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Louise de La Vallière

Louise de La Vallière (Tours 1644, Paris 1710) was a mistress to Louis XIV of France.

She entered the court at a seventeen as a maid of honor to Henrietta of England, first wife of Philippe I of Orleans, the King's brother.

Worried for her salvation, she left in 1662 to a Chaillot convent but was taken back to the court by the King for the first fest in the newly built Versailles. As from 1667 she lost ground to Madame de Montespan. In 1671, once again, she left and was taken back, this time by Colbert. Her last retreat was to a Carmelite convent of the Faubourg Saint Jacques under the name of Sister Louise of the Misericord.

Her life was also the basis for a character in Alexandre Dumas, père novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne.