Beheaded

Madame du Barry: The Girl from Nothing & Ready for Anything

Megan Moore & Elizabeth Black Season 6 Episode 1

In this episode, we take you back to the court of Versailles to share the story of Madame du Barry—the last mistress of King Louis XV. Was she truly the frivolous scandal history remembers? Or a woman of surprising wit, charm, and ambition? Pour yourself a glass of something French and let’s dive into the life of this infamous enchantress who found herself both beloved and betrayed by the world’s most glittering court.

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Hello, and welcome to Beheaded.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to season six, episode one. I'm Megan Moore and I'm Elizabeth Black. Welcome back. Welcome back everybody. I hope everyone had a great off season. Season six. That sounds weird, to be honest. When I was like doing my notes and preparing, I was like, oh, I can't wait for season five. I was like we're like in six.

Speaker 1:

We're in our sixth year. We started this in 2019. Yes, which still feels like that was only two years ago.

Speaker 2:

But think about how much we've gone through since then the whole COVID thing and just so much change. I don't know. It's just been kind of a wild ride and I'm excited everyone's been with us for it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, my dog excited. Everyone's been with us for it. Yeah, like my dog is getting older, we're getting older. We're not getting older. Speak for yourself. I missed you, I missed this. It like felt weirdly comforting, putting everything in place where it should be.

Speaker 2:

Yes, setting up for tonight was a lot of fun. I came over like super early today because normally we've told you guys, like we usually meet kind of after hours work and we're usually doing this late in the night. I was like I'm getting to your house at like 10 in the morning, do it? Yeah, and we're going to. We'll tell you what we, how we prepped for this episode a little bit later so we don't give it all away up front. But like we had breakfast, we had snacks, we had dinner, like we just ate all day, yeah like megan, bought these beautiful little skeleton stemless wine glasses spooky season.

Speaker 1:

Spooky season, spooky season yeah, cheers, cheers.

Speaker 2:

We caught up on a lot of different things because I just got back from a big trip which we'll talk about. Yeah, so much has happened I know. So it's just been nice to have this routine and come back together and greet you all.

Speaker 1:

I had a laugh when Elizabeth walked in my door because we're wearing like the same outfit.

Speaker 2:

Like the same outfit, like we're both wearing like kind of baggy denim jeans.

Speaker 3:

High-waisted, high-waisted.

Speaker 2:

Like, and we're both wearing long black or long-sleeved black shirts, which I think that's going to be my thing this season. Not to spoil it for y'all I'd never say y'all, I don't know why I just went with that. Just came out, new season, new season, new me? Sure? No, because like last season I was like I'm always gonna wear kind of like a nerdy sweater. Remember I had, like my six wives, one and you were committed adam's family one it would be 110 degrees.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, like towards the end of season five, and she'd be trudging up to my house wearing a black sweatshirt.

Speaker 2:

Disneyland sweater. But this season I think I'm just going to do all my black outfits.

Speaker 1:

Ooh yeah, can I do that with you why?

Speaker 2:

not. Do you have enough?

Speaker 1:

I have this one. You have 13? I have, you have 13 black outfits?

Speaker 2:

At least three. Okay, are we mourning something? What are we mourning? Our past selves, our previous lives.

Speaker 1:

Ooh, I don't know, I have to think about that one.

Speaker 2:

Halloween's almost over soon.

Speaker 1:

I would mourn that for six months this is the best part of October, mm-hmm, probably, when we we normally release it on Halloween, don't we Like the kick of our season? I wouldn't say.

Speaker 2:

Halloween, I would say we usually record like mid-October and release it mid to late. I don't think we have definite days.

Speaker 1:

Yeah well, it's mid-October. Right now we can't tie us down like that you know.

Speaker 2:

We don't have a box, we're tied in.

Speaker 1:

Right now is the best part of Halloween season because there's still ample time to watch all of our favorite movies. It's not like it's October 30th when I'm like, oh my God, I have to get in every movie that I enjoy in the very last day. Like we can still appreciate the season and take it in. We've got like another two weeks still. I love that. It's a good time and I.

Speaker 2:

I've decided cause. I mean, when I was younger and like first living on my own, I was very strict about like when I can celebrate what holidays, like when my decor goes up and whatever. These days I'm like yo, I love Halloween so much that I don't want to just October 1st put up my Halloween decor. Like absolutely not when do, I do it. I do after Labor Day, like literally I usually try to. I look at when Disneyland does it. That's my gauge.

Speaker 2:

That is always a very good meter of when to do things, and if Disneyland says it's okay to do mid-September, I'm doing it mid-September.

Speaker 1:

I don't know. I was at Target yesterday and they have Christmas packaging. That's not no, they have gift bags and Christmas stuff. I'm like, can we at least get?

Speaker 2:

through Halloween. I'm totally happy to go straight from Halloween to Christmas. Like as soon as November 1st rolls around, christmas time.

Speaker 1:

But like, as soon as November 1st rolls around, christmas time. But like, let Halloween breathe, it needs to breathe. That's why the Nightmare Before Christmas is so genius because it is the perfect Q4, quarter four, it encompasses all celebrations and you can just carry, you can just keep it going and play it on repeat every day. That's my falling asleep show. Do you ever have like?

Speaker 2:

a go-to. I used to, but Robbie doesn't love having like TV on when we go to bed.

Speaker 1:

You know, so we kind of stopped that Well we don't have a TV in our bedroom because Jake likes quiet as well. But I put it on my little iPhone and I prop it up and I like play it next to me.

Speaker 2:

That's kind of nice. Just me go to sleep. I don't know. Well, when you and I travel together, we do that. You know like we'll put on like a fun Disney movie to fall asleep to or to wake up to while we're getting ready.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm like I love that, but we always theme our shows, like when we were in London we were watching Peter Pan and but anyway, that's a great transition.

Speaker 3:

So we've been traveling A lot this summer, a lot, I know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, lots of good stuff. I started off back in London. Yeah, doesn't get old Eventually. I'm just going to let you know when I just don't come back. I just I can't get enough of it, I love it.

Speaker 2:

I think eventually you or I, or both, will have a place in London.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I will just be place in London. Yeah, I think that's the goal. Be bi-coastal. By what do you call that? By continental, by continental. Yeah, um, I went for Taylor Swift, which was shocking. Shocking. Um went with, uh, our friend Lisa and the husbands came and her daughter came. It was really fun actually, and we were there on the Travis Kelsey night in London at Wembley Stadium last June. I'm going to have my quick Swifty moment and then I'll move on, because I know not everyone is a Swifty.

Speaker 3:

Two hours later.

Speaker 1:

That'll be. What I'm mourning is the people who have not embraced their inner Swifty yet, and I'm actually very anxious because she's performing for the first time right now in Miami as we speak.

Speaker 2:

We delayed recording because there were freak out moments from me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I'm like excited and nervous to have to go back to see the updates of what I've missed, but anyways, travis Kelsey was an iconic night. If you just say I was there Travis Kelsey night, that was the night when Travis came up on stage and Carrie Taylor after she died after her big performance. It was iconic, it was amazing.

Speaker 3:

Very dramatic but of course we saw.

Speaker 2:

Really quick. I just want to piggyback on that Because I am not a Swifty per se right, I know, I've really been working on it, I know.

Speaker 1:

Unsuccessfully.

Speaker 2:

I listen to all of her songs that come out. I give her a good shot, I give you that you do try, but I follow a lot of sports content. So I saw like on Instagram that next morning like the Travis Kelsey stuff. So I was like, oh, travis making an appearance at T-Swift, and I immediately texted Megan. I was like, were you there?

Speaker 1:

I was there Like that was your night. We didn't understand what was happening while it was happening. This delay, of like that looks is that? Is that travis on the stage right? We had amazing seats it was.

Speaker 2:

You took a great video. We're like you got what's on stage and then you like pan to dr lisa and her face is like, and her face is just like in tears, like, is this happening?

Speaker 1:

uh, that happened. But we also did all of our favorites tower of london. Met up with our favorite james peacock at Hampton Court Palace. That was really cool to like connect in person and hug each other after I feel like we've been long distance pen pals and friends. Yeah, of course, james Peacock of the Ambulance Society. And then I got to go to Amsterdam, in Germany, and I will not reveal too much, but learned a lot about executions in Germany and obtained a lot of content and met some interesting people that I hope will be.

Speaker 2:

I'm revealing too much Featured on our show. Hopefully, okay.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, that was my big to-do of the summer. I love that.

Speaker 2:

And yours was June right.

Speaker 3:

When you went Okay.

Speaker 2:

So you did that, and then I just got back from another Europe trip. So this time I went with my sister and my mom, because I think I've said this before on the pod, the pod I like that the pod we, but uh, pod, I, like that pod.

Speaker 2:

We have nicknames now um, back in 2020, like covid times, I just started randomly learning duolingo french and then my mom joined me just as like, oh, this is a fun way to kind of keep in touch and share our progress. So for years, my mom and I have both been studying french and I was like you know what, when covid's over, like I'm gonna take you to paris and obviously covid's now kind of been done for a while. But like it took us just many years to like actually sync schedules and figure out what would make sense. It's a big trip. So we finally picked a day and we just got back and we did like.

Speaker 2:

We flew in um to paris, did about four days there and then went south to nice, did a couple days in Nice, went over to Monaco, so we stayed in this beautiful, beautiful hotel, like on the shore, um, at Monte Carlo so cool, saw the casino, all that stuff. And then our last couple days we went over to Italy, we went to Genoa and finished in Milan. So it was a beautiful trip. That's a good trip. Yeah, it was their first time in Europe, so unfortunately for me it was very much like doing the same things I've done. I've never been to the French Riviera, so that was new for me, but unfortunately it was a little cloudy and like rainy. It's just traveling.

