Madame de Montespan

Hugo was an old boy in his 60s when he married her.

Much to the annoyance of his brother, Edgar, he imported a lusty, fun-loving, young French noblewoman, a Louise de Lamballe, whose mother was the notorious Madame de Montespan.

Madame de Montespan.

Well, wasn't she a, a sort of Nina Borgia?

Yes, Watson.

I was like, oh, okay.

One source says, quote, "She'd grind the bones of toads with Spanish fly, human blood, and iron shavings to help some of the noblest women in Parisian society bewitch their lovers and would-be husbands." One of these women is going to be one of the most influential women in France, the king's own mistress, the king being none other than Louis XIV, and his mistress being none other than the very famous Madame de Montespan.

She allegedly uses a black mass to ensure his affection no matter what.

'Cause, I mean, she wants to stay the favorite mistress, you know?

So he's like, "I'm gonna get you all," like, "I am hell-bent." Now, in his mind, the key figure being none other than our midwife, fortune teller, poisoner, La Voisin.

They know she's gotta be in on it, and she gets arrested in 1679, as I mentioned, and she starts, when she does s- s- Start to spill despite the fact that she's trying very hard not to.

She includes a handful of her high-ranking clients, Olimpio Mancini, she's the accountant of Soissons, the Duchess of Bouillon, the Duke of Luxembourg, and the king's own mistress, Madame de Montespan.

She claims, La Voisin, that Montespan bought love potions and took part in black masses with a priest, who is named, [laughs] to keep the king's favor.

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.

And finally, Madame de Maintenon, already very influential under her modest exterior, still beautiful in spite of her 47 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.

The parts played by the women of Versailles cannot be understood without studying beforehand the character of the sovereign who was the animating spirit of this palace and who strongly impressed himself not merely on his own realm, but on all Europe.

Never has any monarch exercised such a prestige over his court.

Mademoiselle de la Vallière maid of honor to Marie Therese made her suffer all the torments of jealousy and outraged conjugal love.

More than once the unhappy queen was heard to exclaim with bitterness that girl will be the death of me.

Mademoiselle de la Vallière rode in the royal carriage with Madame de Montespan and appeared thus at the frontiers the camps and the armies.

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.

The parts played by the women of Versailles cannot be understood without studying beforehand the character of the sovereign who was the animating spirit of this palace and who strongly impressed himself not merely on his own realm but on all Europe.

Never has any monarch exercised such a prestige over his court.

Mademoiselle de la Vallière, maid of honor to Marie Therese, made her suffer all the torments of jealousy and outraged conjugal love.

More than once the unhappy queen was heard to exclaim with bitterness, That girl will be the death of me.

Mademoiselle de la Vallière rode in the royal carriage with Madame de Montespan, and appeared thus at the frontiers, the camps, and the armies.

The people, says Saint-Simon, hastened from all parts to see the three queens, and asked each other in all simplicity if they had seen them.

In other words, by his whim, the court took to wearing somber garments, changing its scandalous conversation for pious reflection and its unprintable novels for works on philosophy, whereat yawns of boredom assailed high heaven.

In the course of his brief penitence, Louis frowned majestically upon his tempest-tempered favorite, Madame de Montespan.

And she, tactless or over-sure of her position, scowled back, harshly derided the new order of affairs, and waxed more evil-tempered than ever.

In Madame de Montespan's household was a certain Madame de Maintenon, widow of the humpbacked little Scarron, who had once sued for Ninon de Lenclos's favor.

Strangely enough, his widow and Ninon were close friends, and at this court crisis, Ninon made the term friendship mean something.

She herself had plainly shown that she had no interest in the king.

Hugo was an old boy in his 60s when he married her.

Much to the annoyance of his brother Edgar, he imported a lusty, fun-loving young French noblewoman, a Louise de Lamballe, whose mother was the notorious Madame de Montespan.

Madame de Montespan, wasn't she a sort of

minor borgia? Yes, Watson.

At any rate, Louise seemed young and gay and exceptionally healthy and active.

Her grandfather was that other Orleans Duke, brother of Louis XIV, whose passion for his minions broke the heart of his English wife, the Stuart Princess Henrietta.

And she had for mother one of the daughters of Madame de Montespan, lighter love to Le Roi Soleil.

The offspring of such parents could scarcely have been normal, and how far from normal Marie-Louise was, this story of her singular life will show.

When her father, the Duke de Chartres, took to wife Mademoiselle de Bois, Montespan's daughter, there were many who significantly shrugged their shoulders and curled their lips at such a union.

When the Marquise de Montespan, in all her radiant and sensuous loveliness, came on the scene, she drew the king to her arms as a flame lures the moth.

Her voluptuous charms, her abounding vitality and witty tongue made the more refined beauty and the gentleness of the Duchesse flavorless in comparison, and Louise, realizing that her sun had set, retired to spend the rest of her life in the prayers and piety of a convent, leaving her brilliant rival in undisputed possession of the field.

For many years Madame de Montespan, the most consummate courtesan who ever enslaved a king, queened it over Louis in her magnificent apartments at Versailles and in the Tuileries.

He was never weary of showering rich gifts and favors on her, and in return she became the mother of his children and ministered to his every whim, little dreaming of the day when she in turn was to be dethroned by an insignificant widow whom she regarded as the creature of her bounty and who so often awaited her pleasure in her anteroom.

Hugo was an old boy in his 60s when he married her.

Much to the annoyance of his brother Edgar, he imported a lusty, fun-loving young French noblewoman, a Louise de Longbal, whose mother was the notorious Madame de Montespan.

Madame de Montespan.

Wasn't she a sort of niner-borger? Yes,

Watson.