PRIE, JEANNE-AGNES BERTHELOT DE PLENEUF, MARQUISE DE

born 1698, Paris, France died Oct. 7, 1727, Courbpine French adventuress during the reign of Louis XV. The daughter of an unscrupulous financier, tienne Berthelot, she was married at age 15 to Louis, Marquess de Prie, and went with him to the court of Savoy at Turin, where he was ambassador. She was 21 when she returned to France and was soon the declared mistress of Louis-Henri, Duke de Bourbon. During his ministry (1723-1725) she was in several respects the real ruler of France, her most notable triumph being the marriage of Louis XV to Marie Leszczynska instead of to Mlle de Vermandois. But when, in 1725, she sought to have Bourbon's rival, chief minister Andr-Hercule de Fleury exiled, her ascendancy came to an end. After Fleury's recall and the banishment of Bourbon to Chantilly, Mme de Prie was exiled to Courbpine, where she committed suicide the next year.