The history of the French kingdom knows many favorites who, thanks to the status of the beloved king, were able to gain unlimited power in the country. Marie Jeanne Becu was the latest in a line of almighty beauties to win the heart of Louis XV.
Louis XV
Louis 15th became king at the age of five. At first, the country was ruled by a regent. In 1723 Louis was declared of age at the age of 13.
In 1725, the wedding of King Louis and the Polish princess Maria Leszczynska, who was 7 years older than her husband, took place. In the early years, the marriage was very happy, the newlyweds sincerely loved each other. The Queen was pregnant 13 times, gave birth to 10 children, 7 of whom survived to adulthood.
However, the temperaments of the spouses were too different. The king was distinguished by love ardor, the queen, on the contrary, was somewhat cold, moreover, every year the age difference made itself felt more and more, the relationship of the spouses became cooler. This was constantly used by numerous beauties who were at court.
The king had a lot of favorites, but the mosttwo had influence on the monarch - the Marquise de Pompadour and Marie Dubarry.
Childhood
Marie Jeanne Becu was born in August 1746 in the small town of Vaucouleures. She was the illegitimate child of the royal tax collector Gomart de Vaubernier and Anne Becu, who served in his castle. In the future, Marie will use both the surnames of her father and mother, and will come up with the pseudonym Lange - an angel.
There is another version of Jeanne's origin - the girl's father was a certain monk Jean Baptiste Vaubernier, whom her mother met while working as a seamstress in one of the surrounding monasteries.
At the age of six, Jeanne moves to Paris, where her mother enters the service as a cook in the house of the army treasurer Billard-Dumonceau. The little girl charmed the owner's mistress, Italian Francesca, who begins to teach her to dance, dresses beautifully and combs her hair. The owner also liked the girl, he often draws her in the form of cupids. However, she did not enjoy this life for long. On the advice of her sister, the mother sends the girl to be raised in the monastery of Saint-Ore.
Youth and first love
The monastery of Saint-Ore was located in the center of the capital. In addition to Jeanne, other girls from poor families were trained there. They were taught etiquette, dancing, how to do housekeeping, forced to read philosophical books.
After 9 years of study, Jeanne, thanks to the patronage of her aunt, got a job as an assistant to the fashionable French hairdresser Monsieur Lamet, who fell in love withyoung beauty at first sight. This connection was not approved by the young man's mother. Moreover, she even threatened to send Jeanne to a brothel. As a result of the intrigues of Jeanne's mother and the beloved's mother, the failed groom fled, and the girl had a daughter, Betsy, who was immediately adopted by Jeanne's uncle. Marie will never forget her daughter and will follow her life until her death.
Jean Dubarry
Janna quickly realized that her beauty could have an unlimited influence on men. The absence of any morality allowed her to get everything she wanted from men. Soon she settles in Monsieur Labile's atelier, where her fateful meeting with Count Jean Dubarry takes place.
Jean Dubarry had a reputation in Paris as a well-known pimp and womanizer. He sought out beautiful girls, taught them love tricks and good manners, and then introduced them to his rich friends (for a fee, of course). Among the count's clients was even Marshal Richelieu. Seeing the charming Jeanne Marie, Dubarry realized that in front of him was a real diamond that needed an appropriate cut. The count very quickly negotiates with the girl's mother and takes her into his "harem". From that moment on, all of Paris begins to talk about young Jeanne, and evenings at the count's house are gaining unprecedented popularity.
Meet the King
However, Count Dubarry knew that thanks to his new courtesan, he could gain much more influence and we alth. To do this, introduce the girl to King Louis XV.
The moment was chosen very timely - the aged king (and Louis at that time was already 58 years old) had just lost his favorite, the Marquise de Pompadour. In addition, in the family of the monarch, troubles followed one after another - the son and daughter-in-law died, and the wife was on her deathbed. The king became very pious, as he believed that all events are "punishment from heaven" for his sins. Masses were constantly held in the courtyard, balls and holidays were strictly prohibited.
Protection for Jeanne to get to Versailles was made by Marshal Richelieu. It was he who brought the royal chamberlain Lebel to the Dubarry house, without whose permission not a single girl entered the royal bedroom. The girl was approved and appeared before the monarch the next day.
Jeanne struck the king in the heart. After spending the night, the monarch said that he had never met such an amazing and skillful mistress.
Countess DuBarry
The king would be very surprised to learn that he was brought an ordinary prostitute, since only noble, married ladies who did not have venereal diseases could be royal mistresses. The king learned about the past of the new favorite from the valet, only after some time. Immediately followed by an order to marry the girl to a nobleman. Jean Dubarry came to the rescue again - he called his brother from the province.
