Louise de La Vallière

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Louise de La Vallière
Louise de La Vallière with her children
Born	August 6, 1644(1644-08-06) Tours, France
Died	June 7, 1710 (aged 65) Paris, France
Occupation	Official mistress to Louis XIV from 1661 to 1667
Children	6 - 2 survived infancy: Marie Anne de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Blois Louis de Bourbon, comte de Vermandois
Parents	Laurent de La Vallière Françoise Le Provost

Louise Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc de La Vallière (August 6, 1644 – June 7, 1710) was the mistress to Louis XIV of France from 1661 to 1667. She later became the duchesse de la Vallière and duchesse de Vaujours in her own right. [1] [2]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Entrance into royal circles, and a royal affair 2.1 Mistress 2.2 First Royal Child 2.3 Children at a glance 3 Downfall 4 Entering convent life, and later life 4.1 Exile 4.2 Convent Life 4.3 After Death 4.4 Titles 5 Legacy 6 Footnotes 7 References

[edit] Early life

Louise was born in Tours, the daughter of an officer, Laurent de La Baume Le Blanc -who took the name of La Vallière from a small property near Amboise- and Françoise Le Provost. Laurent de La Vallière died in 1651; in 1655 his widow married again with Jacques de Courtarvel, marquis de Saint-Rémy, and joined the court of Gaston, Duke of Orléans at Blois.

Louise was brought up with the younger princesses, the stepsisters of "La Grande Mademoiselle". After Gaston's death his widow moved with her daughters to Luxembourg Palace in Paris, and with them went Louise, aged sixteen.

[edit] Entrance into royal circles, and a royal affair

Through the influence of a distant kinswoman, Mme de Choisy, Louise was named maid of honour to Henrietta, sister of King Charles II of England, who was about her own age and had just married Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, the King's brother. Henrietta was extremely attractive in her youth and joined the court at Fontainebleau in 1661, soon becoming involved on friendly terms with her brother-in-law, resulting in some scandal and rumours of a romance.

To avoid this, it was decided that Louis should pay court elsewhere, and his mother selected three young ladies to 'set in his path'. Louise was selected. The Abbé de Choise reported that the seventeen year old innocent "had an exquisite complexion, blond hair, blue eyes, a sweet smile...an expression once tender and modest."^[1] One leg was shorter than the other, so she wore specially made heels.

[edit] Mistress

She had only been at Fontainebleau for two months before she became the king's mistress. Originally, Louise was intended to divert attention away from the dangerous flirtation between Louis and his sister-in law (and cousin) Princess Henrietta, however Louise and Louis soon fell in love. ^[2]It was Louise's first serious attachment and she was reportedly an innocent, religious-minded girl who initially brought neither coquetry nor self-interest to their secret relationship. She was not extravagant and was not interested in money or titles that could come from her situation, she only wanted the King's love. Antonia Fraser writes that she was a "secret lover not a Maîtresse-en-titre like Barbara Villiers."^[3]

Nicolas Fouquet's curiosity in the matter was one of the causes of his disgrace, when he bribed Louise and the King thought mistakenly he was attempting to take her as a lover.^[4]

In February 1662 there was a storm when Louise refused to tell her lover about the affair between Madame (Henrietta) and the comte de Guiche. During that same time, a series of Lenten sermons delivered by Jacques-Benigne Bossuet that condemned the immoral activities of the King using the guise of King David plagued the pious girl's guilty conscience.^[5] She fled to an obscure convent at Chaillot. Louis however rapidly followed her, convinced her to give up the veil and to return to court. Her enemies, chief of whom was Olympe Mancini, comtesse de Soissons, niece of Jules Cardinal Mazarin, sought her downfall by bringing her liaison to the ears of Queen Maria Theresa of Spain.

[edit] First Royal Child

She was removed from the service of Madame, and established in a small building in the Palais Royal, where on December 19, 1663 she gave birth to a son, Charles, who was quickly whisked away early that very morning in secret to Saint-Leu and given to two faithful servants of Jean-Baptiste Colbert.

Despite the relative secrecy of the transfer, which was handled by a doctor Boucher present at the birth, all of Paris seemed to know of her secret within a few days. They smiled scornfully at Louise, and she ran home in tears after the midnight mass on December 24.^[6]

[edit] Children at a glance

It is thought that by Louis XIV, Louise had 6 children (there is even evidence to suggest that there were 7). Only the last two survived past infancy. These children were:

• A male(1662-1662) - It is thought that Louise had a miscarriage,
• Charles (1663-1665) - died in infancy,
• Philippe (1665-1666) - died in infancy,
• A daughter (1666-1666) - died shortly after birth,
• Marie Anne de Bourbon (1666-1739)
  • after her father Louis XIV, legitimised her , she was known as Mademoiselle de Blois. She was to later marry Louis Armand I, Prince of Conti. From this marriage she was recognised as a Princess of the Blood.
• Louis de Bourbon, comte de Vermandois (1667-1683)
  • Survived till he was 16 but died when he went away on his first military campaign.

