Madame du Barry
Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry was the last maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV of France. She was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution on accusations of treason—particularly being suspected of assisting émigrés to flee from the Revolution. She is also known as "Mademoiselle Vaubernier".
In 1768, when the king wished to make Jeanne maîtresse-en-titre, etiquette required her to be the wife of a high courtier, so she was hastily married on 1 September 1768 to Comte Guillaume du Barry. The wedding ceremony was accompanied by a false birth certificate created by Jean-Baptiste du Barry, the comte's older brother. The certificate made Jeanne appear younger by three years and obscured her poor background. Henceforth, she was recognised as the king's official paramour.
Her arrival at the French royal court scandalised some, because she had been a courtesan and came from humble beginnings. She was shunned by many including Marie Antoinette, whose contempt for Jeanne caused alarm and dissension at court. On New Year's Day 1772, Marie Antoinette deigned to speak to Jeanne; her remark, "There are many people at Versailles today", was enough to take the edge off the dispute, though many still disapproved of Jeanne.
Decades later, during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution, Jeanne was imprisoned over accusations of treason by her servant Zamor. She was executed by guillotine on 8 December 1793. Her body was buried in the Madeleine Cemetery. The fabulous gems which she had smuggled to London were sold at auction in 1795.
Early years
Marie-Jeanne Bécu was the illegitimate daughter of Anne Bécu, a 30-year-old seamstress. Jeanne's father remains unidentified; however, it is possible that her father was Jean Jacques Gomard, a friar known as frère Ange. One of her mother's acquaintances and presumed brief lover Monsieur Billiard-Dumonceaux took 3-year-old Jeanne and her mother into his care when they traveled from Vaucouleurs to Paris. There, Anne worked as cook to Dumonceaux's mistress Francesca, who pampered Jeanne. Her education began at the Convent of St Aure, in the outskirts of Paris.When she came of age at fifteen, Jeanne left the convent. Around that time, she and her mother Anne were evicted from Monsieur Dumonceaux's household and returned to Anne's husband Nicolas Rançon. Needing an income, Jeanne first hawked trinkets for sale on the streets of Paris. In 1758 she found a job assisting a young hairdresser named Lametz, with whom she had a brief relationship, as well as a daughter according to some rumors. She was soon employed as a reader and companion to an elderly widow, Madame de la Garde, but was sent away when she drew the attentions of la Garde's two married sons and one of their wives. From 1763 Jeanne worked as a milliner's assistant and grisette in the fashionable haberdashery shop called "La Toilette" of Madame Labille and her husband. Labille's daughter, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, became a good friend of Jeanne.
As painted at the time, Jeanne was a beautiful blonde with thick ringlets and almond-shaped blue eyes. In 1763, when she was visiting the brothel-casino of Madame Quisnoy, her beauty attracted the notice of the owner, Jean-Baptiste du Barry. He installed Jeanne in his household as his mistress, calling her Mademoiselle Lange. From 1766 du Barry helped establish Jeanne's career as a courtesan in the highest circles of Parisian society, including the aristocracy.
Mistress of Louis XV: 1768–1774
Jeanne quickly became a sensation in Paris, building up a large aristocratic clientele. She had many customers, including government ministers and royal courtiers, the most prominent being the Maréchal de Richelieu. Though the Duc de Choiseul found her rather ordinary, in 1768 he took her to Versailles, where King Louis XV caught sight of her. The king took a great interest and sent for her through his valet and procurer Dominique Lebel. The popular Queen Marie Leszczyńska was dying, and Jeanne was escorted to the king's boudoir so frequently as to cause Lebel concern for his position. After weeks of sincerely mourning the queen's death in June 1768, Louis XV was ready to resume his affairs. As a woman of low birth as well as a prostitute, Jeanne could not qualify as maîtresse-en-titre; but the king ordered she be married to a man of good lineage and brought to court. On 1 September 1768 she was married to Count Guillaume du Barry, the younger brother of her former lover Jean-Baptiste du Barry. The marriage ceremony included a false birth certificate created by Jean-Baptiste du Barry, making Jeanne appear younger by three years and of fictitious noble descent.Jeanne was installed above the king's quarters in Lebel's former rooms. She lived a lonely life, unable to be seen with the king since no formal presentation had taken place. Very few, if any, of the nobility deigned to acknowledge her, a woman of the street who presumed above her station. Jeanne had to be presented at court, but Louis XV required her to find a proper sponsor. For this, the Duke of Richelieu eventually found Madame de Béarn, who was bribed by the settlement of her huge gambling debts.
