History’s most scandalous mistresses - and the stories behind the affairs

Mistresses have often been cast as footnotes in history, remembered only as “the other woman” in a man’s story. But many lived lives just as dramatic, dangerous, and influential as the rulers and statesmen they loved.

From royal courts to presidential scandals, these women shaped politics, fashion, and power from behind the scenes, their names whispered in scandal yet etched into legend.

Audible Original podcast Mistresses, hosted by Jameela Jamil and Dr Kate Lister with historian Katie Kennedy, dives into six such women, blending history with humor to explore tales of sex, betrayal, murder, and intrigue. Here, we take a look at some of history’s most fascinating mistresses whose stories deserve to be remembered...

Gabrielle d’Estrées

Although famed for her extraordinary beauty, Gabrielle d’Estrées (1573–1599) had brains too. As mistress of Henry IV of France, she urged him to convert to Catholicism, helping end the Wars of Religion and strengthening his claim to the throne. In return, Henry openly adored her, treating her as his “true wife”, granting her titles and planning to marry her despite still being wed to Marguerite de Valois (Queen Margot).

Gabrielle’s sudden death while eight months pregnant was fiercely speculated as poisoning, shocking France, although some historians suggest it could have been preeclampsia. Either way, the tragedy is immortalised in the Louvre’s enigmatic painting Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters (c.1594), which shows the sisters nude in a bath, symbolising Gabrielle’s pregnancy and her near-queenly status.

Madame de Montespan

Dominating Versailles for over a decade, using her wit, charm, and ambition to steer politics, arts patronage, and royal favour, Madame de Montespan (1640–1707) was the most powerful and scandalous mistress of Louis XIV, the “Sun King”, whose wife, Maria Theresa of Spain, endured humiliations in silence, retreating into her religious devotions.

Famed for her extravagant gowns, jewellery, and entertainments, Montespan set trends across Europe and bore Louis seven children, who were later legitimised, securing her position at court. Known as the “true Queen of France”, Montespan's glory only dimmed when her name was dragged into the Affair of the Poisons (1677–82), a scandal involving witchcraft, poisonings, and black masses. Testimonies alleged she used love potions and spells to secure Louis’ love, and although she was never convicted, whispers clung to her. With her influence and beauty waning, the king’s affection shifted to Madame de Maintenon, at which point Montespan retired to a convent.

Rosamund Clifford

Forever known as “Fair Rosamund,” Rosamund Clifford (c.1150–1176) is one of the most romanticized of royal mistresses, her story balancing fact and legend. Henry II of England, trapped in a turbulent marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, fell deeply in love with Rosamund, whom chroniclers praised as exceptionally beautiful, gentle, and pure.

Later tales claimed Henry hid her in a secret maze at Woodstock to shield her from the queen, and some even alleged Eleanor poisoned her. In reality, Rosamund retired to Godstow Abbey near Oxford, where she died young, though poets and balladeers ensured her legend lived on as the archetype of the tragic mistress.

Barbara Villiers

England's Charles II was an unashamed adulterer, parading dozens of mistresses before his long-suffering wife, Catherine of Braganza, but none were more flamboyant than Barbara Villiers. Flaunting her role with theatrical style, she dazzled in extravagant gowns and jewels, openly displayed her intimacy with the king, and shamelessly demanded riches, titles, and influence.

She embodied the indulgence of the Restoration court, the polar opposite of Catherine, who, devoutly Catholic, gentle, and dignified, endured humiliation in silence. While Catherine bore no heir, Barbara flaunted her fertility with five acknowledged royal children, all richly provided for. But as her beauty faded, her temper, greed, and constant demands made her an embarrassment, mocked by satirists as corrupt. By the 1670s, Charles had turned to Louise de Kérouaille and Nell Gwyn, and Barbara’s power dwindled. She left court in disgrace, later remarrying and taking lovers, seemingly indifferent to a reputation forever tarnished.

Mata Hari

With a life story that mixes sex, espionage, glamour, and scandal, Mata Hari (1876–1917) is one of the most fascinating mistress figures history has ever known. Born Margaretha Zelle in the Netherlands, she reinvented herself in Paris as Mata Hari, an “Eastern” dancer draped provocatively in veils and jewels, cultivating an image of mystery and sensuality that captivated Europe and attracted lovers from far and wide.

