A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Maintenon, Madame de
MAINTENON, MADAME DE,
An extraordinary wonian, who, from a low condition, was elevated to the honour of becoming the wife of Louis the Fourteenth, was descended from the ancient family of d'Aubigné her proper name being Frances d'Aubigné. M. d'Aubigné her grandfather, was a Protestant, and a man of great merit and high standing; bat his son, Constance d'Aubigné the father of Madame de Maintenon, was a man of most infamous character, and actually murdered his first wife. He married afterwards the daughter of Peter de Cardillac, lord of Lane, at Bordeaux, December 27th., 1627. Going to Paris soon after his second marriage, he was, for some very great offence, thrown into prison, Madame d'Aubigné in vain solicited his pardon. Cardinal Richelieu told her, that "to take such a husband from her, was to do her a friendly office." Madame d'Aubigné shut herself up in prison with him, and there her two eldest sons were born. She then obtained leave to have her husband removed to the prison at Niort, that they might be near their relations. In that prison her only daughter, Madame de Maintenon, was born, November 27th., 1635. Her aunt, Madame Villette, took compassion on the poor infant, and gave it to the care of her daughter's nurse.
M. d'Aubigné was at length released, on condition that he should become a Roman Catholic; and, in 1639, he embarked for America with his family. He died at Martinico in 1646, leaving his life in the greatest poverty. She returned to France, leaving her daughter in the hands of the principal creditor, as a pledge for the payment of her debts; but he soon sent her to France after her mother, who, being unable to support her, her aunt Villette offered her a home, which she thankfully accepted. But Madame Villette was a Protestant, and instructed her niece in the peculiar tenets of that faith. This alarmed another relation of Frances d'Aubignés, Madame de Neuillaut, a Catholic, who solicited and obtained an order from the court, to take her out of the hands of Madame Villette; and, by means of threats, artifices, and hardships, she at length made a convert of her.
In 1651, Madame de Neuillaut took her to Paris, where, meeting the famous wit, the abbé Scarron, she married him, notwithstanding his being infirm and deformed; preferring this to the dependent state she was in. She lived with him many years; and Voltaire says that these were undoubtedly the happiest part of her life. Her beauty, but still more her wit, though her modesty and good sense preserved her from all frivolity, caused her society to be eagerly sought by all the best company in Paris, and she became highly distinguished. Her husband's death in 1660 reduced her to the same indigent state as before; and her friends used every effort to prevail on the court to continue to her the pension which Scarron had enjoyed. So many petitions were sent in, beginning "The widow Scarron most humbly prays," that the king exclaimed with irritation, "Must I always be tormented with the widow Scarron?" At last, however, he settled a much larger pension on her, as a mark of esteem for her talent.
in 1671, the birth of the Duke of Maine, the son of Louis the Fourteenth and Madame de Montespan, who was then a year old, had not yet been made public. The child had a lame foot, and the physician advised that he should be sent to the waters of Barége. This trust was committed to Madame Scarron, as a safe person; and from this time she had the charge of the Duke of Maine's education. The letters she wrote to the king on this subject charmed him, and were the origin of her fortune. Louis gave her the lands and name of Maintenon in 1679, which was the only estate she ever had, though afterwards in a position that afforded her an opportunity of acquiring an immense property.
Her elevation, however, was to her only a retreat. Shut up in her rooms, which were on the same floor with the king, she confined herself to the society of two or three ladies, whom she saw but seldom. The king came to her apartment every day, and continued there till after midnight. Here he did business with his ministers, while Madame de Maintenon employed herself with reading or, needle-work, carefully avoiding all interference in state affairs, but studying more how to please him who governed, than to govern, she made but little use of her influence over the king, either to enable her to confer benefits or do injuries.
About the end of 1685, Louis married Madame de Maintenon. She was then fifty years of age, and the king forty-eight. This union was kept a profound secret, and she enjoyed very little public distinction in consequence of her elevation. But after the king began to lead this retired life with Madame de Maintenon, the court grew every day more serious; and the monotony of her life was so great, that she once exclaimed to her brother, "I can bear this no longer; I wish I were dead!"
The convent of St. Cyr was built by her at the end of the park of Versailles, in 1686. She gave the form to this establishment, assisted in making the rules, and was herself superior of the convent, where she often went to dissipate her ennui and melancholy.
The king died, September 2nd., 1715; after which event, Madame de Maintenon retired wholly to St. Cyr, and spent the remainder of her days in acts of devotion. Louis the Fourteenth made no certain provision for her, but recommended her to the Duke of Orleans, who bestowed on her a pension of eighty thousand livres, which was all she would accept. She died, April 15th., 1719.
In 1756, the letters of Madame de Maintenon were published in nine volumes, at Amsterdam; but with many arbitrary changes. Another, and more complete edition, was published in 1812. In 1848, "A History of Madame de Maintenon, etc., by M. le Duc de Noailles," appeared in Paris. This last work gives a highly favourable portrait of the character of Madame de Maintenon. Her talents no one ever questioned; and none, save the enemies of virtue, have doubted hers.