Let's start with a question: How many of you have heard the name Ninon de Lenclos? My feeling is that, unless you are interested in the history of 17th-century France, the name probably means nothing to you. But what would you say if I told you that she was one of the most important feminists in human history, a thinker, and above all, a lover and teacher of sexuality, who hosted in her bed quite a few of the most famous nobles from the courts of Louis XIII and Louis XIV?
Today, let me take you on a historical journey following that fascinating figure. During our journey, we will learn about her fascinating life, the places in Paris where she lived and worked, and we will not forget to spice it all up with quite a few spicy stories, which may be able to teach us a few secrets of super-temporary attraction.
So book the carriage, we're setting off straight to the 17th century!
I want to live as a man!
Ninon de Lenclos was born Anne de Lenclos on November 10, 1620, to parents who had almost nothing in common. Her father, Henri de Lenclos, a flamboyant lute player who frequented many of the French nobility, gave her the nickname Ninon when she was a little girl. He taught her to play the lute, ride horses, and, most importantly, exposed her to the Epicurean philosophy that would become a way of life for her.
This philosophy, named after its inventor, the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC), is based on the constant pursuit of pleasure through all the senses. As you will see below, Ninon applied this philosophy not only in the bedroom, but also in the literary salons and the royal court.
But let’s get back to Ninon’s parents. While her father enjoyed every moment of life, her mother, Marie Barbe de la Marche, was a pious woman who tried her best to give Ninon a religious education. However, Ninon, who adored her father, did not really listen to her mother and did everything she could to avoid adopting a “career” as a noblewoman, that is, a pious man’s wife whose main role in the world was to produce offspring.
Ninon came to this conclusion at the age of 12 when she told her father that she wanted to live as a man because men were free to do whatever they wanted. Her father did not shy away from this statement; on the contrary, he went and bought her boots and riding breeches so that she could ride a horse with him just like a man. If that was not enough, her father made sure that she received an excellent education, which until then only men from leading noble families had received. The education included subjects such as rhetoric, mathematics, history and geography, and thanks to him, Ninon became one of the most educated women in France.
Later that year, her father was forced to flee France after being involved in a duel for the favor of a woman. Ninon's mother tried to use this opportunity to give her a religious education. However, the result was the exact opposite of what her mother had hoped, and Ninon developed a loathing and contempt for the Christian religion.
It is said that Ninon used to hide the writings of François Rabelais and Michel de Montaigne in her prayer books and one day even burst into a crude song during mass. When the priest rebuked her, Ninon told him that all religions were nothing more than inventions. This girl certainly had a lot of courage, considering that in the 17th century such a statement could have put her at the stake.
Ninon's mother hoped that marriage might calm the girl's turbulent nature a little, and began to diligently search for a groom for her. However, Ninon, who had long since decided that she did not wish to become the property of any man, decided to lose her virginity so that no nobleman would want to marry her.
The "work" was done by Gaspard III de Coligny (1584-1646), grandson of Admiral de Coligny , the Protestant leader who was murdered on St. Bartholomew's Day and a well-known persecutor of leftists in his own right.
Losing one's virginity before marriage was considered a tragedy for noble girls, as it deprived them of a worthy groom, but for Ninon it was the key to freedom. It was the moment when she decided that she would now stand on her own two feet and make a living solely from her talent and abilities.
Ninon de Lanclos becomes France's most famous courtesan
Shortly after it became clear that Ninon would not marry, she decided to become a courtesan (a type of high-class prostitute). It should be noted that this decision did not come from financial or other hardship, but rather was an informed decision. For her, it was the only way to maintain financial independence and live her life, exactly as she wanted, without anyone giving her orders or controlling her agenda.
She began her career as a courtesan, at the age of 20, in the salon of another famous courtesan, Marion Delorme (1613-1650), who was for a time also the mistress of Cardinal de Richelieu, the prime minister of Louis XIII.
Marion was not afraid of Ninone, because she was not considered a particularly beautiful woman (she had a long nose and hairy eyebrows). However, the failure to understand that a woman did not have to be beautiful to attract men turned out to be a fatal mistake. As Marion learned, even a woman who was not particularly beautiful could become desirable thanks to her personality, intelligence, and personal charm.
And so Ninon began to attract the gentry of French society, including the Prince de Condé (Louis II de Bourbon-Condé 1621-1686), who fell in love with her because of her ability to quickly compose witty sentences in Latin.
