Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti

Living on bouillabaisse after bouillabaisse, water and love, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, alias Molière, was poor but joyful and an ambitious man.

In Pézenas, the Prince de Conti, Molière's patron and friend, supports him.

He also expects more.

He is certain that Moliere's talent will take him to Versailles, allowing him to dine at the table of Louis XIV.

The Duchess of Orléans, sometimes designated as Madame and sometimes as the Princess Palatine, born in 1652, married in 1671 to Monsieur, the king's brother, a German unable to accustom herself to her new country.

The Princesse de Conti, legitimized daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de la Vallière, born in 1666, married in 1681 to Prince Armand de Conti, nephew of the great Condé, a young woman of exceptional grace and beauty.

The two other legitimated daughters of the king, Mademoiselle de Nantes, born in 1673, and Mademoiselle de Blois in 1677, who were to marry some years later, one the Duke of Bourbon and the other the Duke of Chartres, the future regent.

Madame de Montespan, their mother, then 41 years old, already at the end of her left-handed reign, but still living at court in the double capacity of Lady of the Queen's Palace and the mother of legitimated children, but no longer bearing any sway over either the heart or the senses of Louis XIV.

The Daughters of Louis XIV.

The princesses was the title by which the three legitimated daughters of Louis XIV, one by Mademoiselle de la Vallière and the other two by Madame de Montespan, were known at court.

The first of them, born in 1666, married Prince Louis Armand de Conti.

The second, born in 1673, married the Duke de Bourbon.

The Duchess of Orléans, sometimes designated as Madame and sometimes as the Princess Palatine, born in 1652, married in 1671 to Monsieur, the king's brother, a German unable to accustom herself to her new country.

The Princess de Conti, legitimized daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de la Vallière, born in 1666, married in 1681 to Prince Armand de Conti, nephew of the great Condé, a young woman of exceptional grace and beauty.

The two other legitimated daughters of the king, Mademoiselle de Nantes, born in 1673, and Mademoiselle de Blois in 1677, who were to marry some years later, one the Duke of Bourbon and the other the Duke of Chartres, the future regent.

Madame de Montespan, their mother, then forty-one years old, already at the end of her left-handed reign, but still living at court in the double capacity of Lady of the Queen's Palace and the mother of legitimated children, but no longer bearing any sway over either the heart or the senses of Louis XIV, and finally Madame de Manteno, already very influential under her modest exterior, still beautiful in spite of her forty-seven years, on equally good terms with both king and queen, and rewarded since 1680 for the cares she had bestowed as governess on the children of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan by a place expressly created for her which did not bind her to any assiduous service while it gave her an honorable position at court, that of second lady-in-waiting to the Dauphiness.

Chapter 15.

The Daughters of Louis XIV The princesses was the title by which the three legitimated daughters of Louis XIV, one by Mademoiselle de la Vallière and the other two by Madame de Montespan, were known at court.

The first of them, born in 1666, married Prince Louis Armand de Conti.

The second, born in 1673, married the Duke de Bourbon.

It was with difficulty and by importunate solicitation that the gallant boy had extorted Luxembourg's permission to be where the fire was hottest.

Two other youths of royal blood, Louis Duke of Bourbon and Armand Prince of Conti, showed a spirit worthy of their descent.

With them was a descendant of one of the bastards of Henry IV, Louis Duke of Vendôme, a man sunk in indolence and in the foulest vice, yet capable of exhibiting on a great occasion the qualities of a great soldier.

Berwick, who was beginning to earn for himself an honorable name in arms, was there, and at his side rode Sarsfield, whose courage and ability earned on that day the esteem of the whole French army.