page_title: Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon
section_title: Uncrowned queen of France
hierarchical_section_title: Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon / Uncrowned queen of France
context_page_description: Françoise d'Aubigné, known first as Madame Scarron and subsequently as Madame de Maintenon, was a French noblewoman who secretly married King Louis XIV. Although she was never considered queen of France, she was one of the King's closest advisers and the royal children's governess. In 1684, she founded the Maison royale de Saint-Louis, a school for girls from poorer noble families.
context_section_description: At some point Louis XIV said "Madame de Maintenon knows how to love. There would be great pleasure in being loved by her," said the king. He probably asked her to become his mistress at that time. Though she later claimed she didn't yield to his advances ("Nothing is so clever as to conduct one's self irreproachably," the king spent much of his spare time with the royal governess by the late 1670s, discussing politics, economics, and religion. After the death of Marie-Thérèse, Françoise married Louis in a private ceremony by François de Harlay de Champvallon, archbishop of Paris. It is believed that in attendance were Père la Chaise, the king's confessor, the Marquis de Montchevreuil, the Chevalier de Forbin and Alexandre Bontemps, a valet with whom the groom was very close. Owing to the disparity in their social status, the marriage was morganatic, meaning that Madame de Maintenon wasn't openly acknowledged as the king's wife and didn't become queen. No official documentation of the marriage exists, but that it took place is nevertheless accepted by historians.  Biographers have dated the wedding to 9 October 1683 or January 1684.
  In his memoirs, the duc de Saint-Simon (himself only a boy at the time of the event) wrote the following:
  "But what is very certain and very true, is, that some time after the return of the King from Fontainebleau, and in the midst of the winter that followed the death of the Queen (posterity will with difficulty believe it, although perfectly true and proved), Père de la Chaise, confessor of the King, said mass at the dead of night in one of the King's cabinets at Versailles.  Bontems, governor of Versailles, chief valet on duty, and the most confidential of the four, was present at this mass, at which the monarch and La Maintenon were married in presence of Harlay, Archbishop of Paris, as diocesan, of Louvois (both of whom drew from the King a promise that he would never declare this marriage), and of Montchevreuil...
  
  The satiety of the honeymoon, usually so fatal, and especially the honeymoon of such marriages, only consolidated the favour of Madame de Maintenon.  Soon after, she astonished everybody by the apartments given to her at Versailles, at the top of the grand staircase facing those of the King and on the same floor.  From that moment the King always passed some hours with her every day of his life; wherever she might be she was always lodged near him, and on the same floor if possible."
  The Marquise de Montespan wrote the following in her memoirs about the marriage between her former friend and ex-lover:
  "The following week, Madame de Maintenon... consented to the King's will, which she had opposed in order to excite it, and in the presence of the Marquis and Marquise de Montchevreuil, the Duc de Noailles, the Marquis de Chamarante, M. Bontems and Mademoiselle Ninon, her permanent chambermaid, was married to the King of France and Navarre in the chapel of the château. The Abbé de Harlay, Archbishop of Paris, assisted by the Bishop of Chartres and Père de la Chaise, had the honour of blessing this marriage and presenting the rings of gold.  After the ceremony, which took place at an early hour, and even by torchlight, there was a slight repast in the small apartments.  The same persons, taking carriages, then repaired to Maintenon, where the great ceremony, the mass, and all that is customary in such cases were celebrated. At her return, Madame de Maintenon took possession of an extremely sumptuous apartment that had been carefully arranged and furnished for her.  Her people continued to wear her livery, but she scarcely ever rode anymore except in the great carriage of the King, where we saw her in the place, which had been occupied by the Queen.  In her interior, the title of Majesty was given her, and the King, when he had to speak of her, only used the word Madame, without adding Maintenon, that having become too familiar and trivial."
  Historians have often remarked upon Madame de Maintenon's political influence, which was considerable. She was regarded as the next most powerf
caption: Madame de Maintenon sitting in silk and wearing discreet but rich robes.
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