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Françoise-Athénaïs, Marquise De Montespan
Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan (5 October 1640 – 27 May 1707), commonly known as Madame de Montespan (), was a French noblewoman and the most celebrated royal mistress of King Louis XIV. During their romantic relationship, which lasted from the late 1660s to the late 1670s, she was sometimes referred to by contemporaries as the "true Queen of France" due to the pervasiveness of her influence at court.Lisa Hilton, ''Athénaïs: The Life of Louis XIV's Mistress – the Real Queen of France'', Little, Brown 2002, 4. She was a great-grandmother to Louis Alexandre, Prince of Lamballe, who was the husband to Maria Luisa of Savoy, also known as the Princesse de Lamballe. Born into the House of Rochechouart, one of the oldest noble families of France, Françoise-Athénaïs married the Marquis of Montespan in 1663. She then became a maid of honour to Princess Henrietta, Duchess of Orléans, and later a lady-in-waiting to Queen Maria Theres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Henri De Pardaillan De Gondrin
Louis Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin, marquis de Montespan (1640 – 1 December 1691) was a French nobleman, most notable as the husband of Louis XIV's mistress Madame de Montespan. Life He was the son of Roger-Hector de Pardaillan de Gondrin, marquis of Antin, and Marie-Christine de Zamet de Murat. In February 1663 he married Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart. However, for Mademoiselle de Mortemart, a famed beauty who loved court life, an alliance with a quite obscure noble family from south-western France was not enough and her husband (always short of money) was always away on his judicial duties; she thus became the mistress of Louis XIV in 1667, bearing him seven children. When her husband found out, instead of accepting it as was usual to cuckolded husbands of the era (especially when it was the king doing the cuckolding), he raised a scandal at court, challenged the king one day at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and decorated his carriage with antler A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis XIV
LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reigning monarchs, longest of any monarch in history. An emblem of the Absolutism (European history), age of absolutism in Europe, Louis XIV's legacy includes French colonial empire, French colonial expansion, the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War involving the Habsburgs, and a controlling influence on the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, style of fine arts and architecture in France, including the transformation of the Palace of Versailles into a center of royal power and politics. Louis XIV's pageantry and opulence helped define the French Baroque architecture, French Baroque style of art and architecture and promoted his image as absolute ruler of France in the early modern period. Louis XIV began his personal rule of France ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Savoy
The House of Savoy (, ) is a royal house (formally a dynasty) of Franco-Italian origin that was established in 1003 in the historical region of Savoy, which was originally part of the Kingdom of Burgundy and now lies mostly within southeastern France. Through gradual expansions, the family grew in power, first ruling the County of Savoy, a small Alpine county northwest of Italy, and later gaining absolute rule of the Kingdom of Sicily. During the years 1713 to 1720, they were handed the Kingdom of Sardinia (1324–1720), Kingdom of Sardinia and would exercise direct rule from then onward as Piedmont–Sardinia, which was the legal predecessor state of the Kingdom of Italy, which in turn is the predecessor of the present-day History of the Italian Republic, Italian Republic. From rule of a region on the French–Italian border, by the time of the abolition of monarchy in Italy, the dynasty's realm grew to include nearly all of the Italian peninsula. Through its junior branch of Sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Royal Family
The Spanish royal family constitutes the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon (), also known as the House of Bourbon-Anjou (). The royal family is headed by King Felipe VI and currently consists of the King; Queen Letizia; their children, Leonor, Princess of Asturias, and Infanta Sofía; and Felipe's parents, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía. The royal family lives at the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid, although their official residence is the Royal Palace of Madrid. The membership of the royal family is defined by royal decree and consists of: the King of Spain, the monarch's spouse, the monarch's parents, his children, and the heir to the Spanish throne. Titles and styles The titles and styles of the Royal Family are as follows: * The occupant of the throne is the King () or the Queen (Spanish: ''la Reina''), together with other titles pertaining to the Crown or belonging to members of the royal family. They are styled ''Majesty, His or Her Majesty''. * The King's wife bears th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Château D'Oiron
The Château d'Oiron is located in Oiron, in the Deux-Sèvres '' département'' of western France. It has its origins in the 15th century war with the English for control of France when a victorious Charles VII of France gave the domain and great forest of Oiron to Guillaume Gouffier who became governor of Touraine. This château is the background for Charles Perrault's fairy tale, '' Puss in Boots''. King Louis XIV's mistress, Madame de Montespan was one of the residents in the place. History Today, Oiron is only a short drive from the royal châteaux in the Val de Loire, but in the 15th century it was considered far removed from the seat of power at the royal domains. Nonetheless, Guillaume Gouffier built a magnificent château and his offspring updated and improved it. In 1538, his daughter-in-law, Helene de Hengest, was responsible for the construction of a collegiate church adjacent to the château. In 1551, Henry II and his entire court were guests of Claude Gouff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Notre-Dame-des-Champs, Paris
