Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 07-17-08
Francoise d'Aubigne,
Madame Scarron, Marquise de Maintenon (1635-1719)
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"IF I WERE TO FOLLOW MY OWN INCLINATIONS...."
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The early childhood of Francoise d'Aubigne reflected the religious upheaval in southwest France in the 1600s. Her paternal grandfather was a Calvinist general and poet. Her father, Constant d'Aubigne, first betrayed the Calvinists, for which his family disowned him; he then fell under the disfavor of the Catholic minister Cardinal Richelieu, for which he spent ten years in prison, where he married the Catholic daughter of the governor of Bordeaux. While he was in prison at Niort, Francoise was born there, baptized Catholic because of her mother, but sent to live for seven years with her father's Calvinist sister.
Constant d'Aubigne was released after Richelieu's death in 1642, and in 1645 he took his family to Martinique, apparently believing he was to be governor of a nearly island. Discovering that the post had been filled, he returned to France (leaving his family in Martinique), and decided to try his luck in Turkey, but died on the way in 1647. His wife borrowed the money to take her three children --- Francoise and two sons --- back to France, where the younger son soon died. Until her own death in 1652, Francoise's mother tried without success to secure at least some of her husband's inheritance.
Until 1650 Francoise boarded at Ursuline schools, first in Niort and then in Paris. Soon after she left school, the 14-year-old met the 40-year-old Paul Scarron, a well-known poet and playwright. Scarron had suffered for ten years from increasingly debilitating arthritis; by 1650, he was quite crippled and frequently in pain, but he would continue to write his popular comedies almost until his death.
In 1652 Francoise married Scarron. In the same year, Scarron lost a pension he had been receiving (he had earlier criticized the minister Cardinal Mazarin, and Mazarin had now returned to power); the couple moved to a less expensive home. There the Scarrons lived frugally but maintained a salon frequented by many of the chief Parisian writers and artists. For Francoise, the most important contact was Madeleine de Scudery, who would remain her friend until Scudery's death in 1701, and who would introduce her to the circle of the Marquise de Sevigne and the Comtesse de La Fayette.
In 1660 Scarron died. Through the influence of his friends, the pension he had lost was now granted to his widow. With this small but certain income, Francoise lived in a Paris convent and began to move in higher aristocratic circles, where she was known as amusing, witty, and above all, discreet. When in 1669, her friend, the Marquise de Montespan, needed someone to secretly care for the children she was having with King Louis XIV, Francoise was the ideal choice. For two years Francoise supervised the children's care by wet nurses; for another two years she lived with the children in a village outside Paris and began to act as their governess.
At the end of 1673, Louis officially recognized Montespan's children, and Francoise moved with them to the court at St. Germain. Her goal now was to buy a home of her own; within a year she had achieved that goal, and in 1675 she was granted the title of Marquise de Maintenon. She still spent most of her time at court, and as Montespan's influence declined, Maintenon's influence grew.
Louis' wife, Queen Maria Theresa, died in the summer of 1683. There is no documentary evidence that Louis and Maintenon ever married, but there is considerable anecdotal evidence that they did, perhaps as early as the autumn of 1683 or as late as the 1690s. At any rate, Maintenon became the most important woman in Louis' life --- far too important in the view of many of Louis' courtiers.
In 1686 Louis and Maintenon founded the Royale Maison de Saint-Louis at Saint-Cyr, a school for girls between 7 and 20, who were "of noble extraction" but whose families were too poor to give them "a good education." Saint-Cyr would become, after Louis, the chief focus of Maintenon's life, and its history under her supervision would reflect her changing views on women's education. For example, believing that dramatic presentations would allow the students to develop poise, Maintenon first had them present Racine's play Andromaque; finding that too worldly, she had him write plays specifically for Saint-Cyr. But after the performance of Esther in 1689 brought the girls far too much attention from the male courtiers who came with Louis to see it, the 1691 Athalie was presented in private, for only Louis and a few others. Also, at the start, the students were acting out for each other some of Madeleine de Scudery's Conversations; by the early 1690s, Maintenon was writing for the students' use her own literary dialogues, less witty but more moralistic.
