Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (1626–1696), was the most famous letter writer of her time. A noblewoman born in Paris, she frequented court circles and wrote about her experiences to her friends and relatives, especially her daughter. Although not published in her lifetime, her letters soon gained fame and were copied and read by those in her circle. She wrote her later letters with this audience in mind and so downplayed her own personal feelings, except those of missing her daughter, to whom she was deeply attached. This letter from 1675 to her daughter recounts court intrigue surrounding Louis XIV’s mistress and the shock when one of France’s leading generals was killed in battle. Though Sévigné enjoyed spending time at Louis XIV’s court, she could also write about it with biting wit.

They [the king and his court] were to set off today for Fontainebleau [one of the king’s castles near Paris], where the entertainments were to become boring by their very multiplicity. Everything was ready when a bolt fell from the blue that shattered the joy. The populace says it is on account of Quantova [Sévigné’s nickname for the king’s mistress, Madame de Montespan, with whom Louis XIV fathered seven children], the attachment is still intense. Enough fuss is being made to upset the curé [priest] and everybody else, but perhaps not enough for her, for in her visible triumph there is an underlying sadness. You talk of the pleasures of Versailles, and at the time when they were off to Fontainebleau to plunge into joys, lo and behold M. De Turenne [commander of the French armies during the Dutch War] killed, general consternation, Monsieur le Prince [de Condé, another leading general], rushing off to Germany, France in desolation. Instead of seeing the end of the campaigns and having your brother back [Sévigné’s son served in the army], we don’t know where we are. There you have the world in its triumph and, since you like them, surprising events.

Source: Madame de Sévigné: Selected Letters, trans. Leonard Tancock (New York: Penguin, 1982), 165.

Question to Consider

How did Turenne’s death reflect the limits to which order could be imposed by Louis XIV?