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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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Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche
Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche was born on September 10 in 1638, five days after her future husband, which made many believe they were meant for each other. As daughter of the reining King of Spain Philip IV and his Queen Élisabeth de France, sister of Louis XIII, Marie-Thérèse was Infanta of Spain – meaning as much as Princess – from the day she…
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In bed with the Sun King….
Looking at what is searched for on my blog, this one topic seems to be the one with the most appeal. Not a week passes without countless searches involving the words sex and Louis XIV. The Sun King is famous for having an army of long and short-time mistresses, but this shan’t be our focus here. All of them will,…
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Funny And Not So Funny Things That Happened At The Court Of Louis XIV, Part One
Louis le Grand, the great Sun King, reigned for a long 72 years and a lot of things happened during those 72 years at court. Some of those are well-known, some of those not, some of those are small and would not fill a whole post on this blog by themselves, but combined…. you see where I am going with this. There…
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Dangeau’s Diary, April 1685
2nd. — The King bought the Hôtel de Vendome at Paris. It cost him two hundred thousand crowns for the creditors, and six thousand louis to Monsieur de Vendome (Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Duc de Vendôme). It will be converted into an elegant square and the King will raise at least two hundred thousand francs, by the ground to be…
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Dangeau’s Diary, February 1685
4th. – Madame de Montespan has this day returned from Paris, where she had passed two or three days during her absence, the King went every evening after supper to Madame de Maintenon’s. I learn that the Dauphine named, at the commencement of the ball, those who were to lead off the dance with the Princesses of the blood; this…
