Louise de La Vallière

Louise de La Vallière was a mistress of Louis XIV who later withdrew from court life to enter a Carmelite convent. Her relationship with the young king became part of the emotional and factional politics of the early Versailles court.

Antonia Fraser’s Love and Louis XIV places Louise de La Vallière within a narrative shaped by court politics and dynastic power, family, marriage and personal loyalty, and political ambition and government.