Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King

Praise for Antonia Fraser's
L
OVE and
L
OUIS XIV

“Eminently readable. … Fraser argues convincingly. … [She] makes the romances and scandals of the seventeenth century seem as lively as the latest gossip.”

—
Los Angeles Times

“A sort of prequel [to
Marie Antoinette
]. … What makes Fraser's book so compelling is her psychologically astute insights into what motivated these historical figures.”

—
USA Today

“Fluent and energetic. … Immensely readable.”

—
The Times Literary Supplement
(London)

“Simply radiant. … Luscious. … Fraser takes just the right tone in her book: skeptical but still awed.”

—
Pioneer Press
(St. Paul)

“Fraser's best history so far.”

—
The Guardian
(London)

“Refreshing … Antonia Fraser long ago mastered the art of writing meticulous history so that it reads like an engrossing novel, and her latest offering is no exception.”

—
The Times
(London)

LOVE
and
LOUIS XIV

Antonia Fraser

Since 1969 Antonia Fraser has written many acclaimed historical works that have been international bestsellers. She is the recipient of numerous literary awards, including the Wolfson Prize for History, the Saint Louis Literary Award, and the 2000 Norton Medlicott Medal of Britain's Historical Association. Her works include the biographies
Mary Queen of Scots, Cromwell, the Lord Protector,
and
Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration.
Four highly praised books focus on women in history:
The Weaker Vessel, The Warrior Queens, The Six Wives of Henry VIII,
and, most recently,
Marie Antoinette: The Journey.
She is editor of
The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England.
Antonia Fraser is married to Harold Pinter and lives in London.

Also by Antonia Fraser

NONFICTION

Mary Queen of Scots

Cromwell, the Lord Protector

King James VI of Scotland, I of England

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England
(editor)

Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration

The Weaker Vessel

The Warrior Queens

The Wives of Henry VIII

Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot

Marie Antoinette: The Journey

FICTION

Quiet as a Nun

The Wild Island

A Splash of Red

Cool Repentance

Oxford Blood

Your Royal Hostage

The Cavalier Case

Political Death

Jemima Shore's First Case and Other Stories

Jemima Shore at the Sunny Grave and Other Stories

ANTHOLOGIES

Scottish Love Poems
Love Letters

FOR HAROLD
nobilis et Nobelius

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Author's Note

Chronological Political Summary

Genealogy

Principal Characters

Spring

1
Gift from Heaven

2
Vigour of the Princess

3
Peace and the Infanta

4
Our Court's Laughing Face

5
Sweet Violence

Summer

6
The Rise of Another

7
Marriages Like Death

8
A Singular Position

9
Throwing Off a Passion

10
Madame Now

Autumn

11
The King's Need

12
Grandeurs of the World

13
Becoming a Child Again

Winter

14
Gaiety Begins to Go

15
We Must Submit

16
Going on a Journey

17
Never Forget

Notes

Sources

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 17th century French School.
château
Bussy-le-Grand, Bussy-le-Grand (photo: Giraudon/ Bridgeman Art Library).

Louis XIV aged around twelve years old, 17th century French School.
Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (© Photo RMN).

Louis XIV dressed as Apollo for the ballet
La Nuit,
1653.
Bibliothèque nationale
de France, Department of Prints & Photographs.

Equestrian portrait of Anne of Austria,
c.
1640, attributed to Jean de Saint-
Igny.
Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (© Photo RMN/Gérard Blot).

Louis XIV,
c.
1660, studio of Nicolas Mignard.
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Angers
(© Cliché Musées d'Angers, photo: Pierre David).

Reputation Presenting France with a Portrait of Louis XIV, c.
1665, by Louis Elle
Ferdinand II.
Musée Antoine Lécuyer, Saint-Quentin (photo: Jean Legrain).

Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orléans, known as the Grande Mademoiselle,
represented as Minerva,
c.
1672, by Pierre Bourguignon.
Châteaux de Versailles
et de Trianon (© Photo RMN/Gérard Blot & Christian Jean).

Hortense and Marie Mancini, date unknown, by Jacob Ferdinand Voet.
I.N.P.D.A.I, Rome (photo: Arte Photographica).

The Meeting of Louis XIV and Philippe IV on the Île des Faisans, c.
1670, by Simon
Renard de Saint-André.
Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (© Photo
RMN/Jean Popovitch).

Anne of Austria, Marie-Thérèse and the Dauphin,
c.
1665, by Charles and
Henri Beaubrun.
Musée Bernard d'Agesci, Niort.

Marie-Thérèse and the Dauphin Louis de France, 1665, by Pierre Mignard.
Prado, Madrid (photo: Giraudon/ Bridgeman Art Library).

Anne of Austria, date unknown, by Charles Beaubrun.
Galleria Sabauda, Turin
(photo: Alinari/ Bridgeman Art Library).

Louis XIV at Maastricht, 1673, by Pierre Mignard.
Galleria Sabauda, Turin
(photo: Scala).

Louis XIV Retreating with his Seraglio,
1693, anonymous engraving.
The Trustees
of the British Museum, Department of Prints & Drawings.

Louise de La Vallière, date unknown, by Jean Nocret.
Châteaux de Versailles
et de Trianon (© Photo RMN/Gérard Blot).

Louise de La Vallière as a huntress, 1667, after Claude Lefebvre.
Châteaux de
Versailles et de Trianon (© Photo RMN/Gérard Blot).

Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise de Montespan, date
unknown, by Louis Elle Ferdinand II.
Collection: Author.

Athénaïs reclining in front of the gallery of her château at Clagny, date
unknown, by Henri Gascard.
Private Collection (photo: Giraudon/ Bridgeman
Art Library).

