Francoise D'Anbigne Maiotenon, marchioness de, second wife of Louis XIV. of France, born in Niort, Nov. 27, 1635, died at St. Cyr, April 15, 1719. She was the daughter of Constant d'Aubigne and Jeanne de Cardillac, and granddaughter of Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne, the Huguenot historian of his time, and the friend and companion of Henry IV. Constant d'Aubigne, after dissipating his fortune, formed a project for establishing himself in the (larolinas. His correspondence on this subject with the English government was discovered and treated as treason, and he was imprisoned in the chateau Trompette at Bordeaux, of which his father-in-law was the keeper. After the death of the latter he was removed to the concier-gerie of Niort, his wife voluntarilv sharing his imprisonment, and there Francoise was horn. In 1639 Constant d'Aubigne was discharged from prison, and with his wife and children emigrated to Martinique, where for a while he prospered; but he gambled away what he acquired, and died in 1645 in complete poverty. His widow with her children returned to France, and Francoise was confided to the care of her father's sister, Mme. de Villette, a Cal-vinist, who trained her in the principles of the Protestant faith.

Mme. d'Aubigne, alarmed at her daughter's refusal to attend mass, procured an order restoring the girl to her own custody, and placed her as an inmate, in a dependent and almost menial position, in the house of her godmother, the countess de Neuil-lant, who after a while, and with some difficulty, converted her from Calvinism to Catholicism. The comic poet Scarron, who was paralytic and a cripple, lived in the same street with the countess de Neuillant, became interested in the young, beautiful, and intelligent girl, whose adventures had been related to him, and offered money to enable her to enter a convent, which poverty had hitherto prevented her from doing. Francoise refused the offer, and shortly afterward the countess de Neuillant placed her in an Ursuline convent, permitting her occasionally to visit her house, where she often met Scarron. Two years afterward, at the age of 16, she was without a home, her mother was dead, and she consented to become the wife of the deformed Scarron, to whom she was married in June, 1652. She was at this time exceedingly beautiful, graceful, and witty, and the house of Scarron soon became the resort of the most brilliant intellects of Paris. Scarron died in October, 1660, leaving his young widow nearly penniless, his pension ceasing at his death.

Mme. Scarron petitioned for the reversion of her husband's pension, with small hope of success till Mme. de Mon-tespan, the king's mistress, hearing of her destitution, interfered in her behalf, procured her an annual allowance of 2,000 francs, and in 1669 made her the governess of the children she had had by Louis XIV., much to the dissatisfaction of the king, who at first did not like the extreme gravity and reserve of the young widow. Her talents and wisdom, however, soon attracted his attention, and she became his confidant and adviser, was made- a marchioness, and took the name of Maintenon from an estate at Versailles which the king purchased for her. In 1680 she was appointed second lady in waiting to the dauphiness, and she influenced that princess to assist in bringing about a permanent separation between the king and Mine, de Montespan. The queen became much attached to Mme. de Maintenon, and died in her arms, July 30, 1683. Some time afterward the king, who had long and vainly solicited her to become his mistress, was secretly married to her at midnight in one of the cabinets at Versailles, Pere la Chaise, the king's con-fessor, performing the ceremony, in the pres-ence of Harlay, archbishop of Paris, Bontems, governor of Versailles, Louvois, and Mont-chevreuil, as witnesses.

From this time till his death Louis was greatly under her influence, though her power over him was exercised with extreme prudence and moderation. She carefully shunned the appearance of meddling with the affairs of state, though in -reality nothing-was done without her knowledge and consent. It was at her instigation that the edict of Nantes was revoked and the Protestants persecuted. After the death of the king, in 1715, she retired to the convent and seminary of St. Cyr, which she had founded, and spent the rest of her life in acts of charity and in devotional exercises, which from earliest youth she had been accustomed scrupulously to obsevve. - See Madame de Maintenon peinte par elle-meme (Paris, 1820), which contains her letters, and Histoire de Mme. de Maintenon, by the duke de Noailles (2 vols., Paris, 1818)'.