Agnès Sorel, iconic for her alleged role in initiating a fashion trend of wearing low-cut gowns exposing one breast, took the French court by storm when King Charles VII announced his intention to leave his pregnant wife for her in 1444. Breaking with tradition of secret liaisons, she was considered the first officially recognized royal mistress of a French king, King Charles VII of France, and often called the Dame de Beauté or Lady of Beauty, for her ethereal physical beauty. She caused immense scandal in the 15th-century French court through her bold fashion choices, and became related with the history of female topless beauty with her low-cut gowns meticulously tailored to expose one of her pretty boobs.

Born in 1422 of a family of the lesser nobility at Fromenteau in Touraine, Agnès Sorel was attached to the household of René I, the Duke of Angelou, at an early age of around 21, as a maid of honour to his consort, Isabella, the Duchess of Lorraine, and then went on to serve as the lady-in-waiting of Isabella’s sister-in-law, Marie d’Anjou, married to King Charles VII of France, known for several vices, along with his intense weakness for women and a sensitivity to feminine beauty. According to politician and essayist François-Frédéric Steenackers, Charles VII had a multitude of nameless mistresses, rather a harem, a travelling deer park, who followed him everywhere, and it did not take long for Agnès Sorel with her unearthly beauty to catch the eye of the king.

Charles VII was captivated by the ethereal beauty of Agnès Sorel, gifted her wealth of jewellery, specially designed clothing, and properties, like the fairy-tale Château de Beauté, where she loved to live, and securing the distinction of a queen, she rose to an unprecedented height of power for a woman in medieval France. However, although she made history as the first official mistress to a European monarch, she was the object of envy, lust, and vicious gossip. She traipsed the French court of Charles VII in a cut diamond necklace that drew attention to her ample bosom. Not only did she accentuate her décolletage with an uncut-diamond necklace, she also intentionally kept her bodice unlaced so that one of her ample breasts was exposed, displaying its pink nipple.

Interestingly, inspired by Agnès’ voluptuous breasts, French painter Jean Fouquet used her as a model for his painting, titled he Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels (1450 BC), featuring Agnès, as the crowned Virgin Mary, sitting on a throne, dressed in the iconic blue, an ermine cape around her shoulders and her bodice opened to reveal her milk-white left breast, the size of the infant Lord’s head. However, despite the artist’s intention to represent Agnès’ bust as the maternal sacred breast, the conservative clergymen, who hated the king’s decision to make a court appointment for his mistress, became mad, as a woman known for her sexuality was used to portray the Holy Mother. Nevertheless, Agnès did not care, and in an era when women were forbidden from holding any kind of public office, she wielded tremendous influence over the politics of a nation as a royal mistress.

Agnès Sorel achieved an extraordinary level of power for a woman during medieval France, and her influence at court began when she successfully persuaded the weak king to gather his forces and oust the English invaders from French territory. She was also present at the royal court in Chinon, where her company was said to have helped to lift the king out of a long period of melancholy. However, despite having many supporters, some individuals were against her, including the Dauphin Louis, who later became Louis XI. He publicly insulted her and threatened her, which led the king to send him into exile to the mountainous region of Dauphiné in southeastern France. Although Agnès was often criticized as a cunning and immoral woman, many contemporary writers spread rumours about her secret affairs and infidelity. But she loved her husband, King Charles VII, and gave birth to four daughters with him. While she was pregnant with their fourth child, she travelled from Chinon during the middle of winter to join Charles during his campaign in Jumièges in north-western France, to provide him with moral support. But unfortunately, she died there on 9 February 1450, at the age of 28, under mysterious circumstances, shortly after giving birth of a female child prematurely, allegedly after suddenly falling ill with dysentery, suspected to be murder by poisoning.