Louise Françoise
Mademoiselle du Maine
Born	(1707-12-04)4 December 1707 Palace of Versailles, France
Died	19 August 1743(1743-08-19) (aged 35) Château d'Anet, France
Burial	Chapel of the Château d'Anet, France
Names Louise Françoise de Bourbon
House	Bourbon-Maine
Father	Louis Auguste de Bourbon
Mother	Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon

Louise Françoise de Bourbon (4 December 1707 – 19 August 1743) was a granddaughter ofLouis XIV of France and his mistressFrançoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, better known asMadame de Montespan. Louise-Françoise was known asMademoiselle du Maine and had no children.

Louise Françoise de Bourbon was born at thePalace of Versailles toLouis Auguste de Bourbon, Légitimé de France,duc du Maine and his wifeLouise Bénédicte de Bourbon, known asMademoiselle de Charolais prior to her marriage. Her father was the eldest legitimised son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. Her mother was later a famoussalon hostess at the family homeChâteau de Sceaux. Her mother was also a granddaughter ofle Grand Condé.

Known asMademoiselle du Maine, she was the youngest of seven children and her parents' only surviving daughter; her two elder sisters had both died in early childhood.

Mademoiselle du Maine was placed in theAbbaye de Maubuisson, a very prestigious abbey in theSaint-Ouen-l'Aumône area of France, the north-western suburbs of Paris, France.^[1] It is located 27.6 km (17.1 mi) from the centre of Paris. As such she grew up here; when once visitingMadame de Maintenon in 1717, Maintenon said that she and her two brothers would have been very pleased with them.

Louise-Françoise was very close to her parents, even though the latter were never really close. Louise-Françoise's mother would frequently embarrass her husband and this caused much friction. On 9 April 1714, she was baptised with the name of her auntLouise Françoise de Bourbon, known asMadame la Duchesse. Madame la Duchesse had grown up with the Duke of Maine under the care ofMadame de Maintenon. Present at her baptism were the Dauphin,Louis de France, who was the guest of honour being helped by Mademoiselle du Maine's other paternal aunt, theDuchess of Orléans. It was theCardinal de Rohan who baptised Mademoiselle du Maine.

In 1718, during theregency of Philippe d'Orléans, both of her parents were imprisoned, her father was sent toDoullens and her mother toDijon. She was moved from the Abbey at Maubuisson to another convent atChaillot in Paris around the area of the presentTrocadéro. She stayed at Chaillot until 1720, when her parents were released from their separate imprisonments.

At the death of her father, she was given his apartments on the ground floor overlooking theOrangerie and lived next to her mother. Mademoiselle du Maine was rumoured to have been betrothed to oneMonsieur de Guise, but the said engagement never materialised. By 1740, another possible marriage was with the widowedPrince of Monaco who was often in residence at Versailles. This never occurred either. Another candidate was her first cousin,Louis de Bourbon, youngest son of her namesake and her uncle theDuke of Bourbon.

Louise Françoise is said not to have been attractive; the 1910 book on her mother the duchesse du Maine^[2] stated thatshe was neither pretty nor attractive, and save for her dowry, no one would have sought her hand. He also said thather court hoops were so large that on one occasion they became entangled with those of the Queen and the two women had to stand and pull against each other to disentangle themselves.Louis XV was most annoyed andMonsieur de La Tremoille was sent to the duchesse du Maine with the measurement for the hoops Mademoiselelle should wear, with the rider that in future she should stand at a more respectful distance from theQueen.

Louise Françoise would never marry; dying at theChâteau d'Anet at the age of 35 having beentaken ill while out riding, noted by theduc de Luynes; he also notedNo sooner was she placed in her carriage than she fainted away. She never recovered consciousness, and died a few hours later. She left her profitable pensions to her first cousinÉlisabeth Alexandrine de Bourbon,Mademoiselle de Sens; daughter of her namesakeMadame la Duchesse.

She was buried at the Chapel of the Château d'Anet; her grave was left byrevolutionaries of 1789–1799. She was outlived by her two elder brothers and her mother.

• 1707 births
• 1743 deaths
• People from the Province of Île-de-France
• People from Versailles
• House of Bourbon-Maine
• 18th-century French people
• House of Bourbon
• House of Bourbon (France)

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• Articles with short description
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• Use dmy dates from October 2022