She was brought up at the Hôtel de Condé with her many sisters and had to endure slave-like conditions under the madness of her father[citation needed].

Her mother, who was pious and gentle, was often beaten by her father as were their staff and her sister Marie Anne, Mademoiselle de Montmorency.

"[3] Some time after her marriage, the Duchess of Orléans also said that "Madame du Maine is not taller than a child ten years old, and is not well-made.

[citation needed] Mademoiselle d'Enghien received the typical education given to girls of the nobility in France and was taught reading, writing, dancing, singing and other matters which were considered necessary for a young aristocrat.

Louis XIV arranged several marriages into princely houses of France for his legitimised children by Louise de La Vallière.

[6] The wedding ceremony took place on 19 May 1692 in the chapel of the Palace of Versailles, Madame de Montespan was not invited but all of Maine's siblings attended as well as the princes and princesses of the blood.

As both the groom and his wife were physically handicapped, members of the court joked that "look at the union of a one-armed woman and a lame man!

[c] In order to escape the dull court of Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV's secret wife since October 1683, the enthusiastic duchesse du Maine created a little court at the Château de Sceaux, where she entertained brilliantly and immersed herself in political intrigues.

Each member had a robe embroidered with silver thread, a wig in the shape of a beehive and a medal embossed with a profile of Louise Bénédicte and engraved with the letters L. BAR.

Upon the death of a childless Vendôme, Louise Bénédicte hoped that she or her children would inherit the duke's huge estate, which he had acquired as the grandson of the rich heiress, Françoise of Lorraine.

At thirty-two, Marie Anne was considered past child-bearing age, and Vendôme was a well known homosexual, thirty years older than his prospective bride.

On the duke's death, Marie Anne was created Duchess of Étampes in her own right and inherited the Hôtel de Vendôme in Paris, where she died in 1718 from alcoholism.

Mademoiselle du Maine was given the name of her paternal aunt Louise Françoise de Bourbon, known at court as Madame la Duchesse.

Upset with this and the role played by the duc d'Orléans in reducing the status of the legitimised children of Louis XIV from the rank of Princes du Sang (which Louise Bénédicte had enjoyed since birth) to mere peers of France, Louise Bénédicte induced her husband to join in the Cellamare Conspiracy in the hope of transferring the regency to King Philip V of Spain, the uncle of Louis XV.

[7] The plot was named after Antonio del Giudice, Duke of Giovinazzo, Prince of Cellamare, who was the Spanish ambassador to France.

In order to gain more support for a new regent, Louise Bénédicte started a correspondence with Giulio Alberoni, the Spanish Prime Minister.

After her release, Louise Bénédicte led a more peaceful life at Sceaux, still surrounded though by her little court of wits and poets.

The rivalry between the Maines and Charlotte Aglaé's father, the Duke of Orléans, was well known, and it was hoped that the wedding would heal old wounds.

A marriage did not occur, however, as the young Mademoiselle de Valois refused her cousin, much to the annoyance of the proud Louise Bénédicte.

In 1736 Louise Bénédicte received the medieval Château de Montrond, which she allowed to be dismantled for its stone and the slate and lead in its roof.

[11] In 1737, she leased the Hôtel Peyrenc-de-Moras (today the Musée Rodin) in Paris from the widow of Abraham Peyrenc de Moras.

He left his fortune to his first cousin, the already wealthy Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre.