A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Montespan, (Madame de)
Her maiden name was Athenais de Mortimar, and herself, two sisters, and a brother the duke of Vivonne, a marshal of France, were universally agreeable for a turn of conversation, a mixture of pleasantry, ease, and elegance, so peculiar, that it was customary to call it the spirit of the Mortimars. This lady, by her wit and beauty gained the ascendant over that monarch, in the year 1669; not, however, without the highest indignation of the marquis her husband, who not content with reproaching, could not forbear striking her; and this even in the very palace, where her outcries raised such an alarm, that they were instantly surrounded with persons of the first quality, among whom was the queen. The king, incensed at this behaviour, forbade the marquis to appear at court; and afterwards banished him to his own estate; and thus was obliged to declare almost publicly, the passion he had hitherto been very desirous to conceal. Montespan found in the Pyrenean mountains few friends, but many creditors; and at length his resentment subsided, and he condescended to receive recompences from the court for his honour; a hundred thousand crowns purchased his silence. The king, however, could not help secretly condemning himself for his passion for a married woman: 'Henry IV,' he often said, 'attempted the honour of a princess, whose husband might have defended her with his sword; but mine is an easy conquest over one, whom I can annihilate by a single glance.'
Madame de Montespan, being thus rid of her husband, and relying on her charms, as well as her children, for the continuance of the king's affection, began to shew her power and ascendency in public affairs. She accompanied the king to Flanders in the year 1670, when the ruin of the Dutch was consulted in the midst of pleasure. In the mean time, she endeavoured to reconcile imperious vice with humble piety; and formed a set of morals herself, too loose for a christian, too severe for a mistress. She condescended even to work for the poor; and persuaded herself, that frequent alms, and external acts of devotion, must necessarily entitle her to the pardon of all her sins. And presumed to receive the holy sacrament. One day she endeavoured to obtain absolution from a curate, in a country village, who had been recommended to her on account of his flexibility. "What!" said this man of God, "are you that marchioness of Montespan, whose crimes are an offence to the whole kingdom? Good madam, renounce your wicked habits, and then come to this awful tribunal." She instantly complained to the king of the insult she had received, and demanded justice on the confessor. The king was not sure that his power extended so far, and therefore consulted Bossuet, preceptor to the dauphin, the bishop of Condom, and the duke de Montausiar, his governor. The bishop and minister both supported the curate, and took this occasion to try if they could detach the king from this lady. The contest was for some time doubtful; but she at last prevailed.
This happened in the year 1673; but in 1675 she retired from court, and, though not long absent, yet was not able, by all the methods her invention could suggest, to recover the king's affections, who was now wholly devoted to madame de Maintenon. She however came back to court, where she had an important employment, namely, the superintendance of the queen's houshold; and still preserved some interest with the king, by her children, by habit, and long established interest. Friendship and respect continued to be shewn her; she had no professed rival; yet she found herself treated with great coldness and indifference, and while Madame de Maintenon was increasing and de Montespan declining in the royal favour, they saw each other every day; sometimes with a secret bitterness, at other times with a transient confidence, which the necessity of speaking, and the weariness of constraint, rendered unavoidable. They agreed each of them to write memoirs of all that passed at court; but the work was not carried to any great length. Madame de Montespan, in the last years of her life, used to divert herself and her friends, by reading some passages out of these memoirs. In the mean time, devotion, which mingled itself with all these intriguer, confirmed Madame de Maintenon in favour, and removed her to an absolute distance. This lasted till 1685, when Madame de Mantes, the king's daughter by Madame de Montespan, married the grandson of the great Condé. After this, the king married two other children he had by her, Madame de Blois, to the duke de Chartres, and Louisa-Benedicta to the duke de Maine. Madame de Montespan, after marriage of her daughters, appeared no more at court, but lived in great splendor at Paris. She had a large revenue, though only for life. The king payed her 1000 louis d'ors a month. Every year she went to drink the waters of Bourbon, where she married the girls about the place, and gave them portions. Though no longer at court, she still practised the vices she had been used to, luxury, caprice, distrust, and ambition. La Bruyere painted her, in his Characters, as still adorning her beauty, contemplating with pleasure its precious remains, and at 60 years of age, asking her physicians, 'Why those wrinkles in her face, that stomach so weak, that peevishness of temper, and perpetual lassitude?' She died at Bourbon, in the year 1717. She is said to have written letters equal to those of Madame de Sevigné.