him that very night provided that it would be a secret, and escorted him in disguise to the house of Richelieu for the meeting. However, Louise Julie would still not leave, and Marie Anne was discontent at the king's patience. Louise Julie successfully asked for a last dinner with the king, and when she cried upon departure, he embraced her and promised to meet her a couple of days after her departure. Marie Anne displayed her discontent over the king's last promise to see Louise Julie again and demanded that Louis should retract his promise of a last encounter, and that Louise Julie should never be allowed to court again if he wished to keep her favor. In a letter written soon after, Marie Anne wrote to Richelieu: "Meuse has surely told you, uncle, of the trouble which I had in getting Madame de Mailly to budge", but added that it would still be difficult to achieve something in politics as long as Cardinal Fleury lived. Cardinal Fleury, the king's chief minister, tried to intervene with the king because he preferred Madame de Mailly as a royal mistress to her more ambitious sister. He did not want Marie Anne interfering in his administration of France. Louis, however, curtly informed him that while he had given the prelate control over the kingdom's political affairs, he had not given him control over his personal life. Royal Mistress Despite having achieved the banishment of her predecessor and the king's agreement to her demands, Marie Anne de Mailly reportedly refused to fulfill the sexual union with Louis XV several times from November until 19 December 1742, after which she "ostentatiously showed herself at the opera so that Louis' choice might be approved", and installed herself in the royal favorite's apartment three days after. In preparation for her own elevation to duchess, she arranged a marriage between her favorite sister, Diane Adelaide, to the Duke of Lauraguais, and secured her a dowry and the office of designated lady-in-waiting to the future bride of the crown prince. On 22 October 1743, letters patent were issued creating Marie Anne duchesse de Chateauroux with a duchy representing an annual income of 80,000 livres. The king "asked for nothing more than a place among those who formed her little court", was in despair when she refused to attend his dinners, begged her to be allowed to join the suppers