Speaker 1:

It's fine, it's perfect yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean, yeah, totally not like a perfect trip.

Speaker 1:

Angelina Jolie standing on the cliff like overlooking.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, In the.

Speaker 2:

I don't know Very mysterious.

Speaker 1:

There was a movie where she did that once.

Speaker 2:

I can't think of which one Salt or something like that.

Speaker 1:

No, it was with Brad Pitt. Anyways, I digress, it doesn't matter, mr and Mrs.

Speaker 2:

Smith.

Speaker 3:

No, anyway.

Speaker 2:

But so I did a lot of the stuff I've already done, like see the Eiffel Tower and go to the Louvre and go to Versailles, go to Les Procoupes which I love that.

Speaker 1:

I can't get enough of that cafe. We will never not If you're ever in Paris Elizabeth told me about it we went. The best If you're looking for like a French traditional fine dining.

Speaker 2:

Fine dining. It's technically called a cafe.

Speaker 1:

It's the oldest cafe in Paris, but it's nice, but it's the oldest cafe, but it's nice, but it's nice, it's nice. Yeah, it's like they pull out your chair, type nice and uh, it's the oldest restaurant in paris, isn't it? Yeah?

Speaker 2:

cafe. I mean, I don't know what the difference right between cafe and bistro, oldest cafe in paris, and it's amazing yeah.

Speaker 2:

So we did all of that, which I will say. The only thing that was like disappointing was the fact that I went so long ago I was in college and then to now is just crazy in terms of like touristiness. Like I don't remember standing in a line to get into Versailles. I don't remember standing in a giant line to get into the Louvre, when you already have tickets, like everything was such a thing like an ordeal and you had to plan all day just to go to the Louvre. It's terrible.

Speaker 1:

I don't like that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I was a little disappointed in that because I just remember it being like oh yeah, let's go to Versailles on this day. Like walk up, get tickets, go in. It was so crowded it was. I mean, I've said this before. You guys know, and I'm trying to be better about my like Instagram has killed society, where now people just go to take a picture of Mona Lisa and leave Like you can't even sit in front of the Mona Lisa, you can't even like appreciate the painting or anything else in that room for that matter, cause it's just like. It's like you're going or you're exiting a concert. They just movie along the amount of people.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you don't even see the actual painting cause you're just looking through your phone lens. So anyway's my spiel. But overall, like great, great time, I'm going to be posting a lot of content from that trip. I've already, I've already started a little bit, um, so stay tuned for some great versailles, louvre, blah, blah, blah content blah, blah blah.

Speaker 1:

It's gonna be great. Blah, blah blah. Yeah, secrecy. And then elizabeth and I took a trip together. We shared. We shared some on the Beheaded Instagram, but we took a 10-hour road trip in Annie, my mini Cooper, with the Anne Boleyn license plate, and we drove to Utah and we saw the one and only Susanna Lipscomb. We were fangirling, trying not to really trying to be cool really trying to be chill.

Speaker 1:

So we went through Author Fan Travel. If you do not know who they are, please go check them out. You can find them on Instagram. Like we follow them. You can find them. Author Fan Travel. They, it's a husband-wife team. They're awesome. They, it's a husband-wife team. They're awesome. They cater these like events, trips, trips, yeah, with our favorite historians and authors. So, lucy Worsley, dan Jones I know they're doing a Dan Jones trip. They did.

Speaker 3:

In.

Speaker 1:

Italy in 2026.

Speaker 2:

Right which we're going to go to we really want to go to Tudor Trio is like currently happening right now Our buddies over at Tudor Trio and Dr Susanna Lipscomb, which we weren't quite sure what to expect, loved it.

Speaker 1:

We weren't sure, like, how many people it was going to be. It was a two day event, including a dinner and a workshop, which was so cool, yeah.

Speaker 3:

But it was very intimate.

Speaker 1:

It was to the point where I don't even want to say I got comfortable, just chatting with Susanna by the end of the weekend, but we were very much in her presence.

Speaker 2:

Well, and I'm happy the way we sat in the room, because it was a pretty intimate room. There was maybe what like 30 of us.

Speaker 1:

I think there was 25. I counted Okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, of course you did.

Speaker 1:

I was sitting there trying to look like I was listening. I'm like come on, two, three, four.

Speaker 2:

I tried to look too cool and not look at anybody. No, but when we first got there the first day, we went to two workshops and it was we sat.

Speaker 1:

Lectures.

Speaker 2:

Lectures. It was one on witchcraft and one on I'm not going to get it correct. Come on come on. It was the very first one we went to, right before witchcraft. I know it and it's right on the tip of my tongue. I can see my notes.

Speaker 1:

I know there was the Life in London and Shakespeare.

Speaker 2:

Which was day two.

Speaker 3:

Day two and then the Six Queens and Art, and then the portraits.

Speaker 2:

We're going to remember the first one.

Speaker 3:

It was really cool it was a few months ago.

Speaker 2:

It was a while ago, but we went and we sat in the very, very back row because we didn't want to look overeager, but we ended up sitting right next to the husband and wife team behind author fan travel. So we had great conversations with them throughout the day. And then the next day me and Megan were like, okay, we're going to get there early and sit in the front row. Me and Megan were like, okay, we're going to get there early and sit in the front row. So then the next day for the Shakespeare and the Six Queens and Art, like, we sat right front row behind her podium Just staring and just taking it in Commenting.

Speaker 1:

I remember to like shut my mouth, like don't be like catching flies sitting in front.

Speaker 2:

Good for you, as I do sometimes and it was great because in that position, like in between, you know parts where she would lecture and then we had to read stuff or whatever. It was like she would make little comments and talk to us and chit chat. So we had a lot of chit chat moments with Susanna.

Speaker 1:

We had two, I think, kind of funny moments. The first was the morning of before any of the lecture started. We were going to go down. There was like a Starbucks. We're all staying at a hotel together. It was like a Hilton or something.

Speaker 1:

And and we were both, um, we were both working that day because we work from home, so we were like working during the day, the lectures didn't start until that evening and uh, we, we were going to go run down and get some coffee and I was like, ooh, I'm like wearing my pajama, hufflepuff shirt and Elizabeth's, like we're going to be so fast, like we're just going to go in, go up, go back to the room, and I was like joking, like what if this is how we meet Susanna Lipscomb?

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker 1:

And Elizabeth's just like we're just going to be fast.

Speaker 2:

Like she's not down there, we're not going to meet her, we're just getting coffee.

Speaker 1:

She's not going to be just hanging out at the Starbucks downstairs in the hotel.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And of course I'm wearing my Hufflepuff pajama shirt and Elizabeth just starts hitting me. She goes, she's just like nodding, like right there, right there, right there, and I'm just like, oh my God, I saw the curls girls.

Speaker 2:

I was like that's Dr Tisana Lipscomb right there she was sitting at the like, I guess, near the coffee shop, starbucks thing, and like slash the brunch area with her husband and her child and just like being a mom, like, just like tending to her child, no, one else around knew the like majesty sitting in their presence.

Speaker 3:

No one like all the other just hotel goers yeah.

Speaker 2:

And we just kind of stared, without trying to stare, and like our hearts were just beating so fast, and she's like what do we do? I'm like, well, we're not going to go up to her, megan, wearing my Hufflepuff pajama shirt. We can't do anything right now, no, we just have to leave.

Speaker 1:

We just have to go. Yeah, so that happened. And then I was still the first day, still very nervous about the situation of of just meeting someone who I feel like I've just admired for so many years. She's honestly inspired this podcast. I've been a huge follower, a huge fan, and I'm waiting for the elevator and the elevator doors open up and you were alone at this point, I was alone.

Speaker 1:

I had to run up to the room to go get something. Yeah, and she's standing in the elevator just her and I go in the elevator. I'm like this is literally like the elevator just her and I go in the elevator. I'm like this is literally like the elevator pitch moment. And I noticed like she goes all the way up to like level 16. I'm like, oh, and we have some time together. I was like right behind right and the only thing we talked about was bathroom stalls in america have very big gaps.

Speaker 2:

Gaps, yeah, in the door hinges I forget how she is, how she referenced it, but she's like, she's like. I don't understand the amount of space like that you put in between your stoles. He sounded irish.

Speaker 1:

I know I got a little irish there um, no, so my my first personal interaction with someone who I I deeply, deeply respect was about American bathroom structures, and I just still can't get over it. It's been a couple months now and I'm still like reliving it in my brain.

Speaker 2:

It was great and again we were a little starstruck. The first day got more comfortable in the second because we were sitting in the front row and by the dinner that night like we were fully having conversations with her.

Speaker 1:

It was great.

Speaker 2:

Well, should we reveal this now?

Speaker 1:

No, I don't think so. Oh no, let's just leave it there, okay, stay tuned then. She is aware of the show. She's aware of the show. She's aware of the show. Yes, we're going to leave it there, okay. And we got a picture. Yes, and we got books signed, and we didn't continue talking about bathroom stalls well, a little bit a little bit maybe um.

Speaker 1:

She was so sweet like amazing the lectures were amazing, the workshop, so we did like a two hour. Oh, it was so cool. She basically. It was basically like we were taking one of her courses, her classes, and she was teaching us personal research? Yes, it was, and we used a few pieces of research that she personally has collected, teaching us as a historian, how do you pull evidence from documents?

Speaker 2:

And just facts and not opinions. You know, she gave us a piece of. It was like a piece of parchment in French, so first we had to translate it. Well, I didn't translate it.

Speaker 1:

She translated it. You and others who knew French were working through it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So you had to translate it directly and then talk about what it could mean. And she talked about how a different book used that as a source. But they completely changed the meaning of that one sentence. And now this new book is like oh yeah, this is my reference, this is what the evidence is and we were like, well, no, it doesn't even say that You're just kind of making a big jump from A to B.

Speaker 1:

So it was really great breaking it down like that. Probably the coolest part, though, is as we're collaborating in little groups and we're talking about these pieces, these documents, and she gave some prompt questions to look into. She's just casually cruising around the room checking in on people, asking if they have questions what do you think about this? And she did such a good way where she never made anybody feel stupid Not that she ever would, no but we're all obviously amateurs, we're not professional historians, and we had a good mix in the group of. Some were teachers, but perhaps you know not I don't know what level of education people had, but I felt like there was a lot more amateurs and just people who are like us interested very deeply passionate about Tudor history and everything that people would say or suggest.

Speaker 1:

she would just be like that's interesting. I haven't thought of it like that. And it kind of made us feel proud of ourselves, like we know what we're talking about.

Speaker 2:

It really did it kind of made like. You know, everyone's like, I guess takes on things very valid Cause you're like okay, just because Susanna interprets it one way doesn't mean like our way is different. And she would say that she's like I love having these groups especially seeing like the American perspective, you know, or like a female versus male perspective, like or age perspective, because you get so many different takes on the same information that it is nice to process it all in a group together, like yeah, we are all, we all are reading the same things and we're all taking different things away from it, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So it was very fascinating. It was very interactive, very engaging. I think one of my favorite parts, too, is someone in the group was like so obviously you access these documents because you are, like, licensed and official.

Speaker 3:

And you have your PhD.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you're a well-known author, historian, professor, doctor, right, and you can get into places like the British Library and request documents to pull. He's like so how does someone like me go and do my own research? Yeah, how does someone like me go and do my own research? Yeah, and she's like well, you could ask for a reference from somebody who does have access to give good reason why you, you can be in there and she's pointing at herself and the guy's like oh dang, I don't know anyone, and she's literally like me like me?

Speaker 1:

you can ask me email and so I felt like that really broke the ice, when we realized that she was there to support everybody in that room with whatever our agenda was and our motives were of wanting to learn more about history and why we were there for her lectures. But she was just so real about it.

Speaker 3:

She's so real.

Speaker 1:

She's like you're talking to me, just ask me. He's like okay, I didn't realize we had that type of relationship. He's like I will ask you, I'll send you an email.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, anyways, every single thing that people say about her being the nicest, sweetest woman ever is 1,000% true. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Amazing time and we will be going on more of those trips with author fan travel so good. Oh, that was a lot to catch up on.

Speaker 1:

I was going to say we're like a quarter of the way into the show.

Speaker 2:

I know that was long, but it was so important to recap all of that because we had a really full summer and now we're back for season six. We've got a great lineup this season and we're so excited to kick off with another French Revolution episode. I know we ended last season with French Revolution.

Speaker 1:

I was thinking that we're just kind of like continuing on. Like get them all out of the way. Yeah, just kidding like get them all out of the way yeah, honestly, we don't want to get I

Speaker 2:

just read these two books that megan gave me both for christmas. Um, I read them both and like, well, I'm still working on the marie antoinette's head. I got like less than 100 pages left but like I'm very much in this world like fresh off versailles, like fresh you just came out of paris yeah, like reading two marie antoinette books, like I am so ready. Revolution episode.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we're kicking it off. We ended season five with King Louis XVI's sister, elizabeth, elizabeth, and now we're going to move on to Madame du Barry, interesting woman, very salacious, controversial figure of the French Revolution.

Speaker 2:

Very fun, I know. And so we're just going to dive right into early life with Megan. I am doing early life. I love when Megan does early life.

Speaker 1:

Hi, it's Megan Jean Beaucoup Comptis. Are you speaking English? No, I'm speaking French. Oh, continue, isn't that her name? Yeah, all right, madame duberry was not always called madame duberry. Perfect, great way to start her name was, was it?

Speaker 2:

was it jean or jean? I mean, I think we can just call her Jean because we're American. That sounds so American. I don't like it. Call her Jean.

Speaker 1:

Jean, jean, jean, j-e-a-n-n-e, jean.

Speaker 2:

Just call her Jean. Jean is going to get hard.

Speaker 1:

Jeannie was born on August 19th 1743, and she did not start off in a nice cushy. She had no silver spoon in her mouth. Let's put it that way. Yes, she was born illegitimately, um to ann the coup, who was a 30 year old seamstress, and we don't know who her father is. There is speculation he may have been a friar slash cook, um, but she was a. Her mother did not settle down before giving birth, right, and she luckily though her mother did was taken in by someone named. I'm going to ruin all these names. Do you want to just say all the names in French for me?

Speaker 2:

Okay, so she had a brief tryst, a lover who was named Monsieur Billiard de Monceau. Thank you, I think that's how you say it.

Speaker 3:

De Monceau.

Speaker 2:

We did see a different spelling of this name in a documentary, so we're going to call him de Monceau.

Speaker 1:

Well, this man offered to take in Anne and her daughter Jean, and eventually, as she starts growing up, she becomes a cook for his mistress, and really he gives them—.

Speaker 2:

Anne becomes the cook, so Dewberry's mother.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I thought Jean was also like worked as a cook for a hot minute?

Speaker 2:

No, not yet. Okay, mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:

And she actually works to get an education and all of that, which is pretty good considering she's not coming from a whole bunch. They send her off to a coven to get her education. What?

Speaker 2:

They send her to a coven of witches.

Speaker 1:

her education what they sent her to a coven of witches. What do you call it? A convent?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I wrote coven, I would love if they just send her off with the witches A convent.

Speaker 1:

Yes, of nuns, yes, very different. They educated her, but when she was 15 years old she left. So we saw some versions where perhaps she got kicked out. Because what one take on it?

Speaker 2:

because we did watch the gene dewberry movie with johnny depp which we'll talk about amazing movie definitely highly recommend in that version.

Speaker 1:

who knows how true it is. They caught her reading some erotic literature because she had a very healthy sexual appetite, sure, and she got kicked out. Yes, either way, she left Mm-hmm. She goes back to join her mother, but eventually they also get evicted from the household. Yeah, she just kind of like her whole upbringing is just kind of getting bounced around from job and home to home.

Speaker 2:

Well, and the take in the movie Jean du Barry like the.

Speaker 3:

You said Jean, I don't know say it fast, so I don't really know what.

Speaker 2:

Jean du barry jean du barry, yeah, um, but so in the movie it kind of shows the the um monsieur of the household, monsieur billiard uh de monceau, like it shows him having a very innocent relationship with her when she's young and then when she comes back from the convent, obviously she's 15. She's looking a little bit older and more mature.

Speaker 2:

She's reading the erotic literature, evidently so the wife starts to get suspicious of their relationship. So, whether or not anything ever happened, or he's just being kind of a loving father figure, like they say in the movie, at least that's the reason why her and her mother were evicted from the household.

Speaker 3:

I mean it's a good reason it's a good Hollywood story, right.

Speaker 1:

Maybe. Yeah, it's a good story to make out of it. Eventually, she becomes an assistant to a hairdresser, which is kind of like cool and trendy for her in her teenage years. I like that and she has a brief relationship with this guy. That seems to be the common theme here. Yes, eventually she becomes a reader and a companion to an old widow, which seems like a nice, comfortable place to be. However, the widow believed that she drew too much attention to her sons and one of their wives.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the movie's take on it was that they had a kind of little menage a trois orgy type thing Menage a trois.

Speaker 1:

But it wasn't just trois. I'm working on my French as well.

Speaker 2:

Plus de trois. So I think it was a few people involved. At least that's how it was painted.

Speaker 1:

Oh, like an orgy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that was painted in the movie. So she was like I can't believe. I took you in as my companion and then you had a tryst with both my sons and one of their wives, like a whole thing Mean, so kicked her out again for erotic reasons. Our light turned off. I realized our light turned off, that's okay.

Speaker 1:

I think we look okay, though Sorry, we're talking about for the video if you're on YouTube, if I ever get it posted.

Speaker 2:

Still waiting on season five, my light burned out.

Speaker 1:

That's okay, that's fine, we're just going to keep going here. So, to keep going here. So she gets kicked out again, she becomes an assistant at another shop, and you know.

Speaker 2:

I feel like she's really trying to settle down and find her true passion and what is her career in life. And really quick in this point. So she was at a hat maker's, or she was a hat maker's assistant, but when she got to the shop she was what's called a grisette and I looked into this and a grisette was literally a working class woman who wore gray like Fontaine. Yeah, in Les.

Speaker 3:

Mis.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, exactly. So it was like that was kind of the uniform of like the women who worked in those types of shops and they were. They were fashionable shops that like kind of produced they call them haberdasheries, so they had sewing supplies, so like dressmaking items, like buttons and zippers and ribbons. It also reminds me of like, uh, pride and prejudice when they go to that shop and they're looking at ribbon together. Oh yeah, it's kind of like those are like the fashionable shops of the day, because you didn't really go and just buy I don't think gowns, I think you bought no, you bought the fabric to make it.

