Famous Courtesans in History

[Viktoria Richards]

Cora Pearl
Born Emma Elizabeth Crouch, Cora was the daughter of cellist and composer Frederick Nicholls Crouch. At the ripe age of approximately twenty, her very first encounter with a man was not one to which she consented. It is believed that this abrupt initiation left her with a certain disdain for men and marked her as one of the most unfeeling of the great courtesans. Cora only loved men for what they could do for her. Living in France, she progressed rapidly through the echelons of European aristocracy and had an affair with Prince Napoleon that lasted for years. With her vast accumulation of wealth, she purchased luxurious apartments that were lavishly decorated and threw decadent parties. But her opulent lifestyle did not last. With the fall of the Second Empire came an end to her power and she died in poverty.

 

[Viktoria Richards]

Marie Duplessis
Marie was born in Normandy, France as Alphonsine Rose Plessis. At the age of fifteen she moved to Paris and worked in a dress shop. A beautiful young woman, she was approached by prominent men who desired her company in private and social settings. Eventually, she became a popular courtesan, hosting a salon where politicians, writers and artists gathered for socializing. She was the mistress of Alexandre Dumas and the alleged lover of composer Franz Liszt. She was briefly married to at least two of her suitors. Demure and charming, she mixed well into respectable society and lived with abandon. She died at the young age of twenty-three of tuberculosis. Her funeral was said to have been lavish and attended by hundreds of people.

 

[Viktoria Richards]

Alice Ozy
BornJulie Justine Pilloy, Alice was a successful French actress but best known as a courtesan. Her gentlemen friends were notables from Paris society. Her affair with Duc d’Aumale established her though she moved on to acquire a series of affluent lovers including Théophile Gautier, Napoleon III Bonaparte and Empereur des Franҫais. Her financial shrewdness led her to retire in wealth but also in loneliness.

 

[Viktoria Richards]

Leonide LeBlanc
A famous French actress of the Second Empire, Leonide became known as Mademoiselle Maximum through her lust for luxury and excess. Her most famous suitor was Duc d’Aumale. She was a rather fickle girl with many generous suitors who never seemed to last for long. Her many charms earned her forgiveness. As much as she loved extravagance, she often made careless decisions and eventually had to downgrade her lifestyle.

 

[Farm Boy 2]

Nell Gwyn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Phoebe]

 

[Wilde Amanda]

 

[Mary]

Poem by Su Xiaoxiao

I ride in a decorated carriage,
My darling rides a blue-white horse.
Where should we tie the knot for our heart?
Under the Xiling pine and cypress.

A chinese courtesan...

 

[Madam]

Cora Pearl.....

 

[Rochelle]

Laura Bell (1829–1894)

Laura Bell was most infamous for supposedly making £250,000 for spending a single night with Prince Jung Bahadoor of Nepal. This famous courtesan of Victorian England subsequently experienced a religious conversion and became a preacher on morality.

Aspasia (ca. 470 BC-ca. 400 BC)

Aspasia was a hetaera, that is, a high-class, educated, independent, tax-paying entertainer of ancient Greek society, something like a courtesan, but closer to the Japanese geisha. She was notable for her involvement with the great Athenian statesman Pericles after he had divorced his first wife, and lived with him as if they were married.

 

[Sherry]

These famous courtesans made prominent names for themselves during their time, and many of them were respected models, entrepreneurs, artists, actresses, and explorers. Their lives were full of mystery, intrigue, and the occasional murder by erotic asphyxiation.

Phryne

Phryne is one of the few prostitutes whose beauty can be admired in museums of fine art. As a courtesan in Ancient Greece, Phryne was known for her good looks and modeled for famous painter Apelles and sculptor Praxiteles. It has been speculated that Phryne's modeling and prostitution made her so wealthy she was able to contribute to the rebuilding of the walls of Thebes after Alexander the Great destroyed them in 336 BC Like many prostitutes, Phryne was subject to public ridicule and was put on trial for unclear religious reasons and was reported to have bared her breasts to the jury. Phryne was defended by one of her lovers, the orator Hypereides, and was ultimately set free.

Veronica Franco

Veronica Franco was a fascinating woman from the Renaissance period in Venice. Aside from being a prostitute, Franco was well educated and published several volumes of poetry. She also created a charity that provided help to courtesans and their children. Franco's most notable client was Henry III, King of France and in 1565 she was listed as an expert in a popular Venetian guidebook for prostitutes. Towards the end of her life in 1577, Franco was taken before the court on charges of witchcraft but the charges were dropped. Much of her life after her brushes with royalty is unknown, but scholars believe she died relatively poor without social or financial support.

