Jean-Baptiste du Barry
Jean-Baptiste DuBarry, comte du Barry-Cérès, vidame de Châlons en Champagne (1723 - 17 January 1794) was a French nobleman. He is most notable as the lover and pimp of Jeanne Bécu (later better known as Madame du Barry, Louis XV's last official mistress), later becoming her brother-in-law by arranging a marriage-of-convenience between her and his younger brother Guillaume Dubarry at the église Saint-Laurent de Paris on 1 September 1768.[1] Through that union the two brothers benefitted from royal largesse.
Life
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Born in Lévignac, Haute-Garonne, Jean-Baptiste was the son of Antoine Dubarry (1674–1744), a captain in the régiment d'Île de France, and his wife Marguerite Catherine Cécile Thérèse de La Caze (died 1784), who he had married in 1722.[2] His dissolute life and lack of scruples gained him the nickname "Le Roué"[3] In 1748 he married Ursule Damas de Vernongrese then Anne de Rabaudy de Montoussin, by whom he had a son Adolphe Dubarry (1749–1778).
Louis XV had already begun falling in love with Bécu at the time of her marriage, through which Jean-Baptiste aimed to have her officially presented at court. This was successful and she was able to become the king's official favourite. For turning a blind eye to the affair and following complicated negotiations and fictitious exchanges, Guillaume was granted the comté de L'Isle-Jourdain and major estates in eastern Gascony, whilst Jean-Baptiste himself was granted the vidame of Châlons en Champagne and its revenue.[4] On the king's death in 1774, despite being Madame du Barry's brother-in-law, Jean-Baptiste had to leave the royal court and returned to Toulouse. Madame du Barry did not go with him or return to her husband - following a "letter du cachet" from the new king Louis XVI she was forced to stay in a convent before gaining royal approval to return to her château in Louveciennes.
Between 1777 and 1778 Jean-Baptiste bought two houses in Toulouse on place Saint-Raymond (now 1 place Saint-Sernin) and many plots between Rue de la Chaîne (now 8–12) and Rue Royale (now Rue Gatien-Arnoult) on which he built the Hôtel Dubarry. When the French Revolution broke out in 1789 he joined the National Guard and became colonel of the Saint-Sernin legion. However, he was then arrested as a suspect in 1793, with Madame du Barry also arrested and imprisoned on 22 September that year. She was guillotined on place de la Révolution (now Place de la Concorde) on 8 December that year, with the same fate befalling Jean-Baptiste on 17 January 1794 in place de la Liberté (now Place du Capitole) in Toulouse. By contrast, Guillaume died 17 years later in 1811, aged 79.
References
[edit]- ^ (in French) Yannick Resch, 200 femmes de l'histoire : des origines à nos jours, Paris, Eyrolles, coll. « Eyrolles pratique », 2009, 230 p., 14,8 × 21 cm (ISBN 978-2-212-54291-2 et 2-212-54291-7, OCLC 495314764, notice BnF no FRBNF42001111, SUDOC 133624129, p. 60.
- ^ (in French) Axel Duboul, Le Tribunal révolutionnaire de Toulouse : 25 Nivôse - 3 Floréal an II, 14 Janvier - 22 Avril 1794, Toulouse, É. Privat, 1894, 168 p., p. 33.
- ^ (in French) Mathieu da Vinha, Au service du roi : Les métiers à la cour de Versailles, Paris, Tallandier, 1894, 352 p. (ISBN 979-10-210-1005-5, p. 251.
- ^ (in French) Louis Grignon, « Les vidames de Châlons », Revue de Champagne et de Brie, 1884
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