Madame de Maintenon (France 1635-1719) Born Françoise d’Aubigné on November 27, 1635 in a building adjacent to the prison of Niort, where her father, Constant d’Aubigné was serving a sentence for various crimes, including rape, murder, and creating and using counterfeit money.[1] Her mother was Jeanne de Cardillac, a “prudent and amiable woman”[2] and daughter of Peter de Cardillac, who was d’Aubigné’s jailor at Niort and a deputy to Jean-Louis de Nogaret de La Vallete, Duc d’Epernon in the French government.[3] It is noteworthy that Maintenon is the granddaughter of Theodore Agrippa d’Aubigné, a renowned poet in the court of Henri IV.[4] Soon after Maintenon’s birth, d’Aubigné’s sister, Madame de Villete, visited him and his small family in prison. There she was distressed to discover that her brother, his wife, their two elder children (sons Constant and Charles) and the newborn girl were all starving, dressed in rags, and in deep despair.[5] Because of this, Madame de Villete took Maintenon from Niort and placed her in the care of the same nurse who had cared for her own daughter, Marie.[6] Several years after this, Maintenon’s mother was able to secure liberty for her husband, and the entire family—including the young Maintenon—set out for the Americas, where her father retained some business prospects.[7] Unfortunately for Maintenon, her mother was uncomfortable with her since she had not been able to care for her as an infant and treated her poorly.[8] Even years later, Maintenon did not like to speak of her mother. After a difficult voyage during which Maintenon nearly died, the family arrived on the Isle of Martinique where Constant d’Aubigné was able to reinstate his fortunes.[9] However, after a time, and for unknown reasons, Constant returned to France, leaving his family in Martinique. Upon his return to Martinique, the family enjoyed a brief period of relief, when they lived in comfort in the village of Basseterre.[10] Constant again returned to France, however, where he squandered the family’s fortune and died somewhere in Europe from unknown causes.[11]
Upon her father’s death, Maintenon was left at the mercy of his creditors in the Caribbean while her mother returned to France to seek help.[12] Sources differ on the occurrences of these years of Maintenon’s life. Some state that she returned to Europe with her mother upon her father’s death, while others imply that it was several years before she was sent back to France. It is these years of Maintenon’s life that are most difficult to trace. After being passed from household to household and generally considered a burden, the 7-year-old Maintenon was sent back to Europe, eventually ending up in the care of her aunt, Madame de Villete, after spending several months begging on the streets for food with her mother and brothers.[13] Maintenon’s brothers were found places in the French military, although her brother Constant committed suicide soon after enlisting.[14] In her aunt’s household, Maintenon was instructed in the Calvinist religion. A staunch Catholic, Maintenon’s mother attempted to regain custody of her daughter, but Madame de Villete refused to relinquish her, since the widowed Madame d’Aubigné had no way to support the child.[15] Eventually, Madame de Neuillant, a Catholic who was a cousin of Maintenon’s father and a woman of “narrow and bigoted mind,”[16] obtained a court order that gave her custody of Maintenon. Resistant to the Catholic teachings of her new patroness, which were contrary to all that her beloved aunt had taught her, Maintenon was soon subject to harsh punishment and deprivation.[17] After some time in this household, Maintenon was sent back to Niort to live in a convent with the Ursuline nuns, where she was forced to convert to Catholicism. Maintenon only did so, however, on the condition that she not be forced to believe that her Calvinist aunt, Madame de Villete, would be damned for heresy in her next life.[18] Over time, however, the Catholic doctrines grew on her, facilitated by the tender care of several of the nuns at the convent and she later wrote, “Little by little, I became a Catholic.”[19]
As Maintenon continued to grow up, her beauty and wit increased as did her “strong will and iron self-discipline.”[20] After her conversion, she was occasionally allowed to rejoin the household of Madame Neuillant, and the woman sometimes took Maintenon with her when she visited friends or attended parties, liking to show off the girl’s charm and attractiveness.[21] At these events, Maintenon listened carefully to the talk of the men and began to formulate her own opinions about ideas and events both past and present. When Maintenon was 14, her mother died in poverty, leaving no money to her son or daughter.[22] Maintenon’s surviving brother was a page for Count Parabare de Pardaillon at this time. This placed Maintenon in a dangerous situation: she was young, beautiful and intelligent, but completely destitute with no close family remaining.[23]
