Napoleon’s wife, Joséphine, had a friend named Mme Recamier who was infamously known as “Government Property” due to her numerous affairs with Ministers of State. Mme Recamier’s notorious reputation led her to become a target of Napoleonic wit and criticism, with some even suggesting that she had such influence over the government that she should be included on the official list of officials. Mme Recamier’s scandalous exploits, which some claim included sleeping between the sheets of Janetter Roëz, Napoleon’s mistress, only further fueled the rumor mill. Nonetheless, Mme Recamier remained a respected member of Parisian society, visited frequently by notables such as Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo, and George Sand.
Niccolò Machiavelli, the renowned political philosopher and historian, inflicted himself with a moment of moral indiscretion that would go on to gain notoriety after his death. In a letter to his close friend and confidant, Vettori, Machiavelli confessed that he had indulged himself in the company of a female of questionable culture and inadvertently became sick on her while the light was still on. Machiavelli’s confessional led to the inception of a popular misconception that the object of his aversion was an absolute beauty whose extraordinariness did not live up to the apparition presented by the candlelight. Some scholars speculate that Machiavelli’s companion could have been a prostitute, although the identity of the woman in question remains shrouded in mystery.
Julie d’Aubigné, a celebrated 17th century French opera singer, took her artistic talents in a rather unconventional direction when she visited a convent to take holy vows. The move was, in fact, a calculated one aimed at satisfying the vanity of a lover who refused to marry her. In a stroke of genius that admittedly had more to do with manipulating the emotional insecurities of a clergyman, D’Aubigné convinced a monk of such ardor that he ended up marrying her. From then on, Julie d’Aubigné became one of the foremost female sexual predators of the era. She would often revive the philanderous impulses of her victims’ spouses between the sheets to avenge herself of their infidelities. Her paramours frequently fell prey to death, either at her hands or those of her humiliated lovers. It is rumored that on the day of her death between 1672 and 1676, the brothels in Paris were closed out of respect for the “Catholic Pimpernel.”
Victor Hugo, the prolific author, was addicted to the company of prostitutes throughout his life. His reckless indulgence was so frequent that Hugo’s passing triggered a city-wide strike by sex workers. As the legend goes, the female members of the Parisian prostitution industry downed their shutters and paused brothel operations to acknowledge Hugo’s favorable passing. Hugo’s extramarital affairs cost him dear in between the sheets, and numerous of his love interests, especially matured paramours, are recorded to have died from exhaustion attributed to their amorous habitats. Hugo’s exploits earned him the temporary moniker ‘Huq’, that sounds like the French word ‘chaud’ – hot – an indication of the afterglows between the sheets he left behind.