Generals, diplomats, politicians, wealthy businessmen, and high-ranking officers all fell under her spell, all quick to forget their wives and families. But it wasn’t only passion for Mata as her affairs gave her access to secrets and influence, and in wartime France, she was accused of spying for Germany while posing as a French agent. Tried, convicted of treason, and executed by firing squad in 1917, she became one of history’s most enduring femmes fatales.

Inês de Castro

If ever there was a fable to warn women against becoming a married man’s mistress, this is it. Prince Pedro of Portugal was wed to Constança of Castile when he fell for Galician noblewoman Inês de Castro, his wife’s lady-in-waiting. Their affair scandalized the court, but Pedro refused to give her up, and after Constança’s death, they secretly married. Alarmed by her family’s influence, King Afonso IV ordered Inês executed in 1355, stabbed to death before her young children.

When Pedro succeeded two years later, he savagely avenged her killers, allegedly tearing out their hearts with his own hands. He revealed their marriage, legitimised their children, and, in a macabre twist, had Inês’s corpse exhumed, dressed in royal robes, and crowned posthumously, forcing courtiers to kiss her hand. Today, she lies beside Pedro in twin tombs at Alcobaça, remembered as Portugal’s tragic “corpse queen”.

Henriette Caillaux

Once the mistress of married French finance minister Joseph Caillaux, Henriette Caillaux (1874–1943) scandalized society when he divorced his first wife to marry her, drawing her into the glare of political gossip. Hounded by the press and painted as ambitious and calculating, she feared her private letters would be weaponised in a smear campaign.

In March 1914, she stormed into the office of Le Figaro editor Gaston Calmette, who had led a vicious campaign against her husband, and shot him dead. Her trial became one of the most sensational in French history when she claimed she acted in a fit of passion to defend her husband’s honor, and the jury agreed, fully acquitting her of murder, and shocking the world.

Madame de Pompadour

Is there any mistress as famous as Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764)? So renowned that her legacy still lives on in France, with a château, streets, railway stations, and even porcelain glazes named after her, not to mention her signature swept-back hairstyle, revived centuries later by Elvis Presley. Few mistresses have left such a mark, and perhaps that’s because she was far more than the mistress of Louis XV, who was married to Queen Marie Leszczyńska.

Born Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, a middle-class girl with ambitious parents, she was groomed to win the king’s heart, succeeding at 24 when she was formally installed as maîtresse-en-titre, the official chief mistress. Yet unlike others, she became Louis’ confidante, advisor, and political ally, while championing artists, architects, writers, and philosophers of the Enlightenment, including Voltaire, and helping to shape the Rococo style. Though her last years were marked by frail health, she never lost her place at the king’s side, dying of tuberculosis at just 42.

Ninon de l’Enclos

Flipping the tragic mistress trope on its head, Ninon de l’Enclos (1620–1705) used the role not to cling to power but to claim freedom. Refusing to marry, she lived life on her own terms, becoming mistress to multiple high-ranking, powerful married men, from courtiers to artists, admirals to noblemen.

Unlike most mistresses, she never depended on one protector, managing her own fortune and moving on when she chose. Renowned for her wit and intellect, her Parisian salon drew philosophers, writers, and greta thinkers of the day, making her a cultural force in an age when women’s voices were sidelined. She continued to host into her 80s, and is remembered for supporting many literary and artistic talents including Voltaire who she left a financial legacy to in her will.

La Païva (Esther Lachmann)

In a rags-to-riches tale, La Païva (1819–1884), born Esther Lachmann to a poor Jewish family, rose from poverty in Moscow to become one of Paris’s most infamous courtesans. Reinventing herself in Paris, she became mistress to a succession of wealthy artists, writers, and aristocrats, including composer Henri Herz and novelist Théophile Gautier, caring little that her audacity shocked society.

With her lovers’ fortunes, she built the lavish Hôtel de la Païva on the Champs-Élysées, famed for its onyx staircase and glittering salons, completed in 1866. But her greatest triumph was yet to come: in 1871, she married Count Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, one of Europe’s richest men, and although it wasn't a union of passion, it was one of loyalty, wealth, and convenience, but Guido was said to be devoted to her nonetheless. After the Franco-Prussian War, anti-German feeling in Paris forced the pair to leave, and she spent her final years in Silesia at Schloss Neudeck, (present day Poland), surrounded by luxury.