In 1700 the king of Spain died, having named as his heir Louis' grandson, who would become Philip V. Louis saw in this greater power for France and the eventual union of Spain with France. The other European powers could not allow this, and in 1702 the 11-year "War of the Spanish Succession" began. During these years Maintenon saw her influence over Louis weaken. After his death in 1715 she retired to Saint-Cyr, where she remained until her own death.
Maintenon left a large number of letters (there is as yet no complete edition), valued by historians for what they reveal of Louis and his policies. The community at Saint-Cyr kept the dialogues she had written, as well as the talks she had given to both students and teachers. Taken together, these works allow us to hear a distinctive voice.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print:
Early letters (1650-1683)
Saint-Cyr writings
Later letters (1706-1715)
Information about secondary sources
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1. In English:
(a) At the end of a brief essay, two passages from 1675 letters on the newly acquired castle of Maintenon.
(b) Half-way down the page (at "Document 5"), two passages from a letter on the educational needs of aristocratic and non-aristocratic girls.
(c) A brief excerpt, from a 1696 letter, on the discovery of Louis' courtiers of the pleasure of eating peas, now "a fashion---indeed, a passion."
(d) Starting at the fourth paragraph of this article, a substantial passage of Maintenon's description of a day at court in 1705, told to and written down by her closest friend at Saint-Cyr. (The Duchesse de Bourgogne spoken of here was the wife of Louis' grandson and heir, "Monseigneur"; Maintenon's thoughts of "a thousand persons perishing, at that very moment" refer to the ongoing "War of the Spanish Succession.")
(e) Five one-sentence quotations attributed to Maintenon.
2. Here you can download PDF files of the four volumes of Theophile Lavallee's French 1865-1866 edition of the Correspondance generale de madame de Maintenon.
3. The views of two contemporaries at Louis' court who were not fond of Maintenon:
(a) Four pages of extracts from the letters of Liselotte von der Pfalz (Louis' sister-in-law); Liselotte saw Maintenon as a troublemaker, for (among many other things) being a "woman who talks of nothing but penitence."
(b) The Duc de Saint-Simon arrived at court only in 1702; this section of his Memoires on Maintenon gives a representative taste of his thoughts. No one has ever described Saint-Simon as being objective, and there are factual errors in his account, but his views probably reflect those of many of the younger members of Louis' court.
4. For word from other contemporary women, look at these other pages of the "Other Women's Voices" site:
(a) Use your browser's search function to go to "Athis" for two excerpts from Madeleine de Scudery's 1680 Conversations. We don't know which of the individual dialogues were presented at Saint-Cyr, but it seems likely that the second passage here, praising Louis XIV, would have been one of them.
(b) Go to "Maintenon" for Madame de La Fayette's 1688-89 worries about Saint-Cyr, worries that would soon be shared by Maintenon.
5. Essays:
(a) A link to the text of C. C. Dyson's 1910 Madame de Maintenon : her life and times 1635-1719, which quotes substantially from Maintenon's letters and those of others, as well as from other contemporary documents; you can also download the work as a PDF file.
(b) The first two chapters of this volume of Francois Guizot's 1830 History of France From The Earliest Times also tells Maintenon's story, giving passages from her letters and quoting the views of Madame de Sevigne, Saint-Simon, and others. The 1870s translation is by Robert Black.
(c) A link to the text of Constance Hill's 1899 Story of the Princess des Ursins in Spain. The princess, a French widow of an Italian prince, had accompanied Marie-Louise of Savoy to Spain when Marie-Louise was to become the bride of Philip V, and she soon became an advisor to both king and queen. Hill's book describes the long friendship between Maintenon and the princess and quotes extensively from their correspondence. You can also download a PDF file of the book.
(d) An 1857 review of a French history of Saint-Cyr; some of the information on Maintenon has been made outdated by later research, but the article does include a quote from one of her letters. You can link to page images or to the entire text.
6. Reviews (for excerpts from Conley, see below, under "In print"; for information on the other books' treatment of Maintenon, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Lauren Clay on John J. Conley's 2004 translation of Maintenon's Dialogues and Addresses.
(b) Caroline Moorehead on Teresa Waugh's 2005 translation of Benedetta Craveri's 2001 study, The Age of Conversation; elsewhere, another review, this by Elizabeth Sperry.
(c) R. J. Keefe on Ian Dunlop's 2000 study, Louis XIV.
