Madeleine de Souvré, marquise de Sablé

Who was Madeleine de Souvré, marquise de Sablé?

Madeleine de Souvré, marquise de Sablé, French writer, was the daughter of Gilles de Souvré, marquis de Courtenvaux, tutor of Louis XIII, and marshal of France.

In 1614 she married Philippe Emmanuel de Laval, marquis de Sablé, who died in 1640, leaving her in somewhat straitened circumstances. With her friend the comtesse de Saint Maure she took rooms in the Place Royale, Paris, and established a literary salon. Here originated that class of literature of which the Maximes of La Rochefoucauld are the best-known example.

The Maximes of the marquise de Sablé were in fact composed before those of La Rochefoucauld, though not published till after her death. In 1655 she retired, with the comtesse de St Maur, to the Convent of Port Royal des Champs, near Marly, removing in 1661, when that establishment was closed, to Auteuil. In 1669 she took up her residence in the Port Royal convent in Paris, where she died on the 16th of January 1678.