Hortense Félicité de Mailly

Hortense Félicité de Mailly, Mademoiselle de Chalon, marquise de Flavacourt (1715–1799) was a French courtier, one of the five famous de Nesle sisters, four of whom would become the mistress of King Louis XV of France.

Life

Hortense Félicité was born the daughter of Louis de Mailly, marquis de Nesle et de Mailly, Prince d'Orange (1689 - 1767) and Armande Félice de La Porte Mazarin (1691 - 1729). She had four full sisters, Louise Julie de Mailly, Pauline Félicité de Mailly, Diane Adélaïde de Mailly, and Marie Anne de Mailly.

Hortense Félicité de Mailly married François-Marie de Fouilleuse, marquis de Flavacourt, in 1739, and was appointed dame du palais to queen Marie Leszczynska in 1742. In contrast to her sisters, she was never a lover of Louis XV; often the subject of speculations on this part, her spouse threatened her life if she should became a royal mistress like her sisters.

In 1766, she retired as lady-in-waiting, but she continued to attend court absent office until 1774. She was called back to court in 1792 to participate in the reading of the memoirs of her relative Cardinal Richelieu.

Hortense Félicité de Mailly was imprisoned during the reign of Robespierre, but behaved with a calm humour before court which reportedly saved her from execution: she was imprisoned at the Oiseaux Abbey but released in 1794.

References

E. and J. de Goncourt, La Duchesse de Châteauroux et ses soeurs (1879)

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