7. At a French-language site, a bibliography of editions of Maintenon's writings.
8. Portraits:
(a) Near the bottom of the page, a c.1655 miniature (here shown in black and white) of a young Madame Scarron, by Jean Petitot the Elder.
(b) Another, anonymous, miniature of the same period.
(c) A c.1688 painting, by Ferdinand Elle, of Maintenon with her niece, Francoise, a student at Saint-Cyr and the future Duchess of Noailles.
(d) A painting of the late 1680s or early 1690s, by Pierre Mignard, of Maintenon dressed as Frances of Rome, a 1400s saint known for her zeal in helping other women.
9. At the bottom of the page, a contemporary illustration of the Chateau de Maintenon, where in 1675 its new owner hoped to fine "a pretty happy old age, if there is such a thing."
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[Charlotte Franken Haldane's 1970 book is intended as a popular biography, so citation of sources is sketchy, but the details she gives remain for the most part uncontested. More importantly, she quotes frequently from letters written by Maintenon and not available elsewhere in English:]
Haldane, Charlotte Franken. Madame de Maintenon; uncrowned
Queen of France. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill [1970]. (310 p.
illus., geneal. tables, ports.)
LC#:DC130.M2 H35 1970
Bibliography: p. [287]-288
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"...when I am as witty as M. Scarron."
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[From a brief letter to a neighbor of Scarron; Francoise had met the playwright during a 1650 visit to Scarron's salon:]
I beg you to forgive me for not filling up the whole page. I have neither enough boldness nor enough wit to do so; I promise to send you half, and the remainder when I am as witty as M. Scarron. [p.25]
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"The Queen must have gone to bed well satisfied with...
her choice."
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[An August 1660 letter to a friend of the Scarrons describes the entry into Paris of Louis XIV and his new queen, Maria Theresa of Austria (who, of course, had had no choice at all in the selection of her husband):]
I do not think anything so beautiful could ever have been seen, and last night the Queen must have gone to bed well satisfied with the husband of her choice.... I cannot tell you anything in the right order because I can hardly yet disentangle all I saw yesterday during ten or twelve hours.
[Among the horsemen passing by were the gentlemen of the king's household, including those who visited the Scarrons:]
...[A] very large number, all equally magnificent, amongst whom I was looking for my friends: Beuvron was one of the first, with M. de Saint-Luc, who was seeking me, too, but in the wrong place. [pp.58-59]
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"Those of us who are devout...."
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[Two months later, Scarron died. In a letter telling her Calvinist aunt of her financial situation (Scarron had died deeply in debt), the 24-year-old widow concludes:]
So now I've informed you about my affairs, as you asked me to do. From what I've said you will agree that I am not destined to be happy; but those of us who are devout call this kind of experience a visitation by the Lord, and we place ourselves at the foot of the Cross with complete resignation. [p.48]
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"My days pass in a slavery."
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[At the start of 1674 Mme Scarron moved with Mme de Montespan's six surviving children from a house in the country to the court at St. Germain and began a correspondence with her confessor that tells us much about the following years. A few months after the move, she wrote to him of her difficulties with Montespan, who apparently begrudged her children's devotion to their governess:]
I have wanted to write you for a long time, but my days pass in a slavery that makes it impossible to do as I would like; I am always depressed and matters are taking a turn that does not suit me. I have not enough self-control not to suffer, but I am willing to suffer and it is perhaps a sign of progress that I am no longer impatient but only pained. I do my best to seek consolation in God.
That is all I have to tell you about my spiritual condition; let us now pass to the temporal. I have a great longing to buy some land, but cannot succeed. ...I have asked [a friend] to work at this matter and find out everything there is for sale. [p.89]
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"I've already enough trouble."
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[A week later, there is another danger:]
The Duchess of Richelieu [a friend since Scarron's death] and Mme de Montespan are trying to arrange a marriage for me that will not take place --- with a rather unsavoury and beggarly Duke: this would put me in a state of displeasure and embarrassment which I would find unendurable; I've already enough trouble in my unusual and enviable position without seeing more in a condition which causes the unhappiness of three quarters of the human race. [p.90]
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"We shall have a pretty happy old age, if there is such
a thing."
