Chapter 1: The Royal Concubines and Maitresses-en-titre: Stratospheric Careers and Slow Fades
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to Drinking Pearls: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
Wherein we explore the lives and inspirational qualities of some of the most powerful women who ever lived: the Conquering Beauties from the 5th through the 17th century: The Royal Concubines, Maitresses-en-titre. Edo-era Geisha, Korean kisaeng, and Italian Renaissance Courtesans.
Marie Walewska: The Royal Mistress who Tried to Save Poland at the Cost of her Honor
Marie Laczynska, born in 1786, was a young and sheltered Polish woman who never dreamed she’d play a part on the international stage as the mistress of the most powerful man in Europe, Napoleon I. Coincidentally, she’d had a crush on the conquering Napoleon I during her girlhood, tracing his name in the ice on her bedroom window pane.
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Chapter 1: The Royal Concubines and Maitresses-en-titre: Stratospheric Careers and Slow Fades
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to Drinking Pearls: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
Wherein we explore the lives and inspirational qualities of some of the most powerful women who ever lived: the Conquering Beauties from the 5th through the 17th century: The Royal Concubines, Maitresses-en-titre. Edo-era Geisha, Korean kisaeng, and Italian Renaissance Courtesans.
La Pompadour’s Opposite: The Ostentations of Madame du Barry and Her final Penance
After La Pompadour’s untimely death, Louis XV, who was desperately lonely, met the far less self-effacing, but nevertheless bewitching nymphet Jeanne du Barry. With her golden curls, of which she was extremely proud, dancing blue – some say violet — eyes, a highly agreeable smile (even her enemies accorded her that), and endless ambition, she stole the king’s heart, and some would say his senses, and remained his primary mistress until his death, even though she was, in the view of many, just a cheap whore.
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Chapter 1: The Royal Concubines and Maitresses-en-titre: Stratospheric Careers and Slow Fades
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to Drinking Pearls: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
Wherein we explore the lives and inspirational qualities of some of the most powerful women who ever lived: the Conquering Beauties from the 5th through the 17th century: The Royal Concubines, Maitresses-en-titre. Edo-era Geisha, Korean kisaeng, and Italian Renaissance Courtesans.
La Pompadour, the Most Cultured Woman in France: The “Scandal of Convenience”
Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson caught the eye of King Louis XV in 1745. A group of courtiers, including her father-in-law, promoted her acquaintance with the monarch, who was still mourning the death of his second official mistress, the Duchesse de Châteauroux. However, the position of maitresse en titre was considered a very significant one, and although she had been very well polished and educated growing up, with the best tutors instructing her and cultivating her talents in singing and playing instruments, witty Jeanne-Antoinette could not claim the noble lineage that belonged to some of the aristocratic young women who were being put forth as candidates for the job opening. Royal mistresses had been a seemingly indispensable staple of the French court since the appearance of Agnes Sorel, official mistress to King Charles VII in the mid 15th century, and it was they, and not the queens, on whom the kings were expected to bestow the most gratuitously lavish gifts, and to whom poets and painters paid tribute as their muses (often to ingratiate themselves with the king).
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Chapter 1: The Royal Concubines and Maitresses-en-titre: Stratospheric Careers and Slow Fades
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to Drinking Pearls: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
Wherein we explore the lives and inspirational qualities of some of the most powerful women who ever lived: the Conquering Beauties from the 5th through the 17th century: The Royal Concubines, Maitresses-en-titre. Edo-era Geisha, Korean kisaeng, and Italian Renaissance Courtesans.
