‘BELLE COMME LE JOUR’: BEAUTY, POWER AND THE KING’S MISTRESS

adams, christine;

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. Montespan’s magnificence was united with the noted esprit Mortemart as well the confidence that came from membership in one of France’s most illustrious families, which allowed Montespan to carve out a key political position at court during the ‘golden years’ of Louis’ reign. This article demonstrates that female beauty and erotic capital were important resources for women in an ‘absolutist’ polity, central to the workings of politics and key to understanding the nature of power in early modern society