While in his Mémoires pour l’instruction du dauphin Louis XIV insisted that he never allowed his pleasures or his mistresses to influence his political decisions, the details of his reign indicate that this was not the case. Few women exercised more influence in Louis’ court than his mistresses, in particular Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, marquise de Montespan. Montes…