Louise De La Valliere - Louis XIV's FIRST mistress

Hi, my name is Nika. Welcome to my channel, the Kings of France. Today I'm taking you back to the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV, with part one of a three-part series on the mistresses of the Sun King. We start out with Louise de la Vallière, who was the first mistress of Louis XIV The Duchess of La Vallière was born at the Hotel de la Crousille in Tours on August 6, 1644. She was born as the daughter of an officer, Laurent de la Beaune-le-Blanc, who changed his name to La Vallière after a small estate near Ambroise. Her infancy was spent at her birthplace at Ambroise, and in the Château de la Vallière in Réunier, which was owned by her family. Her father died in 1651. Shortly after his death, his widow remarried to Jacques de Courteval, Marquis de Saint-Rémy, who was employed by Gaston, Duc d'Orléans, and who was the uncle of King Louis XIV of France. She moved to Gaston's court along with her mother and stepfather, and served as a companion to the daughters of the Duke. Louise wasn't a great beauty or remarkably intelligent. Although she limped, as her one leg was shorter as the other, she was a great dancer and a good horseback rider. When Gaston d'Orléans died, his widow moved to Paris along with her daughters. They took the now 16-year-old Louise with them. Thanks to the help of a relative, Madame de Choisy, Louise became lady-in-waiting to Henriette Anne Stuart, sister of King Charles II of England. Henriette was Louise's age and had just married Philippe d'Orléans, also known as Monsieur, the brother of King Louis XIV. From 1661, Henriette lived at the Fontainebleau court and quickly befriended her brother-in-law, which started to rumor about an affair between the two of them. In order to avoid scandal, it was decided that the king needed to place his romantic interests elsewhere, and soon the attractive qualities of Louise made her the ideal candidate. In order to hide her limp, shoes with special heels were made for her. Louise had only lived at Fontainebleau for a short while when she became the king's mistress. Their relationship, which started out as a decoy to avoid scandal, quickly developed into a real passion when the king fell in love with Louise's talent and beauty. It was Louise's first real relationship, and it quickly became clear to the court that she was not seeking money or fame, but that she solely longed for the love of the king. However, in February 1662, a conflict arose between Louis XIV and Louise when she refused to inform the king about the affair between Henriette and the Comte de Guiche. The conflict led to Louise fleeing to a convent at Chaillot, but Louis followed her and convinced her to return with him to court. Louise's enemies, however, especially Olympe Mancini, niece to Cardinal Jules Mazarin and former lover of Louis XIV, tried to disgrace Louise by informing the wife of Louis XIV, Queen Maria Theresia of Spain, about their affair. Louise, who was now pregnant with the king's child, was immediately dismissed as lady-in-waiting to Henriette d'Orléans, and she was banished to lodgings in the Palais-Royal, where, on December 19, 1663, she gave birth to a son, Charles. He died on July 1665 without being legitimized. In January and December 1665, two more sons, Philippe and Louis, were born. Sadly, both children died in the spring of 1666. Neither of them were legitimized as well. However, on October 2, 1666, Louise gave birth to a baby girl named Marianne. Louis XIV legitimized her, and henceforth she was known as Mademoiselle de Blois. A marriage was arranged for her with Armand I, Prince of Conti. After the death of the king's mother, Louise publicly displayed the affair, which brought shame to Louise. Ashamed of her conduct in the affair, Louise treated the queen, Maria Theresia of Spain, with the utmost respect. By this time, Françoise Athénaïse, Marquise de Montespan, joined the French court. I will talk about her in great detail in my next video, but due to the unsurpassed beauty of the Montespan, Louis XIV wanted to make her his mistress immediately. In 1667, Louis XIV created Louise to be Duchess de la Vallière and gave her the estate of Vaujour. Louise wasn't impressed, however. She stated that she felt her new title to be a present to a servant who was retiring. Louise, now pregnant with their fifth child, was asked by the king to remain at court. Strangely enough, she once again was used as a decoy, this time to hide the relationship between the king and his new mistress, Madame de Montespan. She was forced to live in the same apartments as the Montespan, as the husband of the Montespan was unhappy with the affair. The last child of Louis XIV and Louise de la Vallière was born on October 2, 1667. The boy was legitimized by Louis XIV in 1669 and was created Count of Vermondois and was given a military post in the French navy. He died on October 18, 1683 during his first military campaign. After the birth of her fifth child, Louise got caught in a love triangle with the king and the Montespan. Despite being maîtresse en titre, the official mistress of the king, and being the decoy for the new affair, the king had no issues having other mistresses on the side. Louise was still deeply in love with the king and hoped to win back his love, but despite being compliant to the king's every wish, he never gained an interest in her. The stress that was placed on Louise took its toll on her health, and in 1670 she suffered from an illness which almost killed her. Louise turned to religion, but decided to stay at court for the time being, as she still loved the king and wanted to be close to him. However, in 1671 she attempted to leave court without the king's consent and fled to the convent of Saint Marie de Chaillot. She was ordered back to court though, as Madame de Montespan feared scandal and needed Louise to be the decoy still. In 1674 however, she finally received permission of the king to enter the Carmelite convent in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. Before her departure at court, she asked forgiveness of the queen, Maria Thérésia of Spain. Upon her departure of the French court, the new wife of Philippe d'Orléans, the king's brother, named Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, and known at court as La Palatine, became responsible for the education of Louise's fifth and only surviving son, Louis. When he died, his sister and La Palatine mourned deeply for his loss, while his father, King Louis XIV, did not shed a tear. It is said that Louise said about his death, I ought to weep for his birth far more than for his death, as she was still struggling with the sin of her affair with King Louis XIV. Several courtiers paid her visits at the convent. During the later years of her life, Madame de Montespan, the second maîtresse of Louis XIV, visited her for forgiveness and advice on living a better life. On June 6, 1710, Louise de Lavallière died, age 65, after 36 years of religious life. She was buried at the cemetery of her convent. Louis de Rouvroy, le duc de Saint-Simon, wrote in his memoirs about her. She died with all the marks of great holiness. That concludes my video on Louise de Lavallière, the first maîtresse en titre of Louis XIV. If you enjoyed this video, please don't forget to comment, like and subscribe. In my next video, I'll talk about Athénaïs de Montespan. I hope to see you then. Thank you very much for watching. Take care. Bye.