Wu Zetian

Few women can claim to have gone from side piece to emperor, but Wu Zetian (624–705) can. What’s more, she remains the only woman in Chinese history to rule in her own right. Starting out as a humble concubine to Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty, she later moved upwards and onwards after his death, using intelligence, ambition, and alliances to become consort to his son, Emperor Gaozong.

Plagued by illness and poor health, Gaozong increasingly relied on Wu Zetian to govern, and it was this partnership that allowed her to amass power and eventually rule outright after his death. As ruler, she expanded China’s empire, promoted capable officials from outside the aristocracy, and supported Buddhism. Yet she gained a reputation for ruthlessness, executing rivals and later chroniclers even alleging she killed her own children, although these claims could have been rumours written to smear her name. Frail with age, she was forced to abdicate in 705 in favour of her son, restoring the Tang dynasty.

Cleopatra

Seemingly with seduction on her mind, Cleopatra famously smuggled herself into Julius Caesar’s private chambers wrapped in a rug when he first arrived in Egypt. The two soon struck up an open affair, in spite of him being married to his third wife, Calpurnia, who endured the disgrace back in Rome, a disgrace that only mounted after Cleopatra bore his only acknowledged son, Caesarion.

Years later, after Caesar’s assassination, Cleopatra bewitched yet another of Rome’s great politicians, Mark Antony, once again making a theatrical arrival, this time as Aphrodite on a golden barge. Already married to Fulvia, and later Octavia (the sister of Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus), Antony openly lived with Cleopatra in Alexandria, where they had three children. After the Battle of Actium, when their fleet was crushed by Octavian, the lovers fled to Alexandria, but with Octavian closing in, Antony fell on his sword, dying in Cleopatra’s arms. Her own end soon followed, as she famously chose death over capture, taking her life by asp bite according to legend.

Malintzin

Although labeled a mistress because of her relationship with the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, Malintzin was also his interpreter, advisor, and pivotal figure in the conquest of the Aztec Empire. Born around 1500 into a noble Nahua family, she was given into slavery as a child after her father’s death and eventually presented to Cortés, becoming both his consort and the mother of his son, Martín.

When Cortés’s wife, Catalina Suárez, arrived unexpectedly in 1522, she soon died under mysterious circumstances, with some chroniclers accusing Cortés of murder to clear the way for Malintzin. Yet their love was short-lived, as once the land grab was complete, politics dictated that Malintzin could never be accepted as his legitimate partner, so instead, he married a Spanish noblewoman, and had Malintzin marry one of his men, Juan Jaramillo, with whom she had a daughter before dying young around 1529. Reviled by some as a traitor and honored by others as a survivor and strategist, her legacy lives on in Mexico, where the word "malinchista" still means someone who prefers the foreign over their own.

Lillie Langtry

Nicknamed the “Jersey Lily”, King Edward VII’s (then Prince of Wales) mistress Lillie Langtry was one of the first women to become a celebrity simply for being beautiful and glamorous, with her portraits sold in their thousands, and she even became a muse to artists like John Everett Millais.

Married to Alexandra of Denmark, Edward’s affair with Lillie was highly publicised, and unlike many royal mistresses who remained discreet, and despite being married herself to Edward Langtry, a wealthy landowner, Lillie revelled in her fame, reinventing herself as an actress on the London and American stage, managing her own theatre company, and making shrewd investments, including owning racehorses. After her husband’s death, she married again and spent her later years between Monaco and her villa in France, dying wealthy and admired, as a mistress who turned scandal into triumph.

Louise de Kérouaille

The “Merry Monarch” Charles II had many mistresses, but Louise de Kérouaille was far more than a dalliance of the month; she was a political operator, suspected spy, and dynastic founder. Born in 1649 to a modest Breton noble family, she came to England as maid of honour to Charles’s sister-in-law Henrietta of Orléans. Soon catching the king’s notorious wandering eye, she became his long-term mistress and was given the moniker “the Duchess of Portsmouth”.

Elegant, French, and Catholic, she stood apart from rivals like Nell Gwyn, cultivating refinement that made her both alluring and controversial in Protestant England. Although she was suspected of acting as a French spy, as she corresponded with Louis XIV and relayed court gossip in return for pensions and gifts, Charles accepted her loyalty to the French king, and even encouraged it, as French subsidies helped fund his rule.

