Note 76 — II MADAME DE MAINTENON[73]

Mme de Caylus (Marthe-Marguerite de Valois) was the daughter of the Marquis de Villette, Mme de Maintenon’s first cousin, and was thus her nièce à la mode de Bretagne. In her father’s absence in America Mme de Maintenon carried her off and made her a Catholic, and in 1686, when she was in her thirteenth year, married her to the Comte de Caylus, a confirmed drunkard. She was one of the most attractive women of her day, and her memoirs are a lively source of information for Mme de Maintenon and the Court generally. Her stepmother, the Marquise de Villette, married, as his second wife, Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke.