Madame de Montespan

Madame de Montespan was the most prominent mistress of Louis XIV during the middle years of his reign. She became a major patron and mother of several legitimised royal children, but her position declined amid court rivalry and association with the Affair of the Poisons.

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