The daughter of Louis Charles d'Albert, Duke of Luynes (1620–1690) and his second wife (and aunt) Princess Anne de Rohan-Montbazon (1644–1684), she had five full siblings.
Her husband was a colonel de dragons and a prominent Piedmontese diplomat working for the Duke of Savoy.
At the Savoyard capital of Turin, the Duke of Savoy became infatuated with the young countess and by 1688 he had fallen deeply in love with her.
Later on, the duchess and her uncle, the French king Louis XIV, "encouraged" Madame de Verrue to take advantage of the Duke of Savoy's advances.
The most envied woman at the Savoyard court due to her influence over the duke, Jeanne Baptiste tried to dabble in politics.
As soon as the Duke of Luynes arrived at Bourbon, and became acquainted with the danger which threatened his daughter; he conferred with the Abbé as to the best course to adopt, and agreed with him that Madame should remain away from Turin some time, in order that M. de Savoie might get cured of his passion.
Finding himself only repulsed, the miserable old man turned his love into hate, ill-treated Madame de Verrue, and upon her return to Turin, lost no opportunity of injuring her in the eyes of her husband and her mother-in-law.
He goes on: "Madame de Verrue suffered this for some time, but at last her virtue yielded to the bad treatment she received.
Her haughtiness made her hated; she was poisoned; M. de Savoie gave her a subtle antidote, which fortunately cured her, and without injury to her beauty.
She conferred with her [youngest] brother, the Chevalier de Luynes, who served with much distinction in the navy, and together they arranged the matter."
Crossing our frontier, they arrived in Paris, where Madame de Verrue, who had grown very rich, took a house, and by degrees succeeded in getting people to come and see her, though, at first, owing to the scandal of her life, this was difficult.
In the end, her opulence gained her a large number of friends, and she availed herself so well of her opportunities, that she became of much importance, and influenced strongly the government.
When Jeanne Baptiste was allegedly poisoned, it was the famous Madame de Ventadour who helped to cure the ill countess.
After living as a recluse for more than three years at the request of her husband, "the eccentric countess reappeared in the world [with] her 'ésprit' as well as Jean-Baptiste Glucq," said Saint-Simon, who went on to say that the two secretly married.
Every year, when the court was at Fontainebleau, she would stay at Glucq's residence at the Château de Sainte-Assise at Seine-Port.
Jeanne Baptiste was a good friend of Monsieur le Duc, future Prime minister of France, and his mother Madame la Duchesse Douairière who was her age.
A great letter writer, Jeanne Baptiste was interested in art, science and even kept in contact with the budding Voltaire and other philosophers.
In Paris, she installed the numerous gifts she received when in Turin, at the Hôtel d'Hauterive – destroyed since then by the creation of the Boulevard Raspail – which she enlarged to house her already large collection of objets d'art.
Her epitaph went as follows: Ci-git, dans une paix profonde, Cette Dame de Volupté, Qui, pour plus de sûreté, Fit son paradis dans ce monde Here lies, in deep peace, That lady of delight, Who, as an extra precaution Made her paradise in this world The collection of Madame de Verrue was renowned for its paintings of old masters, objets d'art and numerous pieces of expensive furniture.
On the 27th of the same month, she ordered the reconstruction of that building by Pierre-Nicolas Delespine, using plans by Jean Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond.