Zoé Talon, comtesse du Cayla

Who was Zoé Talon, comtesse du Cayla?

Zoé Victoire Talon, styled comtesse du Cayla, was an intimate friend and confidante of Louis XVIII of France, and was his maîtresse-en-titre.

She was born at Le Boullay-Thierry. She was the daughter of a royal avocat, Antoine Omer Talon, and was privately educated and groomed by Madame Campan, whose school Lamartine called an academy of feminine diplomacy. In 1802 she married the comte Baschi du Cayla, with whom she had two children, Ugolin and Ugoline before being separated after prolonged litigation, which brought her to the attention of Louis XVIII, to whom she personally appealed for protection from her husband. She managed to retain the confidence, however, of her mother-in-law, a lady-in-waiting in the household of the comtesse de Provence, who now became titular queen of France. At the court of the restored Bourbons, Mme de Cayla was also the protegée of the vicomte Sosthène de La Rochefoucauld and from about 1817, at first very discreetly, became the major avenue through which the Ultras were able to influence the aged and emotionally needy Louis XVIII, who lavished favours upon Mme de Cayla, though she was unlikely ever to have been his mistress.