DU BARRY, du bere, Jeanne Becu, Comtesse, a French courtesan, mistress of Louis XV: b. Vaucouleurs, 19 Aug. 1746; d. Paris, 6 Dec. 1793. She was the daughter of Anne Beal Ramon, the wife of a domestic, and because of her beauty succeeded in gaining the patronage of the Abbe Arnaud who sent her to school at a convent. Here she gained a very slight edu cation, and left when she was 15 years of age. Her first employment was as lady's maid to Madame de la Garde, and next at a milliner's shop in the rue de Saint Honore. Here she lived as a courtesan under the name of Lange, and soon attracted by her charms the adventurer Jean, Comte du Barry, who made her his mistress. She presided over his gam bling house with great brilliance until the fame of her beauty and wit reached the ears of King Louis XV, who immediately became enamored of her. She was presented at court and in stalled as his official mistress in 1769. For form's sake the king had her married to the brother of the Comte du Barry and her position was thus secured. Her influence at court be came very powerful and for five years she reigned supreme. Important offices and leges were in her gift and the courtiers a themselves to win her regard. After the death of Louis, she retired from court to a convent near Meaux, but at the intercession of the queen was restored to the magnificent château of Luciennes. Here a throng of leading men
assembled to do her homage; among them Franklin, and the Emperor Joseph II. She re ceived also a pension from Louis XVI and her court was gay and brilliant. On the outbreak of the Revolution she fled to England, but re turned to attend to the matter of her stolen jewels. She was immediately arrested by the revolutionary tribunal, condemned to death and executed. The conflicting estimates of the Du Barry are difficult to reconcile. She was gay, witty, of a frank and pleasing manner and seductive, sensuous beauty. It is doubtful whether her political intrigues had any deeper origin than her desire to please her favorites and gratify her own vanity. It is estimated that her luxuries and her liberality to the arts cost France 35,000,000 livres. The 'Lettres et Anecdotes> ascribed to her are unauthentic. Consult Goncourt, 'La Du Barry' (Paris 1 i); Vatel, C., de Mal• du Barry d'apres ses papiers personnels' (Versailles 1880, con taining a bibliography of sources) ; Douglas, R, 'Life and Times of MI" Du Barry' (London 18%).