Marguerite de Gourbillon

She was the lady in waiting, lectrice, and favorite of the Countess of Provence, Marie Joséphine of Savoy, consort of the future king Louis XVIII of France.

She was born in a merchant family in Gray, Haute-Saône as Jeanne-Marguerite Gallois, and married to the noble Charles-Florent de Gourbillon, who was an post official at Lille, in 1763.

In February 1789, Provence successfully asked his brother, Louis XVI, to issue a lettre de cachet, which expelled Gourbillon to join her husband in Lille.

One evening, the king and the Count de Provence met Gourbillon in a passageway carrying a pot which she was trying to hide, and which was discovered to contain alcohol.

Upon her arrival, Marie Joséphine staged a public protest in front of the whole court, openly declaring that she refused to change out of her clothes or install herself in her quarters before Gourbillon was given permission to join her.