MAINTENON, FRANCOISE D'AUBIGNE, MARQUISE DE the second wife of Louis XIV., was born in a prison at Niort, on Nov. 27, 1635. Her father, Constant d'Aubigne, was the son of Agrippa d'Aubigne, the friend and general of Henry IV., and had been imprisoned as a Huguenot malcontent, but her mother had the child christened a Catholic. After the release of d'Aubigne the family went to Martinique. There the father died. Mother and child returned to France, where Fran coise was surrendered to a Protestant relative who is said to have converted her to Protestantism. She was removed by an order of state to Catholic guardianship, and reconverted. She and her mother were penniless, and the girl married (1657) Scarron, the famous wit, to whom she was more nurse than wife. He died in 166o. Anne of Austria continued his pension to his widow, and even increased it to 2,000 livres a year, which enabled her to entertain and frequent literary society. After Anne's death the pension was continued by the king on the intercession of his mistress, Madame de Montespan, who put her in charge of the children whom she bore to Louis.
In 1674 the king determined to have his children at court, and their governess who had now made sufficient fortune to buy the estate of Maintenon, accompanied them. In 1678 her estate at Maintenon was raised to a marquisate. Mme. de Montespan's jealousy was aroused by these favours, and Mme. de Maintenon's position was almost unendurable until Mme. de Montespan left the court. Madame de Maintenon now became the king's mistress "en titre." The queen declared she had never been so well treated as at this time, and eventually died in Mme. de Mainte non's arms in 1683. In 1684 Mme. de Maintenon was made first lady in waiting to the dauphiness, and in the winter of 1685-1686 she was privately married to the king by Harlay, archbishop of Paris, in the presence, it is believed, of Pere la Chaise, the king's confessor, the marquis de Montchevreuil, the chevalier de Forbin, and Bontemps. No written proof of the marriage is extant, but that it took place is nevertheless certain. Her life during the next 3o years can be fully studied in her letters.
Her political influence has probably been exaggerated, but it was supreme in matters of detail. The ministers of the day used to discuss and arrange all the business to be done with the king beforehand with her, and it was all done in her cabinet and in her presence, but the king in more important matters often chose not to consult her. Such mistakes as, for instance, the replacing of Catinet by Villeroi may be attributed to her, but not whole policies—notably, according to Saint-Simon, not the policy with regard to the Spanish succession. Even the revocation of the edict
of Nantes and the dragonnades have been unjustly laid to her charge. Her influence was or the whole a moderating and prudent force. Her social influence was always exercised on the side of decency and morality. Side by side with this public life, she passed a happier existence as the foundress of St. Cyr. Mme. de Maintenon was a born teacher; and she had always wished to establish a home for poor girls of good family placed in such straits as she herself had experienced. As soon as her fortunes began to mend she started a small home for poor girls at Ruel, which she afterwards moved to Noisy, and which was the nucleus of the splendid institution of St. Cyr, which the king endowed in 1686, out of the funds of the abbey of St. Denis. For her "little girls" at St. Cyr Racine wrote his Esther and his Athalie.
The later years of her power were marked by the promotion of her old pupils, the children of the king and Mme. de Monte span, to high dignity between the blood royal and the peers of the realm, and it was doubtless under the influence of her dislike for the duke of Orleans that the king drew up his will, leaving the personal care of his successor to the duke of Maine, and hampering the duke of Orleans by a council of regency, an arrangement which was overthrown by the parlement after the king's death. The regent Orleans visited her at St. Cyr and continued her pension of 48,000 livres. On April 15, 1719, she died, and was buried in the choir at St. Cyr.
Her Lettres historiques et edifiantes (7 vols.) and her Correspond ance generale (4 vols., 1888) , were edited by T. Lavallee. Saint-Simon's account of the court in her day is contained in vol. xii. of his Memoires.
See also Mademoiselle,d'Aumale's Souvenirs sur Madame de Maintenon, ed. Comte d'Haussonville and G. Hanotaux (3 vols., 1902—o4) ; A.
Geffroy, Madame de Maintenon d'apres sa correspondance authentique (Paris, 2 vols., 1887) ; A. de Boislisle, Paul Scarron et Francoise d'Aubigne d'apres des documents nouveaux (1894) ; E. Pilastre, Vie et caractere de Madame de Maintenon d'apres les oeuvres du duc de Saint-Simon et des documents anciens ou recents (1907) ; A. Rosset, Madame de Maintenon et la revocation de redit de Nantes (1897) ; Saint-Rene Taillandier, Madame de Maintenon (r920; Eng. trans. 1922).