28 Floréal
An CCXXXIV
Madame Dubarry
A truly beautiful woman can achieve anything – as Madame Dubarry did. She rose from being a prostitute in a Parisian brothel to becoming the mistress of Louis XV in Versailles. For six years, until his death, she was his favorite. As a reward, he ordered in his will that she be banished to a convent. She stayed there for hardly a year. She returned to her château. Then the Revolution broke out and she fled to England. But in 1793 she returned to Paris – completely unconcerned. What had she done, after all? The Revolutionary Tribunal did not hesitate. She had been the mistress of a tyrant. That was enough for a death sentence. Her execution was dreadful. Dubarry did not want to die. She struggled, screamed, and fought with all her might before she was laid on the plank and her head fell.
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1743 - 1793
- August 19, 1743 · Marie Jeanne Bécu is born in Vaucouleurs as the illegitimate daughter of the seamstress Anne Bécu and a monk.
- 1766 · She works as a prostitute in the brothel of Madame Gourdan in Paris.
- September 1, 1768 · Pro forma marriage to Guillaume du Barry. The husband’s brother, Count Jean-Baptiste du Barry, introduces her shortly afterwards at the court of Versailles as a supposed noblewoman. There she becomes the mistress of King Louis XV.
- May 10, 1774 · Death of Louis XV. Dubarry is banished to a convent in accordance with the king’s testamentary provisions.
- 1776 · Return to her château in Louveciennes near Versailles.
- January 10, 1791 · Her château is looted. She then goes to England.
- March 1793 · Return to Paris.
- September 22, 1793 · Madame Dubarry is arrested. She is imprisoned at Sainte-Pélagie.
- December 7, 1793 · She is sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal as
the author or accomplice of schemes and collusion with the enemies of the State
. - December 8, 1793 · Execution on the Place de la Révolution in Paris.
Quotes
One forgives a woman many things—as long as she pleases.
Madame Dubarry
After the wife of the last French tyrant, it is now necessary to judge the mistress of his infamous predecessor.
Fouquier-Tinville, public prosecutor at the Revolutionary Tribunal, 1793
One more moment, Mr. Executioner, I beg you!
Madame Dubarry, 10 December 1793
Le Moniteur
Décadi, 20 Frimaire, l'an 2 de la République Française une et indivisible
(December 10, 1793)
Madame Dubarry (film by Ernst Lubitsch, 1919)
External links
