A plague at the Hotel du Chaumont in Niort suggests Françoise d’Aubigné, the future Marquise de Maintenon, was born there… but that seems not to be quite true. Her father, Constant Agrippa d’Aubigné lodged in the city of Niort, in its prison to be precise, for allegedly conspiring against Cardinal Richelieu. He led quite the debauched life, murdered his wife along with her…