Amable Gabrielle de Noailles, Duchess of Villars (18 February 1706 – 1771), was a French court official. She served as the ''

dame d'atour ''Dame d'atour'' () was an office at the royal court of France. It existed in nearly all French courts from the 16th-century onward. The ''dame d'honneur'' was selected from the members of the highest French nobility. They were ranked between th ...

'' to queen

Marie Leszczyńska Maria Karolina Zofia Felicja Leszczyńska (; 23 June 1703 – 24 June 1768), also known as Marie Leczinska (), was Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XV from their marriage on 4 September 1725 until her death in 1768. The daughter of St ...

from 1742 to 1768, and to queen

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...

from 1770 to 1771.

Life

She was the daughter of Adrien Maurice de Noailles, Duke of Noailles and

Françoise Charlotte d'Aubigné Baroness Francoise Charlotte Amable d'Aubigne-Maintenon, Duchess of Noailles (5 May 1684 – 6 October 1739) was a French aristocrat, the wife of Adrien Maurice de Noailles, 3rd Duke of Noailles. She was the niece of Françoise d'Aubigné, Madame ...

and married, in 1721, to Honoré Armand de Villars, Duke of Villars. She had no children with her husband, who was homosexual, but did have one daughter with

Jean Philippe d'Orléans Jean Philippe, ''bâtard d'Orléans'' (28 August 1702 – 16 June 1748), called ''le chevalier d'Orléans'' or ''le Grand Prieur d'Orléans'', was an illegitimate son of Philippe d'Orléans, nephew and son-in-law of Louis XIV. Biography Born at ...

, himself the son of Philippe II, duc d'Orléans and Marie Louise Madeleine Victoire Bel de La Boissière d'Argenton. Named Amable Angélique de Villars (1723-1771), she was accepted by her husband and raised as his daughter. She was appointed ''dame du palais'' to the charitable Queen

in 1727 and became one of her close friends and confidant and often assisted Marie on her numerous philanthropic work outside Versailles such as giving alms to the poor and visiting the sick in the various parishes. In 1742, the queen managed to convince the chief minister to

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...

André-Hercule de Fleury André-Hercule de Fleury (22 June or 26 June 165329 January 1743) was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate who served as Roman Catholic Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, Bishop of Fréjus and as the chief minister of Louis XV. He was cre ...

, to have de Villars promoted to ''dame d'atour'', after

Françoise de Mazarin Françoise () is a French feminine given name (equivalent to the English Frances or Italian Francesca) and may refer to: * Anne Françoise Elizabeth Lange (1772–1816), French actress * Claudine Françoise Mignot (1624–1711), French adventur ...

's death, in order to avoid the office being filled by Marie Anne de Mailly, duchess of Châteauroux. However, Mailly did secure de Villars' former office of ''dame du palais''. In 1768, de Villars and the rest of the Queen's household were allowed to retain their offices after her death and resumed them in the household of Marie Antoinette upon her arrival in France in 1770. By then, however, she was too old to manage her office and, during her tenure, the dauphine's household was drained of assets.Helen A. Younghusband,
Marie-Antoinette, Her Early Youth (1770-1774)
', Macmillan, 1912 In 1923, a book entitled ''Le roman de la "Sainte Duchesse" : lettres inédites de la duchesse de Villars au comte d'Argenson (1738-1741)'' about her was published.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noailles, Amable Gabrielle de House of Noailles 18th-century French nobility 1706 births 1771 deaths French ladies-in-waiting Court of Louis XV Household of Marie Leszczyńska Household of Marie Antoinette French duchesses by marriage