It was around this time, while out with Madame de Neuillant, that Maintenon first met the disfigured poet Paul Scarron.[24] He was over 40 years old and sickly, but his writing talents, quick wit, and enjoyment of others’ humor garnered him invitations to events with the younger crowd.[25] As he got to know the young Maintenon, he considered her situation and decided to offer her a choice: he would provide her with a sum of money large enough for her to retire to a convent and become a nun, or she could choose to marry him and remain in the world.[26] After some deliberation, Maintenon decided to marry Scarron. The wedding was postponed for a year at the request of Madame de Neuillant, until Maintenon turned 15 years old, andthe two were eventually wed in 1652.[27] Although the couple was not wealthy, they were comfortable enough, with occasional help from friends, and entertained regularly. They briefly considered moving to America, but for unknown reasons they did not sail with the ship on which they had booked passage and instead remained in France.[28] Maintenon cared for Scarron when he was bedridden from gout or other ailments, read to him, and on his worst days, never left his bedside. Through him, she became fluent in Latin, Italian and Spanish, and gained many more friends and an excellent social reputation.[29] She also fully embraced the Catholic faith during the early years of her marriage, and through her, her husband was inspired to repent the errors of his younger years.[30]
Scarron died in October of 1660, leaving his still young wife a widow with little means of support.[31] She petitioned in vain for the right to continue receiving the pension that Scarron had received from Cardinal Richelieu, and was forced to rely on loans from friends or go completely without.[32] Eventually, the Queen Mother, Anne of Austria, whom she had met a few times through friends and to whom Scarron had been a familiar, heard of her distress and gave her a pension that Maintenon used to retire to a convent. Unfortunately, this time of comfort was also short-lived, as the pension ceased with the death of the Queen Mother three years later.[33] At this point, Maintenon returned to live with the Ursuline nuns, with whom she had spent part of her childhood, but still went out on occasion, forming intimate friendships with several noblewomen her own age. While at the home of her friend Madame d’Albret, Maintenon first met Madame de Montespan, and the two women soon formed an intimate friendship.[34] In the later 1660s, Maintenon rented a small home in Paris, where she continued her busy social life, took day trips into the country and apparently lived happily.[35] During this time, Madame de Montespan became the mistress of King Louis XIV of France, and Maintenon went to court to visit her on her way out of France, as she was planning to move to Portugal. Her friend had already borne the king one bastard child, Louis-August, who could not be acknowledged since Madame de Montespan was married to another man, Louis Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin, and now a second child was expected. The king and his mistress were desperate for someone trustworthy to care for and teach their children. [36] Agreeing to this proposition only upon the king’s personal request, Maintenon remained at court with Madame de Montespan, quickly settling into court life and becoming the favorite of many courtiers.[37]
Maintenon had particular fondness for the eldest son, Louis-August, of the king and Madame de Montespan, who became the Duc de Maine once the king made the decision to legitimize his bastard children in 1673.[38] At first, King Louis XIV thought Maintenon prudish and annoying because of her intelligence, chastity and willingness to engage men in political and ideological discussion. Over time, however, he grew to appreciate her wit and the validity of her opinions and began to listen to her as he did to Madame de Montespan.[39] In the mid-1670s, the relationship between the king and Madame de Montespan began to deteriorate as she became more ambitious and less tender towards the king. The king turned to Maintenon during their long and bitter breakup, and took comfort in her practical and kind advice.[40] Louis also found Maintenon beautiful and irresistible, not least because she was one of the few women at court who did not respond, at least for some time, to his sexual advances.[41] Montespan and Maintenon also had a falling out during this time period as Montespan sensed that she was losing control over the king and her position at court.
