User:EE Project/Marie Louise Denis

Marie Louise Denis (1712–1790), niece and mistress of Voltaire

Daughter of Pierre François Mignot (d. 1737) and his wife, Marguerite Catherine Arouet (1691–1726), Voltaire's sister; in 1737 she married Nicolas Charles Denis (d. 1744), an army officer and commissaire de guerre; after her husband's death she stayed with her uncle as governess, companion and, later, mistress. She did not go to Prussia with Voltaire in 1750, but joined him when he moved to the town of Ferney on the Swiss border in 1759. On Voltaire's death in 1778 she inherited most of his estate; she sold his château in Ferney and returned to Paris.