Speaker 1:

Or it's also in, like um little women, how she wants to buy the fabric to make it. Or it's also in, like Little Women, how she wants to buy the fabric to make the dress.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

You don't just buy a ready-to-make dress.

Speaker 2:

Right, or you can have it fitted for you, but that was very expensive. Yeah, like maybe if you were a fancy lady, yeah, but you would make your own dresses, exactly. So that was kind of how she got into a little bit of the more fashionable side of things, we a little bit of the more fashionable side of things.

Speaker 1:

We are now at 1763. She visits, like how you visited the Monte Carlo Casino. Yes, she also went to a casino, but it was a casino slash brothel, yeah, and it kind of opens up the door. So I think we know where this is leading. The owner of this brothel is Jean-Baptiste Duberry, nice.

Speaker 3:

Duberry, make note of the name, get it and he likes what he's seeing.

Speaker 1:

He thinks that this is an interesting young woman who has come into his establishment. She is now 20 years old, yep, and he invites her to be their newest employee. And his mistress. And his mistress yeah, sure, she was employee of the month. Yeah, at the casino brothel.

Speaker 2:

So quickly she turns to this life of like oh, I'm getting attention from men, I'm getting money for doing this, and the head of this whole operation likes me specifically. So she's starting to see her power over men and at that point she's called Mademoiselle Lange, so they kind of rebrand her. She's no longer Jean Bocou, she becomes Mademoiselle Lange and within a few years, du Barry, jean Baptiste, he really kind of helps create her like, helps form her, I guess, sophistication. And she's already well read. She's already, because of, like her upbringing and people, kind of being committed to her education.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, she was educated, which is nice.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, she loved to read, Like she loved to learn things, she loved to be a part of these very sophisticated conversations and give her opinions. So he kind of takes that and uses her like you know her liveliness and her beauty, and says like well, look at this jewel I've created. So again she's rebranded as mademoiselle lang and she gets in all of these high society circles and she starts becoming a pretty high dollar prostitute, like pretty high, highly affluent courtesan. And at this point she's with ministers, she's with royal um courtiers, like she eventually is getting to such a status that they like have to take her to Versailles because they're, like you have to be with the best of the best of society.

Speaker 1:

She hit the top tier of her profession.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So she finally is taken to Versailles and Jean-Baptiste kind of has an idea in his head. He's like I think the king just needs to see you. We don't need to set up a formal meeting, we don't need to do anything, but have you in his presence. Once he sees you, like he's going to ask to see you again, which is a lot of presumption, right, Like we don't know the king's taste, we don't know much about him. We just know that she's a pretty woman and so far everyone seems to like her.

Speaker 1:

And she was said to be very pretty. I know they typically depict her with brown hair, but in what we read she had blonde hair.

Speaker 2:

And again with hair dyes and stuff. You don't know really what's true.

Speaker 1:

Or not dyes, but they would always do powder and everything else.

Speaker 2:

So I'm not sure. It said again in some of the articles that she had blonde ringlets with blue eyes, but oftentimes she's depicted as brunette. So we're not really sure what she looked like and portraits always show just the same gray hair up, do yeah, honestly I.

Speaker 1:

I think that's hollywood's take to always make her a brunette because it's different it's like the yin and yang and for some reason, they make her out to be the, the saucy villain of the right, right, whatever, and that's always the brunette, you know, as we flip our hair over here. But yeah, I think like, in contrast to Marie Antoinette, it's the complete opposite of her.

Speaker 2:

And I hate to say it, and we said this with the Elizabeth of France episode, but a lot of their portraits look strikingly similar. Oh God, they all do Like, if you see multiple pictures of Marie Antoinette and multiple pictures of Elizabeth de France and multiple pictures of Madame du Barry. You probably won't know who's who Like. If you shuffled a deck of 60 cards and there's just three women, you wouldn't be able to put them in the same piles.

Speaker 1:

Not to completely change topics, but that's actually what we're just going to keep referencing Susanna Lipscomb for the rest of our lives.

Speaker 2:

You mean Susie, that we know, susie.

Speaker 1:

Susie when her in her lecture about the portraits was talking about that too, how we kind of assume we know who's who and when someone has branded a portrait as this is Marie Antoinette or this is Catherine of Aragon, it sticks to that. But like, the more as we mature in our discoveries in history, it's almost embarrassing to have to go back and be like actually I don't think that was Marie Antoinette, I think that was.

Speaker 1:

Elizabeth of France, and sometimes you just stick with it Like, hey, we've come this far, we're just going to say this is who this is, but we don't always know.

Speaker 2:

We don't know who's who all the time and you think like, well, why wouldn't they just label every portrait that was created? Maybe they did, but again during French Revolution or something, maybe people destroyed those or burned the labels or you know, a lot of things could have happened to really like alter the original painting or reproduction could have been made.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of reproductions and they kind of change, just like all the Anne Boleyn portraits. They just are always a little bit different. I'm making this up. I don't know if this is real, but I could presume they might have the names etched on, like think in Versailles, don't they have the names on the frames, though?

Speaker 2:

But if you take the frame off. Well, I was going to say, I mean, a lot of things could happen, Gets mixed up. Yeah, If I'm a revolutionary and I hate Miranda and Twinnette, I'm going to be like you know what? I'm going to change a portrait or fuck it with this girl who knows right?

Speaker 2:

So I'm just saying it's one of those things where it's hard to tell what exactly they look like A because of fashion and costumes and wigs and powders, and then B because half of these portraits again, you can mix all of them up and be like yep that's.

Speaker 2:

Marie Antoinette, that's Madame du Barry. They kind of all have a similar look. They did. But at this point again, she's taken to Versailles, she's strategically placed, like in this hall, where they know the king is going to. Be so, sure enough, his gamble kind of paid off because King Louis XV sees her and says, wow, wow.

Speaker 1:

Bring that girl, whoa, bring that girl to my private apartment. It's a cartoon character where the eyeballs pop, it goes wah, wah, wah and the tongue flops out.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. So he sends for her, like he has this one very dedicated valet who he really trusts and he's like, okay, bring that lady to me. And at this moment, his queen, marie and I'm going to say this last name wrong, but Lazinka. So Marie, lazinka, she's's dying, she's a dying queen. And he's never been faithful to his queen and wife like he's philandered their entire relationship, as a lot of monarchs do in this era. Um, but it is a little insensitive to kind of bring like, uh, madame dubarry into this situation at this time. I should just call her Jean.

Speaker 1:

Still, Poor timing a little bit.

Speaker 2:

But he does respectfully once his wife does die, that's nice of him.

Speaker 2:

He does respectfully mourn for a few weeks and he has no mistresses, no affairs. He's properly mourning his dead wife. But within a few months he's like, okay, let's get that girl back in the mix. Like, let's bring, still thinking about her, yeah, let's bring jean, um. So at this point it is june 17, uh, 68, and she is let me do the math 25. She is, I believe, 20. I should know this 25. Yeah, she was born in 43, so she's 25 at this point, um, and so they realize, like that they're spending a lot of time together, so much time that the valet is a little concerned with how much time they're spending together. Like, hey, this could be a little scandalous because technically she comes from nothing, she's a nobody.

Speaker 1:

Like you can't just bring anyone into versailles not just a nobody and not just a working like coming from working class but coming from a brothel as well. Yeah, that's pretty scandalous Right.

Speaker 2:

So everyone's a little hesitant to be like hey, like let's not make this woman an official mistress. Hopefully it's just a passing fling and he's done with her. But she sticks around. He really likes her, and not just as a sexual partner but as like a companion, like he says he wants to see her first thing in the morning and last thing before bed, anytime he's not doing kingly duties and appearing in court. He wants to be with her and she's not allowed at court at this time because she's nothing, she's no one.

Speaker 1:

They keep her hidden. I could just like be going off of what we have, but I kind of like I don't know if it's just because Johnny Depp played him. I kind of like I don't know if it's just because Johnny Depp played him. Yeah, I kind of like Louis XV. He's growing on me. Oh no, you hated him. I used to hate him. What was the one that we did? The episode where the guy tried to stab him just a little bit? Wasn't that Louis XV? Oh, crap.

Speaker 2:

I think it was.

Speaker 1:

Francois Damian, damian, I think it was Damian. I had to re-look at that, but I'm pretty sure it was yeah, yeah yeah, I thought he was such a weirdo, so, and just to like, I do personally get confused.

Speaker 2:

So just to get everyone straight here, do you want me to look at the notes.

Speaker 1:

Considering you have the same notebook for the past six years, I'm sure it's in there. Guys, I'm finally on my last page of this notebook. It's.

Speaker 2:

I will try not to make noise while you do your spiel.

Speaker 1:

Just for background, if anyone else gets confused like I do King Louis XV is Louis XVI's grandfather, not his father.

Speaker 2:

Louis XV only had daughters, so the monarchy skipped over that level of lineage and when we talked about the aunties in our last episode at the season finale. The aunties are Louis XV's daughters. So they're kind of a little clicky, bitter like crop.

Speaker 1:

Pickle with a tackle. Let me talk about that. You don't do that again. And so Louis XVI is who is married to Marie Antoinette. Yes, so just to kind of like get that in your brain of that's his grandfather.

Speaker 2:

And yes, it was King Louis XV that was almost assassinated by Robert Francois Damien Robert.

Speaker 1:

Francois Damien Nice I remember that.

Speaker 2:

I do remember that, but I wasn't sure which king I don't remember a lot of things Good for you.

Speaker 1:

But when I do, it's very insignificant and nothing that anybody needs to know.