The Affair of the Poisons (L’affaire des poisons) overtook the French court from the late 1670s to the early 1680s and caused Madame de Montespan’s ultimate downfall when she was accused of witchcraft during the trials.[47] Her reputation was forever marred, although she was not sentenced to death as thirty-six others were. Maintenon survived these years unaffected, and the king’s trust in her continued to grow.
In 1679, the dauphin, Louis de France, married Princess Marianne Victoire of Bavaria, and the king bestowed on Maintenon the honor of being lady of the wardrobe to the new dauphiness.[48] Maintenon helped the new dauphiness adjust to life at the French court. It is noteworthy that Queen Marie-Therese did not mind her husband’s attachment to Maintenon. Maintenon was careful to help the king and queen maintain their relationship and in return for her efforts the queen regarded Maintenon in high esteem, even presenting her with a gift of her portrait surrounded by diamonds.[49] In 1683 the queen was taken ill with what seemed at first to be a minor illness, but she soon died at the age of 45.[50] Hays writes that, on her deathbed, the queen took the ring from her finger and gave it to Maintenon as a token of her esteem.[51] The grief-stricken king required the constant presence of Maintenon and the amount of time that they spent alone together in the king’s chambers caused Maintenon’s position at court to become the subject of much gossip, which distressed her greatly. She refused to leave the king, however, and wrote to her confessor, the Abbot Gobelin, at Saint-Cyr that an “indispensable duty” kept her at Versailles.[52] Maintenon had chosen Gobelin for her confessor in 1666. The two communicated extensively until 1691 (potentially the year of his death). Gobelin was a respected man of the church, as well as a doctor at Sorbonne.[53]
In the wake of the queen’s death and the newfound seriousness of the king, the French court also became more reserved. Maintenon took this opportunity to found a charitable establishment at Versailles, to which members of the court donated readily.[54] Also during this time, in 1684, Maintenon refused the place of Lady of Honour at the court, the highest honor a woman could receive, as she believed it to be “above her pretensions.”[55]
In the mid-1680s, Maintenon also worked to found St. Lewis, an asylum for young and indigent nobility. The difficulty of her own youth prompted her connection to young people who had nothing to help them in life, except a formerly good family name.[56] From this came the development of one of the greatest achievements of her life, the society of Saint-Cyr. The building at Saint-Cyr that was used for the noble pupils was built rapidly, yet on a grand and magnificent scale and pupils were housed and educated there for thirteen years.[57] The cost of building Saint-Cyr was 1.4 million livres, with an additional 100,000 livres provided per year for its maintenance.[58] At the end of their studies, students received one thousand crowns, either as part of a dowry or as a way to begin supporting themselves. Maintenon took the utmost care in making sure that the students were taught and cared for with attention and morality.[59] Every moment that she could spare from court, she spent at Saint-Cyr and the rest of the court respected it as a place of great virtue.[60] The king himself took a personal interest in the place, and provided enough support to allow admitting 150 more pupils than planned, bringing the total enrollment to 250 each year.[61] It is noteworthy that Saint-Cyr was the only educational institution for girls in France that was not a nunnery.[62]
Recent scholarship calls new attention to the originality of Maintenon’s contributions to her students’ education, mainly through her pedagogical dramas and instructional writings. Theresa Varney Kennedy describes Maintenon’s instructional conversations as “morality plays loosely based on [her friend] Mademoiselle de Scudéry’s conversations in which Maintenon drew upon her own experiences, were intended to teach good judgment to the older female pupils at Saint-Cyr as they prepared to leave school. Maintenon’s conversations were intended to reinforce the values of domesticity advocated by the state, which sought to repopulate France’s elite class with virtuous aristocratic mothers.” But, “ironically, Maintenon employed genres that were generated in the salons she frequented as a young woman where traditional values were deemphasized. Inspired by the intellectual and improvisational skills one needed to participate in salon discussions, Maintenon commissioned her friend Madeleine de Scudéry to write some conversations for her students. However, Maintenon, who sought to emphasize Christianity in her school, rejected Scudéry’s conversations since they were more worldly and gallant than evangelistic.” Nonetheless, her duality, as seen through her conversations, teaches us an important aspect about women’s role and the weakening aristocracy at end of the seventeenth century. That is, that “noblewomen, who no longer enjoyed a life of ease and luxury, were being asked by an impoverished state to take on the bourgeois values of simplicity, self-sufficiency and modesty.”[63]
