Louis XIV fell in love at the age of twenty three, but not with the future queen. He fell in love with the niece of Cardinal Mazarin, Marie Mancini. Louis wanted to marry her, but his mother, Queen Anne, condemned the match as unsuitable. Instead he married his first cousin, Marie Thérèse, daughter of King Philip IV of Spain. Louis was not happy with the match. Marie Thérèse was young, had clear white skin and hair so fair it seemed to be white, but she was distressingly stocky, and not good-looking. Her clothing and hair style were old-fashioned and unattractive. She looked as though she smelled of mothballs. She spoke French with a heavy Spanish accent; she ate a great deal of garlic and chocolate flavored with cloves, which made her teeth black. She was not a conversationalist and had no wit. She was more comfortable in the company of nuns than in the company of French courtiers. She was very fond of her spoiled pet dogs and delighted in playing with them and with the dwarfs who were found in her apartments at Fontainebleau.

Although, Louis XIV found Marie boring, he was polite and treated her with all the respect due her rank. Louis was enjoying life as king. He entertained himself with the building of Versailles and the overseeing of the gardens, especially the planting of his favorite orange trees. The queen did not share his enthusiasm for creating the splendor of Versailles. She spent little time in her beautiful apartments at Versailles.

Queen Marie was discreet and had no political ambition; she sought only to preserve her dignity and fulfill her duties. The queen was accepted by Louis, and he was fond of her in his own way. In 1661, Queen Marie bore him a son, Louis Le Grand Dauphin, later called Monseigneur. Louis had affairs during this time, but kept them as discreet as possible, because of his mother, whom he deeply respected. His mother was very religious and condemned Louis’ mistresses. The queen also objected to his affairs. He ignored her protests, knowing in his heart that she still adored him. Queen Marie and Louis XIV had six children, but only Louis Le Grand Dauphin lived to adulthood. The queen had little reason to fear the king’s earlier mistresses, but his later mistresses would hold more power.

The Marquise de Montespan became the mistress of Louis XIV in 1667. One contemporary stated: "She was the most ravishing, the most wise, the most charming of all ladies of the Court;" and Duke of Enghien of the Court said, "No one could have more wit or beauty than she." Mme. de Montespan was appointed lady-in-waiting to the queen. The fact that Mme. de Montespan was a married woman and Louis’ mistress upset the queen mother, Queen Marie, and the Court. Louis ignored them all, as well as the outraged husband of Mme. de Montespan.

Louis XIV had Mme. de Montespan consult with his ministers. She was presented expensive gifts from foreign envoys because of her influence over Louis’ decisions. Louis showered her with the most valuable of gifts. Unlike other mistresses, she did not ask for many profitable positions for friends or family, probably because she did not have anyone special to gratify. She was arrogant; the queen despised her. Yet when Mme. de Montespan changed her hair color from dark to fair and selected a new hair-style, the queen and other lovers of the king copied the style. The king denied Mme. de Montespan nothing. Mme. de Montespan’s extravagance was enormous; she loved to gamble for enormous stakes, and once even lost the equivalent of $100,000 in the course of one day.

In order to spend more time with her, the king had a little chateau, an elaborate summerhouse, built in a remote part of the grounds of Versailles. The chateau was named Trianon de Porcelaine. The chateau became a showplace, and soon Mme. de Montespan and the king could not use it for a hide-a-way. She wanted a chateau to rival Versailles itself. The king had the Chateau de Clagny built by Mansart. Mme. de Montespan traveled several times a week to supervise some twelve hundred workers. She demanded that the gardens surpass the beauty of the Trianon de Porcelaine.

