Louis XV and Madame Du Barry, his last favorite, portrayed in a nineteenth-century painting by Gyula Benczùr
The French kings , except for the honest and sober Louis XVI , they always stood out for their libertine and brash behavior, but Louis XV , who was the grandfather of the unfortunate ruler guillotined during the Terror, was truly unsurpassed in this art.
It is impossible to count the number of lovers who entered the king's bed, but many of them are known by names and some biographical traits, starting with the two most famous "favorites", Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry.
The nineteenth-century painting you see shown in the photo, work of Gyula Benczùr, portrays Louis XV in the company of Marie-Jeanne Bécu, Countess Du Barry , who last held the coveted role of "lover in charge" of the king, in practice until the latter's death, which occurred in May 1774.
Beautiful, brash, intriguing and ready to do anything to carve out a place in high society, Du Barry, of very humble origins and the daughter of an unknown father, used the weapon of seduction to enter the good graces of the most powerful man in France and become the favorite, succeeding, it seems, instantly.
Having been a high-class prostitute for years , we can imagine how he was able to keep her august lover tied to him for years, who moreover never made any secret, not even publicly, of what attracted him so much about her ...
However, this woman, once powerful and shrewd, was expected by a tragic and mocking fate:despite having lived for decades away from the court and despite having no political faults to blame her, she was sentenced to the guillotine during the Revolution and executed on December 8, 1793. .