Madame de Ventadour - Royal Governess

Royal Governess

Madame de Ventadour was appointed governess to the royal children in 1704.

In 1712, an outbreak of measles struck the French royal family, causing a number of significant deaths. First to die was the Dauphine, Marie Adélaïde of Savoy. Within a week of her death, her heartbroken husband, Louis the Dauphin, also died, leaving his sons Louis, Duke of Bretagne and Louis, Duke of Anjou, orphaned and the elder child as heir to the throne.

The sickness, however, had not yet run its course: both the Duke of Brittany and the Duke of Anjou became ill with measles. The Dauphin was ministered to by the royal doctors, who bled him in the belief that it would help him to recover; instead, it merely weakened the young boy, who swiftly died, leaving the Duke of Anjou as Dauphin. Deciding that she would not allow the same treatment to be applied to the Duke of Anjou, Madame de Ventadour locked herself up with three nursery maids and refused to allow the doctors near the boy. Louis survived his disease, becoming King of France upon the death of his great-grandfather three years later.

Madame de Ventadour continued in her position as royal governess until 1717, when the king was deemed old enough to be raised by men. Her husband died in the same year. She then became Lady-in-waiting to the Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Dowager Duchess of Orléans, widow of Philippe de France, Duke of Orléans, only sibling of Louis XIV.

She died at the Château de Glatigny, her residence in Versailles. Through her daughter she is an ancrestress of the Princes of Guéméné of the House of Rohan, who presently live in Austria.