During her reign as mistress, Mme. de Montespan gave birth to four royal bastards for Louis. Mme. de Montespan entrusted these children to the care of Mme. Scarron, who became their governess. Mme. Scarron was very bright and taught these children so well that the eldest boy, the Duke of Maine, was better educated and more pleasant to be around than the legitimate dauphin. The king was so impressed with her work with the children that he generously rewarded Mme. Scarron with a chateau between Rambouillet and Chartres. The chateau was named Maintenon, so Mme. Scarron became the Marquise de Maintenon. The king became enamored with de Maintenon in 1674. In 1675, the King’s attention to Mme. de Montespan waned, some said because of the warnings from Mme. de Maintenon about his unvirtuous life. Mme. de Montespan was given a new title to appease her, Intendant of the Queen’s Household. Louis continued his affair with de Maintenon until the death of Queen Marie in 1683. Louis felt little sadness over the death of Queen Marie. He cared for her in his own way, but felt no love for her. Upon the queen’s death, Louis exclaimed: "Behold the first time she has ever done anything to vex me!" That same year Louis secretly married de Maintenon. She had great political influence. Her piety and austerity changed the fun-loving atmosphere of the Court to one of gloom. Many of the Court despised her because of her power over the king. Mme. de Maintenon became the King’s conscience, influencing all the King’s decisions, because of his feeling of guilt from past sins.

In 1686, she used her influence with Louis to open a college for the education of impoverished young women of the nobility, at Saint-Cyr, in 1686. Mme. de Maintenon loved teaching. She compiled lesson plans, proverbs and maxims on various points of conduct, moral virtues, and religion in order to instruct the young women who would teach. She withdrew to this college upon the death of Louis XIV in 1715.

In his will, Louis XIV had tried to rob the regent of all authority and to place the royal bastards of Mme. de Montespan in effective control over the kingdom during the years of the boy king, Louis XV. France, however, would not be ruled from the grave of the Sun King.

By the age of fifteen, King Louis XV was considered ready for marriage. Louis’ impatience in waiting five years for his chosen Spanish princess led him to marry Maria Leszczynska, daughter of Stanislas, the dethroned King of Poland. This penniless daughter of a Polish nobleman, seven years older than the king, was described as lively, natural and cultivated, sweet natured, charitable, adored by domestics, entirely devoid of pride, and pious without bigotry. Louis’ choice for a bride was frowned upon by many at the court, but she was healthy, and expected to be quite fertile, and thus able to give Louis an heir.

Queen Maria could never be the friend and companion that Louis craved, but she fulfilled his expectations by presenting him with ten children in as many years. Maria only had one son who survived to adulthood. The queen and her son, the Dauphin Louis (b. 1729, d. 1765), had a close and loving relationship. Queen Maria had little influence on the king, and so had no real power in political affairs. As queen, she also took little interest in the continual construction of Versailles. Only her bed chamber has retained the paintings and decor of paneling carved la moderne, which was designed for her.

Louis XV liked to regard himself as a family man, and there is general agreement that he felt a mild affection for his daughters, though not for his wife or son. Because Louis became bored with Queen Maria after seven years of marriage, he took his first mistress. Maria’s amateur efforts as a painter and musician failed to arouse the King’s interest, and the serious literature she enjoyed meant nothing to a man who cared nothing for books. The king sought a bright and resourceful woman with whom to feel at ease; a succession of mistresses had to be tolerated by the queen.

Louis XV first met Mme. de Pompadour at a grand ball held at Versailles to celebrate the marriage of the Dauphin to the daughter of the King of Spain in 1745. Mme. de Pompadour was schooled in the ways and manners of the court. She learned her lessons well. When Mme. de Pompadour appeared before the queen, she showed respect by kissing the hem of the queen’s skirt. Mme. de Pompadour and the queen had the best relationship of all of Louis’ mistresses. Mme. de Pompadour was accepted at court and immediately began to exercise control over it. Her influence on King Louis lasted almost twenty years.

This witty, pretty, and urbane young woman remained the king’s confidante, a prime minister in petticoats, as she was called by those who deplored her influence. She corresponded with the generals in the field and influenced the king in matters of the state. She also influenced the king in the new construction at Versailles.