Korea’s answer to the Geisha: The Kisaeng Hwang Jin-I
Korea has a tradition of female entertainers similar to the geisha. Called “kisaeng” or “gisaeng,” these women, like geisha, received extensive training in dance, poetry, calligraphy, and even nursing and textile crafts. Scholars estimate that such women – or a very similar prototype — date as far back as the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392). During this era they were often adopted as kings’ concubines and given noble rank. Because of this, and like the geisha, the confusion between their position as artist and their potential as sex workers has continued to haunt them. In the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), Confucian perceptions discouraged the elevations in rank seen during the Goryeo Dynasty, and in this era, when the kisaeng did indeed engage in sexual transactions, they usually became concubines or mistresses to men of much lower rank than kings. Complicating matters still further, kisaeng were broken down into a hierarchy, with the “court kisaeng” designated as the highest in status and the most skilled (and thus, most likely to trade in desultory sexual favors.)
The most famous kisaeng in Korean history is Hwang Jin-I, also known by her kisaeng name, Myeongwol. She lived between 1520 and 1560. Legendary for her exquisite beauty, quick wit, and exceptional intellect, her life has inspired countless movies, operas, and novels in her native country. Because not many specifics of her life are historically certain, this kisaeng easily lends herself to myth.
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Chapter 1: The Royal Concubines and Maitresses-en-titre: Stratospheric Careers and Slow Fades
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to Drinking Pearls: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
Wherein we explore the lives and inspirational qualities of some of the most powerful women who ever lived: the Conquering Beauties from the 5th through the 17th century: The Royal Concubines, Maitresses-en-titre. Edo-era Geisha, Korean kisaeng, and Italian Renaissance Courtesans.
China’s Treasured Courtesan: Su Xiaoxiao
China also celebrates historical courtesans who were particularly gifted in the arts. One of the most beloved of such women died over 1500 years ago.
Living at the tail end of the 5th century, Su Xiaoxiao (died c. 501 A.D.) was a famous courtesan and poet. Her fame as an intellectual courtesan-poet gives her a kinship with a courtesan who would not be born for over a thousand years after Su Xiaoxiao’s death, and would flourish as one of the most recognized courtesans of all time half a world away: Veronika Franko of Renaissance Venice. Both were valued for possessing the best of a courtesan’s virtues: their beauty was matched by exceptional intellect and a gift for poetic writing. However, some of the charms ascribed to Su Xiaoxiao – a heart bestowed with an ability to love and a deep sense of humanity, which her writing and anecdotes allegedly about her life are said to evince – are those also valued in the great courtesans of Edo-era Japan.
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Chapter 1: The Royal Concubines and Maitresses-en-titre: Stratospheric Careers and Slow Fades
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to Drinking Pearls: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
Wherein we explore the lives and inspirational qualities of some of the most powerful women who ever lived: the Conquering Beauties from the 5th through the 17th century: The Royal Concubines, Maitresses-en-titre. Edo-era Geisha, Korean kisaeng, and Italian Renaissance Courtesans.
Wu Hou: from courtesan to empress, no matter what the cost
Like Theodora, the prostitute who crawled out from under the 6th century big top to become Empress, the 7th century Chinese woman Wu Hou (born 625; died 705) rose from being one among the myriad concubines bound to Tang emperor Taizong, who ruled from 626 to 649, to eventually become the empress of China during the Tang dynasty (618-907). She has the distinction of being the only woman in the history of China to assume the title of Emperor, ruling in all but name for many years, and finally in her own for the last fifteen (690-705).
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Chapter 1: The Royal Concubines and Maitresses-en-titre: Stratospheric Careers and Slow Fades
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to Drinking Pearls: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
Wherein we exploring the lives and inspirational qualities of some of the most powerful women who ever lived: the Conquering Beauties from the 5th through the 17th century: The Royal Concubines, Maitresses-en-titre. Edo-era Geisha, Korean kisaeng, and Italian Renaissance Courtesans.
Schooling in Courtesanship: Ninon de Lenclos and Her Own Court
Although never an official “royal mistress of a king,” one of the most remarkable and charismatic of courtesans of any age, Ninon d’Lenclos, had the distinction of ruling over her own court. Indeed, although she only met Louis XIV – the sovereign whose life overlapped with hers – one time, he was well aware of her bright mind and opinions, and is said to have asked his courtiers, when faced with a particularly perplexing political problem, “What does Ninon think?” Ninon was very different from royal mistresses like Athenais in that she maintained her independence throughout her long life of erotic conquests. She was a courtesan in the truest sense of the word: even when cavorting with royalty, she remained in control.