Showered with titles, wealth, and a son who became the 1st Duke of Richmond, Louise founded a line that counts Princess Diana among her descendants. Although she was hated by much of the public, she was adored by the king, who called her ‘Fubs’ and kept her in favour right up to his death in 1685, after which she returned to France and lived to the grand old age of 85.

Mary Boelyn

So beautiful was Mary Boleyn that she caught the eye of not one king, but two! She first gained notoriety at the French court as maid of honor to Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s sister, when she wed King Louis XII in 1514. After Louis’s death and Mary Tudor’s return to England, young Mary remained in France in Queen Claude’s household, where she was soon rumoured to be mistress to the new king, Francis I.

Tainted by scandal, she returned to England, where her ambitious father secured her a post as lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon, quickly catching Henry’s roving eye. Although already married to courtier William Carey, the royal affair sparked whispers that one or both of her children were fathered by the king. By the mid-1520s, Henry’s affections shifted to her sister Anne, setting in motion the Boleyn family’s dramatic rise and fall. Unlike Anne, Mary’s fate was quieter. After Carey’s death, she scandalized her family by secretly marrying a commoner, William Stafford, for love. Banished from court, she lived out her remaining years in obscurity in the countryside, dying peacefully in 1543.

Nell Gwyn

Orange-seller turned actress, Nell Gwyn, was one of the notoriously philandering King Charles II’s most famous and beloved mistresses. Rising from poverty in Restoration London, she began selling oranges to theatre audiences, but her beauty, wit, and charm soon caught the attention of theatre managers, and she soon trained as an actress, making her debut with the King’s Company, one of the two troupes Charles restored after the Puritans banned stage plays.

Specializing in comedy roles, her bawdy humour and natural stage presence made her a star who amassed many fans, the king included. Unlike the refined and unpopular French mistress Louise de Kérouaille, Nell was adored by the public, remembered for her humor and generosity to the poor. She bore Charles two sons and, after his death in 1685, was not left destitute like many royal mistresses, but lived quietly in London until her own death in 1687.

Empress Dowager Cixi

As the teenage daughter of a modest Manchu official, Cixi was selected in the imperial consort draft (a compulsory process that brought noble girls into the Xianfeng Emperor’s harem), and taken into the Forbidden City, whose gates were tightly closed to outsiders. From low-ranking concubine she rose to mother of the emperor’s only surviving son, the future Tongzhi Emperor, elevating her status overnight.

On the emperor’s death in 1861, she manoeuvred herself into the role of regent, and when her son died, she adopted her nephew, installing him as the Guangxu Emperor. Though Guangxu held the title, Cixi kept hold of the reins for decades, effectively ruling China for nearly 50 years through wars, rebellions, and uneasy steps toward modernization. When Guangxu died suddenly in 1908, just a day before her own death, rumours swirled that she had poisoned him to secure her chosen succession.

Marie-Anne de La Tournelle

What makes Marie-Anne de La Tournelle (1717–1744) such a fascinating mistress is that she was one of the infamous de Nesle sisters, four of whom in turn became lovers of King Louis XV, a scandal so notorious it was the talk of Europe. Born Marie Anne de Mailly-Nesle, later known as the Marquise de La Tournelle, she became famous as the Duchesse de Châteauroux, and unlike her siblings and rivals, who were content with jewels, estates, or ornamental status, she wanted more: real influence and the king’s undivided devotion.

Although remembered as his last and most dazzling mistress, Marie Anne had a shrewd side too, practically stepping over the corpse of her sister Pauline-Félicité, who had died after giving birth to Louis’s rumoured child, quickly jumping into his bed as his new maîtresse-en-titre. She wasted no time setting about remoulding the king, urging him to emulate his great-grandfather Louis XIV by taking to the battlefield as a warrior king, and in 1744 she even joined him on campaign, wielding a political power no mistress had dared before. But when Louis fell gravely ill, priests forced him to repent and dismiss her, and later that year she died suddenly at just 27 with rumours swirling that she'd been poisoned.

