Marie-Louise O'Murphy
Encyclopedia
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
, 21 October 1737Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, 11 December 1814) was one of the younger mistresses
Mistress (lover)
A mistress is a long-term female lover and companion who is not married to her partner; the term is used especially when her partner is married. The relationship generally is stable and at least semi-permanent; however, the couple does not live together openly. Also the relationship is usually,...
of King Louis XV of France
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
. Her original surname is also given in sources as Murphy, Morphy, or O'Morphy, and she is sometimes referred to as "La Morphise" or "La Belle Morphise". Her life was dramatised in the 1997 novel Our Lady of the Potatoes.
Life
She was the seventh and youngest child of Daniel O’Murphy de Boisfaily, an IrishIrish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
officer
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
who had taken up shoemaking
Shoemaking
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or...
in Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and his wife Marguerite Igny. After the death of her father in 1753, her mother brought the family to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
In his Histoire de ma vie
Histoire de ma vie
Histoire de ma vie is both the memoir and autobiography of Giacomo Casanova, a famous 18th century Italian adventurer...
(vol. 3, chap. 11), Giacomo Casanova
Giacomo Casanova
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, Histoire de ma vie , is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century...
relates that he found her "a pretty, ragged, dirty, little creature" of thirteen years in the house of her actress sister. Struck by her beauty when seeing her naked, however, he had a nude portrait of her painted, with the inscription "O-Morphi" (punning her name with Modern Greek ὄμορφη, "beautiful"), a copy of which found its way to the King, who took her as one of his mistresses. (This portrait is apparently not to be identified with the memorable and provocative portrait by François Boucher
François Boucher
François Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
, though Casanova's description indicates that the poses were similar.)
She quickly became a favourite, and, after a miscarriage in 1753 (which apparently deeply affected the King), she gave birth Louis XV's illegitimate daughter, Agathe Louise de Saint-Antoine, born in Paris on 20 May 1754 and baptized that same day at Saint-Paul. On 27 December 1773 at the Parisian Convent of the Visitation, Agathe married with René Jean de la Tour du Pin, marquis de la Charce (born Paris, 26 July 1750), and died after only nine months of marriage, on 6 September 1774, as consequence of a miscarriage. Her widower remarried and had a son, but died young in 1781.
After serving as a mistress to the King for just over two years, O'Murphy made a mistake that was common for many courtesans, that of trying to replace the official mistress. Around 1754, she unwisely tried to unseat the longtime royal favorite, Madame de Pompadour
Madame de Pompadour
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour was a member of the French court, and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death.-Biography:...
. This ill-judged move quickly resulted in O'Murphy's downfall at court. A marriage was arranged to Jacques Pelet de Beaufranchet, seigneur d'Ayat (born 5 March 1728), which took place on 27 November 1755 in Paris. From this union, the former royal mistress had two children: the first one, a daughter, Louise Charlotte Antoinette Françoise (born 30 October 1756 - died 6 February 1759), died in infancy. Jacques de Beaufranchet was killed in action on 5 November 1757, at the battle of Rossbach
Battle of Rossbach
The Battle of Rossbach took place during the Seven Years' War near the village of Roßbach, in the Electorate of Saxony. Frederick the Great defeated the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman/Austrian Empire...
, seventeen days before the birth of their second child, a son, Louis Charles Antoine Pelet (born 22 November 1757 - died 2 July 1812), the later comte de Beaufranchet and General under the Republic.
Two years later, on 19 February 1759 at Riom, O'Murphy married again to François Nicolas Le Normant, comte de Flaghac (born 13 September 1725), a widower with three children. From this union, O'Murphy gave birth to a daughter, Marguerite Victoire (born 5 January 1768 - died 1814), who, according to one theory, could be another illegitimate daughter of Louis XV.
François Le Normant died on 24 April 1783. Twelve years later, on 19 June 1795, O'Murphy married again. Her new husband was Louis-Philippe Dumont (born 17 November 1765 - died 11 June 1853), twenty-eight years younger than her. This union quickly failed, and after almost three years, they divorced on 16 March 1798. O'Murphy never married again.
During the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, O'Murphy was imprisoned because of her royal connections, but she survived the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
and many years of political turmoil. She died in 1814 at the age of 77.