Mistress of the King, Duchess. Françoise Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, daughter of Laurent de La Baume Le Blanc and his wife Françoise Le Provost, was born in Tours. Her father, also known as Laurent de La Vallière, died in 1651. His widow remarried in 1655 and joined the court of Gaston, Duke of Orléans, at Blois. Louise was raised with the princesses. When the Duke died, his widow moved with her daughters to Luxembourg Palace in Paris, and took Louise with her. In the meantime, Louis XIV's younger brother Philippe married Princess Henrietta Anne of England. Her flirtations with her brother-in-law the king caused some scandal. It was decided that Louise de La Vallière would be one of three young women that would serve as a "front" and divert gossip of a romance between Louis XIV and his sister-in-law Henrietta. However, within two months, Louise actually had become the king's mistress. Their relationship produced four children, two of whom survived to adulthood. Charles de Bourbon was born on December 19, 1663 at the Palais Royal, and died on July 15, 1665. Philippe de Bourbon was born on January 7, 1665, and died in 1666. Marie Anne de Bourbon, born in 1666, was legitimized by her father in May of 1667, given the title of Mademoiselle de Blois, and married the Prince of Conti. The king made Louise a duchess and gave her the estate of Vaujours. Her son Louis de Bourbon, born in 1667, was legitimized and given the title of Count of Vermandois. However, by the time Louise had given birth to her fourth child, the king had lost interest in her and was instead giving his attention to the Marquise de Montespan. Ironically, just as her relationship with the king had started by her acting as a front for Louis and Henrietta, it ended by her acting as a front for Louis and the Marquise de Montespan. Louis forced her to live with him and his new mistress, even naming her as the godmother of his new lover's first child with him. For years, she begged to be allowed to join a convent. In 1674, Louise was finally permitted to leave and enter the Carmelite convent of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. She took her final vows the following year. After her retreat to the convent, Louise wrote "Réflexions sur la miséricorde de Dieu." She died in 1710 and was buried in the cemetery of her convent. She has been the subject of a number of written works. Louise de La Vallière was a character in two of Alexandre Dumas' novels. More recently, author Sandra Gulland wrote "Mistress of the Sun" in 2008, and Karleen Koen wrote "Before Versailles" in 2011, both of which featured de La Vallière. In addition, the term for a jeweled pendant necklace, lavallière or lavalier, is derived from her name.