Marie-Jeannette Bécu, comtesse du Barry (1743—1793) was a French courtesan who became the mistress of Louis XV of France and was one of the famous victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. The illegitimate daughter of a seamstress she grew to be a remarkably attractive blonde woman who came to the attention of Jean du Barry, an upmarket pimp/procurer in 1763. He made her his mistress and helped establish her career as a courtesan in the highest circles of Parisian society, enabling her to take several wealthy men as her benefactors. In 1769 she married du Barry’s brother, comte Guillaume du Barry, and was presented to Court; she soon became the king’s official mistress – his maîtresse-en-titre. She soon grew increasingly unpopular because of the King’s financial extravagance towards her, and her relationship with Marie Antoinette, the Dauphine of France, was contentious. After the king’s death in 1774 she resumed her career as a courtesan. In 1793 she was arrested by the Revolutionary Tribunal and was guillotined in the Place de la Concorde on 8 December 1793.