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The Royal Concubines and Maitresses-en-titre: Stratospheric Careers and Slow Fades
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to Drinking Pearls: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
Wherein we explore the lives and inspirational qualities of some of the most powerful women who ever lived: the Conquering Beauties from the 5th through the 17th century: The Royal Concubines, Maitresses-en-titre. Edo-era Geisha, Korean kisaeng, and Italian Renaissance Courtesans.
In the shadow of the Sun (King): Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart-Mortemart, marquise de Montespan
Athenais (October 5, 1641 – May 27, 1707), known as Madame de Montespan, is famous as perhaps the most bewitching mistress of Louis XIV of France. Fecund and luscious, and mother to several of his children, her tenure as his royal mistress also coincided with the period that saw the zenith of the Sun King’s reign (1667-1680). She was said to be literally dazzling, with golden hair and brilliant white skin, and she favored gold-hued gowns, one of which was reported to be “of golden tissue, worked with gild thread and sparkling gold tinsel”; the famous literary lady Madame de Sevigne swore that in this concoction she “shimmered like a captive sunbeam.” Even when she sat behind him at church, she tempted his mind from the sacred and lured it into a fantasia of the sensual by the seductive perfumes that floated from his kneeling body, enveloping him like a caress. She also took part in the Sun King’s famed ballets, and the King constructed the castle of Clagny near Versailles for her.
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Chapter 1: The Royal Concubines and Maitresses-en-titre: Stratospheric Careers and Slow Fades
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to Drinking Pearls: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
Wherein we explore the lives and inspirational qualities of some of the most powerful women who ever lived: the Conquering Beauties from the 5th through the 17th century: The Royal Concubines, Maitresses-en-titre. Edo-era Geisha, Korean kisaeng, and Italian Renaissance Courtesans.
The revival of courtly love: Diane de Pointiers and Henry II
Diane de Poitiers (1599-1666) was a French woman of impeccable noble lineage, who became the mistress of the much younger – and totally devoted – French king, Henry II, for twenty years. After she was widowed at a young age by a much older husband, but before Henry II was old enough to realistically announce his passion for her, she decided from then on to only wear the colors black and white, and the result was a stylistic revelation: for her chic she was later dubbed by Christian Dior the greatest female fashion innovator of her time (originally “her colors” were green and white, as in the image below, but they now lacked the statement she wanted to make as a widow).
However, the colors she wore not just for aesthetic affect: as she now had no husband or close male relatives to protect her at court, by announcing her permanent widowhood and unimpeachable character, she hoped to avoid court intrigue and any scandals, or the ultimate and unthinkable punishment – banishment from the royal court. She succeeded so well in her guise as a virtuous noble lady who didn’t take lovers that later, when she and the King eventually began their legendary affair, many people really didn’t believe that this was other than a platonic relationship – even though their passionate exertions in the realm of amours had broken several beds in a court where news traveled fast among the staff.
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Chapter One: The Royal Concubines and Maitresses-en-titre: Stratospheric Careers and Slow Fades
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to Drinking Pearls: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
Wherein we explore the lives and inspirational qualities of some of the most powerful women who ever lived: the Conquering Beauties from the 5th through the 17th century: The Royal Concubines, Maitresses-en-titre. Edo-era Geisha, Korean kisaeng, and Italian Renaissance Courtesans.
The Meteoric Rise of Theodora, who Never Forgot Her Lowly Roots
Destined to be an empress and arguably the most powerful woman in Byzantine history, Theodora came into the world amidst extremely humble circumstances in 497 A.D. in Constantinople. Quite literally born into a circus family, she is said to have been born in the outhouse of the amphitheater where her father worked as a bear-leader. Theodora probably sensed from a young age that the circus setting of her childhood was quite apt for someone whose life was to be extremely eventful: for even while she was still a young girl, she allegedly had a prophetic dream that foretold she would become “mistress of all the riches in the world.”
