Gabrielle de Rochechouart de Mortemart (nun)

Upon submitting to Maria Theresa of Spain, it was an astonishment to the new queen, unaccustomed as she was to hear a young person from the court speak languages other than French with ease.

But Louis XIV, who understood how to distinguish merit, appointed her, on 16 August 1670, Superior General of the Fontevraud Abbey, where she led the monks along with the nuns.

[2] Without neglecting the duties of her office, she did not forget his favourite studies and turned Fontevraud into an intellectual and cultural centre.

Authority over the abbey, which was the mother-house of 50 dependent priories, earned her the title of queen of Abbesses, as reported by Saint-Simon, that her spirit surpassed that of her sisters, and she joined them with a knowledge strong and extensive.

Victor Cousin says: She had the spirit of Mortemart, and something of the beauty of her sisters, with the most noble traits and an air of majesty and mildness.Louis XIV, with whom she corresponded regularly, tried to appoint her to the court, but she refused, preferring to remain in Fontevraud.