When she wasn't speaking Latin to dukes and counts she sang, and when she wasn't singing she danced, and when she wasn't dancing she would burst into laughter at a witty joke. Her joie de vivre, combined with her extensive education, made her the most senior courtesan at the end of Louis XIII's reign, and she supplanted Marion de Lorme, who could only offer her fading beauty.
Make no mistake, Ninon's ability to conjugate Latin verbs and play the lute was not the only reason for her great success among the courtiers. Her knowledge of everything that went on between the sheets rivaled her knowledge of mathematics, grammar, or history. Add to that the fact that she took the trouble to bathe before every meeting, a very rare thing in those days, and you will understand why it was said of her that anyone who missed an opportunity to spend the night with her would regret it for the rest of their lives.
Even Cardinal de Richelieu could not resist the temptation and offered her 50,000 gold coins for one night with her. Ninon took the money and…sent him Marion de Lorme, his former mistress. The Cardinal’s response to this exchange cannot be obtained to this day…
Ninon's Lovers
Ninon de Lanclos divided her lovers into three groups.
- The rich lovers, with whom she slept in order to make a living.
- “The Martyred Saints” (Les Martyres), with whom she slept because she thought the experience with her could help them.
- Men who she simply liked and with whom she of course slept for free.
Ninon did not wait for the “knight on the white horse” to come to her and often she would go to the Cour de la Reine, a popular meeting place for noblemen and women, which you can read about in the article about the Tuileries Gardens . When she would get there and see a nobleman she liked, she would give him a note with an offer he could not refuse. And indeed, none of them refused…
It should be noted that Ninon had a clear rule regarding her lovers: to enjoy their company for no more than three months. The reason for this is that after this period of time she simply began to get bored (or the lovers began to demand too much and get on her noble nerves).
Therefore, after no more than three months, she would break up with her current lover and replace him with a new one. Here, ladies and gentlemen, her diplomatic skills were revealed in all their glory. No one likes to be separated from someone, but Ninon always managed to do it with a lot of charm and tact. As a result, many of her former lovers remained good friends with her for many years after the breakup.
Monsieur de Villerseau makes Ninone consider a life of monogamy.
Until 1652, the rule of changing lovers every 3 months worked well, but then Louis de Mornay, Marquis de Villarceaux (1619-1691) entered Ninon de Lanclos' life. The Marquis began his "career" with Ninon as her lover, but the love between the two was so strong that Ninon could not let him go after three months.
What is remarkable about this relationship is that the Marquis de Villerseau was not intellectually comparable to Ninon (he was a military man interested only in hunting and women). However, his beauty caused Ninon to agree not only to leave him but to leave Paris and move to his castle in Villerseau, located about 65 km northwest of Paris.
The passion between them was so great that they hardly ever got out of bed. However, problems began when the libido cooled a little and Ninone found that she had little to talk about with the Marquis. To solve this problem, Ninone brought to the castle a learned man, who satisfied all her intellectual needs, while the Marquis went on long hunting trips.
To everyone's surprise, this arrangement lasted for about 3 years. However, in the end, the longing for Paris and the friends she left there made Ninone decide to say goodbye to the Marquis and return to the Marais district that she loved so much.
She rented a house at 36 rue de Tournelles (opposite the entrance to the Great Synagogue named after that street). The entrance to the house can be identified by the masquerade above the door, which some say is her portrait.
The Marquis de Villerseau refused to give up Ninon and he settled in the building opposite and began to follow her obsessively.
As a result of his jealousy, the unfortunate Marquis fell into a coma and, touched by this, decided to take action. She did not want to return to her boring life under any circumstances, but she also could not ignore the plight of her former lover, so she decided to give him a small gift.
She asked her barber to give her a short haircut and sent her hair to the Marquis. Indeed, this gesture worked, the Marquis decided to give up Ninon and become the lover of Madame Scarron, who would later become Madame de Maintenon and the second wife of Louis XIV.
By the way, Ninon's romantic gesture towards the Marquis de Villerseau had an unexpected consequence that affected the French fashion world , because after giving most of her hair to her lover, she was forced to wear a short haircut.
Ninon was, as is well known, a very popular figure at the king's court, and as a result, this hairstyle became very fashionable and was given the name Cheveux bouclés à la Ninon (loosely translated: curly haircut in the Ninon style).
Ninon becomes a sexologist and is sent to a convent
After the end of her affair with Villerseau, Ninon continued to take lovers, both from the French nobility and intellectuals, including the playwright Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin dit Molière 1673-1922). At the same time, Ninon opened a kind of “school of love” where she taught men, for a fee, how to woo women and how to make love to them. Later, she expanded her audience and also accepted women whom she taught to pleasure themselves (for free).
