Marquise of Montespan

Marquise of Montespan

Her life

Françoise de Rochechouart, Marquise of Montespan (5 October 1640 – 27 May 1707), better known as Madame de Montespan, was the most celebrated mistress of King Louis XIV of France, by whom she had seven children. She came to public notice having spent several years in fashionable Parisian salons where it quickly became clear she was an intelligent, witty and very attractive woman. She eventually gave herself the nickname Athénaïs in honour of the ancient Greek goddess Athena. As a result of this she is also referred to as "Athénaïs de Montespan". She lived at the same time as Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, the mistress of Charles II of England. Due to the marriages of her descendants she is an ancestress of several royal houses in Europe, including those of Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and Portugal. She was also responsible for the creation of the now destroyed "Trianon de Porcelaine" as well as the larger and grander Château de Clagny. The latter building has often been likened to the Palace of Versailles, just on a smaller scale. She was also called "the real queen of France" in her lifetime due to her strong influence over the king and royal court.

HER BEAUTY SECRETS

The beautiful Marquise begins her day with a glass of mule urine that she swallows on an empty stomach to have a seemingly fresh complexion all day and a bright eye.

To maintain her curves signs of good health and beauty at this time, it consumes an extremely sweet mixture of milk, flour, beans, lentils and rice.

She spends hours in front of her dressing table brushing her hair. Her hair passed into the learned hands of her hairdresser, the Sieur Champagne, the first official hairdresser for ladies. The meeting is public; Francoise invites her favorite courtiers to marvel at the elaboration of an incredible hairstyle, fragile and scaffolded with curls. The marquise is said to enhance her honeyed blondness in secret with the help of an old recipe, the Venetian recipe. This Venetian blond was obtained through decoctions of plants mixed with urine. It was not until the eighteenth century that the coloring of hair no longer appears as a secret, it is even the great hair trend of this century. These mixtures differed according to the desired color so, tartar oil was preferred for black coloring. On the other hand, for a blonde coloring, it was possible to use blends based on elbow leavens, heather roots and lilies, turmeric and broom.

Besides the hairstyle, the Marquise likes to dress up. She uses a lot of ceruse white, this highly harmful powder but also talc oil to whiten her complexion or white wax to make the brilliance of her teeth even more gloss. For the Marquise, we must not neglect the red which she has a large palette to enhance her complexion.The hunt for wrinkles was already vigorous at this time, every day, the marchioness uses a mixture against wrinkles made from beef marrow, lard and cow dung.Very shy of all the new beauty products of her time, she is an excellent client of miracle sellers. All the balms taking the time back, she owns them! The filters of youth, magic, or love end in her hands; it was this taste for the miracle remedies that caused her loss.