime minister Cardinal Mazarin see this union in a very bad light because it will bring nothing to the kingdom, the king must make a political marriage. Marie Mancini is chased away from the court. The farewells are heartbreaking, and Louis will resolve to marry another woman, a certain Maria Theresa of Austria, daughter of the King of Spain, a young woman he does not know, does not love and will never love. King that he is, must conform to the reason of state, which is stronger than the impulses of the heart.
1660 is the marriage of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa of Austria in Saint-Jean-de-Luz on the Spanish border. A royal marriage certainly which seals the peace between France and Spain but very quickly the queen Marie Thérèse is going to understand that her role at the court will be limited to give to the crown of the heirs.
When Louis XIV saw her, he was quite disappointed. She was small in stature, blond, a little fat, and spoke very little French. She is self-effacing and sinister, and her character will very quickly pose a problem to Louis XIV, because for him a queen must be elegant and flamboyant. Louis XIV will have six children with Maria Theresa of Austria.
The king is going to get tired of her; he prefers to have fun dancing and having a good time with young women of the court. But this carefree behavior deeply annoys his mother, and she will point it out to him, but the queen mother will soon regret it. On March 9, 1661 Mazarin, the one who until now governed the country alongside Anne of Austria, died.
On March 10, 1661, Louis XIV took his destiny as king in hand, and announced to his ministers and his mother how he intended to govern the country in the future: alone as an absolute monarch, that’s what history will remember of him today. Anne of Austria, his mother, does not hear him this way. She tries by all means to dissuade him from governing alone, but in vain. From now on Anne of Austria has no political role she feels betrayed.
Louis XIV is the only master on board and can do whatever he wants even if it means causing a scandal.
The scandal
It is the spring of 1661 in the castle of Fontainebleau, Louis XIV will cause a scandal. Rumor has it that he had an affair with the wife of his brother Henrietta of England. She is 17 years old and he is 22 years old, the young woman has a crazy charm, she is young, beautiful, discreet and intelligent. She has just married Philippe or it is common knowledge, Philippe prefers men. Henriette falls in love with Louis XIV and it is reciprocal the glances which they exchange do not deceive. They meet in the gardens of Fontainebleau out of sight. The whole court starts to talk and Anne of Austria the queen mother sees this affair in a very bad light.
To silence the scandal the king and Henrietta of England have an idea to make everyone believe that their relationship has ceased, and that he is in love with the maid of companionship of Henrietta of England, the little Louise de la Vallières.
Then Louis XIV is caught in his own trap and falls in love with Louise de la Vallières, and abandons the accomplice of this trick Henriette of England.
Henriette abandoned by the king finds her place at the side of her husband. Philippe and his mother Anne of Austria have reason to be satisfied and the scandal is stifled.
Louise de la Vallières
Louis XIV finds it difficult to hide his passion for his new conquest Louise de la Vallières to the point that his mother is annoyed by this behavior, which she considers libertine. But the king has decided otherwise and Louise is now part of his life, but he lacks a castle to match his ambitions and in which he can live as he pleases and this castle is Versailles (at that time the building). So for 50 years several thousand men will work on this titanic construction site. 50,000 square meters of floors, more than two thousand windows, 700 rooms, 67 staircases, 800 hectares of park, 20 km of roads, two hundred thousand trees. A castle worthy of the greatest emperors of antiquity.
At the beginning of the works, the court lived in the castle of Saint-Germain, one of the royal residences, and it is here that the love between Louis XIV and Louise de la Vallières took on its full dimension. Louise became the first real mistress of the king. He will make her 4 children without any scruples.
Queen Anne of Austria in a last breath, will try to put her son in the right way. On her deathbed on January 20, 1666, the queen would have asked her son to promise him to lead an orderly life. And even if the king is overwhelmed by grief he did not promise to become faithful, on the contrary, because now that the queen mother is dead there is no one to stand up to her, from now on Louis will not need to hide his love for her, worse he will display it ostensibly.
Françoise Athénaïs de Montespan
We are in the castle of Saint-Germain, every day the awakening of the king gives place to a protocol regulated to the millimeter and all the court must attend: the cardinals, the ambassadors, the ministers, the princes of the valley and without forgetting the ladies of company of the queen. And among these ladies of company there is one of a diabolical beauty and which will mark the history of France.
