Louise Françoise de la Vallière (August 6, 1644 – 1710), was mistress to Louis XIV of France from 1661 to 1667. August 6 is the 218th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (219th in leap years), with 147 days remaining. ... Events February to August - Explorer Abel Tasmans second expedition for the Dutch East India Company maps the north coast of Australia. ... Events April 10 - The worlds first copyright legislation became effective, Britains Statute of Anne Ongoing events Great Northern War (1700-1721) War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) Births January 4 - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer (d. ... Louis XIV King of France and Navarre By Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701) Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638–September 1, 1715) reigned as King of France and King of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death. ...

Louise was born at Tours, the daughter of an officer, Laurent de la Baume le Blanc, who took the name of La Vallière from a small property near Amboise. Laurent de la Vallière died in 1651; his widow soon married again, and joined the court of Gaston d'Orléans at Blois. Louise was brought up with the younger princesses, the step-sisters of "La Grande Mademoiselle". After Gaston's death his widow moved with her daughters to the palace of the Luxembourg in Paris, and with them went Louise, aged sixteen. Through the influence of a distant kinswoman Mme de Choisy, she was named maid of honor to Henrietta, sister of King Charles II of England, who was about her own age and had just married Philippe I of Orléans, the King's brother. Henrietta joined the court at Fontainebleau in 1661, and was soon on friendly terms with her brother-in-law, resulting in some scandal. To avoid this, it was decided that Louis should pay court elsewhere, and Louise was selected. She had only been at Fontainebleau for two months before she became the king's mistress. The affair, begun as a blind, quickly developed into real passion on both sides. It was Louise's first serious attachment and she was an innocent, religious-minded girl who brought neither coquetry nor self-interest to their secret relationship. Nicolas Fouquet's curiosity in the matter was one of the causes of his disgrace. Location within France Tours is a city in France, the préfecture (capital city) of the Indre-et-Loire département, on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. ... Amboise viewed from the Château dAmboise Amboise is a medieval town and a commune of France, in the Indre_et_Loire département, on the banks of the Loire River, 14 miles east of Tours. ... Blois is a city in France, the préfecture (capital) city of the Loir_et_Cher département, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours. ... Henrietta Anne Stuart (June 16, 1644 - June 30, 1670) was the youngest daughter of King Charles I of England and Queen Henrietta Maria of France. ... Charles II King of England, Scotland and Ireland Charles II (29 May 1630–6 February 1685) was the King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 30 January 1649 (de jure) or 29 May 1660 (de facto) until his death. ... ... Fontainebleau is a city and commune about 50 km south of Paris, France. ... Nicolas Fouquet (1615 — March 23, 1680) was viscount of Melun and of Vaux, marquis of Belle-Isle, superintendent of finance in France under Louis XIV. Born in Paris, he belonged to an influential family of the noblesse de robe, and after some preliminary schooling with the Jesuits, at the age...

In February 1662 there was a storm when Louise refused to tell her lover about the affair between Madame (Henrietta) and the comte de Guiche. She fled to an obscure convent at Chaillot, where Louis rapidly followed her. Her enemies, chief of whom was Olympe Mancini, comtesse de Soissons, Mazarin's niece, sought her downfall by bringing her liaison to the ears of Queen Marie-Thérèse. She was removed from the service of Madame, and established in a small building in the Palais Royal, where in December 1663 she gave birth to a son, Charles, who was given in charge to two faithful servants of Colbert. Concealment was practically abandoned after her return to court, and within a week of Anne of Austria's death in January 1666, La Vallière appeared at mass side by side with Marie-Thérèse. But her favor was already waning. She had given birth to a second child in January 1665, but both children were dead before the autumn of 1666. A daughter born at Vincennes in October 1666, who received the name of Marie Anne and was known as Mlle de Blois, was publicly recognized by Louis as his daughter in letters-patent making Louise a duchess in May 1667 and conferring on her the estate of Vaujours. In October of that year she bore a son, but by this time her place in Louis's affections had been usurped by Madame de Montespan, her long-standing rival. She was compelled to remain at court as the king's official mistress, and even to share Mme de Montespan's apartments at the Tuileries. She tired to leave in 1671, fleeing to the convent of Ste Marie de Chaillot, only to be compelled to return. In 1674 she was finally permitted to enter the Carmelite convent in the Rue d'Enfer under the name of Sister Louise of the Misericord. She took the final vows a year later. She died in 1710 in Paris. Anne of Austria Anne of Austria (September 22, 1601 _ January 20, 1666) was Queen Consort of France and Regent for her son, Louis XIV of France. ... Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Mme de Montespan Françoise-Athénaïs of Rochechouart, marquise of Montespan (October 5, 1641 - May 27, 1707) was a mistress of Louis XIV. Born at the chateau of Tonnay-Charente, in todays Charente-Maritime, France, the daughter of Gabriel de... Up to 1871 the Tuileries Palace was a palace in Paris, France, on the right bank of the River Seine. ...

Her daughter married Armand de Bourbon, prince of Conti, in 1680. The count of Vermandois, her youngest child, died on his first campaign at Courtrai in 1683.

La Vallière's Reflexions sur la miséricorde de Dieu, written after her retreat, were printed by Lequeux in 1767, and in 1860 Réflexions, lettres et sermons, by M. P. Clement (2 vols.). Some apocryphal Memoires appeared in 1829, and the Lettres de Mme la duchesse de la Vallière (1767) are a corrupt version of her correspondence with the maréchal de Bellefonds.

The term lavalliere, the name for a jewelled pendant necklace, comes from her name.

Her life was the basis for a character in Alexandre Dumas's novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne. Alexandre Dumas, père, born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (July 24, 1802 – December 5, 1870), is best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure which have made him the most widely read French author in the world. ... The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later (Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ou Dix ans plus tard) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. ...

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica ( 1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...