Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle duchess de Châteauroux
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Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle, duchesse de Châteauroux (October 5, 1717 – December 8, 1744) was a mistress of Louis XV of France, and the youngest of four sisters who served as courtesans in the royal court of France.
[edit] Courtesan to Louis XV, political intrigue
Upon the death of her husband, the Marquis de la Tournelle, Marie-Anne attracted the attention of Louis XV and became his courtesan, like her sisters Louise-Julie and Pauline-Félicité before her. With the aide of the plotting marshal de Richelieu, she supplanted her older sister, Madame de Mailly, as titular mistress in 1742.
Directed by Richelieu, himself dominated by Madame de Tencin, Marie-Anne tried to arouse the king, dragging him off to the armies, and negotiated the alliance with Frederick II of Prussia, in 1744. Her political role was great, despite that it was exerted from behind the scenes. Her triumph after the passing disgrace provoked by the king's illness at Metz did not last long, for she died unexpectedly on 8 December 1744. A few months later, the king already had a new mistress – Madame de Pompadour.
See Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, La Duchesse de Châteauroux et ses sœurs (Paris, 1879).
[edit] See also
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
