Claude de Vin, Mademoiselle des Œillets styled and known as Mademoiselle des Œillets (French: [dɛz‿œjɛ]; Provence 1637 – Paris, 18 May 1687), was a mistress of King Louis XIV of France and the companion of the official royal mistress and favourite Madame de Montespan.[1] She was known for her involvement in the famous Affair of the Poisons (1679–1680).[2]
Claude de Vin | |
|---|---|
| Mademoiselle des Œillets | |
 Portrait by Mignard | |
| Full name | Claude de Vin |
| Born | 1637 Provence, France |
| Died | 18 May 1687 (aged 50) Rue Montmartre, Paris, France |
| Issue | Louise, Baroness of La Queue |
| Father | Nicolas de Vin |
| Mother | Louise Faviot |
Daughter of the actors Nicolas de Vin and Louise Faviot.
She became the trusted lady's companion of Montespan before 1669. During the Affair of the Poisons, she was said to have made more than fifty visits to the poisoners.[3] she was pointed out as the replacement of Montespan in the black masses. She was protected from any persecution by the monarch and Colbert, but the affair implicated Montespan and ruined the latter's relationship with the king.[4]
Œillets retired from court in 1678 to a comfortable life in her Paris residence and country estate, the Château de Suisnes until her death.
- She had a child by the king, Louise de Maisonblanche (17 June 1676 – 12 September 1718), later "Baroness of La Queue" by marriage. The king never recognised her as his daughter.
References edit
- ^ Riley, Philip (2001). A lust for virtue: Louis XIV's attack on sin in seventeenth-century France. Philanderings. p. 90. ISBN 9780313317088.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Somerset, Anne (2004). The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV. Principal Characters of the Affairs of the Poisons: St. Martin's Press. p. xvii. ISBN 0312330170.
- ^ Macdonald, Roger (2005). The Man in the iron mask. Constable. p. 197.
- ^ Mossiker, Frances (1970). The affair of the poisons: Louis XIV, Madame de Montespan, and one of history's great unsolved mysteries. Knopf. p. 169.