Welcome to Royal Romance Week Day Two here at White Rose of Avalon my Darlings.   This post is also this week’s Femme Fatale Friday, so keeping with the Femme Fatale Friday theme as well as the Royal Romance theme, I have chosen to write about Athenais de Montespan, who was nicknamed ‘The Real Queen of France’ during her long love affair with Louis XIV.   She fits well into the Femme Fatale Friday mold, due to her supposed involvement in what is known as ‘The Affair of the Poisons’!

I thought that going back to a mistress of Louis XIV would be a good way to follow up on yesterday’s post about Louis XV and Madame Du Barry!   I find Athenais de Montespan to be the most interesting lover of Louis XIV, in part because of how much power she held compared to Louis XIV’s other mistresses  (Louis XIV was an absolute Monarch who did not share power with his mistresses), the nickname bestowed upon her, as well as because she was such a long-term mistress and bore him several children.   She was already a noblewoman who was married and living near the court, which allowed her to be able to eventually become seen by Louis XIV when she attended the Court!

Athenais became the favored mistress when the King tired of his much more pious mistress Louise de La Vallière, as Athenais was much more worldly, sexy, and fun-loving.   She was interested in much of the same revels as the King, loving pageantry, ballet, costuming, and balls!   She became the ideal cohort in all of the fantastic fun at the Court of Versailles.   Athenais even famously was always up for traveling as the King desired.   Louis XIV had no patience for people who could not handle long and arduous carriage rides that he was able to endure easily.   In fact, there are stories of Athenais holding her own on these rides even while pregnant with Louis XIV’s children!   The fact that she could keep up with all of his exploits raised her high above other Courtiers in the eyes of her Kingly lover.   Athenais would go on to give the King a total of seven children during her reign as his Maîtresse-en-titre, a term given to the official mistress of a King of France!   In fact, three of their children would later be legitimized and given the surname de Bourbon, showing how important Athenais had been during her relationship with Louis XIV.

Now, as is to be expected, Athenais did grow older and the King did find himself other lovers over the years.    It was towards the end of their long love affair that the event known as ‘The Affair of the Poisons’ took place.   You see, after realizing that she was losing the love and affection of the King, Athenais decided to take action to try and keep her place at Court.   Athenais de Montespan visited Catherine Monvoisin, known as La Voisin, who was known to use magick, in order to obtain a love potion, as she was hoping that the love potion would reignite Louis XIV’s passion for her.   This love potion, or love spell is often said to have been worked in a very dark way.   It was believed that the two women sacrificed a newborn to use the baby’s blood to create a potion to be slipped into the King’s food.   This is a horrifying claim and one which there is no historical evidence to prove, but I had to mention here to give a full picture of what was being claimed.   

Now, as for the famed ‘Affair of the Poisons’ itself, this took place between 1677 and 1682, and several royals and nobles were accused of poisoning and witchcraft.   A total of 36 people would end up being executed for their perceived crimes!   Athenais de Montespan’s close ties to the King saved her from ever being tried, but the connection to ‘the Affair of the Poisons’ would damage her reputation forever more.   It must be noted, that although it is believed she obtained a love potion, as I have described, she was also accused of obtaining a poison that was used to kill a woman to whom the King’s eye had strayed, Duchess of Fontanges.   Historians now believe that the Duchess died of natural causes, and any implication of Athenais de Montespan in her death, and the whole ‘Affair of the Poisons’ has never been proven.   But the fact that the Court believed her capable of killing a rival shows that Athenais de Montespan was truly seen as a true Femme Fatale!

In the end, Athenais lived out her latter years as a former mistress and mother to several of the King’s children in a convent, as she was no longer in royal favor.   Their love affair did not end when death parted them, instead ending as Louis XIV moved on to other lovers, but even with the connection to famed scandals, she is still remembered as one of the most beautiful and beguiling mistresses of Le Roi Soleil, the great Sun King, Louis XIV!   I hope you have enjoyed learning a bit about the love story of Athenais de Montespan and Louis XIV.   Who is your favorite lover of Louis XIV?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!   

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a painting of Athenais.   I found the image on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Françoise-Athénaïs_de_Rochechouart,_Marquise_de_Montespan#/media/File:La_marquise_de_Montespan.png.

Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services!    I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon!  Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/

Further Reading

• Athenais by Lisa Hilton