La Vallière, LOUISE FRANÇOISE DE LABAUME LEBLANC DE, a celebrated mistress of Louis XIV. of France, was born at Tours, in 1644, of an ancient and noble family. At an early age she lost her father, and was brought to court by her mother, who had married a second time. She was not a great beauty, and was slightly lame; but the winning charm of her manners, and the sweetness of her face, quickly took captive the affections of the king. She really loved Louis, and bore him four children, of whom two died in infancy; but, although she and they received wealth and titles of honour, she never lost her sensitiveness to the dishonour of their birth. When Madame de Montespan became the royal favourite she retired into a Carmelite nunnery in Paris, where she took the veil in 1674. She died 6th June 1710, after having spent more than thirty years in penances and religious austerities. Her Réflexions sur la Miséricorde de Dieu par une dame pénitente (1680) was re-edited in 1854. A collection of her letters was published in 1767.
There are Lives of the Duchesse La Vallière, by Quatre-mère de Roissy (1823), Capefigue (1859), Houssaye (1860), and Duclos (4th ed. 1890). See also Lair (1881), and Pauthe (1891).