Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 26, 2025
Woman seemed to be overcoming the influence of woman—Mme. de Montespan replaced Mlle. de La Vallière, and she was in turn replaced by Mme. de Maintenon. The degeneration of the king was accompanied by that of literature, society, and morals.
We recalled Madame de Sévigné's spirited description of the court and royal family setting forth upon some pleasure party, herself among them, tucked in snugly in the same carosse with her favorite, Duchesse de La Vallière, or Madame de Montespan of the many ringlets, for whom she cares nothing, these two ladies in close quarters although cordially hating each other.
Louis XIV., in his youth more made for love than any of his subjects being tired of gathering passing sweets, fixed himself at last upon La Valliere. The progress and the result of his love are well known. Madame de Montespan was she whose rare beauty touched him next, even during the reign of Madame de La Valliere.
"If you are prudent, you will write first to the Marquis de Montespan, not to annul and revoke the judicial and legal separation which exists, but to inform him of your return to reasonable ideas, and of your resolve to be reconciled with the public." With these words the King ceased speaking.
It was thus that La Valliere was so ill-treated at the instigation of Montespan. He loaded him with proofs of his kindness, and invited him to join in all the excursions to Marly, a decided mark of great favour.
By that time Madame de Montespan was firmly established as maitresse en titre, and in January of 1669 she gave birth to the Duke of Maine, the first of the seven children she was to bear the King. Parliament was to legitimize them all, declaring them royal children of France, and the country was to provide titles, dignities, and royal rent-rolls for them and their heirs forever.
This assertion, accurate as it is so far as concerns political influence for Madame de Montespan never exercised any over the government of Louis XIV. is not equally so with regard to the question of beauty. On that head, indeed, the Duchess had her detractors.
The father of Louis Philippe was descended from a brother of Louis the Great, while on his mother's side he was a direct descendant of the great monarch and Madame de Montespan. Such an inbred claim to royalty was something of which to boast, but at the same time Louis Philippe was painfully sensitive as to the blot on the 'scutcheon.
They must have accused Lauzun also of crimes which I have never heard of, in order to procure for him the barbarous treatment they succeeded in subjecting him to. Their intrigues lasted all the year, 1671, without Lauzun discovering anything by the visage of the King, or that of Madame de Montespan. Both the King and his mistress treated him with their ordinary distinction and familiarity.
Tired of this, and not being able to divine whence comes his failure, he takes a resolution incredible if it was not attested by all the Court of that time. The King was in the habit of visiting Madame de Montespan in the afternoon, and of remaining with her some time. Puyguilhem was on terms of tender intimacy with one of the chambermaids of Madame de Montespan.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking