WLaure Junot, Duchess of Abrantès was a French writer. She was the spouse of French general Jean-Andoche Junot.
WMarie Adélaïde de France,, was a French princess, the sixth child, and the fourth daughter of King Louis XV of France and his consort, Marie Leszczyńska.
WHenriette Anne Louise d'Aguesseau, Duchess of Noailles, Princess of Tingry, was a French salon hostess and duchess, the heiress of her grandfather, Henri François d'Aguesseau, and wife of Jean Louis François de Noailles, Count and Duke of Ayen.
WMarie of Berry was suo jure Duchess of Auvergne and Countess of Montpensier in 1416-1434. She was the daughter of John, Duke of Berry, and Joanna of Armagnac. She was married three times. She acted as administrator of the Duchy of Bourbon for her third spouse John I, Duke of Bourbon, during his imprisonment in England after he was captured following the French defeat at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, until 1434.
WPauline Marie Ghislaine de Bassano, née van der Linden d'Hooghvorst, was a French courtier. She served as dame d'honneur to Empress Eugénie de Montijo in 1853–1867.
WCatherine Henriette de Bourbon was an illegitimate daughter of King Henry IV of France and his long-term maîtresse en titre Gabrielle d'Estrées. She was declared legitimate on 17 November 1596 at the Abbey of St. Ouen in Rouen and married into the Princely House of Guise.
WFrançoise Marie de Bourbon, légitimée de France was the youngest illegitimate daughter of Louis XIV of France and his maîtresse-en-titre, Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan. At the age of 14, she was wed to her first cousin Philippe d'Orléans, future Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. Through two of her eight children she became the ancestress of several of Europe's Roman Catholic monarchs of the 19th and 20th centuries, notably those of Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and France.
WJeanne de Bourbon was a daughter of John II, Count of Vendôme and Isabelle de Beauvau. Through her daughter Madeleine, she was the maternal grandmother of French queen consort Catherine de' Medici and the great-grandmother of French Kings Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III.
WAnne Louise, Duchess of Noailles, was a French courtier. She served as dame d'atour to the queen dowager of France, Anne of Austria, from 1657 until 1666.
WClaude of France was a queen consort of France by marriage to Francis I. She was also ruling Duchess of Brittany from 1514. She was a daughter of the French king Louis XII of France and the duchess regnant Anne of Brittany.
WMarguerite-Philippe du Cambout was a French noblewoman.
WCatherine de Bourbon was a Navarrese regent princess. She was the daughter of Queen Joan III and King Anthony of Navarre. She ruled the principality of Béarn in the name of her brother, King Henry III of Navarre, from 1576 until 1596.
WCatherine de' Medici was an Italian noblewoman. She also was queen consort of France from 1547 until 1559, by marriage to King Henry II, and mother of kings Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III. The years during which her sons reigned have been called "the age of Catherine de' Medici" as she had extensive, if at times varying, influence in the political life of France.
WFrançoise de Chalus, was a French noblewoman and courtier. She was the mother of Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara, possibly by king Louis XV of France. She was the lady-in-waiting of Louise Élisabeth of France in 1749-59, and the influential favorite lady-in-waiting of Princess Marie Adélaïde of France in 1764-1800.
WCharlotte Aglaé d'Orléans, was the Duchess of Modena and Reggio by marriage. She was the third daughter of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, and of his wife, Françoise-Marie de Bourbon. She was born a princesse du sang. She had ten children.
WClaude Catherine de Clermont-Tonnerre de Vivonne, lady of Dampierre, countess and duchess of Retz, was a French courtier, writer and salon host.
WHenriette de La Marck, also known as Henriette of Cleves, was a French noblewoman and courtier. She was the 4th Duchess of Nevers, suo jure Countess of Rethel, and Princess of Mantua by her marriage with Louis I of Gonzaga-Nevers. A very talented landowner, she was one of France's chief creditors until her death.
WAimée de Coigny was a French noblewoman who was known as a great beauty and was imprisoned during the French Revolution. André Chénier's elegy la Jeune Captive, published in 1795, was inspired by her ordeal.
WMarie Sophie de Courcillon was a French salonnière, Duchess of Rohan-Rohan and Princess of Soubise by marriage. She was the granddaughter of Philippe de Courcillon, better known as the marquis de Dangeau. She was praised for being a cultured woman for the age and held a fashionable salon at the Hôtel de Soubise in Paris. She was painted by Nattier.
WJeanne d'Albret, also known as Jeanne III, was the queen regnant of Navarre from 1555 to 1572. She married Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, becoming the Duchess of Vendôme and was the mother of Henri de Bourbon, who became King Henry III of Navarre and IV of France, the first Bourbon king of France.
WLouise de Prie de La Mothe-Houdancourt (1624–1709), was a French noble and court official. She served as royal governess to the children of king Louis XIV of France in 1661–72, and to the children of Louis, Grand Dauphin in 1682–91.
WÉléonore Marie Desmier d'Olbreuse, was a French noblewoman, who became firstly the mistress and later wife of George William of Brunswick, Duke of Lauenburg and Prince of Celle. She was the mother of Sophia Dorothea of Celle, who was the wife of George I of Great Britain. Thus she is the maternal grandmother of George II.
WDorothea von Biron, Princess of Courland, Duchess of Dino, Duchess of Talleyrand and Duchess of Sagan, known as Dorothée de Courlande or Dorothée de Dino, was a Baltic German noblewoman. Her mother was Dorothea von Medem, Duchess of Courland, and although her mother's husband, Duke Peter von Biron, acknowledged her as his own, her true father may have been the Polish statesman Count Aleksander Batowski. For a long time, she accompanied the French statesman Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord; she was the separated wife of his nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
WPrincess Elisabeth Charlotte was a German member of the House of Wittelsbach and, as Madame, the second wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, and mother of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, France's ruler during the Regency. She gained literary and historical importance primarily through preservation of her correspondence, which is of great cultural and historical value due to her sometimes very blunt descriptions of French court life and is today one of the best-known German-language texts of the Baroque period.
WAnne Debelle, Princesse d'Essling, was a French courtier. She served as Grand-Maitresse to Empress Eugénie de Montijo in 1853-1870.
WGabrielle d'Estrées, Duchess of Beaufort and Verneuil, Marchioness of Monceaux was a mistress, confidante and adviser of Henry IV of France. She persuaded Henry to renounce Protestantism in favour of Catholicism in 1593. Later she urged French Catholics to accept the Edict of Nantes, which granted certain rights to the Protestants. Being legally impossible for the king to marry her as he was already married to Margaret of Valois, he controversially filed for an annulment to Pope Clement VIII in February 1599 to end his childless first marriage, and announced his intention to marry Gabrielle and have her crowned the next Queen of France, while legitimizing their three children that were born out of wedlock. Her coronation and wedding never occurred however due to her untimely and sudden death.
WMarie de Lorraine was the daughter of Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Guise and Henriette Catherine de Joyeuse and the last member of the House of Guise, a branch of the House of Lorraine.
WHildegarde of Burgundy was a French noble, Duchess consort of Gascony and Aquitaine by marriage to William VIII, Duke of Aquitaine.
WCatherine Hübscher was a First French Empire aristocrat, wife to François Joseph Lefebvre, Marshal of the Empire and Duke de Dantzig.
WHenriette Catherine de Joyeuse was the daughter of Henri de Joyeuse and Catherine de Nogaret Nogaret de La Valette. She married her first husband, Henri de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier, on 15 May 1597 and her second husband, Charles, Duke of Guise, on 6 January 1611.
WMarie Isabelle Gabrielle Angélique de Saint-Nectaire, Duchesse de La Ferté-Senneterre was a French noblewoman and court official who served as the Governess of the Children of France from 1709 to 1710.
WBlanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil, by her second marriage duchess of Maillé, was a French lady of letters and memoir writer. She has left highly interesting memoirs in which her legitimist convictions are shown not to affect the sharpness of her political analysis.
WJacqueline de Longwy, Countess of Bar-sur-Seine, Duchess of Montpensier, Dauphine of Auvergne was a French noblewoman, and a half-niece of King Francis I of France. She was the first wife of Louis III de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier, and the mother of his six children. She had the office of Première dame d'honneur to the queen dowager regent of France, Catherine de' Medici, from 1560 until 1561.
WAnna of Lorraine was a princess of the House of Lorraine. She was Princess of Orange by her first marriage to René of Châlon, and Duchess of Aarschot by her second marriage to Philippe II of Croÿ.