Portrait of Athénaïs, date unknown, attributed to Pierre Mignard.
Musée du
Berry, Bourges (photo: Giraudon/ Bridgeman Art Library).

The Appartement des Bains at Versailles depicted on a fan,
c.
1680.
Victoria &
Albert Musuem, London (photo. © V & A Images).

Spottallegorie auf Ludwig XIV, c.
1670, by Joseph Werner
(photo: courtesy of
Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, Zürich).

Marie-Angélique d'Escorailles de Rousille, Duchesse de Fontanges, 1687,
engraving by Nicolas de Larmessin III.
Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon
(© Photo RMN/Gérard Blot).

Madame de Maintenon, date and artist unknown.
Château de Chambord (photo:
The Art Archive/Dagli Orti).

Madame de Maintenon with the Duc du Maine and the Comte de Vexin,
date and artist unknown.
Château de Maintenon (photo: The Art Archive/Dagli
Orti).

Frontispiece to
Scarron aparu à Madame de Maintenon et les reproches qu'il lui fait
sur ses amours avec Louis le Grand,
1664, by Paul Scarron
(courtesy of The British
Library).

Madame de Maintenon with her niece Françoise-Charlotte,
c.
1688, by Louis
Elle Ferdinand II.
Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (© Photo RMN/Gérard
Blot).

The ‘Secret Notebooks' of Madame de Maintenon.
Bibliothèque municipale de
Versailles.

Madame de Maintenon as St Frances of Rome,
c.
1694, by Pierre Mignard.
Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon
(photo: Giraudon/ Bridgeman Art Library).

King David Playing the Harp, c.
1619-20, by Domenicho Zampieri.
Châteaux de
Versailles et de Trianon (© Photo RMN/Daniel Arnaudet).

Miniature portrait of Madame de Maintenon,
c.
1694, by Jean Boinard.
Private
Collection.

Visite de Louis XIV à Saint-Cyr en 1704
, engraving by Lalaisse after F. Lemud.
Archives départementales des Yvelines, Montigny-le-Bretonneux
(fonds ancien de la
Bibliothèque
).

The Château of Maintenon; view through the Aquaduct,
mid-eighteenth century, by
François Edme Ricois.
Château de Maintenon (photo: The Art Archive/Dagli
Orti).

Apartments of Madame de Maintenon.
Château de Maintenon (photo. The Art

Archive/Dagli Orti).

Marie-Jeanne d'Aumale, date and artist unknown.
Private Collection.

The Family of the Grand Dauphin
, 1687, by Pierre Mignard.
Châteaux de Versailles
et de Trianon (© Photo RMN/Gérard Blot & Christian Jean).

Betrothal party of Philippe, Duc d'Orléans and Henriette-Anne, depicted on
a fan,
c.
1661. Collection: Sylvain Levy-Alban.

Henriette-Anne of England, Duchesse d'Orléans, 17th century French School.
Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (© Photo: RMN/Gérard Blot).

The Family of Louis XIV,
1670, by Jean Nocret.
Châteaux de Versailles et de
Trianon (© Photo RMN).

Henriette-Anne represented as Minerva, 1664, by Antoine Mathieu.
Châteaux
de Versailles et de Trianon (© Photo: RMN/Gérard Blot & Christian Jean).

Henriette-Anne, Duchesse d'Orléans, at her toilette, depicted on a fan from
the 1660s.
Collection: Sylvain Lévy Alban.

Philippe de France, Duc d'Orléans, with a portrait of his daughter Marie-
Louise d'Orléans, date unknown, by Pierre Mignard.
Châteaux de Versailles
et de Trianon (© Photo RMN).

Élisabeth-Charlotte of Bavaria, Duchesse d'Orléans, 1678, by Nicolas de
Largillière.
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy (photo: AKG).

Élisabeth-Charlotte, Duchesse d'Orléans, 1713, by Hyacinthe Rigaud.
Châteaux de
Versailles et de Trianon (photo: Giraudon/ Bridgeman Art Library).

Marie-Louise d'Orléans, Queen of Spain, 17th century French School.
Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (photo: Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library).

Marie-Anne de Bourbon, Princesse de Conti, 1690-1, by François de Troy.
Musée des Augustins, Toulouse (photo: Bernard Delorme).

Françoise-Marie de Bourbon and Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, date
unknown, by Claude-François Vignon.
Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon
(© Photo: RMN/Gérard Blot).

Louise-Bénédicte de Bourbon, Duchesse du Maine,
c.
1690-1700, by Henri
Bonnart.
Musée de l'Île de France, Sceaux (photo: Pascal Lemaître).

Mary of Modena,
c.
1680, by Simon Peeterz Verelst.
Yale Center for British Art,
Paul Mellon Fund (photo: Bridgeman Art Library).

Miniature painting of Mary of Modena,
c.
1677, by Peter Cross.
Fitzwilliam
Museum, University of Cambridge (photo: Bridgeman Art Library).

The Family of James VII and II,
1694, by Pierre Mignard.
The Royal Collection
© 2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Sèvres vase depicting a party given by Louis XIV in 1689 at the Château of
Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
Musée Condé, Chantilly (photo: Giraudon/ Bridgeman
Art Library).

Letter from Adelaide Duchesse de Bourgogne to her grandmother.
State
Archives of Turin.

Adelaide Duchesse de Bourgogne, 17th century French School.
Galleria
Sabauda, Turin (photo: Alinari/ Bridgeman Art Library).

Adelaide Duchesse de Bourgogne, in hunting-costume, 1704, by Pierre
Gobert.
Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (© Photo RMN/Daniel Arnaudet &
Gérard Blot).