Who doesn’t remember the famous episode of “Friends” in which Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) accidentally meets her new boyfriend’s parents while wearing nothing more than a sexy nightgown? The episode aired in the series’ fourth season, in 1998, and the entire punchline revolved around the fact that Rachel eventually manages to convince her shocked parents that she wasn’t wearing a nightgown at all, but rather a Slip Dress-style evening gown – the hottest trend in women’s fashion in the mid-XNUMXs. The dress, which resembled a sexy nightgown (a slip = a garment that can be easily slipped into), was made of satin and lace, giving the wearer the “I just woke up from a stormy night and just put on my shoes” look.
At first, fashion critics dismissed the “Underwear as Outerwear” trend as something cheap and slutty, but when the late Princess Diana was seen wearing the dress in question at a prestigious event in 1996, it was already clear that this was a trend that had penetrated deeply into the mainstream, and in recent years, with the return of trends from the nineties to our lives, the lingerie dress has also managed to star on the runways in Paris in the past two years.
But Princess Diana wasn't the first royal to shock the public in a revealing dress. In fact, it was a beautiful and scandalous woman who lived in the Palace of Versailles about 350 years ago and was named Françoise Athena de Montespan.
The mistress
Françoise Athena de Montespan was born in 1640 into one of the oldest and most influential noble families in France at the time, the de Rochechouart family. At the age of 23, she married the Marquis de Montespan and, thanks to her family connections, was appointed one of the attendants of Maria Theresa of Spain, wife of the King of France. Louis XIV.
king France He was known for his pride, extravagance, and enormous ego that led him to call himself the “Sun King.” But the arrogant king was also known for the large number of mistresses who accompanied him throughout his life. If there’s one thing you need to know to understand the French, it’s that in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the French monarchy was at its height, the role of the king’s mistress was an open and official one, and the woman chosen to share the king’s bed wielded enormous economic and political power.
From the moment Madame de Montespan set foot in the Palace of Versailles, she coveted the glamorous role, and she was indeed the ideal candidate, blessed with all the physical beauty a woman could wish for in those days: a voluptuous figure, large blue eyes, and golden brown curls that fell to her shoulders. Even theDuchess of Orléans (Orleans), who was her sworn enemy, could not help but admit in a letter she wrote to her relative that Madame de Montespan “has beautiful hair, fair arms, a charming mouth and a captivating smile.” However, in addition to her spectacular beauty, she also inherited the wit and wisdom that characterized the de Rochechouart family, and with the help of these tools she knew she would achieve her goal.
The first step to achieving the coveted position was to befriend both Queen Maria Theresa and the King’s current mistress, Louise de La Vallière. She thus found herself spending a lot of time around the King, seizing every opportunity to charm him with her sensuality and wit. And when both the Queen and Louise de La Vallière were heavily pregnant, she began hosting the King for private dinners in her chambers.
At the end of one of these meals, de Montespan apologized to the king and informed him that she had to retire to the bathroom while starting to take off her dress. The move paid off, and in 1667 she became Louis XIV's official mistress after the two danced together for the first time at a ball given in honor of his younger brother. Philip I, Duke of Orléans , at the Louvre Palace.
The shirt
About a year later, another official ball was held at which the future Madame de Montespan would appear in public alongside the king, and the lady discovered that she had a small problem: none of her royal ball gowns would fit her pregnant belly anymore. But she was not a woman who would shy away from scandal or hide the king’s bastard growing inside her. On the contrary, she decided to highlight her curvaceous body in a garment called the “Déshabillé,” which originated in the private living rooms of the French nobility and earned its rightful fame in the ballrooms of Versailles.
The word “disambiguation” in French means “undressing” or “undergarment” (i.e., a nightgown). Indeed, it was a home garment that French noblemen and noblewomen would wear when entertaining guests in their private rooms. Unlike the formal ball gowns of the French royal court, which featured tight corsets and wide crinolines that held up the skirts, and which were made of heavy fabrics and intricate brocades, the “disambiguation” nightgowns flowed lightly over the wearer’s body and were made of thin fabrics such as satin and silk.