Speaker 2:

we're gonna create one of those big scary like sociopath maps that has strings and pictures and everything and everyone who's been executed. No, we're gonna show you how every episode we've done connects to each other we could do a map.

Speaker 1:

It's pretty fascinating oh, we could do a cool video of like a montage of a map and then like the dates and then plug them in on the map as the years go on. Yeah, I think I just made a little project for you.

Speaker 2:

Okay, sure, let me get right on that. All right, sounds good. So where were we? Okay? So at this point, oh, she's still a scandal. We're talking about her low status, right and? And so King Louis XV is very desperate to spend more time with her than he already does. So what he does is September of that same year so we talked about June, how he was mourning the queen. September of that same year, he already is deciding OK, how can we make this a little more legit? So he thinks she needs a marriage to someone who's noble, so that she can claim more nobility. She needs a title and she needs a different birth certificate. Oh, shoot, probably forged. So what he does is he arranges a marriage between Jean and the younger brother of Jean-Baptiste Duberry. His name is Guillaume Duberry. Count, count, he's a count.

Speaker 1:

You will never hear of this guy ever again. So put him in your brain and take him right out. Throw him out, he's just a prop.

Speaker 2:

He's simply there, so she gets the title of like a countess. So he's a count, kind of a good win for her. Yeah, she's like whatever man, I just want to be in his palace, hand her a piece of paper and she went from like a shop girl to a prostitute to a countess.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a good deal.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's like if Fontaine ended up in a better situation. Yeah, like if Fontaine ended up in a better situation. Yeah, instead of dying in the street, you become a countess. So she is like, yeah, sure, I'll marry this guy, become official. And then they give her a new birth certificate and in the new birth certificate they say she's three years younger than she is. So essentially, instead of 25, she's 22. Why that matters, I don't know. She's still like 30 years younger than the king.

Speaker 1:

I know.

Speaker 2:

Wouldn. She's still like 30 years younger than the king. I wouldn't I know like, wouldn't you want to keep her age? Maybe they just asked her like hey, what year were you born? She's, like I don't know. Put this year like I don't know what. She didn't know maybe I don't know, but they said that she was three years younger on this new birth certificate and they also kind of did this fictitious noble descent so like not only is she now a new, but she also has some crazy lineage we've never heard of. Wow. And now she's installed in her official apartments at Versailles. So that valet I told you about that was super loyal to the king. It's his apartments. Oh, they take away his rooms, aw. And it's now Madame Duberry's, oh.

Speaker 1:

I didn't know that. Yeah, that's funny, I know.

Speaker 2:

But she's still leading a very lonely life Like yes, she's at court now, yes, she has an apartment, she is an official mistress, but at this time she hasn't really been presented to court, which is a big deal. As we know, versailles has a lot of rituals, a lot of etiquette. You can't just. Why? Because there's nothing else to do. No, no, you say the quote oh, this is ridiculous, this is ridiculous, this is Versailles Is Versailles, there's just there's. There's a lot of things you need to know.

Speaker 1:

There's an SOP, a standard operating process, indeed With Versailles. Yeah, sorry, I've been in work mode A little bit of work mode today.

Speaker 2:

But because she hasn't formally been presented to court, no one from the nobility is allowed to acknowledge her at all. So her life hasn't changed that much. Like yes, she's the mistress, but no one's allowed to say anything to her. She probably gets better food Sure.

Speaker 1:

I'd agree with that.

Speaker 2:

I'm glad you thought of that, Megan Good call.

Speaker 1:

Dessert. She probably never had dessert before.

Speaker 2:

No, that's a big presumption. What is this cake? I've never had cake before. Tart A macaroon. So finally, like again, King Louis XV is always pulling strings for her. He really wants to just continue to up her status. So he says, okay, we're going to formally introduce you to court, we're going to have this whole ceremony. We need a sponsor for you. They literally end up like finding some random courtier named madame de. Uh, I wrote that. You know my tiny handwriting oh, let me.

Speaker 1:

This is my favorite game what is elizabeth's?

Speaker 2:

writing I think it's a b-E-A-R-N. I have it for you. Her name is insignificant.

Speaker 1:

She's not insignificant. Yeah, we don't know her, we don't care about her sponsor oh. I can't read mine either. Yeah, you're not any better.

Speaker 2:

I think it's B-E-A-R-N. Byrne. All right. So Madame de Byrne is literally like bribed to be Madame du Barry's sponsor for this like presentation, because Madame de Berne has racked up all these like gambling debts. So they're like hey, well, forgive all your gambling debts. If you just be this girl's sponsor, she's like all right, I mean a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do. Yeah, so they finally find a sponsor and they do this huge presentation at court on April 22nd 1769.

Speaker 1:

So she's 26. Kind of like a debutante.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like a coming out Even though she's 26. Yeah, much older than you would be at a debutante ball.

Speaker 1:

I will say really quickly, though I thought this was funny, you didn't. I thought this was funny, what that? It took like three attempts to get this thing to happen.

Speaker 2:

Because, because the sponsor kept making excuses.

Speaker 1:

Like the sponsor really didn't want to do this, because it was basically her representing her and endorsing her and being like I promote and agree that this woman should be here at court, right, and at this point people did not agree with that Right.

Speaker 1:

The first time she pretended to sprain her ankle and they had to postpone. Second time actually was an issue the king broke his arm going hunting, sorry. On the chase. Second time actually was an issue, the king broke his arm going hunting, sorry. But like how frustrating for this, for Du Barry to be like I. Just every day this goes by I have to stay in my rooms. Can I please be presented Right? Finally, on the third attempt, it happened.

Speaker 2:

It did happen and it happened in the Hall of Mirrors, which is a beautiful place. You were just there, I was just there, hard place to take pictures and a million people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's a lot of people. There were a lot of people at first time that day. Yeah, they're offices, it's so crowded um, so she finally is presented.

Speaker 2:

She starts to collect a few friends who are a little bit loyal to her. Um, honestly, the rest of her entourage is pretty much bribed because they're just like please hang out with this woman like she needs someone yeah, she needs friends, she needs an entourage.

Speaker 2:

The king it's the king's will like it's. The king desires everyone to be nice to her. So they're again, really, at this point where they're just trying to give her everything that she can to be comfortable at court, including they present her a gift of a little boy from bengal. Oh, my goodness, yeah, a little, uh, african boy. Well, I guess it's south asia. He's. He's a black boy, um, but he's from south asia, okay, so he's essentially like a. I don't want to call him a slave, she's. She didn't like to call him a slave, she called him a servant he was a servant who got there, probably not within his will yeah, he wasn't brought there.

Speaker 2:

you didn't just want to go to Versailles, he didn't just go on a cruise ship and make his way over to Paris?

Speaker 1:

I don't think so.

Speaker 2:

He was clearly sold, unfortunately and sadly many times until he got in that position, right, but she did have great affection for him and didn't want him to just be like, you know, for lack of a better word, terrible word to use but like pet. She didn't want to just be like, oh this, like you know, like servant boy who's with me, how cute.

Speaker 1:

Like how exotic he is.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

He's kind of a spectacle.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

It's almost like you have a new flashy handbag, like that's all it's so terrible to think of, but that's almost what it, back in that day, gifted to her as. But she kind of changed that mentality of no, he's my companion.

Speaker 2:

He's a person, he's my companion, kind of cute, and she, yeah, so he's her companion and she shows a lot of affection to them. They play often and she provides them with an education. Yeah, you know. So she's like you're not just going to grow up here, like you're going to be educated, you're going to be a gentleman.

Speaker 1:

They dressed him. His name was Zamor Zamor.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, zamor, zamor.

Speaker 1:

Zamor, yeah, they dressed him very nicely. I mean again, I think he probably would have taken being with his family and his home Probably, and his homeland more than anything else, but at least she treated him well.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. She treated him as best she could and throughout all of this too, with like she treating him a certain way and getting more comfortable at court, she's beginning to finally like her life a little bit at Versailles and she gets a little risky with, like her, fashion choices.

Speaker 2:

And she gets like, increasingly more extravagant. The king, obviously, is still in love with her so much that he keeps giving her so many jewels and like gowns and all of these things. So she starts getting just so accustomed to court life and she's to the point where, even though people don't like her and they make a lot of jokes at her expense, she's very much becoming a trendsetter. So all of a sudden and they make this joke in the Jean Duvary movie but like she's, she's made fun of because she's wearing stripes one day, and then, like two days later, everyone's wearing stripes.

Speaker 1:

I saw Madame DuBarry wearing a striped dress, so now I'm wearing a striped dress, exactly.

Speaker 2:

And I think there was like another thing too, with like she wore men's clothes one day to like match her husband, and it was this funny spectacle Like look, we're both wearing matching outfits and then all of a sudden, girls at court like me, and me and my husband um, wait, I'm the husband.

Speaker 1:

You're the husband. You have shorter hair just kidding. My sister used to say that to me. Oh my god, sorry, did I hurt a? Yeah, you got a soft spot right there. I just got flashbacks to all the pretend weddings I did with my sister and I was always the husband.

Speaker 2:

I'm so sorry are you playing house? Don't pour your wine on me. She, I won't. She splashes me, you just hit a nerve right now.

Speaker 1:

I'm just teasing. She's a trendsetter, though. She's a trendsetter right.

Speaker 2:

But throughout all of this she's not necessarily aloof, Because she comes from humble beginnings. She knows what it's like to be a peasant and have nothing. So throughout all of this she's often like influencing the king to pardon people for certain crimes. You know, she's got all these enemies at court who are always trying to like put these bad rumors on her and everything, and she just remains very like, kind of steadfast to who she is. She's not changing who she is.