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[Mme Scarron's "great longing to buy some land" could not be satisfied because she had not accumulated enough savings in her years as governess, but by the end of the year Louis had given her a grant to accomplish her goal. In October she was able to write to her brother, Charles:]
I am negotiating for an estate..., but say nothing about it as yet; one should never boast, as it is both unlucky and ridiculous. Adieu, dear brother, I think we shall have a pretty happy old age, if there is such a thing. [p.93]
[And a month later:]
...[I]t is Maintenon.... It is fourteen lieus from Paris, ten from from Versailles, and four from Chartres; it is beautiful, a noble edifice, and will bring me in an income of ten to eleven thousand livres. [p.94]
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"My husband's friends are wrong."
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[At the start of 1675 Louis went further and conferred on Mme Scarron a title. The new Marquise de Maintenon felt it necessary to defend her acceptance of the title in a letter to Angelique de Coulanges, a old friend:]
It is true that the King has entitled me Mme de Maintenon and that I am fool enough to blush at it....
My husband's [Scarron's] friends are wrong in accusing me of having arranged my change of name with the king. They are either spiteful or envious of me, for a little happiness attracts a great number of enemies. [p.96]
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"...peace and mental restfulness."
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[It would be the end of 1675 before Mme de Maintenon could spend any time at her own home, the first she had known in fifteen years. The eldest of her charges was ill, and she spent the year traveling with him to find a cure. In December she could finally write to her confessor:]
I arrived back from Maintenon yesterday, where I spent a week in such peace and mental restfulness that makes me find my life here [at court] more unendurable than ever, and if I were to follow my own inclinations there would not be one minute of the day when I would not ask to retire. [p.114]
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"There is nothing to answer with regard to Louis et Francoise."
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[Maintenon remained at court, with only brief escapes to her country home, during the last years of Louis' affair with Mme de Montespan and her successor. From 1680 she came to be admired by Queen Maria Theresa and remained close to her until the queen's death in 1683. Within a week of that death Maintenon replied --- rather ambiguously --- to a friend who had told her of rumors that she was or would be Louis' new mistress:]
There is nothing to answer with regard to Louis et Francoise, this is mere folly. I would, however, like to know why she would not be willing? I could never believe that difficulties in this matter would come from her side. [p.153]
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[John J. Conley has translated 14 of the dialogues that Maintenon wrote for the Saint-Cyr students in the 1690s, 14 talks delivered to the students between 1699 and 1715, and 4 lectures to the faculty made between 1686 and 1711. The presentations to students and faculty were transcribed by teachers but edited by Maintenon for future use. Conley's introductions discuss Maintenon's life and educational theory; his bibliography includes the few English-language studies. (See the book's table of contents online; it gives the title of each dialogue and talk.):]
Maintenon, Madame de. Dialogues and addresses; edited and
translated by John J. Conley (The other voice in early modern
Europe). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. (xxxi, 177p.)
LC#: LC1422 .M27513 2004; ISBN: 0226502414, 0226502422
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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"I can only be happy in the company of... true wits."
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[From the dialogue Sur le bon esprit (which Conley translates as "true wit"). A group of seven girls are discussing the difference between "wit'"and "true wit"; Augustina identifies true wit (at least for women) with doing one's duty, while Celestine has other views. It is tempting to see Augustina as the new Mme Maintenon and Celestine as the earlier Mme Scarron:]
Augustina: We belong to the sex with a greater obligation to have our minds well-disciplined rather than to have it broadly cultivated. We shall already see far enough, if we see that there is nothing so solid as to work on our salvation and to choose the state in life that will make this salvation easier and more certain.
Celestine: So, you share the beliefs of those who want to take away from our sex the benefits of being a scholar. I just don't understand what pleasure there can be in spending your time with people who know neither history nor novels. Why should we waste our time with women who are so preoccupied with housework that they can't tell the difference among an elegy, an ode, or a lyric poem?
Augustina: But what possible purpose is there for a girl or woman to know how to make such distinctions? I'm completely ignorant of them and I have no desire to learn them. I only want to contribute to the happiness of the people on whom I depend....
Celestine: Are you telling me that if you still lived at your mother's house, you'd really like to play the part of the housekeeper?
Augustina: Hey! Don't make a joke of it, Miss. I would, and I would think that I couldn't do any better.
Celestine: Honestly, I wouldn't do that for anything in the world. I have an enlightened mind. I would never stoop to do these kinds of things. I can only be happy in the company of orators, of poets, of philosophers---in a word, with true wits.
