Madame du Barry: Louis XV’s Favorite Mistress

It has often been said that it is the fancy woman who truly wields the power on the throne. harmonize to the BBC article The Kings Mistress A Royal Tradition (2005), for centuries, male monarchs across europium have turned to mistresses for sex, advice and conversation (BBC News, n. pag. ). In exchange for the sex and fri barricadeship that they provided to their respective paramours, these women were able to obtain great personal wealth, security and a rare chance of political power (BBC News, n. pag.). But in the fiber of Madame du Barry (1743-1793), a kings mistress can also bring about the end of his regime (BBC News, n. pag. ).Madame Jeanne Becu Comtesse du Barry was born as Marie-Jeanne Becu at Vaucouleurs, Lorraine on August 19, 1743 (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). She was the illigitimate lady friend of Anne Becu, who was said to have worked either as a seamstress or a cook in Paris (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Marie-Jeannes biological father was believed to be Jean Baptiste Gormand de Vaubernier, a friar who went by the name of Brother saint (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). However, it was Annes lover, Monsieur Billard-Dum one timeaux, who paid for her education at the convent of St. Aure (Wikipedia, n. pag. ).Marie-Jeanne left the convent at age 15 and moved to Paris, where she assumed the name Jeanne Rancon (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). She held various jobs during her stay in Paris, which include being an assistant to a young hairdresser named Lametz (with whom she was rumored to have a daughter), a companion to Madame de la Garde (known to be a lonely aristocrat) and a miliners assistant in A La Toilette, an enterprise of a definite Monsieur Labille (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). In 1763, her beauty caught the eye of well-heeled pimp and casino proprietor Jean du Barry (Wikipedia, n. pag. ).He then proceeded to turn her into his mistress and groomed her career as a paramour that catered only to the Parisian elite (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Marie-Jeanne became a courtesan for four ye ars (Marie Antoinette, n. pag. ), working under the alias of Mademoiselle Lange (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Although some(prenominal) of her wealthy customers eventually became her benefactors, Du Barry wanted to use her to control King Louis XV (1715-1774) (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Du Barrys ambition was realized when Marie-Jeanne and his brother, Comte Guillaume du Barry, were married in 1769 (Wikipedia, n. pag. ).Marie-Jeannes marriage to a overlord qualified her to become Louis XVs official royal mistress (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). On April 2, 1769, Madame du Barry was officially intoroduced to the family of the king and the cut royal court (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). In sharp seam to Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764), another of Louis XVs mistresses, Du Barry had minimal political clout over the king (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Her only participation in politcs was her membership in the faction that deposed Etienne Francois de Choiseul from his strength as Minister of Foreign Af moderatelys in 1 770 (Wikipedia, n. pag. ).Du Barry instead spent her time having new gowns made and ordering jewelry of every shape, coat and colour (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). She also took the place of De Pompadour as Louis XVs favorite mistress (Marie Antoinette, n. pag. ). However, Du Barrys genteel life in Versailles Palace was not without problems. She had a nipping feud with French Dauphine Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) primarily because of the latters support of De Choiseul (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Marie Antoinette also refused to have any(prenominal)thing to do with Du Barry repayable to her disgust with the latters personal background (Marie Antoinette, n. pag. ).Furthermore, Louis XV requested previous to his demise in May 1774 that Du Barry be banished to the Abbey of Pont aux-Dames, where her letters and visits were strictly monitored (Marie Antoinette, n. pag. ). Historians believed that the kings consanguinity with Du Barry might have hindered him from receiving an absolution before h is death hence, his decision to broadcast her away (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Du Barry lived in the convent for two years, before moving to the Chateau de Louveciennes (Wikipedia, n. pag. ) in 1776 (Marie Antoinette, n. pag. ).Although Du Barry was state for her her good nature and support of artists (Wikipedia, n. pag. ), the French people despised her due to the lavish lifestyle that the king subjected her to (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). By the late 1780s, France was in the midst of a severe fiscal crisis (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). Its economy suffered due to the monarchys tedious and disused bookkeeping system (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). Furthermore, the country also did not have a national bank (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). Even if the majority of Frances nobility and clergy were extremely well-off, they were taxed considerably less than the poor peasants (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ).The royalty likewise had to take on stultify debts just to finance the very expensive wars it got itself into the W ar of the Austrian sequence (1740-1748), the Seven Years War (1756-1763) and the American Revolution (1775-1783) (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). While the countrys upper classes wallowed in wealth and the monarchy engaged in one expensive hostility aft(prenominal) another, ordinary French citizens starved due to skyrocketing prices of bread (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ).The increasing irritation between Frances nobility and bourgeoisie resulted in the French Revolution (1789-1799) (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). on a lower floor the Revolution, France was temporarily transformed from an absolute monarchy, where the king monopolized power, to a republic of theoretically free and equal citizens (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). Simply put, the French Revolution served as the requital for all the injustices that the French royalty inflicted upon its people. At the height of the Revolution, revolutionaries guillotined nobles, their allies and anyone who contrary the uprising (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). Du Barry went to England several times in 1792 to supposedly recover stolen jewelry (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ).As a result, she was accused of secretly providing financial assistance to the England-based opponents of the new French republic (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). The Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris apprehended Du Barry on duplicity charges in 1793 (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Following a premeditated trial, she was finally guillotined at the behind de la Concorde on December 8, 1793 (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Mistresses like Madame du Barry lived lives of wealth, comfort and power. But their profuseness and prominence did not come without a tragic price, as they achieve these at the expense of so many impoverished citizens.The hedonistic universe of these women sickened their countrymen to the point that they finally rose up and demanded change for their resepctive countries and governments. It would be fair to say that mistresses can serve as the ultimate warning to any leader who will use his posit ion to enrich himself and his associates. The people whitethorn tolerate corruption for a remarkably long time. But once they take power into their own hands, there is no government on earth that they cannot overthrow. Works Cited French Revolution. 2007. MSN Encarta.22 April 2008 . Madame du Barry. 2008. Marie Antoinette. 22 April 2008 . Madame du Barry. 9 April 2008. Wikipedia. 22 April 2008 . Marie Jeanne Becu du Barry. 2007. MSN Encarta. 22 April 2008 . The Kings Mistress A Royal Tradition. 27 April 2005. BBC News. 22 April 2008 .