1587) Ninon de l'Enclos

 Anne "Ninon" de l'Enclos (also spelled Ninon de Lenclos and Ninon de Lanclos, 1620 – 1705). French author, courtesan and patron of the arts.
In 1632, her father was exiled from France after a duel. When Ninon's mother, Marie Barbe de la Marche, died ten years later, Ninon entered a convent, only to leave the next year.
Returning to Paris, she became a popular figure in the salons, and her own drawing room became a centre for the discussion and consumption of the literary arts.
It was during this period that her life as a courtesan began. Ninon took a succession of notable and wealthy lovers, including the king's cousin the Great Condé, Gaston de Coligny, and François, duc de La Rochefoucauld.
This life (less acceptable in her time than it would become in later years) and her opinions on organised religion caused her some trouble, and she was imprisoned in the Madelonnettes Convent in 1656 at the behest of Anne of Austria, Queen of France and regent for her son Louis XIV. Not long after, however, she was visited by Christina, former queen of Sweden. Impressed, Christina wrote to Cardinal Mazarin on Ninon's behalf and arranged for her release.
Starting in the late 1660s she retired from her courtesan lifestyle and concentrated more on her literary friends. During this time she was a friend of Jean Racine, the great French playwright. Later she would become a close friend with the devout Françoise d'Aubigné, better known as Madame de Maintenon, the lady-in-waiting who would later become the second wife of Louis XIV.
When she died she left money for the son of her notary, a nine-year-old named François-Marie Arouet, later to become known as Voltaire, so he could buy books.
Edgar Allan Poe mentioned her in his short story "The spectacles," as did Rudyard Kipling the "Venus Annodomini". Edwin Arlington Robinson used Ninon as a symbol of aging beauty in his poem "Veteran Sirens." Dorothy Parker wrote the poem "Ninon De L'Enclos On Her Last Birthday" and also referred to Ninon in another of her poems, "Words Of Comfort To Be Scratched On A Mirror". L'Enclos is the eponymous heroine of Charles Lecocq's 1896 opéra comique, Ninette.

- "Finally, Ninon cut off her beautiful, red-gold hair and sent it to Comte de Fiesque, how could a man ignore her after that?" https://theinvisiblementor.com/ninon-de-lenclos-french-author-courtesan-and-patron-of-the-arts/

- "She has an attractive figure, a round face, a pleasant mouth, rosy lips, black, glowing, humorous eyes, and hair of the most beautiful auburn colour ever seen." https://helda.helsinki.fi/server/api/core/bitstreams/e35daf36-b535-420b-a9bf-7781df5ce0ca/content