MADAME DE MAINTENON

Born in a prison in Niort and starting as the governess to Louis XIV’s natural children, Françoise d'Aubigné (1635–1719) achieved one of the most meteoric social rises in French history, moving from poverty to becoming the King’s secret wife in 1683. A woman of wit and rigorous piety, she exerted significant political influence and, as early as 1674, acquired the Château de Maintenon through royal grants. There, she undertook vast renovations to transform the medieval fortress into a noble residence worthy of her new status, notably marked by the construction of Vauban’s unfinished aqueduct intended to supply water to Versailles. Her most cherished legacy, however, remains the estate of Saint-Cyr, where she founded the Maison Royale de Saint-Louis for the education of impoverished noble girls—a pioneering pedagogical project where she retired after the King’s death in 1715. Between the austerity of her apartments at Versailles and the serenity of her castle at Maintenon, she embodied a discreet yet formidable power, shaping the moral and devout atmosphere of the late reign of the Sun King.