Françoise d'Aubigné Maintenon, marquise de

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

Françoise d'Aubigné Maintenon, marquise de , 1635-1719, second wife of the French king Louis XIV. Her grandfather was Agrippa d'Aubigné, the Huguenot hero. The family spent some years in Martinique, but upon her father's death she and her mother returned to France. Although baptized a Roman Catholic, the child was educated by a Protestant aunt. Later cared for by Catholic relatives, she became a very devout Catholic. At 16 she married the poet Paul Scarron and became a figure in the literary and intellectual world of Paris. After his death in 1660 the queen mother continued the poet's pension to his widow, and later Mme de Montespan obtained a pension for her. She became (1669) the governess for the children of Mme de Montespan and the king and gradually supplanted Mme de Montespan in the esteem and affections of Louis XIV, who made her a marquise. Mme de Maintenon exercised considerable influence over Louis and greatly lifted the moral tone of the court, although the ascription to her of Louis's mistakes (particularly the revocation of the Edict of Nantes) is an exaggeration. The queen, Marie Thérèse, was devoted to her and died in her arms. In 1684 she was morganatically married to the king. In her later years Mme de Maintenon gave much of her attention to the famous school of Saint-Cyr, which she had founded for the daughters of poor but noble families. She also wrote remarkable essays and letters dealing with education.

Bibliography: See biographies by C. C. Dyson (1910) and C. Haldane (1970).

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