On the first attempt at the presentation, Madame de Béarn panicked and feigned a sprained ankle. The second occasion was cancelled when the king fell off his horse while hunting and broke his arm. Finally, Jeanne was presented at court on 22 April 1769, amid a cacophony of gossip among the crowds outside the palace and the courtiers in the Hall of Mirrors. She wore a silvery white gown brocaded with gold, bedecked in jewels sent by the king the night before, and with huge side panniers, whose like had never been seen. Her spectacular coiffure was worked up even as she kept the court waiting.
Jeanne first befriended her husband's sister, a cultured spinster, Claire Françoise du Barry, who was brought from Languedoc to instruct her in etiquette. Later on, she also befriended the Maréchale de Mirepoix, and other noblewomen were bribed into her entourage. Jeanne quickly accustomed herself to living in luxury. Louis XV gave her a young Bengali slave named Zamor, whom she dressed in elegant clothing. Jeanne developed a liking for Zamor and began to educate him. In his trial testimony in 1793, Zamor gave Chittagong as his birthplace; he was probably of Siddi origin. According to Stanley Loomis' biography Du Barry, Jeanne's everyday routine began at 9.00 am, when Zamor would bring her a morning cup of chocolate. She would select a gown and jewellery and be dressed; then her hairdresser Berline would come to do her powder and curls. She would then receive friends, as well as tradesmen such as dressmakers, jewellers, and artists offering her their finest stock.
She was extravagant but soft-hearted. When the old Comte and Comtesse de Lousene were forcibly evicted from their château for heavy debts, they were sentenced to death because the comtesse had shot and killed a bailiff and police officer while resisting. When Madame de Béarn told Jeanne of their situation, she begged the king to pardon them, refusing to rise from her knees until he agreed. Louis XV was moved: "Madame, I am delighted that the first favour you should ask of me should be an act of mercy!" Jeanne was visited by a Monsieur Mandeville who asked a pardon for a young girl condemned to the gallows for infanticide after concealing the birth of a stillborn child. Jeanne's letter to the Chancellor of France saved the girl.
As the king's maîtresse déclarée, Jeanne was the centre of all eyes at court. She wore costly, extravagant gowns, and diamonds covered her neck and ears, putting further strain on the treasury. She made both friends and enemies. Her most bitter rival was Béatrix, Duchesse de Gramont, who had in vain tried her best to acquire the place of the king's previous mistress, the late Marquise de Pompadour. Since the beginning, Béatrix had plotted with her brother for Jeanne's removal, even writing libelous pamphlets against her as well as the king.
In time Jeanne became acquainted with the Duc d'Aiguillon, who sided with her against the Duc de Choiseul. As Jeanne's power in court grew stronger, Choiseul began feeling his was waning. Though the king believed his country exhausted after the Seven Years' War, Choiseul decided that France was capable of war again and supported Spain against Britain in their struggle for possession of the Falkland Islands. Du Barry exposed his plot to the king on Christmas Eve 1770, and Choiseul was dismissed from his ministry and exiled from court.
Despite this intrigue, Jeanne, unlike her predecessor Madame de Pompadour, had little interest in politics, reserving her passion for new gowns and jewellery. However, the king went so far as to let her participate in state councils. An anecdote recounts that the king said to the Duc de Noailles that Madame du Barry introduced him to new pleasures; "Sire" – answered the duke – "that's because your Majesty has never been in a brothel." While Jeanne was known for her good nature and support of artists, she grew increasingly unpopular because of the king's extravagant spending on her. She was forever in debt despite her huge monthly income—at one point up to 3,000 livres. She retained her position until the death of Louis XV, despite the attempt to depose her by the Duc de Choiseul and the Duc d'Aiguillon, who tried to arrange a secret marriage between the king and Madame Pater.