Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (February 5, 1626 – April 17, 1696), French letter-writer, was born at Paris.

The family of Rabutin — if not so illustrious as Bussy-Rabutin, Madame de Sévigné's notorious cousin, affected to consider it — was one of great age and distinction in Burgundy. It was traceable to the 12th century, and the castle which gave it its name still existed, though in ruins, in Madame de Sévigné's time. The family had been gens d'épée for the most part, though François de Rabutin, the author of valuable memoirs on the sixth decade of the 16th century, belonged to it. Marie's father, Celse Bénigne de Rabutin, baron de Chantal, was the son of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, friend and disciple of Saint Francis de Sales; her mother was Marie de Coulanges. Marie's father, a great duellist, was killed during the English descent on the Isle of Rhé in July 1627. His wife did not survive him many years, and Marie was left an orphan at the age of seven. She then passed into the care of her grandparents on the mother's side; but they were both aged.

When her grandfather, Philippe de Coulanges (or Coulange), died in 1636, Marie was again left alone. Her uncle Christophe de Coulanges, abbé de Livry, was chosen as her guardian. He was only twenty-nine, but "Le Bien Bon" — as his niece called him — acquitted himself well of the trust. He lived until within ten years of his ward's death, and long after his nominal functions were ended, he was in all matters of business the good angel of the family. For half a century his abbacy of Livry was the favorite residence of both his niece and her daughter. Coulanges was much more a man of business than a man of letters, but he made of his niece a learned lady. Jean Chapelain and Gilles Ménage are specially mentioned as her tutors, and Ménage fell in love with her. Tallemant des Réaux gives more than one instance of the cool and good-humoured raillery with which she received his passion, and her earliest letters that we possess are addressed to Ménage. Another literary friend of her youth was the poet Denis Sanguin de Saint-Pavin.

Among her own sex, she was intimate with all the côterie of the Hotel Rambouillet, and her special ally was Mademoiselle de la Vergne, afterwards Madame de la Fayette. She was extremely attractive, though the critics of the time objected to her deviations from strictly regular beauty, such as eyes of different colors and sizes, a "square-ended" nose and a somewhat heavy jaw. Her beautiful hair and complexion, however, were admitted even by the most critical, as well as the extraordinary spirit and liveliness of her expression. Her long minority, under so careful a guardian as Coulanges, increased her fortune to 100,000 crowns — a large sum for the time, and one which with her birth and beauty might have allowed her to expect a brilliant marriage. There had been some talk of her cousin Bussy, but, fortunately for her, this came to nothing.

She married Henri, marquis de Sévigné, a Breton gentleman of good family, allied to the oldest houses of that province, but of no great estate. The marriage took place on August 4, 1644, and the pair went almost immediately to Sévigné's manor-house of Les Rochers, near Vitré, a place which Madame de Sévigné was to immortalize. It was an unfortified chateau of no great size, but picturesque, with the peaked turrets common in French architecture, and surrounded by a park and grounds. The abundance of trees gave it the reputation of being damp and somewhat gloomy. Fond as Madame de Sévigné was of society, it may be suspected that the happiest days of her brief married life were spent there. There, her husband had less opportunity than in Paris of neglecting her, and of wasting her money and his own. Very little good is said of Henri de Sévigné by any of his contemporaries. He was one of the innumerable lovers of Ninon de l'Enclos, and made himself even more conspicuous with a certain Madame de Gondran, known as "La Belle Lolo." He was wildly extravagant. That his wife loved him and that he did not love her was generally admitted. He quarrelled with the Chevalier d'Albret about Madame de Gondran, fought with him, and was mortally wounded on February 4 1651; he died two days afterwards. There is no reasonable doubt that his wife missed him a great deal more than he deserved.

Though only 26 and more beautiful than ever, she never married again, despite frequent offers, and no aspersion was ever thrown, save in one instance, on her reputation. For the rest of her life, she gave herself up to her two children. Her daughter, Françoise Marguerite, was born on October 10, 1646, whether at Les Rochers or in Paris is not certain. Her son, Charles, was born at Les Rochers in the spring of 1648. To him, Madame de Sévigné was an indulgent, a generous (though not altogether just), and in a way an affectionate mother. Her daughter, the future Madame de Grignan, she worshipped with an almost insane affection, which only its charming literary results and the delightful qualities which accompanied it in the worshipper, though not in the worshipped, save from being ludicrous.

