Background
Louise de La Vallière was born at Tours on the 6th of August 1644, the daughter of an officer, Laurent de la Baume le Blanc, who took the name of La Valliere from a small property near Amboise.
Louise de La Vallière was born at Tours on the 6th of August 1644, the daughter of an officer, Laurent de la Baume le Blanc, who took the name of La Valliere from a small property near Amboise.
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, who was now a girl of sixteen.
Through the influence of a distant kinswoman, Mme de Choisy, she was named maid of honour to Henrietta of England, who was about her own age and had just married Philip of Orleans, the king's brother. Henrietta joined the court at Fontainebleau, and was soon on the friendliest terms with her brother-in-law, so friendly indeed that there was some scandal, to avoid which it was determined that Louis should pay marked attentions elsewhere
The person selected was Madame's maid of honour, Louise.
The affair, begun on Louis's part as a blind, immediately developed into real passion on both sides.
It was Louis's first serious attachment, and Louise was an innocent, religious-minded girl, who brought
Louise had five children by Louis XIV, of whom only the last two survived infancy.
