Nicole du Hausset

Nicole du Hausset was a French memoirist and attendant who served as lady’s maid and confidante to Madame de Pompadour at the court of Louis XV. Memoirs of the Courts of Louis XV and XVI combines material attributed to du Hausset with later court recollections connected to the Princess de Lamballe and an unidentified English narrator. Du Hausset’s own account records conversations, visitors, petitions, rivalries, and political anxieties observed from rooms close to Pompadour’s private life. Born Nicole Collesson in 1713, she was a widowed gentlewoman before entering Pompadour’s household, where her social status distinguished her from ordinary domestic staff. Her memoirs were published after the events they describe and have prompted continuing debate about editing and authenticity. Modern catalogues nevertheless treat her testimony as an important source for representations of Versailles and Pompadour’s influence. Memoirs of the Courts of Louis XV and XVI should therefore be read as a composite publication, not solely as du Hausset’s continuous autobiography, even though her name anchors its best-known surviving section even today.