The Playboy King’s Most Beloved and Most Hated Mistresses
And what they would look like today
France
in the mid 18th century was a time of romantic dresses and powdered
wigs. Kings on tall horses clapping down cobblestone streets. The time
of Voltaire and Rousseau, of Renaissance fading into Rococo.
It was a time of the “haves” and the “have nots.” Of the 26 million people living in France, over 21 million were peasants. The remaining few were the rich, the nobility, and a handful of clergy.
Life was brutal if you were a peasant. Working land they didn’t own to keep some small portion to sustain themselves. Paying the outrageous taxes that would eventually lead to revolution. Taxes the nobility were exempt from.
They were the weary, unwashed masses and they worked from dawn to dusk to support the lifestyle of the rich and noble.
Whether rich or poor, women were passive citizens. Men made decisions for women, whether they were fathers or brothers. Later, her husband. If you were rich or a noble, education meant gentle pursuits. If you were a peasant, education meant learning how to be a good wife and mother.
The life of a peasant woman made life at the court appealing. A position as queen’s handmaid, governess to the royal children, or even the king’s mistress was a gentler life than a peasant’s life of toil and taxes. Many mothers would move mountains to achieve a court position for their daughters. It was rare to have such an opportunity, and even more rare for it to end well…
Louis XV, the toddler king…
Like Henry VIII, Louis XV was not born to be king. The second-born grandchild of the beloved Sun King, he was fourth in line to the throne, behind his uncle, his father, and his older brother.
However, it was an era of poor medical care, poor hygiene, bloodletting, and too often, people died of diseases we seldom die from today. Death doesn’t discriminate between rich and poor when it taps on the window.
Before Louis was one, his uncle died of smallpox. Before his second birthday, his father, mother, and brother died of measles. Just a toddler, Louis XV was the only family member to survive measles, and only because his governess would not permit the doctor to perform bloodletting on the toddler.
At age two, the only surviving male, he became heir to the throne. At five, his grandfather died and Louis became the toddler king. Advisors ran the country until Louis assumed the throne at age 13.
Married at fifteen…
When Louis turned 15, he married Maria Karolina Leszczyńska, daughter of the deposed king of Poland. The couple met on the eve of their marriage and it was said to be love at first sight. Two years later, Maria had twin girls and Louis was over the moon at his tiny twin daughters.
For almost a decade, the kingdom had a loving king and queen and a bounty of royal babies to celebrate. The two were deeply in love and inseparable, and Maria delivered ten children in ten years.
Miscarriage and mistresses…
After ten good years, it all fell apart. The queen miscarried her eleventh pregnancy and the royal doctor told her she was not permitted to have marital relations. Louis moved out of the marital chambers, into separate quarters.
Whether fate, bad timing, or bad character, while the king and queen were sleeping separately, Louis met Louise de Mailly-Nesle, a lady in waiting to his wife. Soon, she was sneaking into his chambers at night.
The young king was 25 years old and had been married since 15. Suddenly, he discovered the court was a buffet of beautiful women. Lady Louise, it turned out, had lovely sisters. Over the next few years, he would have four of the five de Mailly-Nesle sisters as his mistresses.
He abandoned Louise for her sister Pauline until she died delivering his stillborn child. He cut short his affair with Diane, the third sister, when he met their youngest sister. Marie Anne was able to negotiate financial compensation and was given an income to live on.
A national embarrassment…
The de Mailly-Nesle sisters were just the beginning, and Louis was not known to be discreet. He didn’t have to be, he was the King.
Eventually, the church stepped in. They insisted that he was a national embarrassment to the throne and country. They wanted him to attend confession for the sin of adultery. Instead, he stopped taking the sacrament and continued his dalliances with the women of the court.
The playboy king’s most loved and hated mistresses and what they would look like today
Ultimately, he would have sixteen mistresses. Two would bear illegitimate children, making him a father of twelve. Most would be largely ignored by history and historians. Minor players in the life of a playboy king.
Two did not fade into history but became as memorable as the king himself.
The most loved — and the most hated.
Once again, artist Becca Saladin has applied her photoshop magic to show us what they would look like if we met them today. As she explains:
“the work is worth it to make history come alive and these great historical figures more relatable.” — Becca Saladin
Madame du Pompadour: Louis meets the one…
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson was a member of the French court. She was not born a noble, but she was raised in a wealthy household. When she was a little girl, her mother took her to a fortune-teller who said the child would one day reign over the heart of a king. Excited, her mother ensured that the girl received a private education and was primed for a life in the court.
