Marie Christine de Pardaillan de Gondrin (17 November 1663 – 1675) was the eldest legitimate child of Françoise de Rochechouart de Mortemart and her husband, the Marquis of Montespan. She died in her teens and never married.

Biography

Marie Christine was born in Paris to

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 de Montespan'' and his wife of nine months Françoise de Rochechouart de Mortemart. She was the older of two children born to the couple and had numerous half brothers and sisters as a result of her mother's affair with

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

of France. When her father found out about the affair between the King and her mother, Montespan decided to take his children away to his country estate before raising a scandal at court, challenging the king one day at

Saint-Germain-en-Laye Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Saint-Germanois'' or ''Saint-Ge ...

and decorated his carriage with

antler Antlers are extensions of an animal's skull found in members of the Cervidae (deer) family. Antlers are a single structure composed of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, and blood vessels. They are generally found only on male ...

s (like horns, these were traditional symbols of the cuckolded husband). He was promptly imprisoned in the

For-l'Évêque The For-l’Évêque was a prison in Paris. It was in operation from 1674 until 1780, and was demolished at the start of the 19th century. History Sources * Jules Édouard Alboise du Pujol, Auguste Maquet, ''Les Prisons de l’Europe'', t. ...

, then exiled to his lands - taking young Marie Christine and the even younger

Louis Antoine Louis Antoine (23 November 1888 – 8 February 1971) was a French mathematician who discovered Antoine's necklace, which J. W. Alexander used to construct Antoine's horned sphere. He lost his eyesight in the first World War, at the age of 29. Ear ...

. This did not stop his agitation, and he not only came to Paris nearly every year between 1670 and 1686 but also commanded an annual requiem mass to be sung for his wife during her lifetime. Twelve-year-old Marie Christine died at the Château de Bonnefont, one of her father's castles in Gascony.In the village of Montespan, in the

Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country's ...

department, in the

Midi-Pyrénées Midi-Pyrénées (; oc, Miègjorn-Pirenèus or ; es, Mediodía-Pirineos) is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Occitania. It was the largest region of Metropolitan France by are ...

Region of France. (French site) http://montespan31.blogspot.com/2008/05/39.html.

Ancestry

References and notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pardaillan de Gondrin, Marie Christine de 1663 births 1675 deaths 17th-century French people French nobility

Marie Christine ''Marie Christine'' is a musical with music, lyrics, and book by Michael John LaChiusa. It opened on Broadway in 1999. Set in 1890s New Orleans and then 5 years later in Chicago; the story is loosely based on the Greek play ''Medea'', and uses el ...

Royalty and nobility who died as children