Timeline:

• 1546 Death of Martin Luther
• 1620 Ninon de Lenclos is born
• 1626 Marquise de Sévigné is born
• 1635 Madame de Maintenon is born
• 1638 Louis XIV is born
• 1643 Louis XIV becomes King of France (Anne of Austria is regent)

• 1651 Maintenon's husband, Scarron, dies; she retains a pension
• 1656 Ninon imprisoned by Anne of Austria; Christina of Sweden secures her release
• 1664 Molière’s Tartuffe first produced
• 1667 Ninon theoretically retires as a courtesan to focus on her salon
• 1674 Maintenon rich enough to buy Château de Maintenon
• 1674 Maintenon becomes the mistress of Louis XIV
• 1683 Queen Maria Theresa dies (Louis XIV's wife)
• 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
• 1685 Maintenon marries Louis XIV
• 1686 King endows St. Cyr to Maintenon

• 1694 Birth of Voltaire
• 1696 Marquise de Sévigné dies
• 1705 Ninon dies
• 1715 Louis XIV dies
• 1719 Maintenon dies
• 1749 Goethe is born
• 1778 Death of Voltaire
• 1786 Goethe begins Italian trip, through 1788
• 1806 Goethe marries Christiane de Vulpius
• 1808 First part of Goethe’s play Faust is published
• 1859 Gounod’s Faust