Jean-Baptiste Dubarry, comte du Barry-Cérès,

vidame Vidame () was a feudal title in France, a term descended from mediaeval Latin . Like the ''avoué'' or ''advocatus'', the ''vidame'' was originally a secular official chosen by the bishop of the diocese—with the consent of the count—to ...

de Châlons en Champagne (1723 - 17 January 1794) was a French nobleman. He is most notable as the lover and pimp of Jeanne Bécu (later better known as Madame du Barry,

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

's last official mistress), later becoming her brother-in-law by arranging a marriage-of-convenience between her and his younger brother Guillaume Dubarry at the église Saint-Laurent de Paris on 1 September 1768. Through that union the two brothers benefitted from royal largesse.

Life

Born in Lévignac, Haute-Garonne, Jean-Baptiste was the son of Antoine Dubarry, a captain in the régiment d'Île de France, and his wife Marguerite Catherine Cécile Thérèse de La Caze, who he had married in 1722. His dissolute life and lack of scruples gained him the nickname "Le Roué" He married Ursule Damas de Vernongrese then Anne de Rabaudy de Montoussin. Louis XV had already begun falling in love with Bécu at the time of her marriage, through which Jean-Baptiste aimed to have her officially presented at court. This was successful and she was able to become the king's official favourite. For turning a blind eye to the affair and following complicated negotiations and fictitious exchanges, Guillaume was granted the comté de L'Isle-Jourdain and major estates in eastern Gascony, whilst Jean-Baptiste himself was granted the vidame of Châlons en Champagne and its revenue. Louis Grignon, « Les vidames de Châlons », ''Revue de Champagne et de Brie'',‎ 1884 On the king's death in 1774, despite being Madame du Barry's brother-in-law, Jean-Baptiste had to leave the royal court and returned to

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

. Madame du Barry did not go with him or return to her husband - following a "letter du cachet" from the new king

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

she was forced to stay in a convent before gaining royal approval to return to her

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Now ...

Louveciennes Louveciennes () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, between Versailles and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and adjacent to Marly-le-Roi. Population ...

. Between 1777 and 1778 Jean-Baptiste bought two houses in Toulouse on place Saint-Raymond (now 1 place Saint-Sernin) and many plots between Rue de la Chaîne (now 8–12) and Rue Royale (now Rue Gatien-Arnoult) on which he built the Hôtel Dubarry. When the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

broke out in 1789 he joined the

National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...

and became colonel of the Saint-Sernin legion. However, he was then arrested as a suspect in 1793, with Madame du Barry also arrested and imprisoned on 22 September that year. She was guillotined on place de la Révolution (now

Place de la Concorde The Place de la Concorde () is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. ...

) on 8 December that year, with the same fate befalling Jean-Baptiste on 17 January 1794 in place de la Liberté (now Place du Capitole) in Toulouse. By contrast, Guillaume died 17 years later in 1811, aged 79.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dubarry, Jean-Baptiste Counts of Isle-Jourdain 1723 births 1794 deaths French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution People from Haute-Garonne