The marriage between Guillaume Dubarry and a courtesan was a real farce: according to the marriage contract, the husband had no rights either to the wife's money or to the wife herself. Having received a large monetary compensation, Guillaume returned to his province. And Jeanne from that moment received the title of Countess Dubarry (her biography has been developing since that time) and was able to correspond to the status of the royal favorite.
Royal favorite
Soon, Jeanne Dubarry moved into a new apartment, which was located directly above the king's rooms and was connected by a secret staircase. The king daily showered his mistress with rich gifts, in addition, from the treasury she was paid monthly maintenance in the amount of about 300,000 livres. The Countess's rooms were decorated with pompous luxury, but she, on the contrary, chose simpler outfits, which favorably differed from the dressed-up courtiers.
If the previous favorite de Pompadour adored castles and new estates, then Jeanne was crazy about precious stones that adorned not only her hair, neck and hands, but even shoes.
In 1772, the king ordered the jewelers to create a diamond necklace worth 2 million livres for the countess, but the king soon died, the necklace was never paid for, and the countess did not become the mistress of the precious gift. A few years later, this necklace will play a cruel joke on Queen Marie Antoinette, resulting in a huge scandal.
Life at court
The new favorite, because of her low birth, was not accepted by the court of Versailles, so in 1769 the king introduces his favorite, and from that moment she officially takes the place of the Marquise de Pompadour, which further increases the universal envy of her.
Jeanne's situation became more complicated after the wedding of the Dauphin Louis with the Austrian princess Marie Antoinette, who took a dislike to Madame Dubarry and swore that she would not say a word to the royal mistress. And so it happened, for all the time the Dauphine only once turned to Dubarry, and then the remark was humiliating. In this situation, even the king could not help his beloved - he favored the Austrian princess, and France needed an alliance with Austria.
It is worth saying that the people also did not like the royal courtesan, once an angry crowd of Parisians shouting "Prostitute!" threw over her carriage.
Jeanne had unlimited influence on the king, but she was not fond of politics. If she agreed to give someone patronage, then only to artists, so she corresponded with Voltaire's niece and sent money to the philosopher, who was expelled from the country. Enjoying power, Madame DuBarry even secured a pension from the king for Minister Choiseul, who was expelled at her own whim.
Death of the King
It was getting harder and harder to entertain the aging monarch every year. Jeanne arranged orgies, where she herself brought young girls to entertain the king. With every orgy, Ludovic's strength left.
Before the Easter service in 1774, Jeanne persuaded Louis not to go to Mass, but to go to the Petit Trianon. On the way, the lovers met a funeral procession - they were burying a girl who had died of smallpox. Ludovic, interested, wanted to look at the deceased.
Several days the king with the favoriteindulged in amusements until Louis began to complain of malaise. Rumors quickly reached the royal physician, who immediately appeared before the monarch. Jeanne was accused of hiding the king's illness and wanted to be expelled, but the king forbade it. Louis was diagnosed with smallpox - during the day his daughters were on duty at his bed, at night the countess.
On the last night, the king wanted to confess and ordered Jeanne to leave the castle. However, after a few hours, he wished to see her again and, learning that she had left, was very upset. Soon the king was gone.
On the day Louis Marie died, Jeanne Dubarry was arrested and sent to the Abbey of Pont-au-Dames. All the property donated by the king was confiscated from her. However, the girl was soon released, she settled in a small estate in Saint-Vren, and in 1776 the new king returned the castle of Louveciennes presented to her by Louis XV.
Marie Jeanne did not miss much after the death of the king. While still young and beautiful, she constantly made influential lovers. So, one of them was the governor of Paris - the Duke de Cosse-Brissac.
Revolution
Revolutionary events Marie Jeanne Dubarry (cause of death will be known to you later) did not accept. Moreover, she said that if Louis XV had been alive, this would never have happened. Her castle Louveciennes became a haven for nobles and opponents of the new government. She also often sheltered wounded officers. Dubarry even tried to help Marie Antoinette by writing to her that she was ready to give all her jewels. However, the queen did not answer. Despite this, the countess tried to help the monarchy: by selling partjewels, donated the proceeds to a secret fund created for the flight of the royal family.
In 1791, Countess Dubarry travels to London to recover some of the jewels stolen from her castle. She didn't succeed. She also did not dare to stay in England, despite the proposal of Prime Minister William Peet.
One more minute…
As soon as Marie returned to France, she was arrested on a denunciation. The accusation was sympathy for the Bourbons. During the process, Zhanna cried and sincerely did not understand why she was being judged. She wrote a letter of guilt, gave away all the hidden jewelry, hoping for a pardon, but the court sentenced Madame DuBarry to death.
The behavior of the royal favorite during the execution was radically different from the death of Marie Antoinette. During the execution, Jeanne was hysterical, crying and repeating the same phrase over and over: "Just a minute, Mr. Executioner." She did not want to die… According to legend, the executioner Henri Sanson, who carried out the execution, was among her lovers.