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Chapter 1: The Royal Concubines and Maitresses-en-titre: Stratospheric Careers and Slow Fades
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to Drinking Pearls: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
Wherein we explore the lives and inspirational qualities of some of the most powerful women who ever lived: the Conquering Beauties from the 5th through the 17th century: The Royal Concubines, Maitresses-en-titre. Edo-era Geisha, Korean kisaeng, and Italian Renaissance Courtesans.
Oiran, Tayu, and Geisha of the Splendid Edo Period in Japan (1600-1868)
Unlike the courtesans of Belle Epoque and Second Empire Europe, many of whom history still recalls by name, very few geisha are personally remembered. For individual portraits of Japanese courtesans, both visual and written, you’d have to go back centuries, to the Edo period, when chroniclers looked beyond the mysterious mask of the white faces and kept records of famous tayu and oiran, the top courtesan ranks, whose members predate geisha (the characters for “oiran” mean “leader of the flowers”).
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Chapter 1: The Royal Concubines and Maitresses-en-titre: Stratospheric Careers and Slow Fades
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to Drinking Pearls: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
Wherein we explore the lives and inspirational qualities of some of the most powerful women who ever lived: the Conquering Beauties from the 5th through the 17th century: The Royal Concubines, Maitresses-en-titre. Edo-era Geisha, Korean kisaeng, and Italian Renaissance Courtesans.
Venice’s World-Famous Renaissance Courtesans
During this era, Veronika Franko was the epitome of the cortigiana onesta, or honest courtesan. Known for her keen mind and poetic talents, she published two books of poetry and was as prized for her artistic talents as she was for her beauty and any secret sexual tricks she might have been thought to possess. Despite her prodigious success, and the debt Venice owed her for allegedly showing Henry III such a good time when he visited Venice that he promised to help the city in its current conflict, no courtesan’s life was ever truly secure, not even the gifted and canny Veronika’s. She had to face jealous competitors who might come after her with weapons, the constant threat of syphilis and other diseases, and the menace of the unspeakable degradation of what was called the “Royal 31″ – that is, being cornered and gang-raped by 31 men at the same time.
Despite having powerful men as loyal clients, Veronika also was forced to face the Inquisition. If things had not gone her way, she could very well have been burned at the stake as a “witch” – the proof was that she had beguiled so many prominent men in Venice.
During this golden age for Venetian courtesans, Veronica Franko was not alone in being famed for impressive attributes that went beyond sexual skills or beauty. In her remarkable catalog of assets, particularly prodigious intelligence and writing talent, she was preceded by Tullia d’Aragona (c. 1510-1556), a courtesan who was ending her career as Veronica began hers in the latter half of the 16th century.
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Introduction: Introducing the Courtesan, and Admiring her Avatars from Antiquity
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to a Squadron of Dyed-Pink Rabbits: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
“History begins at night in dingy lanes with the waking of prostitutes . . . If the curtains are history, the shadows behind the curtains are the faces of the prostitutes that give the curtains a dimension of reality.”
With the above words Prakash Kona pays tribute to one of the most unfairly despised and defamed characters in real life: the prostitute. In contemporary India, recounting a slum of a town called Hyderabad in Streets that Smell of Dying Roses, Kona, however, like writers throughout the ages, finds a muse in whores, writing of them as dreamily as he harshly condemns the town that abuses them, for they are history’s constant, history’s secret, and, as Kona suggests, history’s three-dimensional flesh. They are a reality and necessity that many people avoid naming, yet they have been a staple in world literature. Within narrative, the prostitute haunts a variety of social and historical settings: luxurious palaces and down-and-out brothels, boom economies and war-torn landscapes, myth and dream. Her status runs the gamut from cheapest alleyway hooker to the most glamorous demimondaine of all: the courtesan.
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