View source for Françoise Bertaut de Motteville

{{Short description|French memoir writer (c. 1621–1689)}}
[[File:Françoise Bertaut de Motteville.jpg|thumb|right|'''Françoise Bertaut de Motteville''']]
'''Françoise Bertaut de Motteville''' ({{circa|1621}} – 1689) was a French [[memoir]] writer.

==Biography==
She was the daughter of Pierre Bertaut, a gentleman of the king's chamber, and niece of the bishop-poet [[Jean Bertaut]].<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Motteville, Francǫise Bertaut de |volume=18|page=931}}</ref>

Her mother, a [[Spain|Spaniard]], was the friend and private secretary of [[Anne of Austria]], wife of [[Louis XIII]]. At the age of seven Françoise was also made a member of the queen's household and given a pension. The influence of [[Cardinal Richelieu]], however, who wished to separate the queen from her Spanish connections, exiled mother and daughter to [[Normandy]], where in 1639 the young girl was married to Nicolas Langlois, seigneur de Motteville, president of the ''[[Chambre des Comptes]]'' of [[Rouen]].<ref name=EB1911/>

He died two years later at the age of eighty-two, and in 1642 the queen summoned Mme de Motteville to court, being now her own mistress by the death of Richelieu and Louis XIII. Through all the intrigues and troubles of the [[Fronde]] Mme de Motteville preserved the honourable reputation of being devoted to her mistress without any party ties or interests.<ref name=EB1911/>

Some letters of hers are preserved, especially a curious correspondence with [[Anne, Duchess of Montpensier]] "''La Grande Mademoiselle''" on marriage, but her chief work is her ''Mémoires'', which are in effect a history of Anne of Austria, written briefly till the date of Mme de Motteville's return to court, and then with fullness. They give a faithful picture of the life of the court at that time.<ref name=EB1911/>

The best edition of her ''Mémoires'' is that of M. F. Riaux (2nd ed., Paris, 1891, 4 vols.), containing the essay by [[Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve|Sainte-Beuve]] from vol. v. of his ''Causeries du lundi''. The ''Mémoires'' were translated into English in 1726 and again by KP Wormeley in 3 vols., 1902. For details concerning her family see ''Recherches sur Madame de Motteville et sur sa famille'', by Charles de Beaurepaire (Rouen, 1900).<ref name=EB1911/>

== Bibliography ==
* Oliver Mallick, "Rien n'est permanent sous le ciel." Mme de Motteville am französischen Hof (1622-1666), in: ''Zeitsprünge'', vol. 18, no. 3 (2014), p.&nbsp;257-312.
* Jean-Pascal Gay, "Françoise de Motteville. Une expertise indéfinie ou comment ne pas être théologienne. Autour d'une "dissertation" féminine sur la divinité du Christ", in : Source(s), n°8-9, 2016, p.&nbsp;39-73.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Françoise Bertaut de Motteville}}

{{Authority control}}

{{EB1911 article with no significant updates}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Motteville, Francoise Bertaut de}}
[[Category:1620s births]]
[[Category:1689 deaths]]
[[Category:French untitled nobility]]
[[Category:17th-century French writers]]
[[Category:French memoirists]]
[[Category:French ladies-in-waiting]]
[[Category:French women memoirists]]
[[Category:17th-century French women writers]]
[[Category:17th-century French letter writers]]
[[Category:17th-century French memoirists]]
[[Category:Household of Anne of Austria]]