There is some debate over how long Maintenon and the king were true lovers before their secret marriage in 1685. Kennedy comments, “Madame de Maintenon, King Louis XIV’s morganatic wife, is an historic figure who remains shrouded in mystery even today. This is perhaps due to the fact that much of her correspondence with the king was burned after 1713 in order to keep their intimate relationship a secret. Moreover, what even further clouded and blackened her image were the unflattering accounts written by Saint-Simon.”[64]
Veronica Buckley suggests that Maintenon and the king had been lovers for the 11 years before the marriage,[65] but Hays alleges that it was significantly less time than that, and may not have been until after the death of the queen. Regardless, and to the horror of his ministers, King Louis XIV wed Maintenon secretly in October of 1685, in a small royal chapel.[66] Hays writes, “Her talents excited his respect, her cheerfulness amused, and her gentleness soothed him. She possessed the art of reproving without offending him, of sympathising in his weaknesses without indulging them: she even rendered the austerities of religion palatable by applying them to his hopes rather than to his fears.”[67] Both the king and Maintenon were careful to prevent any knowledge of their union, however. The letters that Maintenon wrote to her confessor during the year of her marriage are nowhere to be found, apparently destroyed by her own hand.[68] Although it is logical to believe that Maintenon wanted to be queen and felt herself fit for the position, she had spent years crafting her image and gaining the respect of those around her. It was impossible for her to become queen without losing this respect, as ascending the throne would relegate her to the ranks of those who sought desperately to rise above their station in life; such people were regarded with contempt.[69]
It is possible that Maintenon encouraged King Louis to revoke the Edict of Nantes, but she surely did not predict the bloodshed that would follow its revocation, although many of Louis’ more evangelical advisors endorsed the end of religious freedom.[70] When Louis revoked the Edict in 1685, intense persecution of Protestants began again in France. Although Maintenon was in favor of the Catholics, she wrote her brother—who, at the time, was violently persecuting Protestants in the Amesford region—saying, “Be favourable to the catholics, but be not cruel to the poor Huguenots; they are in an error, it is true, but we ourselves have been in the same.”[71] She also wrote at the time to a cardinal, “In my opinion, it is my duty to dissuade the king, as much as possible, from acts of violence and cruelty. I always tell him, that, one day, his conscience will punish him for so many lawless persecutions and banishments.”[72] Aware of the trouble that his revocation of the Edict had caused, the king became sullen, distrustful and reserved during the years that followed
In 1686, the king’s minister, the Marquis of Louvois, presented the king with letters he had intercepted from various members of the court, including some from Louvois’s own son, Camille le Tellier de Louvois. Some of the king’s own children too were implicated in this scandal, despite the favors that he had showed them.[73] Most notably was the princess of Conti, Marie-Anne, the king’s daughter by his mistress Louise de la Valliere. The letters denigrated the king and Maintenon, poking fun at them. The king was extremely distressed by all this and it fell to Maintenon to comfort him although she too was hurt. However, she wrote to her friend at the time, “I told him [the king] that I had long ago forgiven everything.”[74] She began to feel stifled by her duties to her husband and to the court and said, “I now feel that nothing can be a compensation for the loss of liberty.”[75] When possible, she escaped to Saint-Cyr, where she oversaw the work of the institution and spent some pleasant days.[76]