Mme. de Pompadour was a discerning patron of the arts and letters of her time. She influenced, and encouraged Louis XV to create his own style of furniture. Mme. de Pompadour shared Louis’ passion for building. When the Petits Cabinets at Versailles were finished, work began on the complete remodeling of the rooms to be known as the Petits Appartements. The King’s and Mme. de Pompadour’s favorite creation was the new country house in the gardens at Trianon.

During the period of Mme. de Pompadour’s influence on King Louis XV, she befriended some of the critics of society, including Diderot and Voltaire. The single most important publication during this time was Diderot’s monumental L’Encyclopedie, a compendium of Enlightenment thought. Because of its attention to abuses by the clergy and officialdom, it was banned. Nevertheless Mme. de Pompadour kept a forbidden copy, and when the king sought information, whether on the formula for gunpowder or that of lip rouge, the work was brought to him. The king would find what he was looking for and regret the suppression of the publication.

Mme. de Pompadour supported Diderot, Voltaire, and others associated with L’Encyclopedie against the reactionary enemies of the court. Voltaire who earlier had twice been imprisoned in the Bastille, owed his election to the French Academy to Mme. de Pompadour’s protection, but she could not transform the king into a enlightened despot.

After seven years of love, Mme. de Pompadour was no longer the King’s mistress, but she was given the honor of moving her apartments to the bottom floor of the palace, a right reserved for legitimate princes. She became a duchess in 1756 and a lady-in-waiting to the queen. Mme. de Pompadour continued to influence the King. The king retained a happy relationship with her until her death in 1764. They had an unshakable friendship, and as she was dying, Louis remained at her bedside for hours. He was overwhelmed with grief at the thought of losing her. On the evening of her funeral--which court etiquette forbade the king to attend--he walked out of the Cabinet in time and onto the balcony overlooking the Place d’ Armes and stood in pouring rain watching her cort#232p;ge. When he came back into the room, tears falling down his cheeks, the king murmured to his valet, "That was the only tribute I am able to pay her."

After the death of Mme. de Pompadour, the Dauphin died the next year in 1765. Louis XV paid little attention to the queen. Queen Maria began her life in poverty and ended it in sorrow. The crushing blow of her father’s death, the death of her beloved friend, Duchess of Luynes, and her inability to help the Jesuits all added to her woes. Six of her ten children predeceased her. When the Dauphin, her favorite, passed away in the prime of his life, she wrote, "I am and always shall be sad. My only consolation is to reflect that those I mourn would not wish to return to this vale of tears. It is no fun being queen." Though the king mellowed a little in her closing days, she was glad to die in 1768 at the age of sixty-five.

Louis XV, at the age of sixty, fell in love with Mme. Du Barry (b. 1743, d. 1793). Mme. Du Barry was twenty-two and considered by everyone a beauty. Because of her unpopularity with the French people, Mme. Du Barry was credited with the decline of the crown. At this time the Duke of Croy was known to have said: "A king who is bored, who in the course of duty hears only of the miseries of others, who is in love with a young woman who suffers him only for her own greater advantage, is to be pitied."

Mme. Du Barry did have an influence over Louis XV that no other woman had before. She could persuade him to reconsider the punishment of a condemned criminal. Mme. Du Barry had a genuine kindness toward those she felt were treated unjustly. She helped a young girl in a case of infanticide. The girl was to be put to death, but Mme. Du Barry had the sentence commuted to a lesser sentence.

Louis was never as happy with Mme. Du Barry as he had been with Mme. de Pompadour. The king did spend time with Mme. Du Barry at the Petit Trianon, however, Louis XV loved the Petit Trianon and wished to die there. In 1774, the king contracted smallpox, and was moved back to Versailles, the proper place for him to die. Upon the king’s death, Mme. Du Barry and her belongings were taken to Louveciennes, a small 16th century chateau.