Cora Pearl

Not just a famous courtesan of 19th-century Paris, Cora Pearl (1835–1886) was a performer, brand, and early celebrity who embodied a world where sex, spectacle, and power intertwined. Born Emma Elizabeth Crouch in England, she reinvented herself in Paris as “Cora Pearl”, cultivating an outrageous persona that made her one of the most sought-after women of her age.

She lived flamboyantly and publicly, embodying the glamour and decadence of the Second Empire, and was linked with princes, dukes, and even Napoleon III’s half-brother, the Duke of Morny, who was married to Russian aristocrat Princess Sofia Sergeyevna Trubetskaya, and Prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte (the emperor’s cousin), who was married to Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. Notorious for making entrances, she once appeared at a ball with her body dusted in silver powder, and on another occasion served herself up naked on a silver platter at a dinner party. After the fall of Napoleon III, her fortunes declined, but her scandalous memoirs, published in 1886, ensured her legend endured.

Madame du Barry

Madame du Barry (1743–1793) lived one of the most sensational stories in the twilight of the Ancien Régime, rising from poverty to the splendour of a palace. Born Jeanne Bécu, the illegitimate daughter of a seamstress, she worked first in a dress shop and then as a hairdresser’s assistant before her beauty drew her into the “respectable” social class of the demi-monde as a courtesan. Her big break came through Jean-Baptiste du Barry, who introduced her to powerful patrons and arranged her marriage to his brother Guillaume to give her the respectability needed for court.

Through these connections, she met Louis XV, then in his late fifties, who was instantly captivated and made her his last official mistress. Unlike Madame de Pompadour, who was cultured and politically astute, du Barry was frivolous, sensual, and unashamedly focused on pleasure, a refreshing distraction for the weary king. She soon clashed with Marie Antoinette, the teenage Austrian princess married to the Dauphin (and future Louis XVI), who famously refused to speak to her, considering her vulgar. Showered with jewels, gowns, and luxury, du Barry became a symbol of royal decadence, and critics painted her as the embodiment of France’s corrupt monarchy. After Louis XV’s death in 1774, she was banished from Versailles, and though she lived quietly for a time, the Revolution eventually caught up with her and she was guillotined in 1793.

Nan Britton

From small-town Ohio girl to scandalous mistress, Nan Britton (1896–1991) carried on a love affair with U.S. President Warren G. Harding that became one of the great to-dos of American politics. Starting out as a schoolgirl crush that pivoted through circumstance into reality, Nan and Warren began their affair while she was in her early 20s, and Harding, a married newspaper publisher and U.S. senator, was in his fifties.

In 1919, she gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Ann, whom she insisted was Harding’s child, and by the time he became America's 29th president in 1921, their relationship was in full flow, with trysts in hotels and even in the White House itself. In 1923, while on a speaking tour in San Francisco, Harding suddenly collapsed and died of what was officially recorded as a heart attack, leaving Nan a struggling single mother. In 1927, feeling as though she had no other choice, she published The President’s Daughter, a tell-all memoir that shocked the nation. Vilified as a liar and opportunist, she spent much of her life battling critics who dismissed her claims. Nearly a century later, DNA testing in 2015 proved she had been telling the truth all along, though the vindication came too late for Nan, who died in Oregon in 1991, aged 94.

Lola Montez

Part courtesan, part performer, part political firebrand, Lola Montez (1821–1861) brought down a king, captivated geniuses, and lit up newspapers with her scandalous antics. Born Eliza Gilbert in Ireland, she reinvented herself as “Lola Montez”, a Spanish dancer and courtesan, whose 1840s “Spider Dance”, a routine in which she lifted her skirts to brush away imaginary spiders, shocked and scintillated for the time.

Her conquests included composer Franz Liszt and novelist Alexandre Dumas, but her most infamous liaison was with King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who was besotted with her and made her Countess of Landsfeld. The affair was so scandalous, particularly as he was married to Queen Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, that it provoked public unrest and helped force his abdication in 1848. After her daring escape from Bavaria, she embarked on a whirlwind career, performing across Europe, touring the U.S, dabbling in journalism, and even lecturing miners during the California Gold Rush. But the hard-living lifestyle caught up with her, and she died in Brooklyn in 1861, aged just 39.

