Françoise-Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, Duchess of La Vallière and Vaujours (6 August 1644 – 6 June 1710) was a
French noblewoman and the
mistress of King
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-reign ...
of France from 1661 to 1667.
La Vallière joined the
royal court in 1661 as
maid-of-honour to
Henrietta of England and soon became Louis XIV's mistress. Two of her four children by the King,
Marie-Anne, Mademoiselle de Blois (
Princess of Conti by marriage) and
Louis, Count of Vermandois
Louis de Bourbon, ''Légitimé de France'', Count of Vermandois, born Louis de La Blaume Le Blanc, also known as Louis de/of Vermandois (2 October 1667 – 18 November 1683) was a French nobleman, Illegitimacy, illegitimate but legitimised s ...
,
survived infancy and were
legitimised
Legitimation, legitimization ( US), or legitimisation ( UK) is the act of providing legitimacy. Legitimation in the social sciences refers to the process whereby an act, process, or ideology becomes legitimate by its attachment to norms and val ...
. She was an important participant in the court's intellectual life, interested in the
arts
The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...
,
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
, and
philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
.
In 1666, she was replaced as mistress by
Madame de Montespan, but created a ''
suo jure'' duchess and invested with lands. After an illness in 1670, La Vallière turned to religion, and wrote a popular
devotional book. In 1674, she entered a
Carmelite convent
A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community.
The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
where she died in 1710.
Ancestry and early life
Family
Françoise''-Louise'' , Mademoiselle de La Vallière was born on 6 August 1644 at the (or Hôtel de la Vallière) in
Tours
Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...
as the daughter of Laurent de La Baume Le Blanc,
''
Seigneur'' of La Vallière (1611–1651) and his wife, Marie-''Françoise'' Le Provost de La Coutelaye (died 1686).
She had an older brother, Jean-François, later
Marquis of La Vallière (1642–1676).'
In La Vallière's paternal family,
Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
and
royalism
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gover ...
were important values,''
'' many relatives chose an