Marie Touchet

Marie Touchet (French pronunciation: [maʁi tuʃɛ]; 1549 – 28 March 1638), Dame de Belleville, was the only mistress of Charles IX of France.

[1] Although born to a bourgeois family at Orléans, the daughter of Marie Mathy and a Huguenot lieutenant Jean Touchet, she "held her row at court as well as any of the first class ladies" (Le Laboureur, historian).

The new king was faithful to his dead brother's wishes and raised little Charles dutifully.

Marie Touchet received a pension for her services to Charles IX, and continued as a part of the royal circle.

Both daughters would follow in their mother's footsteps, later becoming the mistresses of Henry IV of France.