NESLE, the name of a place in France (dep. of Somme), which gave its name to an old feudal family. This family became extinct at the beginning of the 13th century, and the heiress brought the lordship to the family of Clermont in Beauvaisis. Simon de Clermont, seigneur de Nesle, was regent of the kingdom of France during the second crusade of St Louis. Raoul de Clermont, constable of France, and Guy I. (d. 1302) and Guy II. (d. 1352) de Clermont, both marshals of France, were members of the family. The lordship of Nesle was erected into a countship for Charles de Sainte-Maure in 1467 and into a marquisate for Louis de Sainte-Maure in 1546. It was acquired in 1666 by Louis Charles de Mailly. His grandson, Louis de Mailly, had five daughters, of whom four (the countess of Mailly, the duchess of Lauragais, the countess of Vintimille, and the marquise de la Tournelle, afterwards duchess of Châteauroux) were successively, or simultaneously, mistresses of Louis XV.