In 1761, a 24-year-old penniless woman named Jeanne Bécu wrote a letter to a “dear friend,” telling him she loved him before getting to the point: “I don’t want to remain a shopgirl, but a little more my own mistress, and would therefore like to find someone to keep me.” She makes her pitch: “It will not cost you anymore rent … To keep me and my headdress will be the only expense, and for those give me one hundred livres a month.”
The unknown man did not take her up on it, but the letter shows the boldness of the woman soon known to history as Madame du Barry. She was the illegitimate daughter of a cook and a monk. Not a good start. She needed protection. Eventually, Jean-Baptiste du Barry stepped into the keeper role. Not long afterward, she was introduced to King Louis XV and installed at Versailles as his mistress. The rest is history.