After her husband's death, Madame de Sévigné passed the greater part of the year 1651 in retirement at Les Rochers, but she returned to Paris in November of that year. For nearly ten years, little of importance occurred in her life, which was passed at Paris in a house she occupied in the Place Royale, at Les Rochers, at Livry, or at her own estate of Bourbilly.

In 1658, she quarreled with her cousin Bussy. Notwithstanding Bussy's various delinquencies, the cousins had always been friends. The most amusing and characteristic part of Madame de Sévigné's correspondence before her daughter's marriage, is addressed to him. She had a strong belief in family ties and recognized in Bussy a kindred spirit. She excused his faults as Rabutinages. But a misunderstanding about money brought about a quarrel, which had a long sequel. Bussy and his cousin had jointly come into a considerable legacy, and he asked her for a loan, She either refused or made some difficulty about it, and Bussy was offended.

A year later at the escapade of Roissy, according to his own account, he improvised the famous portrait of Madame de Sévigné, which appears in his notorious Histoire amoureuse and is a triumph of malice. Circulated first in manuscript and afterwards in print, this caused Madame de Sévigné the deepest pain and indignation, and the quarrel between the cousins was not fully made up for years, though after Bussy's disgrace and imprisonment in 1666 the correspondence was renewed. What might have been a much more serious matter occurred in 1661 at the downfall of the Superintendent Fouquet. It was announced on indubitable authority that communications from her had been found in the coffer where Fouquet kept his love letters. She protested that the notes in question were of friendship merely, and Bussy (one of the not very numerous good actions of his life) obtained from Le Teffier, who as minister had examined the letters, a corroboration of the protest. But these letters were never published, and there have always been those who held that Madame de Sévigné regarded Fouquet with at least a very warm kind of friendship. It is certain that her letters to Pomponne describing his trial are among her masterpieces of unaffected, vivid, and sympathetic narration.

During these earlier years Madame de Sévigné had a great affection for the establishment of Port-Royal, which was not without its effect on her literary work. That work, however, dates almost entirely from the last thirty years of her life. Her letters before the marriage of her daughter, though by themselves they would suffice to give her a very high rank among letter-writers, would not do more than fill one moderate-sized volume. Those after that marriage fill nearly ten large volumes in the latest edition.

We do not hear very much of Mademoiselle de Sévigné's early youth. For a short time, she was placed at school with the nuns of Sainte-Marie at Nantes. But for the most part her mother brought her up herself, assisted by the Abbé de la Mousse, a faithful friend, and for a time one of her most constant companions. La Mousse was a great Cartesian, and he made Mademoiselle de Sévigné also a devotee of the bold soldier of Touraine. But she was bent on more mundane triumphs than philosophy had to offer. Bussy, a critical and not too benevolent judge, called her "la plus jolie fille de France," and it seems to be agreed that she resembled her mother, with the advantage of more regular features. She was introduced at court early, and as she danced well, she figured frequently in the ballets which were the chief amusement of the court of Louis XIV in its early days. Despite her beauty, she did not immediately find a husband. Various projected alliances fell through for one reason or another, and it was not until the end of 1668 that her destiny was settled. On January 29 in the next year, she married François d'Adhémar, comte de Grignan, a Provençal, of one of the noblest families of France, and a man of amiable and honorable character, but neither young, nor handsome, nor rich. He had been twice married, and his great estates were heavily encumbered. Neither did the large dowry (300,000 livres) which Madame de Sévigné, somewhat unfairly to her son, bestowed upon her daughter, suffice to clear encumbrances, which were constantly increased by the extravagance of Madame de Grignan, as well as her husband.