Despite the continuing turmoil, there were some satisfying moments for Maintenon in the next decade. Her favorite pupil, the Duc de Maine, got married in March of 1692 to Anna-Louisa Benedicte of Bourbon, the daughter of the prince of Conde, a girl whom Maintenon liked, although she later ruined her husband with her extravagance.[77] When Maintenon went with the king on his campaigns in 1692 and 1693, during the Nine Years War[78], she was treated with great honor abroad. When the French took the city of Namur, people vied to meet her.[79] Gradually, Maintenon was also able to shake off some of the king’s control over her, although he still lacked regard for her privacy and wanted to be with her constantly. She was able to carve out certain times of day for herself, however, which the king did not interrupt. She spent mornings at Saint-Cyr or in reading, writing, and devotional exercises; in the evenings she retired to her private chambers promptly at nine, where the king would come and speak a few words to her and then let her be.[80] Hays writes that the fact that the king continued to show her such respect and devotion, even as she aged, “was proof of her merit, and of the monarch’s esteem.”[81]
In the mid-1690s a new religious sect, Quietism, gained popularity in the French court and throughout the nation, supported by people with whom Maintenon kept company.[82] A young widow, Madame Guyon, was the main instigator of the fervor for Quietism and received support from Maintenon because of Guyon’s friendship with the Bishop Fenelon, who was also a close friend of Maintenon’s.[83] The French court, tired of pleasures, readily received Guyon and her mystic teachings. As Quietism spread rapidly throughout Paris, the archbishop, Françoise de Harlay Champvallon, became alarmed and ordered Guyon removed from his diocese and confined to a convent, which only increased her popularity.[84] Taking pity on the woman, Maintenon had Madame Guyon placed at Saint-Cyr, to help the pupils enhance their religious beliefs and experiences. Guyon also traveled to Versailles in secret during this time, where she delivered secret lectures to her many supporters.[85] The diverse religious sects active in his kingdom in the late 1600s perplexed King Louis XVI greatly. Quietism, which he did not understand well, continued to prevail at his court and at Saint-Cyr, where Fenelon assisted Guyon in immersing herself in the organization there.[86] Over time, Maintenon learned of the “secrets of the initiated,” a special group of pupils created by Guyon at Saint-Cyr. Its members worshipped Guyon, neglected their work and studies, and generally disturbed Maintenon’s purpose for the institution by proselytizing to any who would listen.[87] Angry that Guyon had compromised the integrity of her beloved organization so drastically by singling out particular pupils and encouraging fanaticism among all the students, Maintenon banned Guyon from Saint-Cyr and took it upon herself to eradicate the beliefs that Guyon had sown among the pupils there. This proved to be an extremely difficult task, but Maintenon took it on with great perseverance.[88]
As this religious fervor overtook the French court, King Louis decided to “astonish Europe and impress its powers with dread” by building a large camp at Compiégne, where he held tournaments, feasts and galas.[89] The ostentatiousness of these celebrations as well as the expenses of the recently ended Nine Years’ War emptied the French treasury and left much of the country in dire straits. When Louis proposed expanding Versailles, Maintenon strongly advised against it.[90] She had earlier cautioned him to limit his spending but he had ignored her. She wrote, “I have given offence in a conversation about the buildings. What grieves me is, to have put myself to pain for no purpose. I have only to ask pardon, and to take no more notice. But the people—what will become of them?”[91] Maintenon’s prudent warnings paid off, however, for Louis eventually told his ministers that he did not want Versailles expanded, saying “while my people are well supported, I shall always be well enough lodged.”[92]
The beginning of the eighteenth century saw the union of the French and Spanish thrones, when Charles II left the crown of Spain to the Philip of Anjou, the duke of Anjou, second son to the dauphin of France: a source of great celebration for France.[93] Unfortunately, new trials continued to arise for Madame de Maintenon, her husband the king, and the rest of France. The country remained essentially bankrupt by war and the weight of taxes oppressed the people and the capital. In addition, as Maintenon and the king grew older, those around them that they were closest to began to pass away and the king sank into a deep grief.[94] In 1712, the dauphin Louis, the duke of Bourgogne and the grandson of the king, and his wife Adelaide of Savoy, the dauphiness, both died from an unknown illness, suspected by some to have been caused by poison.[95] With only one remaining heir, Louis, Duke of Anjou, directly related to him, the illegitimate children of the king began to pressure him to bestow upon them the full privileges of princes of the blood.[96] The king eventually did so, and Maintenon was glad for her friend the Duc of Maine and for the rest of her former pupils.
