her education before marrying the French prince. Upon her arrival in France, Louis XIV, who had come to greet her, met her in Montargis on 4 November 1696, and was quite pleased with "the Princess". As she was still a girl of 11 years, the marriage did not take place immediately. Instead, three days a week, she was a pupil at the Maison royale de Saint-Louis, the girls' school Madame de Maintenon had founded in 1684 in Saint-Cyr, in the vicinity of Versailles. On 6 December 1697, on her twelfth birthday, Marie Adelaïde was formally married to the Duke of Burgundy in the Palace of Versailles. The event took place after the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick which ended the Nine Years' War. Her husband was the eldest son of Le Grand Dauphin and Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria. Duchess of Burgundy The new Duchess of Burgundy had a close relationship with the king and with Madame de Maintenon. Her arrival in Versailles was described "like a breath of fresh air," reviving the dull court. She also maintained an ongoing correspondence with her parents and grandmother back in Savoy. She used her influence over the aging king to prevent her political enemies from furthering their causes. This group, known as the cabale de Meudon, devoted themselves to her father-in-law, hoping to secure themselves in his expected reign upon the death of Louis XIV. Her great enemy was the Duchess of Bourbon, a legitimated daughter of Louis XIV and his mistress, Madame de Montespan. The Duchess of Bourbon wanted her daughter Mademoiselle de Bourbon to wed Charles, Duke of Berry, youngest son of the Grand Dauphin. To maintain her influence over her grandfather-in-law, the Duchess of Burgundy organized Berry's marriage to Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, the eldest daughter of Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans and of his wife Françoise Marie de Bourbon. The influential Marie Adélaïde also brought about the disgrace of Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme, the great military man of the era. The Duchess of Burgundy gave birth to her first child in 1704. The child, a short-lived boy, was given the title Duke of Brittany before his death in 1705. Marie Adélaïde bore two more children in 1707 and 1710. Her youngest son, the only child to survive beyond childhood, later became King Louis XV of France. Dauphine of France In early April 1711, her father-in-law Le