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.

Louise de La Vallière also held the offices or ranks of duchess and maid of honour. Louise de La Vallière belonged to the House of La Baume Le Blanc and operated within Kingdom of France. Louise de La Vallière was born in Tours and died in Paris.

Alexandre Dumas’ Louise de la Valli`ere places Louise at the centre of Louis XIV’s courtship, turning the king’s desire for her and Raoul de Bragelonne’s devotion into a conflict between royal power and private loyalty. The Vicomte de Bragelonne embeds that relationship in the wider court world through which d’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis navigate the young king’s growing authority. Antonia Fraser’s Love and Louis XIV returns to the historical Louise, examining her place among the women whose relationships with Louis shaped the emotional, religious and political culture of his court.