The Secret Wife of Louis XIV

Françoise d’Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon, was born in a French prison in 1635, her father a condemned traitor and murderer, her mother the warden’s seduced daughter. Yet, armed with beauty, intellect, and shrewd judgment, she was to make her way to the center of power at Versailles, the most opulent and ambitious court in all Europe. Sparkling with irresistible wit, fine detail, and novelistic sweep, this exactingly researched biography is a pinnacle of the form.

Praise

“The Secret Wife of Louis XIV: Françoise d’Aubigné, Madame de Maintenon, by Veronica Buckley, offers a lively, sympathetic portrayal of the woman who, against all odds, succeeded in taming the royal tomcat . . . Buckley presents this idea with palpable compassion, imaginatively penetrating her subject’s inner­most thoughts to justify the historical record."—Caroline Weber, The New York Times Book Review

“Buckley finds a modern parable in the rags-to-riches story of a striving felon's daughter whose devotion won the debauched heart of an aging king.”—Vogue

 

"An extraordinary adventure."—The Economist

 

"This real-life fairy tale is told with flair and compassion . . . A well-written tribute to a woman whose ascent to power and wealth was achieved through sheer determination—and even more remarkably, without sacrificing the virtue of kindness."—Carmela Ciuraru, The Christian Science Monitor

 

"Buckley renders [Louis XIV's] court vividly, often comically, more often tragically. Dozens of indelible portraits walk these pages, one of the most comic and sad being Louis himself. It's long been a mystery how so vain and glorious a king was won over, so thoroughly, by an unassuming, aging, not especially glamorous woman. Buckley makes it all plain—and all too human."—David Walton, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

 

"Buckley . . . serves up a superior biography of a remarkable woman who, most improbably, became the Sun King's second wife . . . Buckley trains her intent gaze on seventeenth century France—from the civil and religious wars that plagued the Bourbons to lively Parisian salons—offering a graceful, vivid portrait of a woman of intelligence and dignity."—Publishers Weekly

About the Author(s)

Veronica Buckley

Veronica Buckley was born and educated in New Zealand, and later studied at the Universities of London and Oxford. Christina, Queen of Sweden, was the subject of her much-praised first biography. She lived in Paris while researching The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, and now lives in Vienna.