Louise Julie de Mailly-Nesle, comtesse de Mailly (; 1710–1751) was the eldest of the five de Nesle sisters, four of whom were mistresses of King Louis XV of France. She was first the mistress of the Marquis de Puysieux and then of Louis XV from 1732 until 1742, and his official mistress from 1738 until 1742.
Early life, family and marriage
Louise Julie was born the eldest daughter of Louis de Mailly, marquis de Nesle et de Mailly, Prince d'Orange (1689–1767), and Armande Félice de La Porte Mazarin (1691–1729). Her parents had been married in 1709. Her mother was the daughter of 'Paul Jules de La Porte, duc Mazarin et de La Meilleraye (1666–1731), the son of the famous adventuress, Hortense Mancini, the niece of Cardinal Mazarin. Her mother was a lady-in-waiting in service to the queen, Marie Leszczyńska, from 1725, and her father reportedly "wasted his substance on actresses and the capacious requirements of Court life".Latour, Louis Therese, Princesses Ladies And Salonnieres of The Reign of Louis XV, 1927
Louise Julie had four younger full sisters:
Pauline Félicité de Mailly, Mademoiselle de Nesle, marquise de Vintimille (1712–1741), Diane Adélaïde de Mailly, Mademoiselle de Montcavrel, duchesse de Lauraguais (1714–1769), Hortense Félicité de Mailly, Mademoiselle de Chalon, marquise de Flavacourt (1715–1799). Marie Anne de Mailly, Mademoiselle de Monchy, marquise de La Tournelle, duchesse de Châteauroux (1717–1744).
The only one of the de Nesle sisters not to become one of Louis XV's mistresses was Hortense Félicité de Mailly, Marquise de Flavacourt. Louise Julie was the first sister to attract the king, but it was Marie Anne who was the most successful in manipulating him and becoming politically powerful.
Louise Julie also had a younger half-sister, Henriette de Bourbon (1725–1780), Mademoiselle de Verneuil, from her mother's relationship with the duc de Bourbon, the chief minister of Louis XV from 1723 to 1726.
In her youth, Louise Julie was known as Mademoiselle de Mailly. On 31 May 1726, she married her cousin, Louis Alexandre de Mailly, comte de Mailly (1694-1743). The marriage was forced upon her against her will and was reportedly unhappy.
Mistress to Louis XV
"The Fair Unknown" In 1729, her mother died. Louise Julie replaced her as lady-in-waiting, Dame du Palais, to the queen. She also became the mistress of the Marquis de Puysieux.Clarissa Campbell Orr: Queenship in Europe 1660-1815: The Role of the Consort. Cambridge University Press (2004)
Queen Marie was frequently pregnant, which prevented her from entertaining the restless King Louis XV. Cardinal Fleury, the de facto ruler of France, wished to prevent Marie from acquiring any political influence over the king and harming his own position. Fleury therefore favored the idea of the king taking a mistress to keep him entertained, as long as she was apolitical.
Reportedly, years passed before they finally kissed, and throughout their relationship, she remained "the bolder and more enticing of the two." In 1732 or 1733, according to the memoirs of the Duke de Richelieu, Louise Julie finally became the King's mistress after Louis XV was set up by Mademoiselle de Charolais and other courtiers by literally throwing him on top of a half naked Comtesse de Mailly on a sofa by his valet Gabriel Bachelier.
Louise Julie de Mailly was described as a thin beauty, with a perfect oval face and dark eyes with marked eyebrows, which gave her a "provocative and sensuous charm". She knew how to adjust the fashion to suit her, designed her own "piquant and suggestive" negligees, and often wore her diamonds in her carefully dressed black hair – she was, however, not graceful but rather clumsy in her movements. As a person, she was described as good-tempered, witty and entertaining at social occasions, without being so at the expense of others, and as a loyal and devoted friend and a passionate and sincere lover, ready to sacrifice herself to make those she cared for happy. She enjoyed pleasure and social life but was also described as generous and sympathetic to others. She completely lacked ambition and interest in politics, and genuinely "wanted nothing but the love of Louis XV, whom she adored with all the strength of her passionate nature". She nevertheless was regularly paid per sexual encounter with King according to the memoirs of the Marquise de Argenson Louis XV reportedly appreciated her adoration and love for him and was satisfied with the fact that she was afraid of Cardinal Fleury, never trying to interfere in politics. The King, however, felt guilty on betraying his wife.
Although she became the king's mistress in 1732, de Mailly was not officially recognized as his maîtresse en titre until 1738. During this period the relationship was unofficial and her identity kept secret, known to the court only as the Fair Unknown. Queen Marie was deeply hurt over the affair and unsuccessfully tried to find out who the mistress was, but the adultery had the support of Cardinal Fleury because de Mailly was apolitical; after the first few years the queen became resigned to it.
Official mistress
In 1738, Marie's 11th pregnancy ended in a miscarriage and she was warned a next pregnancy will be fatal. She ended any sexual relationship with her husband. This signaled the end of her influence over the king and a shift of the courtiers towards de Mailly as the king's mistress.
