Execution of Madame du Barry
- When
- 1793
- Where
- Paris, where du Barry was arrested; Place de la Révolution, Paris
- Episodes
- 2
Madame du Barry, the last maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV, was arrested in 1793 on suspicion of aiding émigrés, largely on the testimony of her page Zamor, and guillotined on 8 December 1793 on the Place de la Révolution in Paris.
Episodes
- Arrest on suspicion of aiding émigrés
Based largely on Zamor's testimony, du Barry was suspected of financially assisting émigrés and was arrested in 1793.
- Guillotining on the Place de la Révolution
On 8 December 1793 Madame du Barry was beheaded by the guillotine on the Place de la Révolution in Paris.
Background and detail
Background. Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry, born 19 August 1743, was the last maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV of France. By 1792 she had learned of connections between her page Zamor and Grieve, and questioned him about them.
Arrest and Trial. Based largely on Zamor's testimony, Madame du Barry was suspected of financially assisting émigrés who had fled the revolution, and she was arrested in 1793. In his trial testimony that year, Zamor gave Chittagong as his birthplace and was probably of Siddi origin.
Execution and Aftermath. On 8 December 1793 Madame du Barry was beheaded by the guillotine on the Place de la Révolution. Her French estate went to the Tribunal de Paris, while jewels she had smuggled to England were auctioned at Christie's in London in 1795.
People involved
- Madame du Barry (Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry) · executed prisoner; last maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV
- Zamor · page whose testimony underpinned the accusation
Sources
- Madame du Barry Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-30
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.