What an interesting historical post about Louis XIV & his other wife. Could be the beginning of a genealogical dig if one was so inclined!
Marica’s Place is a lovely blog to tool around in, so check it out please!
The Secret Second Wife of Louis XIV
(Another in an occasional series by Yours Truly on “all things Louis XIV”)
Marie Therese, Queen of France, wife of Louis XIV and mother of Louis, the Dauphin, died in July, 1683 after 22 years of marriage. After the first days of mourning, the burning question quickly became, “How soon will the King marry again? And to whom?” Louis XIV, at 45 years of age in 1683, was considered to be “vigorous” enough to “create further posterity” by marrying a young (and, presumably, fertile) Catholic princess of sufficiently high “pedigree.” However, Louis XIV decided that, with his grown son and 3 grandsons, he had enough “posterity”. Instead, late one night, probably in October, 1683, he quietly married the woman with whom he had had an ongoing “relation un peu platonique” (“a somewhat platonic relationship”) for the previous several years: the Marquise de Maintenon. …
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