Françoise Athénaïs de Montespan is from the very old French nobility, and she is a very beautiful woman with a lot of spirit. She has only one idea in mind, to become the new attracted mistress of the king, to do it she becomes the new friend of the beloved of Louis XIV Madame Louise de la Vallières, who makes her come to Versailles, and she is far from suspecting that the marquise Françoise Athénaïs de Montespan is going to take her place. In front of her beauty and her very sharp mind the king does not remain insensitive.
This new affair between Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan will be born in the spring of 1667 on a battlefield. Louis XIV is once again at war with Spain. And it is during the fighting that the relationship is consummated for the first time,and it was torrid and passion, but there is a problem as the king the marquise are married, so it is necessary to keep the secret to avoid scandal.
The story repeats itself for Mademoiselle de la Vallières once again it is used to hide the new mistress of the king. The king displays himself with Louise de la Vallières for a while while he is courting Madame de Montespan while her husband the Marquis de Montespan is not at court but on the battlefield.
On his return 11 months later the Marquis will discover that his wife is pregnant and it is not his child. He decides to take revenge on the king, he has a Machiavellian idea, to contract syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease and deadly at the time. To do this he will frequent the dirtiest prostitutes. But unfortunately his wife does not accept to have relations with him. Then in a last gesture of despair he will go to see the king to provoke him, this last outraged by this behavior he decides to make him imprisoned. The Marquis de Montespan will never see his wife again and their separation will be pronounced a few years later. Madame de Montespan is a totally free woman and can now devote herself entirely to the king.
Under the same roof three women share the heart and the bed of the king. The king did not hesitate to display his polygamy especially when he went to war, he never travelled without his wives.
Madame la Vallières and Madame de Montespan had adjoining apartments. Every day around 5 pm the king crosses the room of Madame la Vallières to go to that of Madame de Montespan what was rather cruel for her.
Humiliated, Louise de la Vallières eventually left the court after thirteen years spent at the side of the king, seven of which were spent living with her rival, the Montespan. Louise will have given four children to Louis XIV only two will survive. Before leaving she will ask for forgiveness to the queen Marie Thérèse of Austria. She abandons her two children to their father and enters the orders, the Duchess of Vallières becomes Sister Louise of Mercy, her rival becomes the only mistress in title, Louis XIV will make sure that she has the lifestyle worthy of a queen.
At Versailles, Louis XIV personally sees to it that the women in his life are installed near him so that he can join them in all discretion. And even after spending some quality time with his mistresses, his night does not end there, because every evening he goes to visit the queen to fulfill his marital duty.
It is not only in the castle that the king had spaces dedicated to his love affairs. The famous gardener Andre le Nôtre had to show imagination, the park of Versailles is full of naughty places of dozens of bumps. The bosquet of Encelade conceived by le Nôtre, is the most naughty bosquet of Versailles gardens, everything is made to preserve the intimacy of the lovers a wall of thick foliage which protects from the ears and the indiscreet glances and then these small benches installed a little everywhere in dead angles.
Madame de Maintenon
In Versailles Madame de Montespan enjoys her place of favorite, and this is not going to last, another woman is going to enter in scene and not of the least since it is about a governess who will have the heavy task to take care of the children, that Madame de Montespan will have with the king. Her name is Madame de Scarron and she will become famous later under the name of Madame de Maintenon, born in prison and widowed.
The marquise of Montespan will give to the king seven children in total, of which 4 will reach the adulthood but at the beginning nobody must suspect that Louis XIV is the progenitor because it is unthinkable for a king of France himself married to have children with a woman also married. So Madame Scarron will raise the bastards of the king out of sight in a discreet house in the rue de Vaugirard in Paris. As the births took place, the governess went by night and in absolute discretion to the court to collect the newborn.
But very quickly the relations between Madame de Montespan and Madame Scarron will deteriorate, because the governess does not support the disinterest displayed by the marquise towards her children. Louis XIV intervened in the conflict and always took the side of the governess which made the fury of the marquise grow.
On December 20, 1673 the king decides to legitimize the bastards born from his affair with the Marquise de Montespan.