Towards the end of his life, King Louis XIV redoubled his efforts to reign as a powerful monarch by making new treaties, renewing old alliances, and putting his papers in order.[97] In late August of 1715, he became ill from an infection in his leg and died on September 1, 1715.[98] In her grief, Maintenon retired to Saint-Cyr where she took comfort in the presence of her pupils. She was adamant about no longer having anything to do with the affairs of the court.[99] In 1717 Peter the Great, the czar of Russia, came to France for a visit and, hearing of the establishment of Saint-Cyr, went there to see it for himself. He was extremely impressed and asked to see the foundress of the organization. Maintenon, who was at this time quite ill, received him in her bedroom.[100]
In general, Maintenon spent the last years of her life quietly and pleasantly at Saint-Cyr devoting her time to teaching, works of charity, prayer and needlework. She wrote, “Begin early, as I have done, to live like an old woman, and you may live as long.”[101] Maintenon died on April 19, 1719 at the age of eighty-three, from an illness that had lasted several weeks.[102] She had requested to be buried as an ordinary sister in a cemetery alongside the chapel at Saint-Cyr, but the director of her funeral, Adrien Mauríce de Noailles, duke de Noailles, decided that her body should be buried within the chapel itself.[103] During the French Revolution, workmen in Saint-Cyr saw a noble name on her gravestone and dug up her coffin. Tying a rope around her body, they dragged it through the streets of the town.[104] An officer intervened and stole the body back, returning it to its coffin and burying it in the garden outside of Saint-Cyr.[105] In 1802 and again in 1816 the body was exhumed and reburied with much ceremony.[106] In 1836, the academy decided to give the body a further burial and placed it in a sarcophagus of black marble, burying it with the original coffin back inside the chapel.[107] In 1944, Saint-Cyr was badly damaged from bombs and the chapel was nearly destroyed. The sarcophagus was ripped open, exposing the bones inside and these were removed and buried in the chapel at Versailles.[108] Finally, in April of 1969, Maintenon’s remains were returned to Saint-Cyr for burial within the rebuilt chapel. They remain there today, marked by a black marble gravestone that says simply “Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, 1635-1719.”[109]
[1] Mary Hays, “Madame de Maintenon,” Female Biography; or Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women of all Ages and Countries (6 volumes) (London: R. Phillips, 1803), vol. 5, 316-456 on 317., Helena Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries (1803). Chawton House Library Series: Women’s Memoirs, ed. Gina Luria Walker, Memoirs of Women Writers Part II (Pickering & Chatto: London, 2013), vol. 9, 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 556.
[2] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 316.
[3] “The Story of M.” The Economist 198 (24 July 2008). Accessed 13 April 2014. http://www.economist.com/node/11785001, Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5, 316-456, on 317.
[4] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 316., Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” vol. 9, 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 556.
[5] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 317., Veronica Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), 5-430, on 5-6.
[6] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 318.
[7] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 318.
[8] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 24.
[9] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 318.
[10] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 40.
[11] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 42.
[12] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 319.
[13] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 319., Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 48.
[14] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 50.
[15] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 319-20.
[16] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 320, Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” vol. 9, 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 556.
[17] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 320.
[18] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 321.
[19] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 60.
[20] “The Story of M,” The Economist.
[21] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 322.
[22] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 322., Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” vol. 9, 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 558.
[23] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 323.
[24] Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” vol 9, 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 559.
[25] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 323.
[26] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 323.
