Marie-Louise O'Murphy

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Marie-Louise O'Murphy (21 October 1737 – 11 December 1814) was a courtesan and one of the several mistresses of King Louis XV of France.

[edit] Early life, life as a courtesan

She was the fifth daughter of an Irish soldier who had taken up shoemaking in Rouen, France. After his death, their mother brought the family to Paris, where she traded in old clothes while finding her daughters work as actresses or models.

In 1752, at barely fifteen years of age, she posed nude for a memorable and provocative portrait by artist François Boucher. Her beauty caught the eye of a royal valet who then introduced her to the king, Louis XV. He took her as one of his mistresses, and she quickly became a favourite giving birth to the king's illegitimate daughter, Agathe Louise de Saint-Antoine (1754 – 1774). General de Beaufranchet is also alleged to have been their child as well, but that has never been confirmed beyond a doubt.

After serving as a mistress to the king for just over two years, O'Murphy made a mistake that was common for many courtesans, that being the replacement of the official mistress. Around 1754, she unwisely tried to unseat the then powerful courtesan and longtime royal favorite Madame de Pompadour. This move was unsuccessful, and quickly resulted in O'Murphy's downfall at court, her fate being sealed by an arranged marriage to a minor noble and then being sent away. She continued to serve in royal circles as a courtesan, however, never climbing back up to her former status, and would marry twice more, her third husband being thirty years her junior. All her marriages ended in divorce.

Following the French Revolution, O'Murphy suffered imprisonment for a period because of her royal connections, but she survived the Terreur and many years of political turmoil before dying in 1814 at the age of 77.