Marie de Hautefort

Marie de Hautefort (1616 - 1691), was a French noble and lady-in-waiting, a trusted confidante and adviser of king Louis XIII of France, but they did not have a sexual relationship and she was thereby a favorite rather than a royal mistress. She was also a personal friend of Queen Anne of Austria.

Marie de Hautefort was born to marquis Charles de Hautefort och Renée du Bellay. Her maternal grandmother Catherine le Voyer de Lignerolles Bellay de la Flotte was a lady-in-waiting to the queen dowager Marie de' Medici, and she made the acquaintance of the king in the daily gathering in the drawing room of queen Anne, where he fell in love with her. When the queen dowager was forced to leave France in 1630, the king replaced Madeleine du Fargis with her grandmother as dame d'atour and appointed herself as fille d'honneur to the queen so that he could keep her at court with the words that Anne must love Marie for his sake. Madeleine du Fargis advised Anne to accept the arrangement with the words that whomever Louis loved, he could make love only with her.

Marie de Hautefort were described as a proud, virtuous and beauty with a sharp wit. She became the king's acknowledged favorite, but she was never his lover and their relationship never became sexual. Marie de Hautefort were known to be such a prude that she categorically turned down men regardless of their intentions and even regarded correspondence about innocent topics with a man as a violation of her principles, and Louis XIII had a similar character and had religious scruples against sexual contacts outside of marriage. He had given her a position at court so that he could have her available at court, and he did spend a lot of time with her, arranging concerts, outings and hunts were songs and poems were dedicated to her honor; but never alone, and he always spoke to her with enough distance to make it impossible for them to touch each other.

However, the king's feelings were not reciprocated by Marie de Hautefort, who did listen to his confidence and gave him advice, but did not return his feelings. She refused to become the spy of Cardinal Richelieu, and instead became the personal friend as well as the spy of queen Anne, whom she informed of the kings confidences. Marie de Hautefort and the queen reportedly even joked with each other about the king's infatuation with her, incidents which made the relationship between Hautefort and the king to a row of conflicts followed by reconciliations by the mediation of Richelieu.

...
Wikipedia