Maintenon, Fran�oise d'Aubign�, Marquise de, known as Madame de Maintenon 1635-1719
French queen

The second wife of Louis XIV and granddaughter of the Huguenot Th�odore Agrippa d'Aubign� (1552-1630), she was born in Niort, Poitou. She was converted to Roman Catholicism in her teens, and in 1652 she married the crippled poet Paul Scarron, whose death (1660) left her penniless. In 1669 she was appointed governess of the two illegitimate sons of her friend the Marquise de Montespan by Louis XIV, and she became the king's mistress. In 1674, with his help, she bought the estate and marquisate of Maintenon. After the death of Queen Maria Theresa in 1683, Louis secretly married Madame de Maintenon, and she was accused of influencing him, particularly over the persecution of Protestants after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685). She encouraged piety and dignity at court and her letters are still very interesting to read. After Louis's death (1715), she retired to a home for poor noblewomen which she had founded in 1680 at Saint-Cyr.

Bibliography: Mme Saint-Ren� Taillandier, Madame de Maintenon (1920, Eng trans 1922)