Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, comte de Maurepas, Emmanuel-Armand de Richelieu, duc d'Aiguillon, and Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville. Madame Adelaide thus played an important role in the forming of the new government, and the recovery of her and her sisters from smallpox in late May was regretted by the friends of the ex-ministers, Madame du Deffand commenting: "The avenging angel has shielded his sword. We shall again see the three spinsters at the new court, where they will continue their small minded plots." At the beginning of his reign, the confidence Louis XVI felt for Madame Adelaide sometime extended to state affairs, and he thought her intelligent enough to make her his political adviser and allowed her to make appointments to the Treasury and to draw on its funds. She was supported by her followers, the duke of Orléans, the duke d Aiguillon, the Duchess de Noailles and Madame de Marsan; however, her political activity was opposed to such a degree within the court that the king soon saw himself obliged to exclude her from state affairs. Their nephew the king allowed the sisters to keep their apartments in the Palace of Versailles, and they kept attending court at special occasions - such as for example at the visit of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, who reportedly charmed Adelaide. In 1777, Madame Adélaïde was created Duchess of Louvois in her own right by her nephew the King. However, they distanced themselves from court and often preferred to reside in their own Château de Bellevue in Meudon; they also traveled annually to Vichy, always with a retinue of at least three hundred people, and made the waters there fashionable. The Mesdames continued to be the confidants of Louis XVI, and they also maintained a good relationship with their niece, Princess Élisabeth of France, and often visited her in her retreat at . When Victoire de Rohan resigned as Governess of the Children of France, the king, who maintained a good relationship with his aunts, wished to give Madame Adélaïde the responsibility for the upbringing of his children, as she shared his views on religion, but this was rebuked by the queen, who stated that she could not bear to give the position to someone who had made her first years in France so difficult. The Mesdames did not get along well with queen Marie-Antoinette. When the queen introduced the new custom of informal evening