Speaker 1:

She's proud of who she is. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Speaker 3:

She would just Beautiful, that was actually a very old limerick.

Speaker 1:

I know what that is An old saying but also, she's in the king's ear too. So, for example, she did have an enemy, actually the guy who brought her to Versailles. They started rubbing heads against each other.

Speaker 3:

That's not how you say it.

Speaker 2:

No, that's exactly the expression, megan. Is that the expression? No Butting heads. Butting heads against each other, whoa.

Speaker 1:

Talk about orgy party in here. I want you to continue your thought I'm trying here so they were butting heads with each other and while she wasn't really interested in politics, but she did sit in some state councils, which is interesting, yeah. But she got wind of this plot that he was putting together, where he wanted France to go off to war again, and told the king, and the king just like, dismissed him. Like I don't want any of that in my court so she did have some power and I think that's.

Speaker 1:

I think people started to dislike her, not just because of her background and I don't know if it was jealousy, but they didn't like how it was jealousy too she had so much power with the king she he was just throwing jewels and diamonds and gowns and so much expense at her they almost felt like she wasn't worth it. She wasn't, yeah you know, so, of course, she.

Speaker 1:

There were a lot of people who just didn't like her and which I think should bring us to the relationship between her and someone we do know, which is Marie Antoinette, marie Antoinette.

Speaker 2:

So Marie Antoinette arrives at court in 1770. Excuse me, so at this point she's about 27 years old. Madame du Barry is Obviously Marie Antoinette's much younger. I think she was maybe 14 or 15 when she was first brought to Versailles. But obviously Marie Antoinette is the future queen. She's got a lot of power right away and Marie Antoinette, I think, doesn't really have an opinion right away. She knows, when she meets her right before Marie Antoinette's wedding, she gets this kind of bad taste in her mouth because she sees the way everyone treats Madame du Barry, the comments and the comments on what she's wearing. And you know, I think in the movies the Sofia Coppola movie, marie Antoinette she like burped, like Madame Dewberry burps at the dinner table and everyone's just like whoa, like everyone, just kind of put off by her. Like manners, even though I do think she had a lot of etiquette, she learned etiquette, but they still love to just, like you know, make jokes at her expense and all that.

Speaker 1:

I do like those scenes because that actually did happen. The burp no, I don't know about the burp, but that dinner did happen, which was like a family dinner right before the wedding. And that scene was in both the Sofia Coppola Maria Antoinette and then the Jean Dubarry that we just watched with Johnny Depp, and there's this real quote that happened during that night. So Maria Twinnett was only 14 years old and she's a little bit naive as to what Du Barry's position is there at court, yeah, and so she asked she goes oh, what is her position? What does she do here? And someone said she pleases the king. Yeah, and she goes oh, well, then I shall rival her and I shall be her.

Speaker 2:

I shall be her rival, which just comes out like word vomit. She has no idea like she's basically saying like oh well, I'm gonna make the king happier than she does. Yeah, very naive, my father-in-law is gonna.

Speaker 1:

Or my grandfather-in-law, yeah, is gonna love me. Yeah, it's like no honey that is not what she is there. You do not want to rival her in pleasing the king, exactly so I. I do. Like those scenes, though, where she just gets the spitting image of like oh right, she's a little rough around the edges exactly.

Speaker 2:

And again, there's so much court gossip around her that marie antoinette doesn't really have a choice but to ignore, um, the madame dewberry, because she's like, probably thinks she's a little immoral herself, but she's also again just hearing everything about her, so she's like, well, there's no way. I'm new at this court, I want to be on the right side of the court and I'm not gonna befriend Madame du Barry, even though she's the king's favorite, and put myself at risk of like losing all my potential friends, like the aunties and the other women at court who were trying to guide her and tell her. You know what the etiquette is at Versailles. So one thing that's really interesting and I learned this from the book Megan Gifted Me Marie Antoinette's Head, which I don't know how. We don't know.

Speaker 2:

This book, like it is such an amazing book, so it's written by Will Bashore, if I'm saying that correctly, and this book is all about the royal hairdresser so cool. And this book is all about the royal hairdresser so cool, so it and according to this book I mean this hairdresser is made like, made marie antoinette. Marie antoinette, yeah, like because she was known beyond anything for her hair and her fashion like he was also from nothing, this hairdresser, and rose through the ranks to versailles, you know, became marie antoinette's hairstylist and made her such a like a fashion icon. Obviously a lot of it kind of led to her downfall because people saw that as such a sign of extravagance. But this whole book is about his memoirs and he, you know, I mean these are, it's a true story and it's all fact check to see. Okay, this is what he says, this is what might've actually happened. But one of the things that's really interesting is his name's Leonard.

Speaker 1:

Leonard, leonard, I love it Exactly.

Speaker 2:

So Leonard, who's a very fancy man, gets his way into Versailles and the first person that he's kind of introduced to is Madame Duberry. And he says when he first meets Madame Duberry, in his memoirs he's like she reminded him of Cleopatra, because she just was out of the bath, like lounging in this chair, just like doesn't really care what she's wearing, it's probably a small like chemise thing or whatever. She's very confident.

Speaker 1:

And she's very confident yeah.

Speaker 2:

And she's just like oh, so they say that you're, like you know, a prodigy and you're the best hairdresser, Like you have to do my hair. So she kind of like, seductively, is just like oh, welcome to Versailles, like do my hair and make me beautiful, and he just immediately is attracted to her and I think he spends about three years just with her as his main client.

Speaker 2:

Oh that's a long time. Yeah, it's quite a while, and that's why her fashion is again so elevated too, because she now has this fancy hairdresser who's doing her hair in all these elaborate fashions with feathers, and he put like birds in the hair, like he did so many creative things. It's like if Hobby Lobby threw up on her hair, that would be his hairstyle.

Speaker 1:

He would be an influencer today.

Speaker 2:

Oh, absolutely so. Marie, or Madame Dewberry, recognizes that Marie Antoinette's not fond of her. So, as kind of a gift to Marie Antoinette, she wants to be like hey, you know, I think this guy can actually do something for you. I should back up a little bit, because she's technically not allowed to speak to Marie Antoinette at this point, and we've talked about this on previous episodes. This was an iconic moment in history, yeah, so for the longest time, Marie Antoinette never spoke to Dewberry.

Speaker 1:

Which was a snub. She should have Snubbed her. She should have spoken to her. It was completely intentional.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and there was moments where the guy who came from Austria with Marie Antoinette would tell the king, like today's the day she's going to talk to Dewberry, it's happening today, and like she would just continually get snubbed. Finally there's a day it's like New Year's Day, 1772. So she's already been at court for two years. Marie Antoinette has. She finally like kind of goes near Madame du Barry and says there are a lot of people at Versailles today and literally just nine words, nine words.

Speaker 1:

Nine words In literally just nine words. Nine words, nine words, and like just a statement, whether you can even argue. Is it opinionated or is it? Are you just?

Speaker 2:

It's an observation, is it an?

Speaker 1:

observation.

Speaker 3:

Right, can you?

Speaker 1:

even and she's opening it up if Dewberry can respond, and she does right. She just is like, yes, there are.

Speaker 2:

Well, according to the movie, she's just like yes, there are.

Speaker 1:

You know, but who knows, there's no real conversation.

Speaker 3:

Who knows?

Speaker 2:

what was actually said back, but it was just a oh wow.

Speaker 1:

She acknowledged me, she talked to me it was such a big moment for Jiberi, but it was the dumbest thing she could have said is yeah, no shit. Can we say something a little bit more intuitive here?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, so because of that small sentence now they're allowed to basically have exchanges every so often, even though Marie Antoinette still doesn't like her and she's still going to not make an effort to speak to Du Barry. But Du Barry now feels comfortable at least going to Marie Antoinette at some point. Not going to her, but they meet in a garden, they're best friends now.

Speaker 1:

They're not going to her, but they meet in a garden. They're best friends now. They braid each other's hair Definitely hate each other and they make dandelion crowns.

Speaker 2:

But they happen to be both walking the grounds, like walking in the gardens, and they kind of bump into each other and Dewberry's. Like this is my opportunity to give Marie Antoinette a gift and her gift is Leonard. So she says, hey, Again, another person, we're just gonna. Yeah, they just gift people left and right. But she says to marie antoinette something along the lines of and this is according to leonard's memoirs like hey, you know, you're too young and beautiful to be wearing such an antiquated hairstyle. Oh, my god. So it's kind of also a diss, like it's all kind of rude too.

Speaker 1:

I don't know who your hairdresser is now. Yeah, but you've got to ditch the guy.

Speaker 2:

So she kind of tells him like you know, or Marie Antoinette, like you know, I have Leonard and he's a prodigy. You will love him, he'll do amazing things to your hair, and Marie Antoinette's actually heard of Leonard at this point. So it's not just Dewberry suggesting it, but Marie Antoinette, who hates Dewberry, uses this as an opportunity to be like well, I'm going to take him from you. Great. So they both think they're winning in this situation, because Dewberry's like look, I gave her this gift and she's going to like me, and Marie Antoinette's like I hate that girl, I'm taking her hairdresser.

Speaker 1:

Girls are so catty, they've always been catty.

Speaker 2:

I know.

Speaker 1:

It's just funny that it hasn't changed in 200, 300 years, so mean girls-ish, oh geez Like.

Speaker 2:

Oh my God, I love your hairdresser.