Louis XIV appreciates the way the governess takes care of his children, he also likes her intelligence and discretion so they spend more and more time with her. They will get closer and closer from her entry to the court of Versailles. She will first gain the esteem of the king and then over the course of discussions his friendship and then she will become his confidante and over time she will become his mistress.
For years their relationship remains secret. But Madame de Montespan is not fooled, she notices an unusual complicity between her beloved and the nurse, very quickly the marquise shows jealousy towards Madame Scarron from now on her rival. The tension between the two women grows from day to day the disputes multiply and become even sometimes violent. Madame Scarron unceasingly humiliated by Madame de Montespan does not think of any more than one thing now, to leave the court, then to dissuade it the king is going to give him 250 thousand livres an important sum at the time since thus the housekeeper is going to be able to offer herself a castle, in the village of Maintenon to about fifty kilometers of the castle of Versailles. A magnificent residence that the widow could offer herself after five years spent in the service of the king. And to the general surprise the king is going to give the title of marquise to Mrs. Scarron, the same rank as Mrs. Montespan, it was the occasion to take revenge of the years of humiliation that made him undergo his rival.
A castle a title now it only remains for her to get rid of her eternal rival the marquise of Montespan and for that she is going to find an ally of weight god
Versailles April 1675 we are in full festivals of Easter all the subjects of the king and the monarch himself must before the big mass to confess. Madam de Maintenon is part of a small group of ecclesiastics well decided to provoke the rupture between Louis XIV and the marquise, and to put the king in the right way.
On April 10, 1675 Madame de Montespan goes to confess in Versailles, but she is refused the absolution, and the church designates in the eyes of the people the marquise as the person in charge of the debauchery of the king of France she must thus leave the court and Louis XIV promises from now on to find the way of the virtue. For the first time since his adolescence the king enters a phase of sexual abstinence, only it is not going to last a long time one year later Louis XIV of return of the war is taken again of an irresistible sexual frenzy, he takes again with the one which never left his heart the pulpy marquise of Montespan those which had been banished by the church returns to Versailles. However this relationship does not manage to satisfy the royal impulses. Then the king makes pass in his bed a ribambelle of women of the court the mistresses are going to succeed one another at a frantic rhythm they are called: Anne Julie de Rohan chabot princesse de soubise, Claude de Vin des Œillets, Marie-Elisabeth de Ludres, Elisabeth Hamilton conteste de Grammont, Diane-Gabrielle damas de Tihange duchess of Nevers.
Angélique de Fontanges
Is it because he feels that he is getting older that the king multiplies his adventures, always is it that he finds at this time a second youth, and he is going to multiply his flings and among these flings there is a young girl who is going to make talk about her it will be the last favorite of Louis XIV she is called
Angélique de Fontanges she is 18 years old and she is very beautiful, but very silly and she will be pregnant by the king and it will be fatal for her. She will die in terrible suffering. Many will think that mademoiselle de Fontanges was perhaps poisoned. At this time Madame de Montespan is practically on the sidelines in addition the daughter of the neighbor to a witch confesses that her mother would have provided the marquise with poison intended for mademoiselle de Fontanges. The king decides to put an end to the rumors by imprisoning each person who will say bad things about the marquise, but the king has doubts so he would repudiate her but he agrees to keep her in Versailles because she made him 7 children. She will stay another ten years but the king will ask her to leave his sumptuous castle. She will leave Versailles for good in 1691 to take refuge in a convent.
On July 30, 1683, Queen Theresa of Austria died at Versailles at the age of 45 of a devastating septicemia. A woman whose history will remember above all her dignity against one of the most fickle kings that France has known. The king will not remain a widower for long, 2 months later in the greatest secrecy Louis XIV marries Madame de Maintenon. The former governess will never become queen of France because she is not of royal blood. With Madam de Maintenon, Versailles takes another face finished the libertinage to a more sober life, Louis XIV does not cheat any more, no mistress to the right and to the left. Madame de Maintenon is going to take care on her husband. And during 30 years they are going to grow old together next to each other. On September 1, 1715 the king sun dies of the continuations of a gangrene at the age of 77 years, then his wife leaves the court to settle in Saint-Cyr close to Versailles and remain there until her death in 1718.
When the king died, neither his son nor his grandsons were still alive, and it was Louis XV, the great-grandson of Louis XIV, who reigned over France, and like his great-grandfather he collected mistresses.
