More Than A King's Mistress:

On a December day in Paris, 1721, A baby girl was born to Madeline De La Motte and her husband Francois Poisson. A baby girl they named Jeanne Antoinette. Madeline and Francois had a tumultuous marriage, and it was widely understood that Jeanne’s father was not Francois, but one of Madeline’s many other lovers.

Jeanne grew up in the midst of this instability, a smart and charismatic girl, though she struggled with poor health after contracting whooping cough early in her childhood. She was widely considered to have good prospects for the future, and these expectations were solidified when her mother took her to see a fortune teller. Madame De Lebon held the small girl's hands and predicted she would “one day rule over the heart of a king.” After this fateful, and foreshadowing moment, she was often referred to as “reinette” or “little queen.” Her mother then decided to train little Jeanne to become the mistress of the king, Louis XV.

What kind of lessons does a mistress-in-training take, you might ask? It turns out, many of the same lessons girls of noble birth would have been expected to take at the time. Jeanne studied dancing, drawing, painting, and engraving. Basically, anything that could make her stand out as an accomplished and alluring woman to the King.

When she was nineteen, Jeanne married a man named Charles Guillaume Le Normant D’Etiolles. Charles, a slender man with dark eyes, was said to have fallen deeply in love with his young bride. Jeanne must have liked him well enough, because she allegedly said she “would never leave him, except for the King.” To her credit, she never broke that vow. Jeanne soon got pregnant with her first child, a boy, who unfortunately died soon after he was born. She then got pregnant a second time, this time with a daughter, Alexandrine, who died when she was nine years old. These tragedies must have devastated and hardened young Jeanne, and the couple did not have any more children.

To occupy her time, Jeanne spent a lot of time in salons throughout Paris. A salon was essentially a gathering, hosted by a noblewoman in her home, where people could come and freely discuss thoughts and ideas. Jeanne crossed paths with many big names of the enlightenment in these salons, including Voltaire (A Writer and Philosopher), Charles Pinot (An Author), Montesquieu (A Political Philosopher), Helvétius (Another Philosopher) and Bernard De Fontenelle (Another author). As you could imagine, Jeanne challenged herself and grew intellectually from these salon experiences, and she even started her own salon, and invited many of these philosophers and authors to participate.

Finally, in 1744, Jeanne had her chance to get the King’s attention. Like so many nobles, King Louis XV was said to enjoy the big sport of the day, hunting. He was leading a hunt in the forest of Sénart, which, coincidentally or not, happened to be near one of Jeanne’s estates. Because of this proximity, Jeanne was allowed to go to the hunt, but was supposed to watch from a distance.

However, Jeanne had other plans. Driving her pink phaeton (carriage), she intentionally drove directly across the King’s path in a flattering blue dress. She then turned around, changed, and drove her blue phaeton across the King’s path once more, wearing a flattering pink gown.

As unconventional as it may seem, this plan must have worked, because soon after, a gift of venison arrived from the king to let her know he was interested.

While her planning and scheming was definitely peaking the interest of the King, there was one big obstacle in Jeanne’s way, an obstacle named Maria. Maria Anne de Mailly was already the King’s favorite mistress, and was not shy in letting people know she was not interested in Jeanne joining the court. She was ambitious, and was considered to be a beauty at court, with blonde curls and blue eyes. Unfortunately for Maria, however, she became ill and died that very same year.

In February of 1745, Jeanne received a formal invitation to attend a masquerade ball at the Palace of Versailles to celebrate the wedding of the Dauphin Louis of France and Maria Teresa of Spain. Jeanne knew the King would be in attendance, and so she dressed as Diana the Huntress, as a reminder to the King of their first meeting in the forest of Sénart. King Louis XV showed his affection for Jeanne publicly for the first time at this masked ball, by removing his mask in front of her.

