Noted for her great beauty and wit, she carefully cultivated a relationship with Louis XIV and eventually supplanted Louise de La Vallière as his favourite.

Madame de Montespan's alleged involvement in the Affair of the Poisons, which began in 1677, severely damaged her reputation and resulted in her fall from royal favour.

In 1691, she withdrew to the convent of Filles de Saint-Joseph in Paris, but left thirteen years later when she relocated to the Château d'Oiron.

At the age of 12, she began her formal education at the Convent of St Mary at Saintes, where her sister Gabrielle had started hers almost a decade earlier.

[5][6] At the age of 20, Françoise-Athénaïs became a maid-of-honour to the king's sister-in-law, Princess Henrietta, Duchess of Orléans, who was known at court by the traditional honorific of Madame.

[7] Later, because of the relationship between her mother and the queen dowager, Anne of Austria, Françoise-Athénaïs was appointed to be a lady-in-waiting to the king's wife, Maria Theresa of Spain.

[5] The couple lived in a small house close to the Louvre, which allowed Madame de Montespan to attend court and carry out her duties there as a lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Orléans.

She was a cultured and amusing conversationalist, who won the admiration of such literary figures as letter-writer Madame de Sévigné and diarist Saint-Simon.

Madame de Montespan astounded the court by openly resenting the position of Queen Maria Theresa of Spain.

[10] Even though Louise de La Vallière knew that Montespan was trying to conquer the King's heart and reportedly laughed at her miserable efforts, she definitely underestimated her new rival.

Madame de Montespan was also said to have seduced the King by dropping her towel obligingly when she spotted Louis spying on her while she showered.

In 1674, an official separation with her husband was declared by the Procureur général Achille de Harlay, assisted by six judges at the Châtelet.Due to her role in royal adultery, the Roman Catholic Church soon became her adversary.

[15][16] Suspicion that Madame de Montespan might be capable of murder or worse began when the King's eye strayed to another beauty, the Duchess of Fontanges.

Madame de Montespan's relegation to the position of superintendent of the Queen's household as a result brought matters to a head.

[citation needed] Long assumed to have been involved in the infamous Affaire des Poisons, Madame de Montespan has never been conclusively implicated.

[6] In 1666, Madame de Montespan supposedly went so far as to allow a priest, Étienne Guibourg, to perform a black mass over her nude body[17] in a blood-soaked ceremony, which also, allegedly, included infant sacrifice.

However, suspicion was thrown onto Madame de Montespan because the name of her maid, Mlle Desœillets, was frequently mentioned in connection with La Voisin in the evidence brought before the Chambre Ardente.

[citation needed] Indeed, if anyone was attempting to kill the king, it was more likely Claude de Vin des Œillets, who had an illegitimate child fathered but not publicly acknowledged by Louis.

[citation needed] From the end of 1680 onwards, Louvois, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and Madame de Maintenon all helped to hush up the affair in order to prevent further scandal about the mother of the king's legitimised children.

Concerning the king's need to avoid shocking scandal, Police Chief La Reynie said: the enormity of their crimes proved their safeguard.

In 1700, Madame de Montespan acquired the Château d'Oiron, thereby abandoning the hospice of Fontevraud from 1703 and moved there in 1704 after the death of her sister Gabrielle.

[5] She had large blue eyes, long, thick, corn-coloured hair that fell in curls about her shoulders, and a curvaceous, voluptuous body.