Marie de Rabutin-Chantal was born on February 5, 1626, in the Place Royale in the Marais district of Paris. Orphaned at the age of seven, she was raised by her uncle, Philippe II de Coulanges. She received a liberal and modern education, reading contemporary authors and developing her intellect through conversation. At eighteen, she married Henri de Sévigné, from a prominent Breton family. Two children were born of this marriage, Françoise-Marguerite and Charles. Her husband died in a duel in 1651. Madame de Sévigné settled in Paris and participated in high society. Appreciated for her beauty and wit, she was invited to Versailles with her daughter, Françoise-Marguerite.
In 1669, her daughter married François de Castellane Adhémar, Count of Grignan . They all lived in the same townhouse in the Marais district until the day the Count, appointed Lieutenant General for the King in Provence, left Paris. Heartbroken by this separation, Madame de Sévigné wrote her first letter to her daughter on February 6, 1671 , two days after her departure to join her husband, who had settled first in Aix and then in Grignan. She corresponded with her two or three times a week. From this heartbreak would emerge the Marquise's famous and brilliant correspondence.
Settled at the Hôtel Carnavalet in Paris from 1677, she traveled regularly to visit her estates, her family, and her friends. She stayed in Brittany at the Château des Rochers, in Livry at the abbey of her uncle, the Abbot of Coulanges, in Burgundy at the Château de Bourbilly, and in Provence to visit her daughter. Madame de Sévigné made three stays at the Château de Grignan, totaling four years : the first between July 1672 and October 1673; the second between October 1690 and December 1691; and the third between May 1694 and April 1696. She shared the family and social life of the Grignans and discovered Provence. She died on April 17, 1696, at the Château de Grignan and was buried in the Adhémar family vault in the Collegiate Church of Saint-Sauveur. Françoise-Marguerite had three children, including Pauline, the future Marquise de Simiane, who played an important role in disseminating her grandmother's correspondence.