One month later, in March of 1745, She became the King’s official mistress (yes, it was a real title!) and moved into the Palace at Versailles, to an apartment directly above the King’s. However, there were still two obstacles that stood in Jeanne and Louis’s way. The first was Jeanne’s husband. Remember her husband? Charles was not forgotten in all of this. Louis tried to get rid of him by sending him to Turkey as an ambassador, but he refused. They were officially “separated” in May of that same year, and Charles reportedly never forgave his wife. To be fair, Jeanne warned him this was a possibility from the beginning of their marriage.

The second obstacle was Jeanne’s social status. If she was going to be present at the King’s Court, she needed to be a noblewoman with a title. So, the King purchased one for her, making her a Marquise. This may have been enough to satisfy the King and the rules of royal court, but this made Jeanne an enemy to some royal courtiers, who were determined to remind everyone that Jeanne was, by birth, a commoner.

Jeanne had accomplished her mission. She was the King’s official mistress. Unfortunately, her mother never got to see her daughter succeed, as she died that very same year. While Jeanne mourned her mother, she was smart enough to understand that just because she had won the King’s affection, did not mean she would have it forever. So, she set about making her position at court more secure. She decided to befriend the rest of the royal family, including the Queen. This plan worked, and she quickly became favorite to the queen over the other mistresses (an odd sentence to write, but it was not at all uncommon for the Queen to be aware, and sometimes even condone, the King’s mistresses at the time.)

Her position as both the King’s mistress and the Queen’s favorite gave Jeanne an immense amount of power at court. She continued to gather titles such as Duchess in 1752, and in 1756, became the Queen’s lady in waiting, the highest rank for a woman at court, excluding the Queen herself.

The combination of a very powerful position at court, her childhood education, her continued education at the salons in Paris, and her own intelligence and wit, gave Jeanne a unique chance to launch a career in politics. She used this position to essentially play the role of Prime Minister, taking on the responsibility of advancing and dismissing people in Court, and contributing heavily in both domestic and foreign politics. She is credited with playing a part in several major political movements. She intervened in negotiations which led to the Treaty of Versailles and she was an advisor to the King during the Seven Years War. After his defeat at the Battle of Rossbach, she is alleged to have comforted the King with the now infamous quote “au reste, aprés nous, le déluge.” (For the rest, after us, the deluge.) France was left financially ruined after the Seven Years War, and a lot of the public blame for that landed on Jeanne’s shoulders.

Still, she pressed on, and publicly supported ministers such as Bertin and Machaut, who helped France regain their riches through reforms on infrastructure, trade and taxes.

In 1750, Jeanne’s title changed once again, this time from King’s Mistress to “Friend of the King.” A position with all the same power, but none of the sex with King Louis. It is believed that Jeanne stopped sleeping with the King due to her poor health, but she was determined not to lose her high status at court. She became a major player in the arts scene in Paris, effectively helping make it the epicenter of culture it became. She bought a Porcelain factory in Sevres in 1759, and with that, created tons of jobs for the community. She patronized and supported many famous artists of the time, and greatly influenced the rococo period in art and decor. (A personal favorite of mine.)

Jeanne was not just a patron of the arts, she was an active participant as well. She learned how to engrave gems, acted on stages in private theaters, read voraciously and became an amateur printmaker. In fact, copies of her book of her engraved prints can be found today in museums and libraries worldwide, including The Met, The British Museum, and The Boston Museum of Fine Art.

Jeanne remained in her prestigious position as “Friend of The King” at Louis XV’s court until she died of Tuberculosis in 1764. She was forty two years old. It is said that Louis himself nursed her throughout her illness, and as he watched her coffin leave the palace in the rain, he is quoted saying “The Marquise will not have good weather for her journey.” She was buried in Paris, at the Covent Des Capucines.

Jeanne Antionette Poisson, more commonly known as Madame De Pompadour, was a woman determined to become all she could be during a time when women were expected to be very little. Hers is a story of ambition, power, and loyalty. Of taking circumstance, and turning it into your wildest dreams.