Speaker 1:

So that is Du Barry's position at court and how she's perceived by others. We're going to flash forward to 1774. And sadly, the king is coming to the realization that he has smallpox. Yeah, he realizes that he's at the end here and he and Dewberry is by his side, despite how disgusting he is, how contagious he is. I really think Dewberry and Louie had a true relationship. It was more than just sex, it was more than just, you know, being with some girl. But they were companions, like Elizabeth said, they were partners, they were friends.

Speaker 1:

And he does something kind of sad but realistic is he tells her I need you to leave right now for a few reasons One I don't want you to get sick. You're all over me right now with my nasty-ass smallpox. Breath Back off.

Speaker 3:

Let me make you laugh. Do you have smallpox You're making?

Speaker 2:

me cough Laugh. Go ahead, you okay.

Speaker 1:

I'm good. Two, he wants to have his confession and he, of course, like hell is still a very real thing in the 1770s and in the 18th century. I mean, it can still be. I don't want to say it, I'm not going to bark on that. But for them religion is obviously like very, very, very important, and he doesn't feel good in his heart confessing while he still has his mistress next to him in bed and really quick, me and Megan talked about this Because I was like why doesn't he just marry her?

Speaker 2:

His wife is dead, like what's wrong with him remarrying? And we discussed. We're like, well, obviously she doesn't have a title, so didn't.

Speaker 1:

No, she does.

Speaker 2:

But didn't? She's married and they don't really get. She's married, she's currently married. Yeah, she's married, that's the problem. No, no, exactly, but I'm saying like it's kind of a catch-22. Yeah, where it's like yes, we're going to give you a title through this marriage, but then you also can't marry her in the future because she's married.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I see what you're saying.

Speaker 2:

So it's like, unless she also had the husband dead and retained a title somehow, which I don't, you still do, right? I don't know how that works. So, long story short, it's just ironic that he can't just like be with the woman he loves, it's like, even though he's free to, because he's not married anymore.

Speaker 1:

She's married. She's now married. We just don't talk about the husband ever again, Again.

Speaker 2:

The husband you'll never hear about it was all just for false paperwork.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so he wants to also confess and then also he's like you should probably get the F out of here Because nobody likes you Once I'm gone. He was her one and only protector. Like these people at court are savage. You should get out before they kick you out.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Because before they kick you out yeah, because they will kick you out and do it on your own terms. If marie antoinette is the one pulling the strings, you know, yeah, and they don't like her and of course that is what happens.

Speaker 1:

So the king, the king dies and she's gone at this point. But marie antoinette goes a step further to double check and dot her I's and cross her T's. She exiles her off to an abbey. The nuns there do not like her at first, like oh great, we've got this. Like they just see her as a harlot. They don't see her as a legitimate lady of court, an aristocrat. Right, they're cold at first but they always said she had a very vivacious and warm personality. Cold at first, but they always said she had a very vivacious and warm personality. And they do start to befriend her and they look past her, her all, all of her reputation and everything else, right, um, oh god, I said reputation for a second. I just thought maybe taylor's. Okay, do you need?

Speaker 2:

a taylor break?

Speaker 1:

no, I don't, I'm just dying to know if it's fine, it's okay, Reputation Okay. She's at the Abbey for at least a year and she's in very small confinement. Imagine going from being Versailles, the king's mistress, and you can get anything you wanted to being shoved into a small cold, very humble Abbey with nuns, Very different lifestyle and, I'm sure, reminiscent of her childhood being educated at the convent.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, she's like man. I'm back to where I started. She took a 180 here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, finally, a year later, they let her, kind of like, get outside and explore the countryside. And a month later, like, okay, you can go a little bit farther, but you have to be home by sunset. You cannot be 10 mile radius of versailles, because marianne twinette does not like you right. And then finally, two years later, she moves out, she's on her own. She's still not allowed to go to versailles, not, she's still exiled, but at least she's free, in a sense, living on her own. She has a couple more affairs. Yeah, girl, I mean she was a very vivacious person.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, she's still young at this point. I think she's only 30 at this point I think she's like 35 right now. Yeah, my age. She's young, 30s.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for saying that I'm a young 30s.

Speaker 2:

You are young, 30s. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Me too. One guy was Brissac, the other guy was Henry Seymour of Redland. Henry was married and they sounded like they had a great time, but then eventually he left her a portrait that had a message that just said leave me alone. That's great. I mean, talk about getting ghosted.

Speaker 2:

That's like a break up yeah.

Speaker 1:

Imagine getting dumped via portrait.

Speaker 2:

He also left it in English and not French, which is kind of weird, kind of a weird move.

Speaker 1:

It's weird.

Speaker 2:

All of it's weird.

Speaker 1:

I don't know what to think about it. But I mean, if you really don't like someone, send them a portrait that just says leave me alone In a language they don't speak In a different language.

Speaker 2:

If I was single, I'd do that move today. Was single, I'd do that move today. Here's a portrait of me.

Speaker 3:

It says leave me alone in arabic leave me figure that one out.

Speaker 1:

Uh, the the first guy she was with brisic. He actually seemed like a good guy and he even like continued to profess his love to her. Sadly he was killed. So we're gonna fast forward a little bit. We we're getting into the revolution now and I realize this is a little bit of a longer episode. We had a lot of catching up to do, though.

Speaker 2:

That's okay, so we're still going to take our time. I'm not going to rush, and we've done other episodes covering a lot of the revolution, so we're not going to go into the revolution.

Speaker 1:

We're not going to get into that we.

Speaker 2:

They don't like the people. But we also should mention that Madame Dewberry doesn't really know what's going on in the revolution either. Again, she wasn't that political. She knew a little bit of what Louis XV was saying, but she wasn't there during King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's reign. She was gone.

Speaker 1:

She was off in the countryside.

Speaker 2:

So she has really honestly no clue. She probably hears whispers right, it's France, but I don't think she really knows the revolutionaries versus the aristocrats and the money spending. I think at this point she's like I'm so removed from that.

Speaker 1:

She's not in the weeds of all the politics with it.

Speaker 1:

She's been living on her own now for about 15 years. We are now in the 1790s, we're in the middle of the French Revolution. Sadly, this one lover gets lynched by a mob because he's also an aristocrat and the revolutionists don't like them. And she has her window open and they throw like the mob throws. She basically gets a bloody rag thrown in through her window and she opens it up and finds it's his head Was it actually thrown in her window, or did they just hold it up and show her?

Speaker 1:

No, it said her window was open and they threw it into her window. And she freaked out so bad as you would. She fainted, fainted, which is like yeah, they want to just hold it up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they throw it in. It's just like Marie Antoinette with Madame Labelle. They did the same thing and it was like Marie Antoinette's best friend and the mob went off, found her best friend Frickin' vicious. Murdered her and then put her head on a pike and put it out in front of Marie Antoinette's window. I don't think Marie Antoinette according to these two books that I read saw it.

Speaker 1:

I think other people saw it and were're like don't go to the window yeah but she still, once she found out what was, what it was of course that's like if I just saw your head bobbling around outside.

Speaker 2:

We talked about that on our very first episode. I don't remember that I know this is why we can do the show forever, because you just we just keep repeating the same, you just forget everything that was said clearly I haven't changed.

Speaker 1:

I have the same thoughts in my head. It's good you have your head bubbling about. That's nice, zomar. If we remember him, he was her servant companion, exotic boy Him, and another of her. So he's still working for her Right. 15 years later, him and another staff member end up joining the Jacobian Jacobian. Jacobian Jacobin. It's not the regular Jacobian spelling, I'm not going to get into it.

Speaker 2:

But they're the revolutionaries.

Speaker 1:

He joins a revolution, a revolutionist club, and she finds out how involved they are on the other side. She knows enough of like revolutionists or not revolutionists Right.

Speaker 2:

She really quick. You're going to hear wine pouring. Oh, good for you.

Speaker 1:

She finds out and she basically gives him a three-day notice to quit and he just leaves. He's like I do not agree with your lifestyle because she's still coming from these aristocratic background, even though she's not.

Speaker 2:

He said you can't fire me, I quit.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he did one of those. He threw down his hat and walked out. Dubarry is now arrested because of her history with the courts.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

And they still see her as an aristocrat, even though she hasn't been living at Versailles. She's been exiled. Marie Antoinette doesn't like her.

Speaker 2:

And she's been out of court longer than she was in court Like she was only in court for maybe eight years, we think.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, she was not there long enough to really like she made an impact, but you're right, she was away from court more of her life than she was in court Right.

Speaker 2:

And yes, she dressed just as extravagantly as Marie Antoinette, but like I feel like that wasn't necessarily her identity quite yet. Like I mean, yes, it was her identity, but like Marie Antoinette was really known for that, like Madame Deficit, you know, like really spending all of the French money like on her lavish lifestyle, whereas like, yes, madame du Barry did the same thing, but it was well known that the former queen was very tight with the purse strings and I think they kind of had more control over the money when Louis XV was in power. Oh, that's a good point. Like you know, yes, it was very expensive and lavish living for her, but I think it got way out of hand once it was handed to Louis.

Speaker 1:

XVI. Yeah, I think that's true, and so the actual charge that they got her on was that she was giving financial assistance to people trying to flee the revolutionist party right, so helping people get out of it did we ever like, did yeah in treason it's always treason, yeah did we ever verify like obviously not again. She, she was found guilty. Did she actually do that though? Did she actually finance these things that they said that she?