Augustina: But I only find satisfaction in doing my duty.
Celestine: Then you're going to have a very unhappy life, and you will always be the slave of your duty.
Augustina: Miss, I am happier than you are, because I always do what I want. And I only want what I am bound to do. But you will not always have the blessed few to guarantee you pleasure.
Celestine: How so, Miss?
Augustina: Because you like witty people, and there are so few of those around who will suit your taste. [pp.44-45]
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"A woman commits herself to death and slavery when she marries."
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[And from Sur les inconvenients de mariage. Six girls are discussing their destinies; one has just suggested that life under a convent rule could be agreeable:]
Rosalie: Don't even talk to me about a rule and about sacrificing your freedom.
Alexandrina: But don't you sacrifice it with a husband?
Melanie: But there are any number of kindly husbands, doting husbands who love you and whom you love in return.
Clotilda: Undoubtedly , but there's no guarantee that you'll end up with a happy choice. Further, even the best husbands tend to act like tyrants.
Rosalie: Why do you insist that all men are tyrants?
Alexandrina: It's because duty is tyrannical. No matter how sweet a husband may be, he wants you to be a completely devoted wife. he want you to live only for him and for your family.
[After the girls speak of the hazards of marriage---jealousy, dangerous pregnancies:]
Alexandrina: A woman commits herself to death and slavery when she marries. There are too many examples to argue the contrary.
Clotilda: Truly, Miss, you make me very afraid of marriage. Do you want then that all of these girls become nuns?
Alexandrina: No, I'd be very disturbed by that, because an insincere nun is no happier than a married woman.
Rosalie: So then what do you want us to do?
Alexandrina: I want you to understand the problems in all states of life. Don't imagine that there are any which are happiness itself. [pp.63-65]
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"There is no sense in cultivating their mind and their heart."
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[Maintenon's rather dismal view of her students' present needs and future lives is understandable when the reader remembers who these girls are. The addresses remind us of this. From her first address to the teachers when the school began in 1686:]
External accomplishment, the knowledge of foreign languages, and so many of the other accomplishments that people desire for high-society women have serious disadvantages.... The ladies of the school of Saint-Louis should never be raised in this way, if it can be avoided. Given the fact that they are without wealth, there is no sense in cultivating their mind and their heart in a manner so unadapted to their fortune and their social position. [p.140]
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"...the inevitable humiliations tied to my lack of fortune?"
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[And in a later talk, Du celebat ("the single life") given sometime between 1699 and 1708 to the girls aged 17 to 20:]
My children, your teacher would like me to speak to you about the single life. Apparently most of you are enthusiastic about this state in life because you could then avoid the restrictions of marriage and the vowed commitments of the cloister. This view is just not reasonable. There is no state in life where you can avoid the state of dependence to which God wants to restrict persons of our sex.
[After describing the difficulties involved in living with another's family or at a convent:]
You have many other things to do beside following your own will. The meager finances of most of you will make it impossible for you to keep up with the social externals of others. Some of you in the future, as already in the present, will have to work terribly hard just to have the basics of existence. This is the issue many of you need to face. Rather than going to your confessors on trivial matters, it would be better to ask them, "What should I do, given my precarious resources? What means should I use to endure the inevitable humiliations tied to my lack of fortune? [pp.108-110]
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[This anthology includes Marcelle Maistre Welch's translation of three letters and two lectures addressed to the teachers at Saint-Cyr which are not in Conley's collection (above), as well as four talks to students that can be found in Conley. Welch's brief introduction discusses Maintenon's views on women's education. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Writings by pre-revolutionary French women: from Marie de
France to Elizabeth Vigee-Le Brun / Anne R. Larsen and Colette
H. Winn, editors (Garland reference library of the humanities;
v. 2111. Women writers of the world; v. 2). New York: Garland
Pub., 2000. (xxiii, 592 p.: ill., facsims.)
LC#: PQ1113 .W75 2000; ISBN: 0815331908
Includes bibliographical references and index
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"I have built on sand."
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[A September 1991 letter to the headmistress of St-Cyr shows Maintenon deeply regretting the "worldly" education that she had sponsored in the first years:]
God knows that I wanted to establish virtue at at Saint-Cyr; yet I have built on sand. Lacking what was necessary to provide a solid foundation, I wanted the girls to be witty, to elevate their courage, to develop their reason. I have succeeded. They are smart and use it against us; they are high-spirited and are more vain and haughty than would be proper for the highest princesses.
As the world says, we developed their reason and turned them into presumptuous, curious, and impertinent squabblers. This is how one succeeds when one is moved by the desire to excel. A plain, Christian education would have made good girls from whom we would have fashioned good wives and good nuns, but we have formed clever minds that even we, who have made them, cannot tolerate. [p.308]
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"...without indulging in peculiar and useless things."
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[From 1688 to 1694 the writer accused of Quietism, Madame Guyon, was a regular visitor to Saint-Cyr; Maintenon, the teachers, and the older students read and re-read Guyon's Moyen court et tres facile pour l'oraison (A short and very easy method of prayer). When the court turned against Guyon, Maintenon did as well, but in this 1701 letter to the whole faculty, she was still trying to undo the influence of Guyon, now in prison because she did not "submit to His ministers":]
You must give your girls a plain education, inspiring them with the fear and lover of God rather than stimulating their hearts with heroic examples.... You must teach with simplicity and clarity, and show your girls pure doctrine without indulging in peculiar and useless things.... Simple faith and docility toward the Church are more suitable for girls than reasoning, which will excite their curiosity and often will confuse their minds....
When by chance you come across some marvelous things in the lives of the saints, use them to your advantage in your teaching. Show your girls that God behaves differently towards his creatures; there are those who must obey him when inspired by faith, and their are those who must always submit to His ministers. [pp.310-11]
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[This 1899 translation by Katharine Prescott Wormeley of letters by French women in Louis XIV's court includes 25 of Maintenon's letters about Saint-Cyr, written between 1685 and 1715; 13 talks given to faculty and students between 1695 and 1710; and 15 "miscellaneous" letters of 1706-1715. Some of these can be found in Conley or Welch (above), but others seem not to be available elsewhere in English. Wormeley also translates an essay on Maintenon by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869), which includes passages of yet other letters:]
The correspondence of Madame, Princess Palatine, mother of
the regent: of Marie-Adelaide de Savoie, duchesse de Bourgogne;
and of Madame de Maintenon, in relation to Saint-Cyr / Preceded
by introductions from C.A. Sainte-Beuve. Selected and tr. by
Katharine Prescott Wormeley (The Cour de France ed.). Boston:
Hardy, Pratt & company, 1902 [c1899]. (326 p.: ill.)
LC#:DC130.07 .A54x 1902
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"The day after my death...."
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[From a 1693 letter scolding her 9-year-old namesake, her brother's daughter and a student at St-Cyr. Five years later, Maintenon would in fact arrange a "good" marriage: the young Francoise would eventually become the Duchess of Noailles:]
You take a tone of authority which will never be becoming in you, happen what may. You think yourself a person of importance because you are fed and lodged in a house where the king comes daily; but the day after my death neither the king nor all those who caress you now will look at you. If that should happen before you are married, you will have a very poor country gentleman for a husband because you are not rich; and if during my life you should marry a greater seigneur, he would only consider you, after my death, as long as your humour was agreeable to him; you would be valued for your gentleness, and of that you have none. [pp.250-51]
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[In 1701 the Princess des Ursins, a French widow of an Italian duke, accompanied Marie-Louise of Savoy to Spain when Marie-Louise was to become the bride of Philip V. Ursins remained in Spain as chief attendant to the queen and soon became an advisor to Philip as well. Maintenon had known Ursins since the 1660s and in 1705 the two women began a correspondence that would continue until Maintenon's death. The first half of this 3-volume 1827 collection, gives translations of Maintenon's letters (the second half gives Ursins'):]
Maintenon, Madame de, 1635-1719. The secret correspondence
of Madame de Maintenon, with the Princess des Ursins; from the
original manuscripts in the possession of the Duke de Choiseul.
Tr. from the French. London, G. B. Whittaker, 1827. (3 v. front.)
LC#: DC130.M2 A25
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"You will take my place with the King."
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[By 1706 the "War of the Spanish Succession" was
going badly for France (in that year 20,000 Frenchmen had died
in a single battle). Rumor at court said that Philip and Marie-Louise
would be forced to leave Spain and come to France. In August
Maintenon reports to Ursins on the latest court gossip:]
[I]t is said, Madam, that my simplicity is such as not to see that your design is to bring the King and Queen of Spain back to France, where you will take my place with the King, either by embroiling me at court, poisoning me, or waiting for my death, which cannot be very far distant. This is what is called, having views! [Vol. I: p. 28]
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"There is nothing, Madam, but patience for all this."
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[Later that year, Ursins complained of being criticized by the Spanish nobility because of her influence over Philip and Marie-Louise. Maintenon reminds her that she herself is undergoing the same thing. France was on the verge of bankruptcy, and Maintenon's influence was being blamed for the sufferings of the poor:]
The French are volatile; they have always murmured when affairs went on well, no wonder therefore at their doing so when they are unfavorable. As to myself, I often receive anonymous letters, in which I am abused for all the evils I bring on the state. They ask me what I can want, on the eve of my death, with the money I am amassing! There is nothing, Madam, but patience for all this. [p.64]
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"I would wish in private to tell them the severest truths."
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[In 1708 Louis had appointed an over-confident general who had caused disastrous losses in Flanders; Maintenon had opposed the appointment --- but not publicly. In October she explains why:]
What I feel with respect to the great is very different to what is generally practiced: I would wish in private to tell them the severest truths, as well upon public affairs, as upon their own conduct, but to uphold both in public, to my last breath. [p.196]
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"Our King was too glorious."
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[Two months later, the generals in Flanders had been recalled. It had become evident that peace could not be achieved without some reduction in French power. Maintenon saw in this the hand of God:]
You are right in saying that we ought to behold the hand of Providence in all this: our King was too glorious; God wishes to humble in order to save him; France had aggrandized herself too much, perhaps unjustly; He wishes to confine her within narrower limits, and which will be, no doubt, more substantial. Our nation was insolent and dissolute; it has pleased the Almighty to punish and abase it. [p.213]
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"Nothing... but peace will do for us."
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[In September 1709 the Duke of Savoy was besieging Toulon. Peace talks were underway at the Hague, but battles were continuing and famine was widespread in France. Ursins wanted the war to continue until the Spanish throne was safe; Maintenon's concern was with France:]
The hopes of peace with the Duke of Savoy are very slight, and it is but little calculated on here; nothing, however, but peace will do for us; the famine increases daily; ...we are almost without a sufficiency for sowing, and if this misfortune happens, famine may perpetuate itself for several years. God declares himself so visibly, that it would be resisting him not to wish for peace, and you know better than I can, that the safety of the people is the first duty of the King. [pp.265-66]
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"They do not like it here that women should talk of public
affairs."
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[Two months later, Ursins was repeatedly begging for military support for Spain. Maintenon (surely reflecting Louis' wishes) began to detach herself from Ursins, using the old argument:]
I dare not risk showing your letters; they do not like it here that women should talk of public affairs, and if I cannot serve you as much as I could wish, I must at least endeavour not to render you a disservice. [p.278]
[And two months after that:]
...[A]s I have already said, the people here cannot bear that women should meddle with public affairs, and no zeal or attachment can justify them.... [p.279-80]
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"My influence diminishes daily."
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[Louis' son and heir died in 1711, his son and eldest grandson in early 1712. With his only heir now an infant great-grandson, Louis had to secure an honorable peace through his public advisors. Maintenon, his private advisor, saw herself increasingly excluded (or at least this is what she told the still insistent Ursins in March of 1712):]
I conjure you to look upon me as a woman incapable of managing public affairs, and who has heard them talked of too late in life, to possess any talents in such matters,---but, above all, one who hates them still more on account of her ignorance. I am not regularly consulted, and can assure you that my influence diminishes daily. I am now seventy-five years old, and it appears to me that I have only to prepare for death. [p.371]
[And again a few weeks later:]
I...live at Saint Cyr more than ever, in order to conceal myself from the world; but though here, those who are most afflicted join me, and the day passes in weeping; it is, however, highly necessary to betray less grief before the King, for the sake of his health.... [p.373]
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"I have interfered too much."
