DU BARRY. du .1t:.‘NNE Countess The celebrated mistress of louts NV. She was horn August 19, 1713. at Van•onlcurs, and was the natural of a Woillan named Anne Ikea, who, about the year 1719, returned to Paris with her two children, Jeanne and Claude. and married a named Radon. The beauty of little Jeanne won her many friends, chief of whom was the rich linamier and philanthropist, Al.
reaux. Through him and the .1,1ibi% Arnaud she was admitted to the consent school of Sainte Atirore. There -he retnailted for some seven or eight acquiring hut little knowledge and enduring a great deal of irksome diseipline. Emerging from the convent at the age of fifteen, Jeanne rte'', or Jeanne Rancon, as site then to have been called, dwelt with her mother for a time and then became a lady's maid to de la Garde and later it milliner in the house of a certain Slim!• Labille. where she doubtless had many love affairs. She was at this time known as Mlle. Lange. hut soon as sumed the more ari-fooratie cognomen of Itcati antler. In the midst of her gallantries. Jeanne met the dissolute ('(unite Jean du Barry. known specifically as 'the who made her his mistress and induced her to ehange her name to or Vauliernier. hs which she is generally known with the subsequently added prefix f;omard. For four years she pre sided over the gaming rooms of her until, in the spring of 171i8, she came in the path of Louis XV.. who was immediately captivated by hi r charms, and made her his mistress. To all a show decene• to the matter, a lot.hand was found for her in the person of Comte Guillaume du Poi rry, the brother of l'ollite Jean. For five
years the du Barry ruled Ding and Court. The Doc he r confidant and adviser, the Chancellor )1anpeott used her Million/9r to dismiss and exile the Parlement in 1771, while the Alibi. Ternay was suave and polite to her at all times. She was the patron of artists and non of letters. and during her reign she is esti• mated to have eost France 35.0000fMlivres. She had IlliMerollA enemies, loovever, chief of whom was the Due de Choiseul. tlinister of fairs, whose dismissal she brought about in 1770. The death of Louis XV. caused her retirement from the Court. Sonic time after the outbreak of the Revolution she went to London to see about the recovery of her jewels, which had been stolen. On her return, 110bespierre caused her to be ar rested, Jul-. 1793. In Novendwr she was tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal, and accused of wasted the treasures of the State, of conspiracy against the Republic: and with having, in London, worn mourning for the late King." She was condemned to death and was sent to the December 7, 1793. Most of the ac counts gi VC n of Madame du Barry are unreliable. She was the victim of much slander, and stories concerning her amours are rarely trustworthy. The Memoire, t 0 vols., Paris, 1829-30; Engl. trans., 1830, 1890), published under her name, have no real value. Consult: Douglas, Life and Times of Madame du Barry (London, 1891i); Lacretelle, llistuire dc Franc(' pendant le dix linitienic tParis, ]830) ; `Cate]. Ilistoire de Madame du Barry, etc. (Versailles, 1880) ; Goncourt, La Do Barry (Paris, 1880).