Speaker 2:

did. I don't think there's anything except for like witnesses saying that. I don't think there's any evidence that she actually financially supported anyone, at least that I saw. Again, if you guys know different, reach out to us, let us know. But I think it was more of a like he said.

Speaker 1:

She said You're at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like the wrong again. I'm sure her servant boy was willing to give a lot of false testimony. Well, that's the thing.

Speaker 1:

He was at the trial and they did take his testimony, yeah, and it's an interesting dynamic between the two of them. On one hand, we see like, oh, she was so nice to him and educated him and clothed him and fed him at Versailles. Also, he was a servant, yeah, and I think it's safe to say he was a slave, like he was brought over.

Speaker 2:

He was purchased, brought there he was not there on his own free will yeah.

Speaker 1:

And so, it's interesting, he eventually turned against Du Barry. After what? 25 years together?

Speaker 2:

or so, and that's always discourse that happens in the American South too, when people are like, oh well, there were good slave owners. It's like, okay, yeah, but you were still owning slaves.

Speaker 1:

Like, you know what I mean. But in the end, yeah, we don't know how he was feeling through this. Yeah, in the end.

Speaker 2:

that act is wrong and I'm sure no slave would want to be a slave.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know. Yeah, it doesn't matter how nice someone was, yeah, and also we don't really know what their relationship was like behind closed doors. We don't know what that 15 years was like, as he was still a servant in her household. So, all that said, obviously, I think I can almost picture them having like very two perceptions of what the relationship is where she's like.

Speaker 3:

Zomar, we're buddies.

Speaker 1:

What are you doing? And he's like are you kidding me? He's like I hate you. You kept me in a cupboard and, like, fed me old bread. We just don't know. We don't know what the whole story was. I think, yeah, I think you're right Like in the end I can't say he was totally happy, I can't say I wasn't there.

Speaker 2:

I wasn't there. Can anyone be happy when they're not free?

Speaker 1:

I wasn't there, but he turns against her and that's really what led her to her guilty sentence. She was led to the guillotine on December 8, 1793. And she has an interesting. I mean it's always going to be interesting when you're at a guillotine Right, but hers was especially memorable, I think, for the audience.

Speaker 2:

Because at this point I think the audience for executions because there's been a lot now this is after. We should note this is the same year as both Louis XVI's execution and Marie Antoinette's execution, so both of them have already been executed. So this is December of the same year, end of the year, and all these crowds have probably seen Louis and Marie and they're used to very dignified aristocrats that are like I'm going to do this with pride, I'm going to go to the scaffold with my head held high. No one can take away my nobility. Like. They have this weird sense of calm. Almost it's almost creepy how calm they are sometimes before executions. Yeah, Whereas Dewberry is from nothing, rose, to the very like top of society, has kind of fallen back down to nothing and she loves her life. Like she's like yo. Like I don't have noble blood. I don't know why you're trying to spill my blood. Like she's like yo. Like.

Speaker 1:

I don't have noble blood. I don't know why you're trying to spill my blood Like I want to live so she's freaking out. I also don't think she was mentally prepared for it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Like.

Speaker 1:

Marie Antoinette was composed, that's true, but she had months that she would, from July to October, to come to terms. She had already seen all these deaths, including her husband yeah, her kids were taken away.

Speaker 1:

She knew what was coming. She knew what her fate was and I think she had enough time to decompress that and accept it. She was over it. She was so done and sick and like get me out of this ungodly world. Yeah, dewberry was not prepared, so she's freaking out, she's having a meltdown, she's screaming. They can't contain her. It's said that she even like got loose and ran across the scaffold Like girl, where are you going to go? And she was like begging people to help her. There's thousands of people here all witnessing, ready to watch you lose your head Right, yeah, nowhere to go.

Speaker 2:

But she's desperate and she's offering everything she has. At this point. She's offering like I'll tell you where the rest of my remaining jewels are. You can have, like, all the wealth that I carry, like which, to me, is a very human reaction to you about to die.

Speaker 1:

You negotiate, you negotiate, you're trying to do anything to get out of it. It's like the stages of grief. She's probably like is this really happening?

Speaker 2:

Like denial, and then you know, and she's only 50 years old, so she's not she's got a back half of her life to live. You know, she's got a lot of time left. She's healthy. Like you know, she again wasn't really expecting all of this to go down as fast as it did, and so here she is, in her final moments. She's just a wreck and she's begging and she, even at the very, very end, like goes to the executioner. And I'll let you say what the line is yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well, even before that she's, she's saying are you going to hurt me? Why are you going to hurt me? Like, yes, they're going to hurt you, you're going to yeah, you're going to die. Yeah, she keeps going. Why, why, why are you going to hurt me, which is such a funny way to say like not, are you going to kill me. Not, are you going to kill me, but are you going to hurt me. It's kind of an interesting choice of words.

Speaker 2:

So, they force her head into the guillotine head hole. Well, you get strapped to a plank first.

Speaker 3:

Is there a word for that?

Speaker 2:

I don't know, there probably is a real term we should know. But they like strap you to a plank and kind of feed you through, like where the actual blade comes down.

Speaker 1:

And it happens fast. They've got it down. That was the whole point of the guillotine.

Speaker 2:

It was down to seconds of how quickly they can do all of this, and it prevented botched executions, as we've seen Exactly.

Speaker 1:

And she goes one more moment, mr Executioner. Mm-hmm, that's her last word. One more moment, mr Executioner. She's just begging for more time. She's already strapped in. It's like got to do it. And she's like one more moment. And it's almost like did she say one more moment because she wanted to take it all in?

Speaker 2:

Maybe she thought someone would change their mind if there was a couple more moments. She wasn't ready.

Speaker 1:

Maybe she was praying, maybe she was trying. They didn't give her that moment. They just, they have no mercy, they let it go and they said that she barely got the last word out. Like Mr Executioner. She calls him Mr Executioner too, which is funny.

Speaker 2:

She literally said the last word, like as the guillotine blade was going down. I wonder if her lips were still moving. That's creepy. I don't want to think about that. I don't like the post head off situation and what happens to your brain.

Speaker 1:

You host a podcast called.

Speaker 2:

Beheaded and you don't want to think about it. I don't like to think about the few moments when your head's off and you might be alert.

Speaker 3:

I don't want to think about that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a pretty awful scenario.

Speaker 2:

Right and as what happened with Louis and Marie, they just like took her body and like did a quick little burial, no ceremony around it, in the Madeleine Cemetery and that's where, again, kind of all of the people from Versailles went. Eventually they exhumed their remains and put them in proper places. I don't know where Madame du Barry is buried now, but I'm sure she's been taken out of that cemetery because that was very much where you put the people you were ashamed of in that time. Oof, Awful.

Speaker 1:

Another French Revolution, I know Done.

Speaker 2:

I love this one, though We've been talking about doing du Barry for a long time and we weren't sure if we wanted to make her an intro or finale. But I'm glad that we ended season five with Elizabeth de France and then started strong with Madame Du Barry, because she's such a fascinating figure. And, again, I think most people who learn about the revolution, or at least Marie Antoinette's life, you initially are kind of rubbed the wrong way. With Du Barry, you're like, oh, you rub heads. Yeah, wrong way. With Dewberry, you rub heads, yeah, you rub heads. You're just like, initially like, oh, that, like sleazy girl who's in court. You know who the king loved. And as you unpack her life, you're just like, oh, like, get where she's coming from. Yeah, and like, I mean, everyone applauded Marie Antoinette for kind of shaking up court and making it less antiquated and dusty and it's like but look at Madame Dewberry, she did it before Marie Antoinette did.

Speaker 2:

You know, she wasn't afraid to just be there. People ignored her half the time and she wasn't afraid to wear these elaborate hairstyles and fashions and I think that set the tone for Marie Antoinette in a lot of ways, even if Marie Antoinette would never admit it because she didn't like Duberry, yeah, but she had to get her kind of pizzazz and flair from somewhere and maybe she saw Dewberry like hey, that woman, that woman, even though people don't like her people are looking at her.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know she's got a lot of influence, I can't deny it. Yeah, it feels good to get back in front of the microphone. Yeah, to everyone who's been like reaching out during our off season, giving suggestions of what we're going to go over this season and asking when we're coming back, and all of that, it means a lot. So thank you. Thanks for sticking with us on our sixth year here.

Speaker 2:

And hello to our new friends from Author Fan Travel. We met a lot of great people there and some of them had heard of the show. Yeah, some hadn't. So those of you that are new, welcome.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And were those your final words? No, were those your final words? No, do you have any final words?

Speaker 2:

Yes, Ooh Women who come from nothing are ready for anything oh.

Speaker 1:

Stick around to hear a trailer from Ambivalent Offenders, another history podcast.

Speaker 3:

Offenders another history podcast. They've been labeled many things Villainous, notorious, infamous offenders of crimes or society's morals. Ambivalent Offenders reexExamining History's Most Questionable Figures is a podcast that explores the fascinating and often overlooked stories of these questionable historical figures from all eras in a conversational, approachable storytelling format between co-host Jamie that's me is covered, their story told with commentary and a final judging on how we think the figure should be judged. Simply put, doing some major judging or side-eyeing of historical figures. We're looking at you, nixon. We've been passionate about uncovering the truth behind rumors and propaganda that have placed these figures in the gray area of history. Join us on our journey as we delve into each historical figure's story and decide for ourselves and, of course, with our listeners. Have these figures had their reputations unfairly destroyed or do they deserve every word? They've been called unfairly destroyed or do they deserve every word they've been called? Ambivalent Offenders is available for listening for free on all podcast streaming apps. Listen now and judge away.