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[At the end of the war, Louis turned his attention to those ecclesiastical matters that he saw as affecting his power within France. In 1714 Maintenon reflects on her earlier support of those whom Louis now opposed: Francois Fenelon, believed to be pro-Quietist; and Louis-Antoine Noailles, the Archbishop of Paris, believed to be too tolerant of Jansenists:]
It is true that I do not like to meddle in affairs, that I am naturally timid; but it is also true, that I have interfered too much with them; it is I who have brought forward the Abbe de Fenelon, upon the sole reputation of his merit; what displeasure has that not cost me! It is I who ardently desired the See of Paris; what a dreadful business we have now against a prelate, who, though irreproachable in his morals, tolerates the most dangerous party which could rise up in the church; who renders his family miserable, and sensibly afflicts the King at a time when his preservation is so necessary! These facts increase my natural timidity.
I know that God will judge my intentions, and that they were good, but the evil that one suffers from them is not less great. [Vol. II: pp.43-44]
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"As to society, one cannot have any."
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[At Louis' death in 1715, Maintenon went to live permanently at Saint-Cyr. In September, she wrote to Ursins:]
I have seen the King die like a saint and a hero. I have quitted a world which I did not like, and am in the most tranquil retreat I could desire. [pp.107-108]
[Maintenon's last letter to Ursins at the end of the year suggests that she found Saint-Cyr tranquil enough, but perhaps also a bit boring:]
...[M]y retreat is peaceable and very complete. As to society,
one cannot have any with persons who are strangers to what I
have seen, and who have been brought up in this house, whose
regulations alone they are acquainted with. [p.108]
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[Haldane's biography and Conley's introduction to his translations are the best places to start to find critical views on Maintenon (see above, under "In print"), but for a broader historical background, Ian Dunlop's study of Louis XIV is useful. Dunlop has a chapter on Maintenon and discusses her influence throughout the second half of the book, frequently quoting from letters not elsewhere available in English. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Dunlop, Ian. Louis XIV. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000.
(xxi, 487 p., [24] p. of plates: ill., ports.)
LC#: DC129 .D865 2000; ISBN: 0312261969
Includes bibliographical references (p. 471-[475]) and index
--------------------
[Benedetta Craveri's 2001 Italian study (translated by Teresa
Waugh) includes a chapter, "Madame de Maintenon and Ninon
de Lenclos: The Importance of Reputation" which contrasts
the lives of the two women, who became friends when Francoise
d'Aubigne married Paul Scarron in 1652. Craveri discusses Maintenon's
life and gives brief passages from her letters and the works
written at Saint-Cyr. The bibliographical note at the end (no
superscript leads you to it) identifies the French-language biographies
and studies of Maintenon. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Craveri, Benedetta. The age of conversation; translated by
Teresa Waugh. New York: New York Review Books: Distributed to
the trade by Publishers Group West, 2005. (xv, 488 p., [16] p.
of plates: ill.)
LC#: DC121.7 .C73 2005; ISBN: 1590171411
Includes bibliographical references (p. 377-446) and index
---------------------
[This collection includes Marcelle Maistre Welch's essay,
"Madame de Maintenon's Resigned Strategy," which compares
the woman described in the Memoires of the Duc de Saint-Simon
with the one revealed in Maintenon's own writing, and explains
the inevitable differences in the two writers' view of the world.
Welch gives her translation and the original of all passages
from Maintenon. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Women writers in pre-revolutionary France: strategies of emancipation
/ edited by Colette H. Winn, Donna Kuizenga (Garland reference
library of the humanities; v.1990. Women writers of the world;
v.2). New York: Garland Pub., 1997. (xxx, 454 p.)
LC#: PQ149 .W64 1997; ISBN: 0815323670
Includes bibliographical references (p. 415-441) and index
----------------------
[Barbara Bray has translated Francoise Chandernagor's 1981 novel, L'Allee du Roi: Souvenirs de Francoise d'Aubigne, marquise de Maintenon, epouse du Roi de France. Although fiction (told in the first person), it is fully researched, and a section entitled "Sources" describes what in each chapter can and cannot be documented, and notes at the end are helpful (although no superscripts lead you to these). The book provides a useful introduction to Maintenon's life and times:]
Chandernagor, Francoise. The king's way: recollections of
Françoise d'Aubigne, Marquise de Maintenon, wife to the
King of France: a novel; translated by Barbara Bray. San Diego:
Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1984. (497 p.)
LC#: PQ2663.H314 A7913 1984; ISBN: 0151472742, 0140076999
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Updated 07-17-08