Memoirs of Madame la Marquise de Montespan — Complete

To-day, when time and reflection, and, perhaps, that fund of contempt which is so useful, have finally revealed to me the insurmountable necessities of life, I can look with a c...

Mademoiselle de l'Enclos is universally known in the world for the agreeableness of her superior wit and her charms of face and person. When Madame de Maintenon, after the loss...

Journey to Poitou.--The Mayor and the Sheriffs of Orleans.--The Marquise's Modesty.--The Serenade.--The Abbey of Fontevrault.--Family Council.--Duchomania.--A Letter to the King...

Madame de Montespan at the Palace.--M. de Montespan.--His Indiscreet Language.--His Absence.--Specimen of His Way of Writing.--A Refractory Cousin.--The King Interferes.--M. de...

The castle of Petit-Bourg, of which the King made me a present, is situate on a height overlooking the Seine, whence one may get the loveliest of views. So pleasant did I find t...

Amoung the novices at Fontevrault there was a most interesting, charming young person, who gave Madame de Mortemart a good deal of anxiety, as she thought her still undecided as...

When Madame de la Valliere (led by suggestions coming from the Most High) left the Court and the world to shut herself up in a cloister, she committed a great imprudence; I shou...

First Vocation of Mademoiselle de la Valliere.--The King Surprises His Mistress.--She is Forced to Retire to a Convent.--The King Hastens to Take Her Back.--She Was Not Made for...

The Verse of Berenice.--Praises of Boileau.--The King's Aversion to Satirical Writers.--The Painter Le Brun.--His Bacchus.--The Waterbottle.--The Pyramid of Jean Chatel Injuriou...

Birth of the Duc d'Anjou.--The Present to the Mother.--The Casket of Patience.--Departure of the King for the Army.--The King Turns a Deaf Ear.--How That Concerns Madame de Main...

While the Turks and the Imperialists were fighting in the plains of Hungary, the King, followed by all his Court, had made his way towards the frontiers of Alsace. He reviewed c...

I do not desire to hold up to ridicule the rites of that religion in which I was born and bred. Neither would I disparage its ancient usages, nor its far more modern laws. All r...

The Court Goes to Flanders.--Nancy.--Ravon.--Sainte Marie aux Mines.--Dancing and Death.--A German Sovereign's Respectful Visit.--The Young Strasburg Priests.--The Good Bailiff...

The great liberty which we enjoyed at Fontevrault, compared with the interminable bondage of Saint Germain or Versailles, made the abbey ever seem more agreeable to me; and Mada...

The Prince de Mont-Beliard.--He Agrees to the Propositions Made Him.--The King's Note.--Diplomacy of the Chancellor of England.--Letter from the Marquis de Montespan.--The Duchy...

Madame de Maintenon at Loggerheads with Madame de Thianges.--The Mint of the D'Aubigne Family.--Creme de Negresse, the Elixir of Long Life.--Ninon's Secret for Beauty.--The King...

President de Nesmond--upright, clear-headed magistrate as he was--was of very great service to me at the Courts of Justice. He always managed to oblige me and look after my inte...

The Young Nobility and the Turks.--Private Correspondence.--The Unlucky Minister and the Page of Strasburg.--The King Judged and Described in All the Documents.--The King Humili...

Lovers' Vows.--The Body-guards.--Racine's Phedre.--The Pit.--Allusions.--The Duel.--M. de Monclar.--The Cowled Spy.--He Escapes with a Fright.--M. de Monclar in Jersey.--Gratitu...

The House of Saint Cyr.--Petition of the Monks of Saint Denis to the King, against the Plan of Madame de Maintenon.--Madame de Maintenon Summons Them and Sends Them Away with Sm...

After the siege and surrender of Maestricht, when the King had no other end in view than the entire conquest of Dutch Brabant, he took us to this country, which had suffered gre...

Little Opportune.--M. and Madame Bontems.--The Young Moor Weaned.--The Good Cure.--The Blessed Virgin.--Opportune at the Augustinians of Meaux.--Bossuet Director.--Mademoiselle...

Parallel between the Diamond and the Sun.--Taste of the Marquise for Precious Stones.--The King's Collection of Medals.--The Crown of Agrippina.--The Duchess of York.--Disappoin...

M. de Lauzun Proposes for the Hand of Mademoiselle de Thianges.--Letter from the Duc de Lorraine.--Madame de Thianges Thinks that Her Daughter Has Married a Reigning Prince.--Th...

The Reformed Religion and Painting on Enamel--Petitot and Heliogabalus.--Theological Discussion with the Marquise.--The King's Intervention.--Louis XIV. Renders His Account to t...