There was speculation at court as to the mistress's identity: it was only known that she visited his private apartments at night, wearing a hood over her face in order not to be identified by anyone she met in the corridors on her way to and from his rooms. To find out who she was, in the summer of 1738 Gabriel Bicheher stopped Mailly one night on her way to the king's bedroom and knocked her hood off, watched by two of the queen's ladies-in-waiting posted nearby. These spread the word through the court the following day, exposing Mailly's identity. This was probably done on the initiative of the courtiers, who wanted to have an alternative channel to the king after the queen had lost her influence with him.
Following this incident, on 14 July 1738 the king "declared his passion" and acknowledged Louise Julie de Mailly as his official mistress by eating supper with her before his court at the Château de Compiègne. After this she was given rooms next to the king's apartments and appeared as his hostess at his private parties at the Royal castles at Versailles, Choisy and La Muette. The queen regarded Louise Julie as the most hurtful of all the lovers of her spouse because she was the first, but grew accustomed to her; she did not dislike her as a person, as she would come to dislike her sister and successor, Marie Anne.
Louise Julie de Mailly was widely celebrated at court after she was introduced as the king's official mistress, but this put a great deal of strain their relationship. Her new position exposed her to public criticism, and Louis XV reportedly felt humiliated when some regarded her as insufficiently beautiful for her role. She became tormented by jealousy and incidents were noted when they argued, such as once, when she lost at cards and remarked to the king: "It is not to be wondered at, with you here."
The king reacted badly to the fact that she was approached by petitioners who expected her to be able to influence him, and when she showed him the letter from a petitioner, Monsieur de Luc, who ended his petition with: "It needs but one word from the beautiful mouth of a lovely lady like yourself and the business is done," the humiliated king exclaimed: "A beautiful mouth, indeed! I scarcely think you can plume yourself on that!" Nonetheless, she did not use her new position to enrich herself or interfere in politics, and it soon became known that she did not involve herself in political issues or the advancement of petitioners.
Louise Julie was devoted to her family and it was said of her that she was "a loving, sincere little creature with all the qualities of an easy dupe, and she was happy to Introduce her sisters at Court for the sole reason that it gave them pleasure". She invited all her sisters to court on different occasions and helped them establish themselves socially. In 1739, her younger sister Pauline-Félicité sent a letter requesting to be invited to court. Louise Julie granted her sister's wish, but upon arrival at court Pauline-Félicité promptly seduced the king and became his new mistress.
Madame de Mailly remained official mistress, but the king fell in love with Pauline-Félicité and arranged her marriage to the Marquis de Vintimille, enabling her to stay at court, and gave her the castle of Choisy-le-Roi as a gift. Madame de Vintimille quickly became pregnant and died giving birth to the king's illegitimate son, Louis, the duc de Luc, who looked so much like the king that he was called Demi-Louis ('Half Louis'). Madame de Vintimille's remains lay in Lit de parade in the town of Versailles, but during the night a mob broke in and mutilated the body of "the king's whore". The king and Louise Julie were both devastated by the death of Pauline-Félicité and shocked by the mutilation of her body; in her despair she was said to have performed a Catholic rite of penitence by washing the feet of the poor.
After this, her recently widowed youngest sister, Marie Anne de Mailly, asked to be invited to court. Relying on her family's devotion to establish herself socially, upon her introduction her beauty and charm made her a great success. Marie Anne was described as "magnificently beautiful", dignified and graceful, with fair hair, "a complexion so white and pure that it glowed", large blue eyes and red lips with a "childlike smile"; she was also considered a charming wit who frequently used irony.
Dismissal
Louise Julie de Mailly was known to be so in love with the king that she "could do nothing without asking his advice" and never involved herself with state affairs. This made her acceptable to Cardinal Fleury, but also a disappointment to the court nobility, who wished for the king to have a mistress who could influence the king against the pacifist policy of Fleury and engage in warfare, which the ideals of nobility regarded as necessary for national dignity and glory. Among the war-favoring aristocrats were the kings friends, the manipulative duc de Richelieu, and Charles, Prince of Soubise, who supported the idea to introduce a new mistress to the king, who could be used to oppose the influence of the Cardinal and his peace policy and push France to engage in war, and they viewed Louise Julie's sister Marie Anne de Mailly, marquise de La Tournelle, as a suitable candidate for this purpose.
At a masked ball on Shrove Tuesday, 1742, Richelieu led Marie Anne up to the king and introduced them. She herself, however, at first rejected the royal advances. She already had a lover, the young duc d'Agénois, and was not inclined to give him up for the king's sake. As a result, Louis conspired with Richelieu, who was d'Agénois's uncle, to rid himself of the young suitor. Richelieu was quite anxious to do anything to bring about a liaison between the king and Marie Anne de La Tournelle because he knew Louise Julie de Mailly did not view him in a kindly light. The result was that Louis, in imitation of the biblical David, sent his rival to fight the Austrians in Italy. Here, more fortunate than the husband of Bathsheba, the duc d'Agénois was only wounded, and returned to the court in glory.