Jane Shore

Known as the most famous of Edward IV’s mistresses, Jane Shore (1445–1527) earned renown not just for her beauty and wit, but for her kindness and approachability. Unlike other mistresses, often seen as greedy or scheming, and even compared to Edward’s queen, Elizabeth Woodville, who was viewed as aloof, Jane won admiration by petitioning the king to ease punishments and aid the needy.

As such, Edward didn't keep her hidden away and instead paraded her openly at court. Her downfall came after Edward’s death in 1483, when Richard III accused her of conspiracy and witchcraft. Though the charges failed, she was forced to do public penance, parading barefoot through London in a plain gown, but was at least spared execution. Afterwards, her fortunes dwindled, but Richard’s own solicitor, Thomas Lynom, came to her rescue, as he was so taken with her that he married her and secured her pardon. Remarkably, Jane survived the perils of politics, war, and disease, living into her eighties; an extraordinarily rare feat for medieval England.

Hortense Mancini

Bisexual libertine who could not and would not be caged, Hortense Mancini’s (1646–1699) story reads like something out of a novel. One of the dazzling nieces of Cardinal Mazarin, the powerful chief minister of France, she was groomed to marry well across Europe. Forced to wed at 15 to the fabulously wealthy but violently unstable Armand Charles de La Porte, Duke of La Meilleraye, she fled in men’s clothing, galloping across Europe in a series of daring escapes that shocked polite society.

Celebrated for her wit, beauty, and libertine spirit, she became the mistress of Charles II of England, joining his glittering court of favourites, where she captivated both men and women alike. Though her affair with the king was short-lived, her notoriety endured as she published sensational memoirs that laid bare her adventures and the constraints placed on women. She remained in England on a royal pension, but her later years were marked by drinking, gambling, and scandal, and she died in London aged 53.

Catherine Walters

Celebrated as the last Victorian Courtesan (with a blue plaque stating as much), Catherine “Skittles” Walters (1839–1920) was famed not only for her beauty and “perfect” figure, but for her impeccable horsemanship and her role as a fashion trendsetter. Born in Liverpool, the daughter of a customs official, she earned the nickname “Skittles” from her time working at a bowling alley before reinventing herself in London’s demi-monde as part of the “pretty horsebreakers”; fashionable Victorian-era courtesans, renowned for their expert equestrian skills and their ability to attract attention from wealthy men in Hyde Park's Rotten Row.

Her lovers included powerful, not to mention married, men such as Spencer Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, Napoleon III’s finance minister Achille Fould, and even the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. Not one to actively seek notoriety by betraying her lovers in print, her discretion made her all the more sought-after, and after living for a decade in Paris, where she ran a fashionable salon, and returning to Mayfair, London she was able to retire wealthy, thanks to all the pensions and gifts from her many benefactors, until she died in 1920, aged 81.

Caroline Lacroix

Wildly disliked mistress of King Leopold II of Belgium, Caroline Lacroix (1883–1948) is remembered for the scandal of the fortune he gave her, and more importantly, the source of it. A French courtesan, she met Leopold in 1905 when she was just 16 and he was 65, already married to Queen Marie Henriette and infamous as a womanizer.

He showered her with jewels, titles, and vast estates, much of it funded by profits from the brutal exploitation of the Congo Free State, earning her the nickname la reine du Congo (“the Queen of the Congo”). Caroline’s extravagance and youth enraged the Belgian public, who saw her as a symbol of greed and corruption, but Leopold ensured she would be well taken care of, leaving her much of his fortune. It made her one of Europe’s richest women, but also one of its most despised, booed by crowds at Leopold’s funeral. So infuriated was the royal family that they contested the will in court, and the Belgian state stepped in to reclaim assets judged to have been plundered from the Congo. Stripped of most of her estates and wealth, Caroline left Belgium, settling in Nice, where she lived in comfort until her death in 1948 at the age of 65.

Diane de Poitiers

Arguably the original cougar, Diane de Poitiers (1499–1566) is remembered as one of the most successful royal mistresses of Renaissance France. Arriving at court at age 15 as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Claude of France, she soon married the Grand Seneschal of Normandy, Louis de Brézé. Around the time she was widowed in 1531, she met pre-teen prince Henry, Duke of Orléans, while she was in her early 30s. Although their relationship started out as her being a mentor of sorts, by the time Henry ascended the throne in 1547 at the age of 28, Diane, then 48, was firmly at his side, openly acknowledged as his lover despite his marriage to Catherine, who loathed her rival but could never remove her.