Charles de Sévigné was by this time twenty years old. He never appears to have resented his mother's preference for his sister. Though thoroughly amiable, he was not in his youth a model character. Nothing is known of his education, but just before his sister's marriage he volunteered for a rather hare-brained expedition to Crete against the Turks, and served with credit. Then his mother bought him the commission of guidon (a kind of sub-cornet) in the Gendarmes Dauphin, in which regiment he served for some years. But though he always fought well, he was not an enthusiastic soldier, and was constantly and not often fortunately in love. He followed his father into the nets of Ninon de l'Enclos, and was Racine's rival with Mademoiselle Champmeslé.

In 1669 M. de Grignan, who had previously been lieutenant-governor of Languedoc, was transferred to Provence. The governor-in-chief was the young duc de Vendôme. But at this time he was a boy, and he never really took up the government, so that Grignan for more than forty years was in effect viceroy of this important province. His wife rejoiced greatly in the part of vicereine; but their peculiar situation threw on them the expenses without the emoluments of the office, so that the Grignan money affairs hold a larger place in Madame de Sévigné's letters than might perhaps be wished.

In 1671 Madame de Sévigné, with her son, paid a visit to Les Rochers, which is memorable in her history and in literature. The states of Brittany were convoked that year at Vitré. This town being in the immediate neighborhood of Les Rochers, Madame de Sévigné had to entertain the governor, appear at his receptions, and so forth. She remained at Les Rochers during the whole summer and autumn of 1671, and did not return to Paris until late in November. At the end of the next year, she visited her daughter in Provence. Madame de Grignan does not seem to have been very anxious for this visit, perhaps because the exacting affection of her mother was somewhat too strong for her own colder nature, or perhaps because she feared that her mother would see the ruinous extravagance which characterized the Grignan household. But her mother remained with her for nearly a year and did not return to Paris until the end of 1673.

The year 1676 saw several events important in Madame de Sévigné's life. For the first time she was seriously ill — it would appear with rheumatic fever — and she did not thoroughly recover until she had visited Vichy. Her letters from this place are among her best, and picture life at a 17th century watering-place with unsurpassed vividness. In this year, too, took place the trial and execution of Madame de Brinvilliers. This event figures in the letters, and the references to it are among those which have given occasion to unfavorable comments on Madame de Sévigné's character. In the next year, 1677, she moved into the Hôtel Carnavalet, and she had the pleasure of welcoming the whole Grignan family to it. They remained there a long time; indeed nearly two years seem to have been spent by Madame de Grighan partly in Paris and partly at Livry. The return to Provence took place in October 1678, and next year Madame de Sévigné had the grief of losing La Rochefoucauld, the most eminent and one of the most intimate of her close personal friends.

In February 1684, Charles de Sévigné was married to a young Breton lady, Jeanne Marguerite de Mauron, who had a considerable fortune. In the arrangements for this marriage Madame de Sévigné practically divided all her fortune between her children (Madame de Grignan of course receiving an unduly large share), and reserved only part of the life interest. The marriage proved happy in a somewhat singular fashion. Both Sévigné and his wife became deeply religious, and at first Madame de Sévigné found their household (for she gave up Los Rochers to them) not at all lively. But by degrees she grew fond of her daughter-in-law. During this year she spent a considerable time in Brittany, first on business, afterwards on a visit to her son, and partly it would appear for motives of economy. The proportion of letters that we have for the decade 1677-1687 is much smaller than that which represents the decade preceding it.

In 1687 the Abbé de Coulanges died, and in the following year the whole family were greatly excited by the first campaign. of the young marquis de Grignan, Madame de Grignan's only son, who was sent splendidly equipped to the siege of Philippsburg. In the same year Madame de Sévigné was present at the Saint-Cyr performance of Racine's Esther, and some of her most amusing descriptions of court ceremonies and experiences date from this time.

The year 1693 saw the loss of two of her oldest friends: her cousin Bussy Rabutin and Madame de la Fayette. Another friend almost as intimate, Madame de Lavardin, followed in 1694.

During an illness of her daughter she herself caught smallpox in April 1696, and she died on the 17th of that month at Grignan, and was buried there. Her idolized daughter was not present during her illness.

Almost all writers of literary letters since Madame de Sévigné have imitated her. The charm of her work is so irresistible that it can hardly be missed.de:Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné fr:Madame de Sévigné