DESHOULIERES, ANTOINETTE DU LIGIER DE LA GARDE (1638-1694), French poetess, was born in Paris on Jan. I, 1638. At the age of 13 she married Guillaume de Boisguerin, seigneur Deshoulieres, who followed the prince of Conde to the wars. Madame Deshoulieres returned for a time to the house of her parents, where she wrote poetry and studied the philosophy of Gassendi. She rejoined her husband at Rocroi, near Brussels, and was imprisoned in the château of Wilworden because of her insistence that her husband's arrears of pay should be met. After a few months she was freed by her husband, who attacked the château at the head of a small band of soldiers. They were amnestied, and returned to France, where Madame Des houlieres soon became a conspicuous personage at the court of Louis XIV. and in literary society, some of her more zealous flatterers even going so far as to style her the tenth muse and the French Calliope. Voltaire pronounced her the best of French poetesses, and she was elected a member of the Academy of the Ricovrati of Padua and of the Academy of Arles. In 1688 she was pensioned by the king. She died in Paris on Feb. 17, Complete editions of her works were published at Paris in 1747 and 1882 (edit. Lescure). These include a few poems by her daughter, Antoine Therese Deshoulieres (1656-1718), who inherited her talent.
See Portraits de femmes (1892).