Lavaliere

   Louis XIV, the Sun King, was married to the Austrian Marie-Therese, for whom he cared little because she reputedly had hair between her breasts. Louis XIV fancied Henrietta, the wife of his brother, Philip of Orleans. So that the queen would be thrown off the trail, Louis took Henrietta's maid of honor as his mistress. She was known as the maitresse en titre, a semiofficial position since a certain Agnes Sorel, known as "the Queen of Beauty" in the thirteenth century.

   The lovely Louise Francoise de la Baume Le Blanc was only sixteen years of age. Though brought into this royal comedy as a blind, she and the king soon fell in love. Unfortunately the love story ended unhappily. Although Louise bore the king three children, the insatiable Louis lost his heart to Madame Montespan. But at the end of his affair with Louise in 1667, Louis made her the Duchesse de la Valliere, granting her the estate of Vaujours. Louise entered a convent at age thirty and remained there until she died in 1710 at age seventy-six.

   Louise was exceedingly well-liked in Europe while she was the king's favorite, because she was beautiful and introduced glamorous fashions. A badge of distinction, so to speak, was a large bow she wore around her neck called a lavalliere in her honor. The word lavaliere has passed into the English language to represent a chain around the neck from which dangles a pendant.