Françoise-Louise de Warens, born Louise Éléonore de la Tour du Pil, also called Madame de Warens, was the benefactress and mistress of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Background
Warens was born in Vevey, into a Swiss Protestant family who had immigrated to Annecy, but became a Roman Catholic in 1726 in order to receive a church pension which had been instated to increase the spread of Roman Catholicism near Geneva, then a bastion of Protestantism.
Career
A controversial figure, she was known to have lead a liberal life for a woman of her time. Rousseau met her for the first time on Palm Sunday 1728. lieutenant was said that she was a spy and a converter for Savoy, then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Rousseau describes his relationship with her in his Confessions.