Before Versailles
Authors: Karleen Koen
ALSO BY KARLEEN KOEN
Dark Angels
Now Face to Face
Through a Glass Darkly
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Karleen Koen
Title page art:
A View of the Royal Palace of Fontainebleau
(oil on panel) by Hendrik Frans de Cort (1742–1810) (attr. to)
Private Collection/ © Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts, New York/The Bridgeman Art Library Nationality / copyright status: Flemish / out of copyright
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
CROWN is a trademark and the Crown colophon is a registered trademark of
Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Koen, Karleen.
Before Versailles : a novel of Louis XIV / Karleen Koen. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Louis XIV, King of France, 1638–1715—Fiction. 2. France—Kings and rulers—Fiction. 3. France—History—Louis XIV, 1643–1715—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3561.O334B44 2011
813′.54—dc22 2010035562
eISBN: 978-0-307-71659-0
Jacket design by Jennifer O’Connor
v3.1
For X
and
for Louise de la Vallière
Contents
Characters
Prologue
Two months later, May 1661, at the royal palace of Fontainebleau …
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow
.
Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice
.
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities
.
Create in me a clean heart, O God …
— PSALMS 51:7–10
Characters
THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLDS
Louis XIV:
king of France from 1643 to 1715.
Maria Teresa:
queen of France; infanta or princess of Spain.
Philippe:
younger brother of Louis XIV, first prince of France; formerly Duke d’Anjou, now Duke d’Orléans; known as Monsieur at court.
Henriette:
Duchess d’Orléans, first princess of France; married to Prince Philippe; sister of Charles II, king of England; known as Madame at court.
Guy-Armand de Gramont:
Count de Guiche; friend of Prince Philippe; brother of Catherine; cousin of Péguilin.
Catherine:
Princess de Monaco, married to crown prince of Monaco; lady-in-waiting to Madame; sister of Guy-Armand de Gramont; cousin of Péguilin.
Olympe:
Countess de Soissons; superintendent of the queen’s household; niece of Cardinal Mazarin.
Athénaïs de Tonnay-Charente:
maid of honor to the queen.
*
La Porte:
valet to Louis XIV.
Péguilin:
friend and captain of the guards to Louis XIV; cousin of Catherine and Guy.
Louise de la Baume le Blanc:
maid of honor to Madame; cousin of François-Timoléon de Choisy; formerly in the household of the late Duke d’Orléans.
*
Fanny de Montalais:
best friend of Louise de la Baume le Blanc; maid of honor to Madame.
Anne:
queen mother of France; former regent of France; mother of Louis XIV and Philippe; a princess of Spain.
Madame de Motteville:
lady-in-waiting to the queen mother.
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
Cardinal Jules Mazarin:
former first minister; deceased.
Cardinal Richelieu:
minister to Louis XIII; deceased.
Viscount Nicolas:
superintendent of finance.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert:
official in Louis XIV’s government.
Charles d’Artagnan:
lieutenant of Louis XIV’s musketeers.
Marshall de Gramont:
one of the officers of the crown; father of Guy-Armand and Catherine.
Prince de Monaco:
prince of a small nearby kingdom; ally of Louis XIV; his son, the crown prince, is married to Catherine.
CHARACTERS IN COURT AND AROUND PARIS
Madame de Choisy:
noblewoman at court.
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