Marie Françoise Catherine de Beauvau, Marquise of Boufflers (8 December 1711 – 1 July 1786), commonly known as Madame de Boufflers, was a French noblewoman. She was the

royal mistress A royal mistress is the historical position and sometimes unofficial title of the extramarital lover of a monarch or an heir apparent, who was expected to provide certain services, such as sexual or romantic intimacy, companionship, and advice ...

of Stanislas Leszczyński and mother of the poet

Stanislas de Boufflers Stanislas Jean, chevalier de Boufflers (31 May 1738, Nancy, France, Nancy – 18 January 1815) was a French Politician, statesman and writer. Biography He was born near Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, the son of Louis François, marquis de Boufflers. ...

Family

Her father was Marc de Beauvau, Prince of Craon, and her mother was Anne Marguerite de Lignéville (1686–1772), mistress of

Leopold, Duke of Lorraine Leopold the Good (11 September 1679 – 27 March 1729) was Duke of Lorraine and Bar from 1690 to his death. Through his son Francis Stephen, he is the direct male ancestor of all rulers of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, including all Emperor ...

. She had nineteen siblings, including Charles Juste de Beauvau, through whom she was a sister-in-law of Marie Charlotte de La Tour d'Auvergne. Marie Françoise Catherine married Louis François de Boufflers (1714–1752), Marquis of Amestranges, with whom she had

, later famous as a poet.

Biography

Witty, well-educated and beautiful, the marquise de Boufflers wrote verse and drew in

pastel A pastel () is an art medium that consists of powdered pigment and a binder (material), binder. It can exist in a variety of forms, including a stick, a square, a pebble, and a pan of color, among other forms. The pigments used in pastels are ...

. At the court at Lunéville, aged 34, she became the chief mistress to king Stanislas, then aged 64. This did not stop her also collecting other lovers; nicknamed ''La Dame de Volupté'' ("the lady of delight"), she was also the mistress of the poet Jean François de Saint-Lambert, then of M. of Adhémar, of the

intendant An intendant (; ; ) was, and sometimes still is, a public official, especially in France, Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The intendancy system was a centralizing administrative system developed in France. In the War of the Spanish Success ...

de Lorraine

Antoine-Martin Chaumont de La Galaizière Antoine-Martin Chaumont de La GalaizièreAlso spelled Chaumont de La Galaisière (22 January 1697, Namur - 3 October 1783, Paris), marquis de La Galaizière, chancellor of Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franc ...

, of the lawyer and poet François-Antoine Devaux. To try to make the Marquise de Boufflers jealous and regain her affections, Saint-Lambert attempted to seduce the Marquise du Châtelet when the latter arrived in Lunéville in 1748. The Marquise du Châtelet fell passionately in love with the poet and became best friends with the Marquise de Boufflers, thus completely ruining the plans of Father Menou, Stanislas' confessor, who wanted to use her to dislodge the Marquise de Boufflers as chief mistress to the king. Her witty poem "Sentir avec ardeur" is cited in French and in full by the twentieth-century Modernist poet

Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American Modernism, modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for its formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. In 1968 Nobel Prize in Li ...

in the notes to Moore's poem "Tom Fool at Jamaica." Stanislaus I had a ''chartreuse'' cottage constructed along the northern side of the Palace of Lunéville.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beauvau-Craon, Marie Francoise Catherine de 1711 births 1786 deaths Marie-Francoise French marchionesses Mistresses of Polish royalty People from Lunéville