The Black Nun of Moret, Louise Marie-Thérèse (1664–1732) was a Benedictine nun in the abbey of Moret-sur-Loing. She was called the “Mauresse de Moret”.

It is widely acknowledged that she was the daughter of the Queen of France, Maria Theresa of Spain, the wife of Louis the XIV. Her existence is attested in several different sources

Her portrait above exists in the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève in Paris. The research done by the Société de l’histoire de Paris et d’Ile-de-France, published in 1924 by Honoré Champion éditions, concluded that this pastel portrait was painted around 1680 by the same hand which painted the series of twenty-two pastel portraits of Kings of France, from Louis IX to Louis XIV, between 1681 to 1683 on the initiative of Father Claude Du Molinet (1620–1687), librarian of Sainte Geneviève abbey.

A writer by name of Saint Simon mentions that her convent was visited sometimes by the Queen.

A letter sent on June 13, 1685, by the Secretary of the House of King to Mister De Bezons, general agent of the clergy, and the pension’s patent of 300 pounds granted by King Louis XIV to the nun Louise Marie-Thérèse on October 15, 1695, “to be paid to her all her life in this convent or everywhere she could be, by the guards of the Royal treasure present and to come”.

See:

Mémoirs of the Duchess of Montpensier Vol. 2, VII;

Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, Ch. XL;

Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon (1675-1755) Vol 2, Ch. XII

Honoré Champion, ed (1924) (in French). Mémoires de la Société de l’histoire de Paris et de l’Île-de-France. 47. Société de l’histoire de Paris et de l’Ile-de-France (France).

Lenoir, Alexandre (1801) (in French). Musée des monumens français: ou Description historique et chronologique des statues en marbre et en bronze, bas-reliefs et tombeaux des hommes et des femmes célèbres, pour servir à l’histoire de France et à celle de l’art; ornée de gravures; et augm. d’une dissertation sur les costumes …. 2. De l’Imprimerie de Guilleminet.