Christened Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, she was born in Paris to a family of minor but wealthy nobility.

At 16, de la Vergne became the maid of honour to Queen Anne of Austria and began also to acquire a literary education from Gilles Ménage, who gave her lessons in Italian and Latin.

[1] She accompanied him to country estates in Auvergne and Bourbonnais although she made frequent trips back to Paris, where she began to mix with court society and formed her own successful salon.

Some of her acquaintances included Henrietta of England, future Duchess of Orleans, who asked La Fayette to write her biography; Antoine Arnauld; and the leading French writers Segrais and Huet.

From 1665 onwards she formed a close relationship with François de La Rochefoucauld, author of Maximes,[1] who introduced her to many literary luminaries of the time, including Racine and Boileau.

[1] Her correspondence showed her as the acute diplomatic agent of Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours, duchess of Savoy, at the court of Louis XIV.