Madame du Barry

The mistresses of the French kings are some of the most iconic and recognizable. Madame de Pompadour, Agnès Sorel, Madame de Montespan, Madame de Maintenon, Diane de Poitiers. These are just a few of the hundreds of women who came to dominate the French court. In many cases they all shared a similar background; daughters of minor nobility who knew the ways of a royal court and played their parts accordingly. However, in the waning years of the French monarchy, one woman scandalized the French court by coming not from the nobility but from the working class. Jeanne Bécu, later known as Madame du Barry was a self-made woman who achieved wealth and infamy by supposedly rising from a brothel to King Louis XV’s bed. Depicted both during her lifetime and after as a vulgar, social climbing courtesan, Madame du Barry has rarely gotten a fair depiction. However, when truly analyzed, what she was able to achieve by the age of 25 is nothing less than astonishing. Featured Guest: Dr. Christine Adams, a historian, and author that focuses mainly on French family and gender history. Christine is the co-author of the book The Creation of the French Royal Mistress: From Agnès Sorel to Madame DuBarry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Om Podcasten

They were adulterers, murderers, mistresses, religious zealots, thieves, and traitors. They were queens, wives, mothers, young, and old. What binds the women together in this podcast is their legacies. These are women who were known during their lifetimes or reinvented after their deaths as wicked women. The lenses of history are often gendered, damning women for some of the same actions that men have been lauded for. The nuances surrounding the women in this podcast were removed in exchange for a one-sided portrayal. Within Wicked Women: The Podcast, I do not attempt to excuse or condone the wrongs committed by these women, instead, the podcast looks at their overarching story and examines the origin of their negative legacy. Alongside a brief biographical overview of the woman, I will be incorporating interviews I have held with experts on the subject to provide multiple and diverse perspectives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.