page_title: Maison royale de Saint-Louis
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Maison royale de Saint-Louis / History
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon, épouse secrète du roi de France Louis XIV.
context_page_description: The Maison Royale de Saint-Louis was a boarding school for girls set up in 1684 at Saint-Cyr in France by king Louis XIV at the request of his second wife, Madame de Maintenon, who wanted a school for girls from impoverished noble families. The establishment lost its leading role on the deaths of Louis and then Maintenon, but it nevertheless marked an evolution in female education under the Ancien Régime. Its notable students included Maintenon's niece Marthe-Marguerite Le Valois de Villette de Mursay, marquise de Caylus, and Napoleon's sister Élisa Bonaparte, grand duchess of Tuscany.
  It remained in existence during the first years of the French Revolution, but closed for good in March 1793, with its empty buildings being taken over by the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1808. However, the Maison royale later provided Napoleon with the inspiration for his Maison des demoiselles de la Légion d'honneur, which still exists as the Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur.
caption: Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon
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