Louis first spotted her at a masked ball.
It was love at first sight.
Known as Madame du Pompadour, they were together for twenty years. She was no ordinary dalliance. Pompadour promptly took charge of his schedule, became his aid, advisor, and a powerful political partner. She adopted the role of the prime minister, contributed to domestic and foreign politics, and became the most powerful woman in the French court.
Madame du Pompadour was intelligent, kind, and more outgoing than the self-secluded queen. She was a generous patron of the arts who played a key role in making Paris the capital of taste and culture in Europe. She was also creative. A stage actress, gem engraver, artist, and amateur printmaker.
Louis XV was utterly devoted to her until she died of tuberculosis at age 42. After her death, Voltaire penned a note to the King;
“I am very sad at the death of Madame de Pompadour. I was indebted to her and I mourn her out of gratitude. It seems absurd that while an ancient pen-pusher, hardly able to walk, should still be alive, a beautiful woman, in the midst of a splendid career, should die at the age of forty two. “ — Voltaire
Madame du Barry: the most hated woman in France
Jeanne Bécu, better known as the infamous Madame du Barry, was the woman who pulled Louis out of the black pit of despair he’d fallen into.
First, he’d lost his beloved Madame du Pompadour. Then, while grieving her death, his son contracted tuberculosis and died.
Death was not done with the court. The queen became inconsolable at losing her son. To make matters worse, her father died right after her son, followed by the death of her beloved daughter-in-law. Staggering under the losses, Queen Marie fell ill and died. Louis had to bury his queen, too.
It was as though death wrapped a cold hand around the palace and Louis fell into a pit of despair. He was not young anymore. In his late 50s, he was devastated by the string of losses.
Enter, Jeanne Bécu: Louis XV’s most hated mistress
Jeanne Bécu was born into poverty. Of the servant class and out of wedlock, at that. Her mother, Anne Bécu, was a lowly seamstress. Her father was believed to be a friar, though it was never confirmed.
As a child, she was left at a convent to be educated. At 15, she left the convent. With no prospects and no father to provide for her, she told trinkets in the streets until she found work in a haberdashery shop named ‘À la Toilette’.
Historians say she was one of the most beautiful women in France. She had thick blonde hair that fell into natural waves, wide blue eyes, perfect porcelain skin, and a physique that never failed to turn heads.
One day, the young beauty caught the attention of Comte Jean Baptiste du Barry, a high-class pimp who owned a casino. Du Barry spared no time in making Jeanne his mistress and gave her the name Madame du Barry.
At first he “introduced her” to many aristocratic men, but he quickly realized that if he played his cards right, he may be able to influence the king through the young beauty, and off she was sent to the castle.
The king was smitten instantly.
The court was horrified.
The first favor she asked of the king wasn’t for money or gifts. It was for mercy. She became known for saving people from execution; falling to her knees until the king agreed to cancel executions and spare lives.
It didn’t matter. She didn’t belong.
She was 33 years younger than the king. From the servant class! Gold digger, they called her. The king’s whore. A guttersnipe. At least the other mistresses “belonged” at the court. She did not. The women of the court were irate that this strumpet had been chosen as mistress over noble-born ladies.
Her biggest rival was Marie Antoinette, the 14-year-old princess engaged to the king’s grandson. Antoinette and du Barry first met on the eve of Antoinette’s wedding and it was hate at first sight.
When Antoinette was informed that du Barry’s role in court was to pleasure the king, she was disgusted and refused to speak to her. The snub rippled through the court and du Barry became the most hated woman in France.
Hated for being of the servant class, hated for being illegitimate, and hated for her scandalous past at the hands of a pimp that saw her beauty as profitable. “A cheap whore that got lucky,” they called her.
And yet, the four years of her tenure as official mistress of the king were the best years of her life. She was never hungry. She slept in grandeur, drank chocolate for breakfast, and had closets full of lovely clothing and jewelry.
Four years later, when Louis XV died of smallpox Marie Antoinette and her husband became king and queen of France. Madame Du Barry was publicly disgraced and banished from the Court.
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