Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King (61 page)

The royal family of France painted by Jean Nocret in 1670, at the request of Monsieur, in the guise of gods and goddesses. On the left Monsieur (seated) has his own family grouped round him, including his first wife, Henriette-Anne (standing). Louis XIV has his wife Marie-Thérèse of Spain (seated lower, on his right) patting the Dauphin's head and his cousin the Grande Mademoiselle (standing, right) at the edge of the picture.

Henriette-Anne Duchesse d'Orléans with a medallion of her husband Monsieur; his appearance shows the dark ‘Medici' strain which many of the descendants of Henri IV and Marie de Médicis shared.

Henriette-Anne with her spaniel Mimi on a stool and a musician playing; the toilette of a great lady (held in her bedroom) was a social occasion. From a fan.

Monsieur holding a portrait of his favourite daughter, Marie-Louise d'Orléans.

Liselotte, the German princess who became Monsieur's second wife, known as ‘Madame', and wrote amusing, often bawdy letters home describing the French court.

Liselotte, Duchesse d'Orléans, in later life; she herself mocked her vast figure and weather-beaten face, Duc to hunting for long hours without wearing a mask as was customary for ladies.

Marie-Louise d'Orléans, niece of Louis XIV and the highest-ranking young woman at the French court, since he had no legitimate daughters; she was married off to the grotesque King Carlos II of Spain for reasons of state; her beauty is a darker version of her mother, Henriette-Anne.

Marie-Anne, Princesse de Conti, daughter of Louis XIV by Louise de La Vallière, was generally rated the most beautiful of his daughters and he spoiled her; having been widowed childless very young, she declined to marry again but lived a life of happy dissipation at court.

The two surviving daughters of Louis XIV by Athénaïs de Montespan: Françoise-Marie who married the heir to the Duc d'Orléans and Louise-Françoise who married the Duc de Bourbon and was known as Madame la Duchesse. Both scandalised the court with their wayward and often louche behaviour.

Bénédicte Duchesse du Maine, wife of the King's illegitimate son; tiny, described by Liselotte as ‘the little toad’, Bénédicte was extremely intelligent with a real interest in the arts which she patronised in her salon at Sceaux.

Mary Beatrice d'Este, daughter of the Duke of Modena, the Catholic second wife of James Duke of York, later James II; her combination of virtue, dignity and beauty impressed Louis XIV and Madame de Maintenon.