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The secret second marriage of Louis XIV
One night, at the chateau de Versailles, a group of selected people gathered, sworn to complete secrecy, to witness the second marriage of Louis XIV. To this very day, no document has been discovered that proves the whole thing, yet it is accepted to have happened by historians all over word. The great Sun King had lost his wife Marie-Thérèse…
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Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon
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…
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Alexandre Bontemps, Valet and Special Agent
Born on 9 June in 1626 in Paris, Alexandre Bontemps rose to be one of the most powerful men at the court of Louis XIV. His father, Jean-Baptiste Bontemps, was originally from Marseille and was made first surgeon to Louis XIII in 1633 and in 1643, he became premier valet de chambre ordinaire by lettres patentes. Louis XIII died a…