Ninon's motto during these studies was that women should be treated as equals and their wishes taken into account. Therefore, it can certainly be said that she was one of the first (if not the first) French feminists.
Ninon, as mentioned, had quite a few lovers and friends at the royal court, but she also had enemies, chief among them Anne of Austria (1601-1666), the mother of Louis XIV.
The Queen Mother did not like Ninon's sexual freedom at all and saw her as someone who was corrupting the royal court. And if all that wasn't enough, most of the nobility flocked to Ninon's salon, making the parties the Queen Mother threw seem like a party thrown by a particularly unpopular 12-year-old girl.
As a result, the Queen decided in 1656 that Ninon would enter a convent and remain there until she mended her ways. As a gesture, the Queen agreed to let Ninon choose the convent she would like to stay in. However, after Ninon chose La grand Corderie, an all-male convent known for its sexual adventures with local women, the Queen Mother, who did not like the joke, decided to send her to Les Madelonnettes.
This convent, named after Mary Magdalene, the prostitute who became a saint, no longer exists today. However, if you stroll through the 3rd arrondissement near the streets of Vertbois, Volta, and Fontaine de Temple, you will find a sign indicating its location and even the remains of one of its walls.
Ninon was imprisoned there alongside prostitutes and women whose sexual behavior was displeasing to their families. Ninon's imprisonment caused outrage among Parisian high society, and some of her former lovers began to campaign for her release. Ultimately, it was Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689), an intellectual in her own right, who succeeded in freeing Ninon.
The Queen of Sweden, who was very impressed by Ninon's personality, did so through a letter she wrote to Cardinal Mazarin (Jules Mazarin 1602-1661), who was not only the Prime Minister of France, but also, apparently, the Queen Mother's lover. He agreed to speak to the Queen and convince her to release Ninon. Indeed, the efforts bore fruit and Ninon returned to her home in the Marais and to her former life.
Walter's patroness
As the years passed, Ninon de Lanclos's sexual ardor began to cool and she spent most of her time organizing literary evenings at her apartment, to which the intellectual elite of the kingdom were invited. Her reputation as one of the wisest women in France reached Louis XIV himself, who often either consulted her or asked his courtiers what Ninon thought about a particular subject.
Who did not visit the evenings she organized? Pierre Mignard (1612-1695), one of France's famous painters, Jean Racin (1639-1699), the famous playwright, Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), the man who invented French opera , and more. Everyone admired her and considered her an intellectual authority. One of the peaks reached by Ninon de Lanclos' literary salon occurred in 1664, when Molière decided to present the play Tartuffe there, for the first time, in order to hear her opinion.
Ninon was blessed to reach the age of 84, a very respectable age in the 17th century, and it is said that she dismissed her last lover when she was 80. However, a relatively short time before her death, Ninon was blessed to contribute to humanity for the last time.
She did this when she wrote in her will that the young boy François-Marie Arouet, whose intellect she was impressed with, would receive after her death a sum of money sufficient for him to buy books and receive a good education.
This child grew up to become one of the greatest philosophers in French history , and would go from the unknown François-Marie to the well-known Voltaire. Thus, even after her death, Ninon de Lanclos left an intellectual legacy, and it is possible that we received one of the great luminaries of the 18th century thanks to her.
Want to get to know Ninon de Lanclos' Paris better?
I hope you enjoyed reading the fascinating life story of Ninon de Lanclos. If you would like to get to know better the places in Paris where she and her friends lived, let me recommend the itinerary in the footsteps of Madame de Savignier . Ninon de Lanclos not only knew the famous Marquise but also slept with her husband and son (despite all this, the two women remained friends).
When you travel through Paris in the footsteps of Madame de Savignier, you will discover quite a few friends of Ninon along the way, such as Paul Scarron, Mademoiselle de Scuderie, and more, so a trip in the footsteps of the Marquise de Savignier is also a trip in the footsteps of Ninon.
Thanks to Zvi for the interesting and juicy article, sounds like a fairy tale. Where do you get all the stories and names from? Really research.
Unfortunately, France seems more and more distant to me, like other places, because of the coronavirus.
The story also reminds me of the movie Dangerous Liaisons with Glenn Close and Malkovich and the characters in the movie.
This is indeed somewhat reminiscent, although the libertarians of the 18th century were much more cynical than those of the days of Ninon de Lanclos 🙂