[edit] Downfall

Concealment was practically abandoned after her return to court, and within a week of Anne of Austria's death on January 20, 1666, La Vallière appeared at Mass side by side with Maria Theresa. Ashamed of herself for her adultery, she treated the queen with humility and respect. In return, the queen was reportedly venomous towards her during the five year affair, continuing even after the affair really ended... unaware that the king had changed mistresses.

After five years, her favour was waning. She had given birth to a second son, Philippe, in January 7, 1665; but both children were soon dead, Charles in July 15, 1665 and Philippe before the autumn of 1666. A daughter born at Vincennes in October 2, 1666, who received the name of Marie Anne and was known as Mlle de Blois, was publicly recognized by Louis as his daughter in letters-patent making Louise a duchess in May 1667 and conferring on her the estate of Vaujours. As a duchess, Louise had the right to sit on a taboret in the presence of the queen -- a highly desired privilege. However, Louise was not impressed. She said her title seemed a kind of retirement present given to a servant. Indeed she was correct for Charles commented that legitimising her daughter and giving Louise an establisment "matched the affection he had had for her for six years," in other words an extravagant farewell present.^[7]

In October 2 of that year she bore a son, Louis (their fourth child together), but by this time her place in the King's affections had been usurped by courtesan Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan, who both she and the queen (both very pregnant when the affair started) had thought of as a trusted friend. She was sent away to Versailles while the court was at war under the pretense of her pregnancy however she disobeyed the King's orders and returned throwing herself at his feet sobbing uncontrollably. In a strange twist of fate she ended her relationship with the King in the same way in which she started, used once as a decoy for Louis and Princess Henrietta (the Madame) she became a decoy for her successor by being obliged to share Mme de Montespan's apartments at the Tuileries to prevent the legal manoeuvres of Mme de Montespan's husband.

Mme de Montespan demanded that Louise assist her with her toilette, and Louise did so without complaint. Whenever the king wished to travel with his real mistress, Athenais, he dragged the queen and Louise the "alleged" mistress along for the sake of "propriety." Since Athenais was married it meant double adultery a mortal sin. Louise had refused a smokescreen marriage for this very reason, she did not want to commit a mortal sin by sleeping with the King.

Athénaïs' daughter was given the same name as Louise who also is listed as her godmother. Louise hated being the decoy for Athénaïs and begged and wept often to be allowed to join a convent. She took to wearing a Hair shirt and the strain of being forced to live with her former lover and current mistress caused her to lose weight and become increasingly haggard.

[edit] Entering convent life, and later life

[edit] Exile

She attempted to leave in 1671, fleeing to the convent of Ste Marie de Chaillot, only to be compelled to return. In 1674 she was finally permitted to enter the Carmelite convent in the Rue d'Enfer under the name of Sister Louise of the Misericord. Madame de Maintenon asked Louise if she had fully considered the discomforts that awaited her among them. "When I shall be suffering at the convent," she replied, "I shall only have to remember what they made me suffer here, and all the pain shall seem light to me." The day she left, she threw herself at the feet of the Queen, begging forgiveness. "My crimes were public, my repentance must be public, too."^[8]

[edit] Convent Life

She took the final vows a year later, accepting the black veil from the queen herself, who kissed and blessed her. The queen already had a habit of spending brief sojourns at the convent for spiritual consolation and repose. One day, seeing Louise limping in her coarse nun's habit, she was brought to tears and repented her cruel treatment of the girl earlier. Such a sweet girl, brought to this.

Interestingly, later in life, Madame de Montespan went to Louise for advice on living a pious life. Louise forgave her, and counselled her on the mysteries of divine grace.

[edit] After Death

She died in 1710 in Paris.

La Vallière's Réflexions sur la miséricorde de Dieu, written after her retreat, were printed by Lequeux in 1767, and in 1860 Réflexions, lettres et sermons, by M. P. Clement (2 vols.). Some apocryphal Mémoires appeared in 1829, and the Lettres de Mme la duchesse de la Vallière (1767) are a corrupt version of her correspondence with the maréchal de Bellefonds.

[edit] Titles

• Mademoiselle de la Vallière,
• duchesse de la Vallière,
• duchesse de Vaujours.

[edit] Legacy

• The term lavalliere, the name for a jewelled pendant necklace, comes from her name.
• Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, the main female character of Zero no Tsukaima, is named after her.
• Her life was the basis for a character in Alexandre Dumas's novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne. A common English translation of that novel breaks it into three parts, with the second part entitled Louise de la Vallière. In the novel Twenty Years After, the sequel to The Three Musketeers, she is the childhood friend of Raoul de Bragelonne, the ward (revealed later to be the son) of Athos, one of the Three Musketeers, and in The Vicomte de Bragelonne the couple have, ten years later, fallen in love, only for Louise to have her head turned by the young King Louis XIV. Raoul, broken-hearted, goes off to fight in North Africa and is killed in battle.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Breton, Guy (1991). Histoires d'amour de l'histoire de France IV: Les favorites de Louis XIV. Presses de la Cité. 
• Herman, Eleanor (2004). Sex with Kings. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 00605854309. 
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Persondata
NAME	La Vallière, Louise de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Sister Louise of the Misericord
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Official mistress to Louis XIV from 1661 to 1667
DATE OF BIRTH	August 6, 1644
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH	June 7, 1710
PLACE OF DEATH	Paris, France