Louis Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin

Louis Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin (1640 – 1 December 1691), marquis of Montespan, was a French nobleman. He is most notable as the husband of Louis XIV's mistress Madame de Montespan.

Life

He was the son of Roger Hector de Pardaillan de Gondrin, marquis of Antin, and of Marie-Christine Zamet. In February 1663 he married Françoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart. They had two children :

• Marie-Christine de Pardaillan de Gondrin (1663–1675),
• Louis Antoine de Pardaillan de Gondrin (1665–1736), the future duke of Antin.

However, for Madamoiselle de Mortemart, an alliance with a quite obscure noble family from south-western France was not enough and her husband (always short of money) was always away on his judicial duties. She thus became the mistress of Louis XIV in 1667. When her husband found out, instead of accepting it as was usual to cuckolded husbands of the era (especially when it was the king doing the cuckolding), he raised a scandal at court, challenged the king one day at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and decorated his carriage with antlers (like horns, these were traditional symbols of the cuckolded husband). He was promptly imprisoned in the For-l'Évêque, then exiled to his lands. This did not stop his agitation, and he not only came to Paris nearly every year between 1670 and 1686 but also commanded an annual requiem mass to be sung for his wife during her lifetime.

In fiction

• (French) Jean Teulé, Le Montespan, Julliard, 2008, Grand Prix du roman historique

Bibliography

• (French) Saint-Simon, Mémoires

Persondata
Name	Gondrin
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1640
Place of birth
Date of death	1 December 1691
Place of death