Madame du Barry

Jeanne Becu, known to the French court of Louis XV as Madame du Barry, was well known in her time for being the official mistress of Louis XV. Bécu got her start in prostitution in Paris where she acquired many high-ranking aristocrats as clients and eventually made her way to the Palace of Versailles where a depressed and lonely Louis XV discovered her. Bécu was quickly married to a noble and secured a title to grant her access to Louis XV's court, and entered the mix of factors that destroyed France's foreign affairs. Bécu was sent to a nunnery after the death of Louis XV and ultimately died at the guillotine during the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris in late 1793.

Sally Salisbury

Sally Salisbury, whose birth name was Sarah Pridden, was a gutsy and extremely popular prostitute in 18th century London. She began prostituting in her early teens and by the age of 14 she was working in a high-class brothel that attracted lords and aristocrats. Salisbury was known for being beautiful, funny, and, all things considered, pretty feisty. She was involved in a public scandal where she stabbed a brothel patron, John Finch, who was the son of a countess and a lord, over a pair of opera tickets. Salisbury met an unfortunate end when she was imprisoned and shortly after died of complications from syphilis.

Nell Gwyn

Nell Gwyn is most famous for her role as mistress to King Charles II of England, with whom she had two sons. As a young woman, Gwyn was enchanted by the English theatre and set out to become an actress. Although she was illiterate, she studied her craft at a performance art school where she was rumored to have shacked up with famous male actors Charles Hart and John Lacy. Gwyn worked her way up the ranks, acting in several comedic plays, and eventually became present in high English society where she became acquainted with King Charles. Gwyn was one of 13 mistresses to the King and while she never secured a title for herself, one of her sons was given the title Duke of St. Albans.

Catherine Walters

Catherine Walters was a beautiful fashion icon and English courtesan who seemed to have all of London at her feet in the 19th century. Walters had it all; she was pretty, popular, educated, and had several extremely wealthy benefactors. She wore her clothing skintight and people would gather in Hyde Park to see her ride horses. Some of her clients included King Edward VII and Napolean III, and unlike many prostitutes of her time, her life didn't end in complete ruin. She retired at 80 and had both money and a favorable legacy.

Lulu White

Tales about New Orleans Storyville red-light district in the early 1900s would be incomplete without a mention of the prostitute, brothel madame, and entrepreneur Lulu White. White ran a brothel, the Octoroon Parlour, that housed nearly 40 women. The brothel was a hub for jazz lovers and gentlemen looking to explore the five parlors and 15 bedrooms reserved for special guests. White was forced to close her establishment in 1917 when she became subject to gender discrimination by the city of New Orleans. White holds a place in contemporary culture as she was mentioned in a song performed by Louis Armstrong, "Mahogany Hall Stomp," and was the honorary namesake to Boston's jazz club Lulu White's.

Calamity Jane

Most people know Martha Jane Canary Burke, a.k.a. Calamity Jane, as a frontierswoman and cowgirl who fought the Native Americans alongside Wild Bill Hickok, but she was also a prostitute at the Fort Laramie Three-Mile Hog Ranch in eastern Wyoming. Despite her rough-and-tumble reputation, Jane was pretty with dark hair and eyes. Ultimately Jane chose a different career path and began dressing as a man because it allowed her to move freely and get jobs that no woman would have been given. She worked on cattle drives, became an explorer, and starred as a storyteller in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

Sada Abe

Sada Abe was a low-level geisha when she contracted syphilis and had no choice but to begin prostituting in Osaka's famous Tobita brothel district. During her travels to Tokyo, she crossed paths with a kinky lover, Kichizo Ishida. In May of 1936, Abe was catapulted into the public eye when she was arrested for murdering Ishida by erotic asphyxiation. Abe was clearly mentally disturbed and had problems controlling her jealousy. After Ishida died, Abe cut off his genitalia, put it in her kimono, and carved her name into his arm. This event caused widespread panic across Japan, and Ishida's testicles were put on public display for a short time after World War II.

 

[Farm Boy 2]

Now pay attention all you sarcastic disgruntled biches I am not a " John " no I am a benefactor . but unfortunately not a extremely wealthy one .