M. de Lauzun and Mademoiselle de Montpensier.--Marriage of the One and Passion of the Other.--The King Settles a Match.--A Secret Union.--The King Sends M. de Lauzun to Pignerol...

Two or three days after our arrival at Fontevrault, the King, who loves to know all the geographical details of important places, asked me of the form and particulars of the cel...

Mesdemoiselles de Mazarin.--The Age of Puberty.--Madame de Beauvais.--Anger of the Queen-mother.--The Cardinal's Policy.--First Love.--Louis de Beauvais.--The Abbe de Rohan-Soub...

Madame de Maintenon was already forty-four years old, and appeared to be only thirty. This freshness, that she owed either to painstaking care or to her happy and quite peculiar...

M. Colbert had been ailing for a long time past. His face bore visible testimony against his health, to which his accumulated and incessant labour had caused the greatest injury...

Mademoiselle de Valois.--Mademoiselle d'Orleans.--Mademoiselle d'Alencon.--M. de Savoie.--His Love-letters.--His Marriage with Mademoiselle de Valois.--M. de Guise and Mademoise...

Madame de Sevigne.--Madame de Grignan.--Madame de Montespan at the Carmelites.--Madame de la Valliere.--These Two Great Ruins Console One Another.--An Angel of Sweetness, Goodne...

Judgment Given by the Chatelet.--The Marquis d'Antin Restored to His Father.--The Judgment is Not Executed.--Full Mourning.--Funeral Service.--The Notary of Saint Elig.--The Let...

Despite the endeavours made by the ministers concerning the pamphlet or volume about which I am going to speak, neither they nor the King succeeded in quashing a sinister rumour...

The King Takes Luxembourg Because It Is His Will.--Devastation of the Electorate of Treves.--The Marquis de Louvois.--His Portrait.--The Marvels Which He Worked.--The Le Tellier...

My second sister, Mademoiselle de Mortemart, was so unfortunate as to fall in love with a young Knight of Malta, doomed from his birth and by his family to celibacy. Having set...

The four or five words which had escaped Mademoiselle de Montpensier had remained in the King's recollection. He said to me: "If you had more patience, and a sweeter and more pl...

The family of Madame de Maintenon had not only neglected but despised her when she was poor and living on her pension of two thousand francs. Since my protection and favour had...

Directly Tournai had surrendered, and the new outposts were occupied, the King wished to make his entry into this important town, which he had long desired to see. The people an...

The Duchesse de Lesdiguieres.--Her Jest.--"The Chaise of Convenience."--Anger of the Jesuits.--They Ally Themselves with the Archbishop of Paris.--The Forty Hours' Prayers.--Tha...

Pere de la Chaise has never done me good or ill; I have no motives for conciliating him, no reason to slander him. I am ignorant if he were the least in the world concerned, at...

The King had only caused against his own desire the extreme grief which Mademoiselle felt at the imprisonment of Lauzun. His Majesty was sensible of the wisdom of the resolution...

At the great slaughter of Candia, M. de Vivonne had the pleasure of saving a young Venetian drummer whom he noticed all covered with blood, and senseless, amongst the dead and d...

I wept much during the journey; and to save the spectacle of my grief from the passers-by, I was at the pains to lower the curtains. I passed over in my mind all that the Duches...

The King, in his moments of effusion and abandonment (then so full of pleasantness), had said more than once: "If I have any physical beauty, I owe it to the Queen, my mother; i...

Political Intrigue in Hungary.--Dignity of the King of the Romans.--The Good Appearance of a German Prince.--The Turks at Vienna.--The Duc de Lorraine.--The King of Rome.

Cardinal Mazarin.--Regency of Anne of Austria.--Her Perseverance in Retaining Her Minister.--Mazarin Gives His Nieces in Marriage.--M. de la Meilleraye.--The Cardinal's Festivit...

The Observatory.--The King Visits the Carthusians.--How a Painter with His Brush May Save a Convent.--The Guilty Monk.--Strange Revelations.--The King's Kindness.--The Curate of...

The King became ever more attached to me personally, as also to the peculiarities of my temperament. He had witnessed with satisfaction the birth of Madame de la Valliere's two...

On going out into society, I heard everybody talking everywhere about M. Fouquet. They praised his good-nature, his affability, his talents, his magnificence, his wit. His post...

The King Alters His Opinion about Madame Scarron.--He Wants Her to Assume Another Name.--He Gives Her the Maintenon Estates.--She and Madame de Montespan Visit These.--A Strange...

In marrying Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain, the King had made an advantageous match from a political point of view. For through the Infanta he had rights with regard to Flander...

I had successively lost the first and second Comte de Vegin; God also chose to take Mademoiselle de Tours from me, who (in what way I know not) was in features the very image of...

