Year: Day to Day Men: December 29
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December 29th of 1721 marks the birth date of Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, the Marquise de Pompadour. She became a prominent member of the French court and the official chief mistress of King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751.
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson was born in Paris to François Poisson and his wife Madeleine de La Motte; although it is suspected that he was not her biological father. After a scandal of unpaid debts forced François Poisson to flee France in 1725, Charles Le Normant de Tournehem, one of the men suspected of being Jeanne’s father, became her legal guardian. She attended an Ursuline convent in Poissy from 1726 to 1730 where she received quality education. Tournehem then arranged for private education at home where she was taught the arts including painting and theater.
At the age of nineteen, Jeanne Poisson married Charles Guillaume Le Normant d’Étiolles, Tounehem’s nephew and his sole heir. This inheritance include the estate at Étiolles, a wedding gift from Tournehem, that was situated on the edge of the King’s hunting grounds. As a married woman, Jeanne Poisson frequented the celebrated salons in Paris and met such notables as writer Voltaire, historian Charles de Montesquieu, and author Bernard de Fontenelle.
Due to her involvement with the Parisian salons, King Louis XV heard Jeanne Poisson’s name mentioned at Court. Wanting to be noticed by the King, Poisson arranged for a meeting during the King’s hunting trip to the forest of Sénart in 1744; the result of which was the King sending a gift of venison to her. With the death of Maria Anne de Mailly, Madame de Châteauroux, the position of King’s mistress became vacant in early December of 1744. In the next year, Jeanne Poisson received a formal royal invitation to attend the February 25th masked ball at the Palace of Versailles, a celebration for the marriage of Dauphin Louis of France to Infanta Maria Teresa of Spain.
It was at this celebration that King Louis XV declared his affection for Jeanne Poisson. By March of 1745, she was the King’s mistress, installed at Versailles in an apartment directly above the King. The marriage between Poisson and her husband Charles d”Étiolles was officially annulled on the 7th of May. The King purchased the title of Marquisate of Pompadour, along with its estate and coat of arms, and gave them to Poisson thus making her a Marquise of the court. Forging a good relationship with the Queen Maria Leszczyńska, Poisson became favored by the Queen above the King’s other mistresses and quickly mastered the highly mannered etiquette of the court.
As the court favorite, Jeanne Poisson, now the Marquise de Pompadour, effectively assumed the role of prime minister and became responsible for favors and dismissals, as well as advancements for court members. She welded influence in negotiations towards the Treaty of Versailles and supported Cardinal de Choiseul-Beaupré in his plans for the Pacte de Famille and the suppression of the Jesuits. The Marquise made herself invaluable to the King by becoming the only person he trusted to tell him the truth. She would entertain him with elegant private parties and operas, events sometimes attended by Queen Leszczyńska, as well as hunting trips in his private reserve.
In 1750, Marquise de Pompadour’s ceased sexual relationships with the King partly due to her poor health, three miscarriages, and poor libido. In order to continue her importance in the court as a favorite, she took on the role of “friend of the King” and presented a portrait of herself entitled “Amitie (Friendship)” that was sculpted by Jean Baptiste Pigalle. After the sale of her château, the Marquise de Pompadour took over the Château de Saint-Ouen near Paris. While there, she played a central role in Paris’s art scene by sponsoring sculptors and painters, as well as, constructing the Sèvres porcelain factory which became one of the most famous in Europe. The Marquise de Pompadour lived at Saint-Ouen until her death at the age of forty-two in April of 1764.