Notre-Dame-des-Champs is a Catholic church located at 91 Boulevard du Montparnasse, at the southern edge of the 6th arrondissement of Paris. The church is named after the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Our Lady of the Fields. It was completed in 1876, built using an iron framework designed by Gustave Eiffel. History Originally located on the site of the church was a Roman temple dedicated to the god Mercury. After the Christianization of France, the temple was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and was named Notre-Dame-des-Vignes. Robert II made additions to the church and rededicated it to both the Virgin Mary and Saint Denis. The church was later made into a priory by the Benedictine monks of Marmoutier Abbey, renaming it Notre-Dame-des-Champs in honor of Our Lady of the Fields. In 1604 the Benedictines ceded the priory to Princess Catherine Gonzaga, Duchess of Orleans-Longueville who installed Carmelites from Spain. This was the Carmelite convent where both ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Affair Of The Poisons
The Affair of the Poisons (, ) was a major murder scandal in France during the reign of King Louis XIV. Between 1677 and 1682, a number of prominent members of the aristocracy were implicated and sentenced on charges of poisoning and witchcraft. The scandal reached into the inner circle of the king. It led to the execution of 36 people. Context and origin In 1672, upon the natural death of cavalry officer Godin de Sainte-Croix, an inventory of his papers revealed a box containing nine letters from his mistress, the Marquise de Brinvilliers, as well as the marquise's acknowledgment of a debt amounting to 30,000 livres. This box also contained various vials which, after being analyzed by an apothecary, were found to have contained various poisons that left little trace in the body. The case began in 1675 after the trial of Madame de Brinvilliers, who was accused of having conspired with her lover, army captain , to poison her father Antoine Dreux d'Aubray in 1666 and two o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marquise De Maintenon
A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife A wife (: wives) is a woman in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until their marriage is legally dissolved with a divorce judgment; or until death, depending on the kind of marriage. On t ... (or widow) of a marquess is a marchioness () or marquise (). These titles are also used to translate equivalent Asian styles, as in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China and Imperial Japan. Etymology The word ''marquess'' entered the English language from the Old French ("ruler of a border area") in the late 13th or early 14th century. The French word was derived from ("frontier"), itself descended from the Middle Latin ("frontier"), from which the modern English word ''March (territor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louise De La Vallière
Françoise-Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, Duchess of La Vallière and Vaujours (6 August 1644 – 6 June 1710) was a French nobility, French noblewoman and the Royal mistress, mistress of King Louis XIV of France from 1661 to 1667. La Vallière joined the royal court in 1661 as maid of honour, maid-of-honour to Henrietta of England and soon became Louis XIV's mistress. Two of her four children by the King, Marie Anne de Bourbon, Marie-Anne, Mademoiselle de Blois (Princess of Conti by marriage) and Louis, Count of Vermandois, Infant mortality, survived infancy and were Legitimacy (family law), legitimised. She was an important participant in the court's intellectual life, interested in the The arts, arts, literature, and philosophy. In 1666, she was replaced as mistress by Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan, Madame de Montespan, but created a ''suo jure'' duchess and invested with lands. After an illness in 1670, La Vallière turned to religion, and wro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maria Theresa Of Spain
Maria Theresa of Spain (; ; 10 September 1638 – 30 July 1683) was Queen consort of France, Queen of France from 1660 to 1683 as the wife of King Louis XIV. She was born an Infante, Infanta of Spain and Portugal as the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, Philip IV and Elisabeth of France (1602–1644), Elisabeth of France, and was also an Archduke#Usage, Archduchess of Austria as a member of the Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg. Her marriage in 1660 to King Louis XIV, her double first cousin, was arranged with the purpose of ending the lengthy Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659), war between France and Spain. Famed for her virtue and piety, she saw five of her six children die in early childhood, and is frequently viewed as an object of pity in historical accounts of her husband's reign, since she was often neglected by the court and overshadowed by the King's many mistresses. Without any political influence in the French court or government (except briefly in 1672, when sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting (alternatively written lady in waiting) or court lady is a female personal assistant at a Royal court, court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking nobility, noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman but of lower rank than the woman to whom she attended. Although she may either have received a Retainer agreement, retainer or may not have received compensation for the service she rendered, a lady-in-waiting was considered more of a personal assistant, secretary, courtier, or Lady's companion, companion to her Mistress (form of address), mistress than a domestic worker, servant. In some other parts of the world, the lady-in-waiting, often referred to as ''palace woman'', was in practice a servant or a slave rather than a high-ranking woman, but still had about the same tasks, functioning as companion and secretary to her mistress. In courts where polygamy was practiced, a court lady might have been formally available to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henrietta Of England
Henrietta of England (Henrietta Anne Stuart; 16 June 1644 O.S. New_Style.html" ;"title="6 June 1644 New Style">N.S.– 30 June 1670) was the youngest child of King Charles I of England and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France. She was Duchess of Orléans through her marriage to Philippe I, Duke of Orléans. Fleeing England with her mother as an infant in the midst of the English Civil War, Henrietta moved to the court of her first cousin King Louis XIV of France, where she was known as ''Minette''. She married her cousin Philippe I, Duke of Orléans and became a '' fille de France'', but their relationship was marked by frequent tensions over common suitors. Henrietta played an instrumental role in negotiating the Secret Treaty of Dover between France and England against the Dutch Republic in June 1670, the same month as her unexpected death at the age of 26. Jacobite claims to the British throne after Henry Benedict Stuart's death descend from her daughter Anne Marie. Inf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
