Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon

Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon (November 27, 1635 - April 15, 1719), the second wife of Louis XIV, was born in a prison at Niort.

Humble origins

Her father, Constant d'Aubigné, was the son of Agrippa d'Aubigné, the famous friend and general of Henry IV, and had been imprisoned as a Huguenot malcontent, but her mother, a fervent Catholic, had the child baptized in her religion, her sponsors being the duc de la Rochefoucauld, father of the author of the Maxims, and the comtesse de Neuillant.

Related Topics:
Constant d'Aubigné - Agrippa d'Aubigné - Henry IV - Huguenot - Catholic - Duc de la Rochefoucauld - Comtesse de Neuillant

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In 1639 Constant d'Aubigné was released from prison and took all his family with him to Martinique, where he died in 1645, after having lost what fortune remained to him at cards. Mme. d'Aubigné returned to France, and from sheer poverty unwillingly yielded her daughter to her sister-in-law, Madame de Villette, who made the child very happy, but converted or pretended to convert her to Protestantism. When this became known, an order of state was issued that she should be entrusted to Mme. de Neuillant, her godmother. Every means was now used to convert her back to Catholicism, but at the last she only yielded on the condition that she need not believe that the soul of Mme de Villette was lost. Once reconverted, she was neglected and sent home to live with her mother, who had only a small pension of 200 livres a year, which ceased on her death in 1650.

Related Topics:
1639 - Martinique - 1645 - Madame de Villette - Protestantism - 1650

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