Welcome to Royal Romance Week Day One here at White Rose of Avalon my Darlings. Today’s post is going to be focused on Louis XV and his famed mistress Madame Du Barry! I was uncertain if I wanted to focus this post on Madame de Pompadour or Madame Du Barry, as they were both beloved and famed mistresses of Louis XV, but I ultimately chose Du Barry because she is very dramatic. I feel the extra drama of Du Barry’s persona, and her oft-misunderstood nature, lend to a more interesting Royal Romance Week topic!
So, Louis XV was the successor of the great and iconic Sun King, Louis XIV, but he was not his son as all of Louis XIV’s sons and grandsons died before him so Louis XV was actually his great-grandson! As Louis XIV lay dying after a long reign of 75 years (as he had ascended the throne when he was just a toddler), he wrote his successor a letter outlining some tips on how to go on to run the country successfully. One thing that Louis XIV stressed was not to let your mistresses (of which he had many) gain too much political control. Louis XV did not heed the words of his successful forebear, instead letting his mistresses gain immense sway in the politics of the Court of France, most especially Pompadour. In fact, Madame de Pompadour practically ran the country while Louis XV lived a life of delightful hedonistic excess! It was after her death that Louis XV became very difficult to console, and it was not too long before another famed mistress would enter his life.
However, Du Barry was nothing like the highborn and noble Pompadour. She was often looked down upon by the French Court due to her origins as a Courtesan, a high-class Sex Worker. She had been born Jeanne Becu, the illegitimate daughter of a seamstress and a monk. It was Louis XV that got her a title through a marriage that allowed her to stay at Court! Yet, it was also well known that the young Marie Antoinette disliked and disrespected Du Barry, having to be warned by her mother that she should not snub the King’s favorite, even if she did not like her. It was custom that Royals had to be the first to speak in an interaction, so Du Barry could not have even a simple conversation with the Dauphine unless Antoinette initiated it! The feeling of being snubbed by the young Princess certainly grated on Du Barry’s nerves.
In truth, it seems that Du Barry did not do anything rude to offend Marie Antoinette, but instead, it seems to be the fact that she had been a sex worker that upset the Princess so much that she did not want to interact with her. Du Barry got this sort of reception and treatment from much of the French Court, viewing her as essentially a gold digger only wanting the power and money that the aged Louis XV could provide her! This was not taken well by even the very often licentious French Courtiers, as they valued nobility and high birth.
All of this being said, there is nothing in the way Du Barry treated Louis XV to show that her interest in him was anything other than what any mistress would hope to gain from having a King for a lover. She was not treated by Louis XV in any way that differed from how he treated Pompadour, and she seemed to desire less influence in running the country than Pompadour had. By all accounts, Du Barry seemed to genuinely enjoy the company of the aged Monarch, which is more than can be said for many a Royal mistress! Throughout history, too many Royal mistresses were only bedding the Monarch to gain favor and political power without actually having any affection for the King himself. Du Barry has always struck me as a breath of fresh air, in that yes she gained jewels and got to go to fancy parties at Court, but she did not gain real power and seemed to be in the relationship mostly because she had an emotional attachment to the King!
I do not like that many people want to paint Du Barry as a gold digger, all because she was once a sex worker, and Louis XV as a totally undesired old man, who could only get a lover because he was a King. I think this assumption does a disservice to both historical figures! I even truly enjoyed the way that their relationship is depicted in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antionette film from 2006. The great Rip Torn and Asia Argento play the lovers and when they are on screen together it is shown that they truly seem smitten with one another! Although everyone around them seems disgusted, neither lover seems to care when they are together. That is how I like to remember them, as lovers who truly did enhance one another’s lives! Louis XV did the kind thing when he was dying, he sent Du Barry away knowing that the French Court would not be kind to her once he was gone. Although, sadly, they could not be together in those final hours, he protected her one final time, which I find bittersweet!
I hope you have enjoyed this first entry in Royal Romance Week here on White Rose of Avalon. Do you find Pompadour or Du Barry more intriguing as historical mistresses? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is DuBarry painted by Vigee LeBrun. I found the image on https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/76611.
Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services! I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon! Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/
Further Reading/Watching
- Madame du Barry: The Wages of Beauty by Joan Haslip
- Marie Antoinette (2006)
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