The added advantage of them is that they could be upgraded with an embroidered silk robe or ribbons to give them a more formal look.
In the case of the beautiful Madame de Montespan, the fabric of the gown flowed perfectly over her generous curves and flattered her much more than the formal palace gowns. So much so that she continued this custom in the following years, and all the courtiers learned to recognize that when she arrived at a formal ball in a rich and provocative satin gown instead of a corseted ball gown, it meant that she was once again carrying the king's child in her womb.
At first, this was met with astonishment, but over the years, other noblewomen began to imitate the relaxed look, and even a hundred years later, when the next fashionista of the French monarchy - Queen Marie Antoinette– Wanting to shock the swordsmen of the Palace of Versailles, she used Madame de Montespan's trick and asked her personal stylist Rose Barton to sew loose dresses for her from thin cotton fabric (the "chamise" dress).
The poison
For about a decade, de Montespan controlled all aspects of life. Palace of Versailles As the “unofficial Queen of France.” But in 1677 she discovered that without intending to, she had committed the two most serious crimes, which are still considered unforgivable for women of her status – she had grown old and fat.
Over the course of a decade, she bore the king seven children. The seven consecutive pregnancies, combined with her intense craving for rich food, had turned her once plump body into a large, heavy one. In the days before cosmetic surgery, eyelid lifts, and hyaluronic acid, the lady began to seek out other potions that would keep the king’s eyes on her.
During those years, an industry of shady pharmacies sprang up in Paris selling various poisons and potions, often containing arsenic and powders made from toad skins, which were sold at high prices. Not surprisingly, most of the customers were wealthy and noble people who purchased the poisons with the aim of killing relatives in inheritance disputes, which is why all the potions were nicknamed “inheritance poison.”
Desperate to win the king's love, Madame de Montespan began to secretly visit these pharmacies and purchase various facial preparations, and occasionally even potions with sexual stimulating properties (aphrodisiacs). However, about a year later in 1678, when several nobles died of poisoning, it was discovered that the poisons had been purchased in the same pharmacies, and a rumor began to spread that the pharmacists also practiced black magic.
Unfortunately for the mistress, shortly after the scandal broke, Louis XIV fell very ill after drinking one of the “love potions” she had purchased, and her enemies at court, who coveted her power and influence, were quick to frame her in scandals that have gone down in history as “the love potions.”The poison scandals". Louis XIV, who had become paranoid and began to fear for his life, launched a comprehensive investigation, and dozens of “pharmacists,” including nobles and priests, were sent to their deaths.
Among those sentenced to death was a member of a noble family named Eustache Dauger de Cavoye, who had descended into the trade in these poisons after his family disinherited him. In his anger, the king wanted to make Dauger a warning sign for other criminals, and ordered that from the moment he was caught and dragged to prison, his face would be covered with an iron mask in order to humiliate him and deter others. The sight was so shocking that it is believed to this day that Eustache Dauger was the inspiration for the novel “The Man in the Iron Mask” by the writer Alexandre Dumas.
After years of investigation, de Montespan was acquitted on suspicion of poisoning, but the king could no longer forgive her. He broke off his relationship with her and, believing that his dissolute life had almost led to his death, began to grow close to the governess who had raised de Montespan's children: a devout religious woman named Madame de Maintenon, who, after the death of Queen Maria Theresa, became the next Queen of France. This was one humiliation too many for the defeated de Montespan, and in 1691 she left the Palace of Versailles and sequestered herself in a convent where she engaged in charitable activities, became a patron of artists, and donated heavily to hospitals until her death in 1707.
The character of the debauched Madame de Montespan can be seen today in the spectacular drama series “Versailles”, although it seems to me that the real life of the historical mistress could have caused even the most daring television producer to censor every scene. Because who else could have embraced a nightgown in a way that changed the history of fashion, and caused both Princess Diana and the most prominent actresses and models of recent decades to embrace this extraordinary item. And to do all this about 350 years before them all.
Did you like the story of Madame de Montespan?
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Excellent article, Ariella, always fascinating!