[27] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 323-4.
[28] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 87.
[29] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 325.
[30] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 325-6.
[31] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 326.
[32] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 326.
[33] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 327.
[34] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 329., Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” vol. 9, 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 561., Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 116.
[35] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 136.
[36] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 149-51., Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 331.
[37] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 331.
[38] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 335., Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” vol. 9, 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 562.
[39] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 336-7.
[40] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 337.
[41] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 184-5.
[42] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 340.
[43] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 340.
[44] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 189.
[45] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 342.
[46] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 190-1.
[47] “Affair of the Poisons.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online, Accessed June 4, 2014. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/466553/Affair-of-the-Poisons.
[48] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 345., “The Story of M.” The Economist.
[49] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 354.
[50] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 354., “The Story of M.” The Economist
[51] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 354.
[52] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 356.
[53] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 356.
[54] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 356.
[55] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 357.
[56] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 358-9.
[57] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 297.
[58] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 297.
[59] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 359-60.
[60] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 362.
[61] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 363.
[62] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 300.
[63] Theresa Varney Kennedy, “La Femme Forte: Revising and Revising Ideals of Womanhood, Staging the Impossible Femme Forte in Madam de Maintenon’s Dramatic Conversations,” Women in French Studies, Special Issue, Volume 5 (2014): 72-3.
[64] Kennedy, “La Femme Forte,” 62.
[65] “The Story of M.” The Economist.
[66] Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” vol. 9, 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 566., “The Story of M.” The Economist.
[67] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 366.
[68] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 371.
[69] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430 on 279.
[70] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 373., Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” vol. 9, 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 564.
[71] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 374.
[72] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 374.
[73] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 378-9., Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” vol. 9, 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 562.
[74] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 380.
[75] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 381.
[76] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 383-5.
[77] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 387-9.
[78] “War of the Grand Alliance.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online, Accessed June 4, 2014, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/241084/War-of-the-Grand-Alliance.
[79] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 390-1., Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” vol. 9, 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 564.
[80] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 396.
[81] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 396-7.
[82] Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” vol. 9 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 568.
[83] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 399-400., Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” vol. 9 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 564, 568.
[84] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 400.
[85] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 401.
[86] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 410-12.
[87] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 412.
[88] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 413.
[89] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 417-18.
[90] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 418.
[91] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 418-19.
[92] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 419.
[93] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 419.
[94] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 426-7.
[95] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 435-8., Bergmann, “Madame de Maintenon,” vol. 9 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76, on 571.
[96] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 445.
[97] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 448.
[98] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 449.
[99] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 451-2.
[100] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 452-3.
[101] Hays, Female Biography, vol. 5 316-456, on 454.
[102] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 426.
[103] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 426.
[104] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 429.
[105] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 429.
[106] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 430.
[107] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 430.
[108] Buckley, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, 5-430, on 430.
Bibliography
Hays, Mary. “Madame de Maintenon.” Female Biography; or Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women of all Ages and Countries (6 volumes). London: R. Phillips, 1803, vol. 5, 316-456.
Bergmann, Helena. “Madame de Maintenon.” Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries, 1803. Chawton House Library Series: Women’s Memoirs, ed. Gina Luria Walker, Memoirs of Women Writers Part II. Pickering & Chatto: London, 2013, vol. 9, 318-458, editorial notes, 555-76.
“The Story of M.” The Economist 198, July 24, 2008. Accessed April 13, 2014. http://www.economist.com/node/11785001.
Buckley, Veronica. The Secret Wife of Louis XIV. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008, 5-430.
Resources:
Brooklyn Museum
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Francoise de Maintenon
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/heritage_floor/francoise_de_maintenon.php
Page Citation:
Elizabeth Pearce. “Madame de Maintenon.” Project Continua (July 9, 2015): Ver. 1, [date accessed], http://www.projectcontinua.org/madame-de-maintenon
Tags: Age of Discovery, Baroque, Educators, Europe, Outstanding Women
