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Authors: Antonia Fraser
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she adopted elegant and languorous loose clothing to conceal her figure.
Athénaïs by Pierre Mignard.
The Appartement des Bains where Madame de Montespan and the King relaxed, with a marble bath and couches, depicted on a fan.
Satirists were happy to mock Athénaïs's voluptuous figure as it thickened with age; she is seen here feasting with Louis XIV and attendant goblins and devils. By Joseph Werner.
Angélique de Fontanges became the King's mistress at the age of eighteen when he was forty; she died two years later after a traumatic experience in childbirth. Some people thought she was the most beautiful girl ever to come to Versailles - ‘like a statue’ - but she lacked intelligence.
Françoise de Maintenon, shown as an attractive young woman whose dark hair and dark eyes were much admired; she also loved fine clothes, contrary to later sneers that she was a prude who always dressed in black.
Madame de Maintenon with two of Athénaïs's children to whom she acted as governess in a secret house in the rue de Vaugirard: the Duc du Maine, her favourite, and the Comte de Vexin, who died young.
Engraved frontispiece to the satire Scarron appearing to Madame de Maintenon, 1664; the middle-aged playwright whom she married at the age of sixteen and who died nine years later here regards his widow in all her court finery with dismay.
Madame de Maintenon with her niece Françoise-Charlotte, daughter of her reprobate brother Charles d'Aubigné; she made Françoise-Charlotte her heir, married her to the Duc de Noailles and gave her the Château de Maintenon.
‘May your fidelity be inviolable to the end …' The ‘Secret Notebooks' of Madame de Maintenon which she kept from about 1684 onwards; noting religious texts, bibilical quotations and sayings of the Saints.
Madame de Maintenon painted as Saint Frances of Rome. Contemporaries wondered whether the ‘queenly' ermine indicated that she was secretly married to Louis XIV; when asked about the fur, the King commented that Saint Frances certainly deserved ermine.
King David playing on his harp by Domenico Zampieri, which Louis acquired from the possessions of Cardinal Mazarin; it shows a more soulful David than the lecherous biblical King regularly denounced by preachers as a covert way of attacking Louis XIV's adulteries.
A miniature based on the Saint Frances portrait which Louis XIV carried in his pocket until his death.
An engraving of the visit of Louis XIV to Saint-Cyr in 1704, the superior establishment for the education of poor but well-born girls founded by Madame de Maintenon; the King took a great interest in Saint-Cyr, enjoying music and theatricals there.
The Château de Maintenon bought by Madame de Maintenon with money given by the King, later donated to her niece Françoise-Charlotte on her marriage to the Duc de Noailles; as ever the King was interested in making improvements to it. Above, the aquaduct which was abandoned; right, Madame de Maintenon's bedroom as it is today.
Marie-Jeanne d'Aumale acted as Madame de Maintenon's secretary, and is an important source for her later life; the King enjoyed her lively company.
The Dauphin and Dauphine: the Dauphin was a good-natured man who lived only for hunting; Marianne-Victoire of Bavaria was intelligent and cultured but lacked any kind of beauty. They are shown here with their three sons the Ducs de Bourgogne (right), Anjou (centre) and Berry (on his mother's lap).
The betrothal of ‘Monsieur', the King's only brother, to his first cousin Henriette-Anne d'Orléans, 1661. From a fan.
Henriette-Anne of England, first wife of Monsieur, Duc d'Orléans, with her favourite spaniel Mimi, given to her by her brother Charles II. Henriette-Anne loved the dog so much that she even danced holding her in the Court Ballet.
The royal family of France painted by Jean Nocret in 1670, at the request of Monsieur, in the guise of gods and goddesses. On the left Monsieur (seated) has his own
Athénaïs by Pierre Mignard.
The Appartement des Bains where Madame de Montespan and the King relaxed, with a marble bath and couches, depicted on a fan.
Satirists were happy to mock Athénaïs's voluptuous figure as it thickened with age; she is seen here feasting with Louis XIV and attendant goblins and devils. By Joseph Werner.
Angélique de Fontanges became the King's mistress at the age of eighteen when he was forty; she died two years later after a traumatic experience in childbirth. Some people thought she was the most beautiful girl ever to come to Versailles - ‘like a statue’ - but she lacked intelligence.
Françoise de Maintenon, shown as an attractive young woman whose dark hair and dark eyes were much admired; she also loved fine clothes, contrary to later sneers that she was a prude who always dressed in black.
Madame de Maintenon with two of Athénaïs's children to whom she acted as governess in a secret house in the rue de Vaugirard: the Duc du Maine, her favourite, and the Comte de Vexin, who died young.
Engraved frontispiece to the satire Scarron appearing to Madame de Maintenon, 1664; the middle-aged playwright whom she married at the age of sixteen and who died nine years later here regards his widow in all her court finery with dismay.
Madame de Maintenon with her niece Françoise-Charlotte, daughter of her reprobate brother Charles d'Aubigné; she made Françoise-Charlotte her heir, married her to the Duc de Noailles and gave her the Château de Maintenon.
‘May your fidelity be inviolable to the end …' The ‘Secret Notebooks' of Madame de Maintenon which she kept from about 1684 onwards; noting religious texts, bibilical quotations and sayings of the Saints.
Madame de Maintenon painted as Saint Frances of Rome. Contemporaries wondered whether the ‘queenly' ermine indicated that she was secretly married to Louis XIV; when asked about the fur, the King commented that Saint Frances certainly deserved ermine.
King David playing on his harp by Domenico Zampieri, which Louis acquired from the possessions of Cardinal Mazarin; it shows a more soulful David than the lecherous biblical King regularly denounced by preachers as a covert way of attacking Louis XIV's adulteries.
A miniature based on the Saint Frances portrait which Louis XIV carried in his pocket until his death.
An engraving of the visit of Louis XIV to Saint-Cyr in 1704, the superior establishment for the education of poor but well-born girls founded by Madame de Maintenon; the King took a great interest in Saint-Cyr, enjoying music and theatricals there.
The Château de Maintenon bought by Madame de Maintenon with money given by the King, later donated to her niece Françoise-Charlotte on her marriage to the Duc de Noailles; as ever the King was interested in making improvements to it. Above, the aquaduct which was abandoned; right, Madame de Maintenon's bedroom as it is today.
Marie-Jeanne d'Aumale acted as Madame de Maintenon's secretary, and is an important source for her later life; the King enjoyed her lively company.
The Dauphin and Dauphine: the Dauphin was a good-natured man who lived only for hunting; Marianne-Victoire of Bavaria was intelligent and cultured but lacked any kind of beauty. They are shown here with their three sons the Ducs de Bourgogne (right), Anjou (centre) and Berry (on his mother's lap).
The betrothal of ‘Monsieur', the King's only brother, to his first cousin Henriette-Anne d'Orléans, 1661. From a fan.
Henriette-Anne of England, first wife of Monsieur, Duc d'Orléans, with her favourite spaniel Mimi, given to her by her brother Charles II. Henriette-Anne loved the dog so much that she even danced holding her in the Court Ballet.
The royal family of France painted by Jean Nocret in 1670, at the request of Monsieur, in the guise of gods and goddesses. On the left Monsieur (seated) has his own
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