WÉlisabeth of Lorraine was a French noblewoman and the Princess of Epinoy by marriage. She is often styled as the princesse de Lillebonne. She was the mother of Louis de Melun, Duke of Joyeuse who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1724 and of Anne Julie de Melun, princesse de Soubise.
WLouise Henriette Françoise de Lorraine was a French noblewoman and member of the House of Guise, a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine. She was the last wife of Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour d'Auvergne (1668–1730).
WMargaret of Valois, Duchess of Berry was the daughter of King Francis I of France and Claude, Duchess of Brittany.
WMargaret of Valois was a French princess of the Valois dynasty who became queen consort of Navarre and later also of France. By her marriage to Henry III of Navarre, she was queen of Navarre and then France at her husband's 1589 accession to the latter throne.
WMaria Amalia Teresa of Naples and Sicily was a French queen by marriage to Louis Philippe I, King of the French. She was the last queen in France.
WPrincess Marie Armande de La Trémoille was a French noblewoman and The Princess of Turenne by marriage.
WMarie de La Tour d'Auvergne was a French noblewoman. As the wife of Henri de La Trémoille, she was Duchess of Thouars, Duchess of La Tremoille, and Princess of Talmond and Taranto.
WInfanta María Luisa Fernanda of Spain, Duchess of Montpensier was Infanta of Spain and Duchess of Montpensier. She was the youngest daughter of King Ferdinand VII of Spain and his fourth wife Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, the queen-regent, who was also his niece.
WMarie de Nemours, originally known as Marie d'Orléans-Longueville (1625–1707), was Princess of Neuchâtel from 1694 to 1707. She was the daughter of Henri II d'Orléans, duc de Longueville and Louise de Bourbon. After the death of her brother Jean Louis Charles d'Orléans-Longueville in 1694 she succeeded him as sovereign Princess of Neuchâtel, although she remained a prominent member of the French royal court.
WÉlisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans was a petite-fille de France, and duchess of Lorraine and Bar by marriage to Leopold, Duke of Lorraine. She was regent of Lorraine and Bar during the minority (1729–1730) and absence of her son (1730–1737), and suo jure Princess of Commercy 1737–1744. Among her children was Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, a co-founder of the royal House of Habsburg-Lorraine.
WAnne de Pisseleu d'Heilly, Duchess of Étampes, was chief mistress of Francis I of France. She became Francis' mistress following his return from captivity in 1526. Anne enriched her family and friends through her courtly influence and after Francis' death was banished from court and temporarily imprisoned in her husband's castle. She would spend her later years ensuring the fortune of her family. Anne died in 1580.
WMarguerite de Rohan was a French noblewoman and suo jure Duchess of Rohan. She married Henri de Chabot for love and the couple produced four children. A great heiress, she inherited the Duchy of Soubise which was given to her daughter Anne.
WEléanor de Roye, princesse de Condé was a French noblewoman. She was the eldest daughter and heiress of Charles, seigneur (sire) de Roye and de Muret, comte de Roucy. Her mother, Madeleine de Mailly, dame de Conti, was the daughter of Louise de Montmorency and half-sister of Admiral Coligny, d'Andelot, and Cardinal de Châtillon. Eléanor was the first wife of Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé; as such, she was the sister-in-law of Antoine of Navarre and aunt of King Henry IV.
WMarie Angélique de Scorailles was a French noblewoman and one of the many mistresses of Louis XIV. A lady-in-waiting to his sister-in-law Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine, the Duchess of Orléans, she caught the attention of the Sun King and began an affair with him in 1679. She died two years later, most probably as a result of complications arising from childbirth.
WSophie Philippine Élisabeth Justine de France, was a French princess, a fille de France; she was the sixth daughter and eighth child of Louis XV of France and his queen consort Marie Leszczyńska. First known as Madame Cinquième, she later became Madame Sophie. She and her sisters were collectively known as Mesdames.
WMarie Isabelle de Rohan was a French noblewoman and grand daughter of Madame de Ventadour. Marie Isabelle was the governess of the children of Louis XV and his consort Marie Leszczyńska.
WCharlotte de La Motte Houdancourt, Duchess of Ventadour was a French office holder of the French Royal Court. She was the governess of King Louis XV of France, great-grandson of King Louis XIV. She is credited with saving Louis XV from the ministrations of the royal doctors when he was ill as a child. She was the Gouvernante des enfants royaux, Governess of the Children of France like her mother, granddaughter, granddaughter in law and great grand daughter.