The Maison Royale de Saint-Louis was a 'pensionnat' or boarding school for girls set up in 1684 at Saint-Cyr (what is now the commune of Saint-Cyr-l'École, Yvelines) in France by king Louis XIV at the request of Madame de Maintenon, who wanted a school for girls from impoverished noble families. The establishment lost its leading role on the deaths of Louis and then Maintenon, but it nevertheless marked an evolution in female education under the Ancien régime. Its notable students included the Maintenon's niece Marthe-Marguerite Le Valois de Villette de Mursay, marquise de Caylus, and Napoleon's sister Élisa Bonaparte, grand duchess of Tuscany.