Talk:Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan

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[edit] The feminine of "marquess"

The feminine of "marquess" (which is masculine) is marchioness. "Marquise" is more accurate, even in the English-language Wikipedia. Wetman 20:28, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Madame de Montespan was in fact a marquise, howevere even when she never receive the tittle of duchess, she had all the rights that come whit that tittle in the court of Louis XIV. That is the reason why she is sometimes (overall in older books) entitled duchess of Montespan. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Unkown1 (talk • contribs) 22:01, January 11, 2006 (UTC)

The section entitled "Entry into acting as a courtesan" is rather confused - as someone unfamiliar with this topic I could make neither head nor tail of it. Would someone expert in this area care to tidy it up? Lou.weird (talk) 13:35, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Poison Affair

There are no sources or citations for the statement that a black mass was performed over her nude body.jeanne (talk) 13:28, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

There are no source nor citations for many statements... Am slowly trying to fill in the gaps. You're welcome to help! Frania W. (talk) 16:44, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
That accusation is addressed in the book: Anne Somerset — The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV (St. Martin's Press (October 12, 2003) ISBN 0-312-33017-0). I have a copy and can get the page numbers if you like.LiPollis (talk) 20:40, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
Here's some info - on pages 211 and 212 of the above mentioned book, the author suggests that the accusations regarding the Black Mass, Satanisn etc and so forth against de Montespan were the work of veiled innuendo by La Reynie and that la Voisin specifically denied knowing her well even under torture, stating that she had only red her palm. There is a lengthy quote from the interrogation on January 16, 1680 where La Reynie seems to be trying to get la voisin to state that she did perform such rites on behalf of de Montespan who was using a false name, that of Mlle des Oeillets. It's confusing to read but that seems to be the sense of it. On Page 227, La Voison finally implicates Mme de Montespan as an "habitee off the Abbe Guibourg's infamous Black Mass." There are another 8 or 9 pages with simialr accusations from historical records. Do you want those pages as well?LiPollis (talk) 20:57, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
Further to this, page 242 of the above mentioned book describes the contents of La Reynie's personal notebooks and his personal conclusions with regards to de Montespan's guilt in regard to Black masses, blood sacrifices and so on. it states that his notes conclude that he felt her guilty of these AND of participation in some Black masses with Abbe Guibourg. However on page 241, the author describes la Reynie as being careful not to go so far publicly due to fear of retaliation. Whether she did or didn't participate in such rites can never be known but it is notable that her chief investigator believed it all true. I would imagine that most of the Poison affair could be attributed to Satanic Panic of the times but that would be OR and as such, not appropriate for inclusion in the article. Perhaps their is a contemporary source that analyzes the Poison affair in such terms and which can be quoted to achieve some type of balance?LiPollis (talk) 22:15, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The article reads like a novel.

I've removed some of the speculative comments and hyberbolic descriptions such as luscious figure, pouting mouth, sexual desire.This is an encyclopedia not a romance. Also the author quoted too many paragraphs verbatim from books-a few quotes is ok but not entire paragraphs.jeanne (talk) 15:11, 7 May 2008 (UTC)