Showered with wealth and influence, Diane controlled patronage, politics, and even the king’s signature, while wearing black and white to mirror his colours became her trademark. Her dominance ended with Henry’s sudden death in 1559, when Catherine finally forced her out from court, stripping her of jewels and estates. Diane retired to her château at Anet, where she died in 1566 at 66. Forensic tests in 2008 revealed high levels of gold in her hair, supporting reports that she drank a daily “elixir of gold” as a Renaissance beauty tonic, that may have slowly poisoned her, resulting in what contemporary sources thought was a "sudden" death.

Marie Walewska

Remembered as Napoleon Bonaparte’s most devoted mistress, Marie Walewska (1786–1817) was a Polish beauty, known in legend as "the Polish wife" who gave herself to an emperor for love and country. Married off at 18 to Count Anastasius Walewski, a man in his 70s, Marie first encountered Napoleon in 1807 when he entered Warsaw as conqueror and was persuaded by Polish nobles that yielding to his advances might win favour for her occupied homeland, despite the fact that they were both married to other people.

At first reluctant, she soon fell deeply in love, with their affair lasting through his campaigns, and she even bore him a son, Alexandre, later legitimised by Napoleon III. After Napoleon’s fall, she remarried but lived quietly, dying young at 31. Her story has been immortalised in art, literature, and in the 1937 Hollywood film Conquest, starring Greta Garbo.

Pamela Harriman

Not many can make the leap from villain to hero, but British socialite Pamela Harriman (1920–1997) did, leading a life that took her from scandalous courtesan and tabloid fodder to receiving a state funeral in Washington, honoured by a U.S. president.

Born Pamela Digby, she married Winston Churchill’s son Randolph in 1939, but soon embarked on a string of affairs with some of the world’s most influential men, including Fiat heir Gianni Agnelli, Prince Aly Khan (then married to Rita Hayworth), Baron Elie de Rothschild, and U.S. diplomat Averell Harriman. After divorcing Randolph, who was equally promiscuous, she married theatrical producer Leland Hayward, and later her former lover Harriman. In Washington, she became a Democratic powerhouse, and Bill Clinton appointed her U.S. ambassador to France. In February 1997, while swimming in the Ritz Hotel pool in Paris, she collapsed from a cerebral hemorrhage, dying later that day.

Carrie Phillips

29th president Warren G. Harding was a notorious philanderer, but of his many mistresses, Carrie Phillips (1873–1960) was the most dangerous. The wife of Harding’s friend James Phillips, she carried on a 15-year affair with him. During World War I, her outspoken support for Germany put the relationship under intense strain, and she even threatened to blackmail Harding into opposing U.S. entry into the war by exposing their love letters.

Her repeated trips to Germany only fuelled suspicions she might be acting as an agent. Seen as such a liability, once Harding became president in 1921, the Republican Party quietly paid Carrie and her husband to take a long trip to Asia, effectively exiling her. After Harding’s death in 1923, she faded into obscurity in Marion, Ohio, supported for a time with party hush money, and died in 1960, aged 87, which is not a bad ending compared to other presidential mistresses.

Alice Keppel

Historians cite Alice Keppel as the most famous and perhaps most beloved mistress of King Edward VII, who even held a spot at the king’s bedside when he died in 1910. Though married to wealthy banker George Keppel, she entered Edward’s life in 1898 when he was 56 and she just 29, becoming his most enduring companion despite his reputation for countless affairs.

Her marriage was “open” by design, with George said to leave the house whenever the king visited, as he, like Alice, benefitted greatly from the wealth and influence the relationship brought. Witty, discreet, and charming, Alice was welcomed at court, even by Queen Alexandra, who preferred her husband’s infidelities handled with grace rather than scandal. Showered with gifts and patronage, Alice became a powerful society hostess, her drawing room a hub of politics and debate in the last years of the Edwardian age. After Edward’s death, she left London society behind and spent much of her later life in Florence, Italy, where she continued as a grand society hostess. She lived comfortably into old age, but perhaps most ironically, her legacy echoed generations later when her descendant Camilla Parker-Bowles became mistress to Charles, then Prince of Wales. Only Camilla succeeded where she could not, becoming queen consort.