Floral Favourites: The Perfumed Mistresses of Louis XV

During the 18th century, the court of Versailles was known as la cour parfumée - the perfumed court - and Madame de Pompadour certainly did her part for that reputation. 

The royal favourite's patronage of the porcelain factory at Sèvres ensured that her perfume burners were always exquisite. The factory delivered intricate burners which ensured that her apartment at Versailles always had a strong scent of perfume. Smaller bottles for individual use - or to transport with someone - also became popular. The burners could also be used without fire to display potpourri. 

It was not just her perfume burners that were exquisitely expensive. It was said that Madame de Pompadour spend about 100.000 livres per year on perfumes. Some sources have that number at 500.000 francs or even as high as 1.000.000 francs. Regardless of which number is accurate, it is apparent that she spent a fortune on her scents. 

Madame de Pompadour at her toilette

Her fascination with scents even transferred to France's diplomatic relations. Madame de Pompadour routinely gave visiting diplomats small vials of rose essence which the king himself occasionally distilled within the sanctuary of his laboratory. Madame de Pompadour herself experimented with customised scents including a scented vinegar around 1740.√

She had a hand in making the timeless eau de cologne popular; the scent had been invented by Farina but really received its heyday after the interference of the royal mistress. 

As for Madame de Pompadour's own favourites, lavender water is said to have been a continual favourite but so was jasmine and rose. If she was to live up to the trend of a different scent every day of the week, she could certainly afford to have a few different favourites. But one thing was being fond of individual ingredients, it was quite another to combine them. Amongst her preferred scents was called Oil of Venus and consisted of rose, sandalwood and iris. Another was eau de Portugal which had a citrus scent dominated by oranges. 

Besides actual perfumes, Madame de Pompadour followed the trend of adding perfume to just about everything. Her fans could be scented as could the gloves covering her fingers. Wigs, too, were a popular target for perfume and small satchets of perfume could be attached to clothing. Flowers themselves were valued as a decorative element that had the benefit of smelling nicely. Thus, both her estate of Choisy and the gardens of Trianon were abundant with sweet-smelling flowers. 

Even inside, an anecdote tells of a prank (an expensive one) that she played on Louis XV. Having invited him to her estate of Bellevue in the dead of winter. When the king arrived, she had arrayed her house in flowers - despite the time of year - which the king immediately stooped down to sniff. He then realised that the flowers were porcelain and the scent was perfume.

As for her successor, Madame du Barry, she did not hold back either. Her signature scents - plural, like Pompadour - indicates a different taste than her predecessor. Whereas Madame de Pompadour leant towards the florals, Madame du Barry's perfumes were heavier. One of her favourites contained iris root and amber while another was an intoxicating mix of bergamot, neroli, rosemary, lavender and grape spirit. However, she was also a fan of the eau de cologne which Madame de Pompadour had made so popular.

Madame du Barry also made use of the satchets used by Pompadour. She was said - allegedly - to have used them to seduce the king as the scents she hid under her gowns were said to be aphrodisiacs. To be honest, that sounds rather more like the almost inevitable rumour spread about a royal mistress but does show that satchets for personal use were still in fashion.

Madame du Barry

To the annoyance of the royal family, du Barry was given free access to the royal perfumer, Fargeon, which spurred her interests. It certainly added to her expenses as she ordered 1400 livres to be transferred to Fargeon in 1776 - two years after Louis XV's death.

In fact, Madame du Barry's taste for perfumes long outlived her stay at Versailles. At the time of her death by guillotine, she owed her perfumer 2.275 livres - quite a large sum.

Charles Juste de Beauvau, Prince de Craon

Charles Juste de Beauvau was born in the capital of Lorraine, Luneville, on 10 September 1720, into the second-most powerful family in the region. His parents were a remarkably fertile couple - having 20 children, Charles Juste was the thirteenth. 

Little is recorded of his upbringing which was largely undertaken by a governess before he would be handed over to a male governor. It was not until a marriage had been arranged that his name reentered the courtly annals. His family had found a suitable bride for the then 25-year old Charles Juste. The choice was Marie Charlotte de La Tour d'Auvergne who gave birth to their only child after five years of marriage. Their daughter - Anne-Louise-Marie - was born on 1 April 1750. 

Marie Charlotte died at just 33 years old in 1763 which left Charles free to remarry. He did - a year later - to Marie Charlotte Sylvie de Rohan-Chabot. The couple had no children so Charles' only heir was Anne-Louise-Marie who married into the Noailles-family. It seems that he and his second wife lived almost entirely separate lives as she rarely ever features in the mentions of him in contemporary literature. She would eventually survive him by eleven years.

Charles Juste

Throughout his career at court, Charles Juste continuously rose. He inherited his father's princedom in 1754 when he became the Prince de Craon. At this point, he was already an experienced soldier who had achieved the rank of field marshal in 1748. He certainly earned his spurs; having begun his French military career in 1738, he served in Spain and the Czech Republic where he seemingly tirelessly worked on behalf of the king. Luckily for him, when he volunteered for the French army, he had already been made a colonel of the Duke of Lorraine's regiment - who was conveniently his mother's lover.

As a reward for his loyal service, the king showered him with favours. Charles Juste was made Grandee of Spain as well as governor of both Provence and Languedoc before also obtaining the knighthood of the Saint-Esprit. His governorship of particularly Provence was very positive. He facilitated a resurgence of trade and navigation as well as cultivating commerce within the region. 

Despite primarily distinguishing himself as a soldier, he had an intellectual side, too. Hosting a fashionable salon where he received poets, philosophers, politicians and authors. Charles Juste himself often dealt with the Académie Française where he obtained a seat in 1771. 

Amongst other qualities, Charles Juste appears to have been quite tolerant when it came to religion. The story goes that he was touring a prison (as one does, apparently) when he came upon a group of people who had been arrested solely for being protestants. He immediately ordered them released and (allegedly) exclaimed that both justice and humanity spoke for the unfortunates who had been thus imprisoned; he consequently declared that he would have no more arrests for such a "crime". Naturally, not everyone was pleased at this and he was threatened that the king would surely be told so he had better order the re-incarceration of the prisoners upon threat of losing his command. He is said to have responded that the "king was master and could justly deprive him of the command he had entrusted to him but that he could not prevent him from doing his duty by his conscience and honour". 

Luckily for Charles Juste, the threat of tattling to the king would likely not have worked regardless. Louis XV later expressed that he had nothing but respect and admiration for his loyal Prince de Craon.

By 1783, Charles Juste had turned 53 and was made maréchal de France. On the eve of the revolution, he was made Secretary of State for War but only served for six months. Politically, Charles Juste appears to have been in favour of reform but does not seem to have been radical in any way. On the contrary, he remained a royalist and firmly supported Louis XVI whom he only survived by a few months. Louis XVI himself had had an immense faith in Charles Juste. The ill-fated king had brought Charles Juste with him to Paris immediately prior to the revolution as the king knew that Charles Juste was immensely popular with the people. Louis XVI fully recognised not just the popularity of his secretary but also that it was very well deserved. Sadly, the presence of Charles Juste did not ultimately save the king.

The upheaval of the revolution never managed to get the better of him - likely due to his popularity - as Charles Juste managed quite a feat: he died peacefully on 21 May 1793.