Pauline-Félicité de Mailly

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Pauline de Mailly, born 1712, died 1741, was one of the "sisters de Nesle" who served as mistresses to the king Louis XV.

In 1740, Pauline wrote to her older sister, the kings official mistress, Louise Julie de Mailly , and asked her to invite her to court. When she received this invitation, she used it to seduce the king, who became passionately in love with her.

Pauline then became the second official mistress of Louis XV, although her sister kept her position as titular mistress. She received a great amount of gifts from the king, the greatest one being the castle of Choisy-le-Roi, newly decorated in blue and silver, and Pauline quickly became pregnant. The king also gave her the title marquis of Vintimille by marrying her off to the marquis of Vintimille, after which her husband departed to the country.

Pauline- Félicité de Mailly is described as graceful and with a long neck, but not beautiful; as a person, she was much more ambitious then her older sister and predecessor and had a great desire for money and political influence, and her arrogance quickly made her hated within the court and by the people.

She could have been just as politically influential as her two successors Marie-Anne de Mailly and Madame de Pompadour, but her period as royal mistress was very short; she died giving birth to the son of the king in 1741.

Her corpse was placed at Lit-de-parade in the city of Versailles, but during the night, the guards left the room to drink and a mob broke in and mutilated the corpse of "the kings whore".

Both the king and her sister, the official mistress, became deeply devastated by the death of their lover and sister, and the countess de Mailly is said to have began wash the feet of the poor as a Catholic sign of remorse.

The son of the king and Pauline de Mailly was named Louis after his father and given the title Duc de Luc. He so resembled his father that he was called "Demi-Louis"; "small Louis". The king took care of his needs but never cared for him much. Later, Madame de Pompadour wanted to marry her daughter to him, but the king would not allow this.