known as Madame du Barry
born Aug. 19, 1743, Vaucouleurs, France
died Dec. 8, 1793, Paris
French mistress of Louis XV .
A Paris shop assistant, she became the mistress of Jean du Barry, who introduced her into Parisian high society. Admired for her beauty, she joined Louis XV's court in 1769 after a nominal marriage to Jean's brother, a nobleman, qualified her as Louis's official royal mistress. Though she exercised little political influence, her unpopularity contributed to the decline of the prestige of the crown in the early 1770s. After Louis's death (1774), she was banished from court. In the French Revolution she was condemned as a counterrevolutionary and guillotined.