Madame de Ventadour
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Charlotte-Eléonore Madeleine de la Motte Houdancourt, Duchesse de Ventadour (1654–1744) was the governess of King Louis XV of France, great-grandson of King Louis XIV). She would be credited with saving Louis XV from the ministrations of the royal doctors when he was ill as a child.
Charlotte was born in 1654, the youngest of the three daughters of Philippe de la Mothe Houdancourt, duc de Cardone and maréchal (who died in 1657), and Louise de Prie, marquise de Toucy, duchesse de la Motte Houdancourt, maréchale, governess to the children of France. Charlotte's sisters were:
- Françoise Angélique de la Mothe-Houdancourt, dame de Fayel (b.1650), who married on 28 November 1669 Louis-Marie-Victor, duc d'Aumont and marquis de Villequier, (9 December 1632–5 April 1711)
- Marie Isabelle Angélique de la Mothe-Houdancourt, duchesse de la Ferté Senneterre, (d.1726).
Charlotte married on 14 March 1671, in Paris, to Louis-Charles de Lévis, duc de Ventadour and governor of the Limousin (1647-1717). They had one daughter: Anne-Geneviève de Lévis Ventadour (b.1673).
She was appointed governess to the royal children in 1704.
In 1712, an outbreak of measles struck the French royal family, causing a number of significant deaths. First to die was the Dauphine, Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy. Within a week of her death, her heartbroken husband, Louis the Dauphin, had also died, leaving his sons Louis, duc de Bretagne and Louis, duc d'Anjou, orphaned, and the elder child as heir to the throne.
The sickness, however, had not yet run its course: both the duc de Bretagne and the duc d'Anjou became ill with measles. The Dauphin was ministered to by the royal doctors, who bled him in the belief that it would help him to recover; instead, it merely weakened the young boy, who swiftly died, leaving the duc d'Anjou as Dauphin. Deciding that she would not allow the same treatment to be applied to the duc d'Anjou, Madame de Ventadour locked herself up with three nursery maids, and refused to allow the doctors near the boy. Louis survived his disease, becoming King of France upon the death of his great-grandfather three years later.
Madame de Ventadour continued in her position as royal governess until 1717, when the King was deemed old enough to be raised by men. Her husband died in the same year. She then became Lady-in-Waiting to the Dowager Duchess of Orleans, widow of Duke Philip I.
