Madame de Grignan

Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné, comtesse de Grignan
Portrait of the Countess of Grignan by Pierre Mignard (1610-1695)
Born	10 October 1646 Paris, France
Died	13 August 1705 Marseille, France
Nationality	French
Spouse(s)	François Adhémar de Monteil, comte de Grignan
Children	Marie-Blanche de Grignan Pauline de Simiane
Parent(s)	Henri de Sévigné Marie de Rabutin-Chantal

Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné, comtesse de Grignan (1646 – 1705), was a French aristocrat, remembered for the letters that her mother, Madame de Sévigné, wrote to her.

Françoise-Marguerite was born in Paris, France, on 10 October 1646, in the fashionable Place des Vosges. She was the first child of Henri de Sévigné and his young wife, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal. Two years later, at the family's Château des Rochers-Sévigné in Brittany, her brother, Charles de Sévigné, was born. In 1651, Henri was killed in a duel over his mistress, Madame de Gondran. Now a widow, the Marquise de Sévigné took her children back to Paris where they came to live with her uncle, l'abbé de Coulanges, in the Marais district.

After her mother became well-established in the royal court of Louis XIV, 17-year-old Françoise-Marguerite made her court debut in the Royal Ballets des Arts, dancing a lead role as a shepherdess alongside Louis, himself, as a shepherd. She was a sensation. Isaac de Benserade referred to Mademoiselle de Sévigné as “A dazzling young beauty.” The Marquis de Tréville wrote that she was “a beauty to set the world afire.”

The next year, the King’s brother, "Monsieur" (Philippe de France, duc d'Orléans), invited her to dance with him in a ballet at the Palais-Royal (he as a water god, she as a nymph). In 1665, she danced again with the King in a ballet entitled The Birth of Venus, in which he portrayed Alexander and Mademoiselle de Sévigné Omphale. At a July 1668 supper, both Madame de Sévigné and her daughter were seated at the King’s table. As the King was at that time between love affairs, it was widely speculated that Françoise-Marguerite would be his next mistress. The “honor” of royal mistress, however, fell upon the brilliant Madame de Montespan and the King’s attentions drifted away from Mademoiselle de Sévigné.