The Casket of M. de Lauzun.--His Historical Gallery.--He Makes Some Nuns.--M. de Lauzun in the Lottery.--The Loser Wins.--Queen out of Pique.--Letter from the Queen of Portugal....

One day the King was passing through some of the large rooms of the palace, at a time of the morning when the courtiers had not yet made their appearance, and when carpenters an...

The Comte de Guiche.--His Violent Passion for Madame.--His Despair.--He Flees to La Trappe.--And Comes Out Again.--A Man's Heart.--Cured of His Passion, He Takes a Wife.

Monsieur's Second Marriage.--Princess Palatine.--The Court Turnspit.--A Woman's Hatred.--The King's Mistress on a Par with the First Prince of the Blood.--She Gives His Wife a L...

When leaving, despite himself, for the provinces, M. de Montespan wrote me a letter full of bitter insults, in which he ordered me to give up his coat-of-arms, his livery, and e...

The Equipage at Full Speed.--The Poor Vine-grower.--Sensibility of Madame de Maintenon.--Her Popularity.--One Has the Right to Crush a Man Who Will Not Get Out of the Way.--What...

The Court Travels in Picardy and Flanders.--The Boudoir Navy.--Madame de Montespan Is Not Invited.--The King Relates to Her the Delights of the Journey.--Reflections of the Marq...

MARIA THERESA, the King's new consort, was the daughter of the King of Spain and Elizabeth of France, daughter of Henri IV. At the time of her marriage she had lost her mother,...

She was left for ten days, lying in state, in the mortuary chapel of Versailles, where mass was being said by priests at four altars from morning till evening. She was finally r...

Once a Queen, Always a Queen.--An Anonymous Letter.--The Queen's Confidence.--She Has a Sermon Preached against Madame de Montespan.--Who the Preacher was.--One Scandal May Aver...

The Abbe d'Estrees.--Singular Offers of Service.--Madame de Montespan Declines His Offer of Intercession at the Vatican.--He Revenges Himself upon the King of Portugal.--Differe...

Madame Scarron.--Her Petition.--The King's Aversion to Her.--She is Presented to Madame de Montespan.--The Queen of Portugal Thinks of Engaging Her.--Madame de Montespan Keeps H...

Those spiteful persons who told the Queen how obliging the Duchesse de Montausier had shown herself towards me were also so extremely kind as to write an account of the whole af...

After the furious siege of Conde, which lasted only four days, the King, who had been present, left for Sebourg, whence he sent orders for the destruction of the principal forts...

The Duc du Maine Provided with the Government of Languedoc.--The Young Prince de Conti.--His Piety.--His Apostasy.--The Duc de la Feuillade Burlesqued.--The Watch Set with Diamo...

M. de Louvois--by nature, as I have said, hard and despotic--was quite satisfied to gain the same reputation for the King, in order to cover his own violence and rigour beneath...

Random Recollections.--Madame de Montespan Withdraws from Politics.--The Queen's Dowry.--First Campaign in Flanders.--The Queen Meets the King.--Some One Else Sees Him First.--T...

My father-confessor, who since my arrival at Court had never vexed or thwarted me, suddenly altered his whole manner towards me, from which I readily concluded that the Queen ha...

The King Contemplates the Conquest of Holland.--The Grand Seignior's Embassy.--Madame de Montespan's Chance of Becoming First Lady of the Harem.--Anxiety to Conclude Negotiation...

The youthful Marquis d'Antin--my son--was growing up; the King showed him the most flattering signs of his attachment, and as the child had lived only with me, he dreaded his fa...

The Abbe le Bouthilier de Rance,--son of the secretary of state, Le Bouthilier de Chavigny,--after having scandalised Court and town by his public gallantries, lost his mistress...

The "Powder of Inheritance."--The Chambre Ardente.--The Comtesse de Soissons's Arrest Decreed.--The Marquise de Montespan Buys Her Superintendence of the Queen's Council.--Madam...

Charles II., King of England.--How Interest Can Give Memory.--His Grievances against France.--The Two Daughters of the Duke of York.--William of Orange Marries One, in Spite of...

Eight months after the wedding of Marie Louise, we witnessed the arrival of Anne Marie Christine, Princess of Bavaria, daughter of the Elector Ferdinand. The King and Monseigneu...

As Madame de Maintenon's character happened to please the King, as I have already stated, he allotted her handsome apartments at Court while waiting until he could keep her ther...

Monsieur would seem to have been created in order to set off his brother, the King, and to give him the advantage of such relief. He is small in stature and in character, being...

I have already told how the envoys of the King of Arda, an African prince, gave to the Queen a nice little blackamoor, as a toy and pet. This Moor, aged about ten or twelve year...

In marrying Monsieur, the King consulted only his well-known generosity, and the richly equipped household which he granted to this prince should assuredly have made him satisfi...

After six months of wedlock, Henrietta of England had become so beautiful that the King drew every one's attention to this change, as if he were not unmindful of the fact that h...

Comte de Vegin, Abbe of Saint Germain des Pres.--Revenues Required, but Not the Cowl.--Discussion between the King and the Marquise.--Madame Scarron Chosen as Arbiter.--An Unans...

Mademoiselle, having by means of her donations to the Duc du Maine obtained, at first, the release, and subsequently the entire liberty of Lauzun, wished to go to meet him and t...

Madame la Dauphine brought into the world a son, christened Louis at the font, to whom the King a few moments afterwards gave the title of the Duke of Burgundy. We had become ac...

I have related in what manner Charles II., suddenly pronouncing in favour of his nephew, the Prince of Orange, had signed a league with his old enemies, the Dutch, in order to c...

The Chevalier de Rohan.--He is Born Too Late.--His Debts.--Messina Ceded to the French.--The King of Spain Meditates Revenge.--The Comte de Monterey.--Madame de Villars as Consp...

The petty princes placed too near a great potentate are just like the shrubs that grow beside an old oak tree, whose broad shade blights them, while its roots undermine and sap...

Since Catiline's famous hatred for Consul Cicero, there has never been hatred so deep and envenomed as that of William of Orange for the King. For this loathing, cherished by a...

The King's studies with his preceptor, Perefixe, had been of only a superficial sort, as, in accordance with the express order of the Queen-mother, this prelate had been mainly...

The King, by the last peace, signed at Nimegue, had engaged to restore the Principality of Orange to William, Stadtholder and Generalissimo of the Dutch. This article was one of...

The unfortunate lady, Henrietta of England, had left, at her death, two extremely young girls, one of them, indeed, being still in the cradle. The new Madame was seized with goo...

The Abbe de Brisacier, the famous director of consciences, possessed enough friends and credit to advance young Brisacier, his nephew, to the Queen's household, to whom he had b...

Since the birth of Mademoiselle de Blois, and the death of Mademoiselle de Fontanges, the King hardly ever saw me except a few minutes ceremoniously,--a few minutes before and a...

Monsieur, having learnt what his cousin of Montpensier had just done for my Duc du Maine, felt all possible grief and envy at it. He had always looked to inherit from her, and t...

Embassy of the King of Arda.--Political Influence Exercised by the Good Looks of Madame de Montespan.--Gifts of the Envoys.--What the Comte de Vegin Takes for a Horse.--Madame d...

The King had not much leisure, yet occasionally he gave up half an hour or an hour to the society of a chosen few,--men famous for their wit and brilliant talents. One day he wa...

Close of the Queen-mother's Illness.--The Archbishop of Auch.--The Patient's Resignation.--The Sacrament.--Court Ceremony for its Reception.--Sage Distinction of Mademoiselle de...

My poor little Comte de Vegin died. We all mourned for him as he deserved; his pretty face would have made every one love him; his extreme gentleness had nothing of the savage w...

The Marquis de Bragelonne was born for Mademoiselle de la Valliere. It was this young officer, endowed with all perfections imaginable, whom Heaven had designed for her, to comp...

MADEMOISELLE DE LA VALLIERE was tall, shapely, and extremely pretty, with as sweet and even a temper as one could possibly imagine, which eminently fitted her for dreamy, contem...

Out of affection and respect for the Queen-mother, the King had until then sought to conceal the ardour of his attachment for Mademoiselle de la Valliere. It was after the six m...

One evening I was walking at the far end of the long terrace of Saint Germain. The King soon came thither, and pointing to Saint Denis, said, "That, madame, is a gloomy, funerea...

Historians have, on the whole, dealt somewhat harshly with the fascinating Madame de Montespan, perhaps taking their impressions from the judgments, often narrow and malicious,...

The reign of the King who now so happily and so gloriously rules over France will one day exercise the talent of the most skilful historians. But these men of genius, deprived o...

M. de Lauzun.--His Pretensions.--Erroneous Ideas of the Public.--The War in Candia.--M. de Lauzun Thinks He Will Secure a Throne for Himself.--The King Does Not Wish This.

A few moments before he died, Cardinal Mazarin, through strategy, not through repentance, besought the King to accept a deed of gift whereby he was appointed his universal legat...

My sisters thought it of extreme importance to possess positive knowledge as to their future condition and the events which fate held in store for them. They managed to be secre...

Eight days after the conclusion of the jubilee I returned to Versailles. The King received me with every mark of sincere friendship; my friends came in crowds to my apartments;...