POMPADOUR, JEANNE ANTOINETTE POISSON LE NORMANT D'ETIOLES, MARQUISE DE (1721-1764), mistress of Louis XV., was born in Paris on Dec. 29, 1721, and baptized as the legitimate daughter of Francois Poisson, an officer in the household of the duke of Orleans, and his wife, Madeleine de la Motte, in the church of St. Eustache ; but she was educated at the charge of a wealthy financier and farmer general of the revenues, Le Normant de Tournehem. He declared her "un morceau de roi," and specially educated her to be a king's mistress. This idea was confirmed in her childish mind by the prophecy of an old woman, whom in after days she pensioned for the correctness of her prediction. Ih 1741 she was married to a nephew of her protector and guardian, Le Normant d'Etioles, who was passionately in love with her, and she soon became a queen of fashion. The king met her at a ball given by the city to the dauphin in 1744, and he was immediately subjugated. She at once gave up her husband, and in 1745 was established at Versailles as "maitresse en titre." Louis XV. bought her the estate of Pompadour, from which she took her title of marquise (raised in 1752 to that of duchess).
She was hardly established firmly in power before she began to mix in politics. Knowing that the French people of that time were ruled by the literary kings of the time, she paid court to them, and tried to play the part of a Maecenas. Voltaire was her poet in chief, and the founder of the physiocrats, Quesnay, was her physician. The command of the political situation passed
entirely into her hands ; she it was who brought Belle-Isle into office with his vigorous policy; she corresponded regularly with the generals of the armies in the field, as her letters to the Comte de Clermont prove; and she introduced the Abbe de Bernis into the ministry in order to effect a very great alteration of French politics in 1756. The continuous policy of France since the days of Richelieu had been to weaken the house of Austria by alliances in Germany; but Mme. de Pompadour changed this hereditary policy for the alliance with Austria which brought on the Seven Years' War, with all its disasters.
But it was to internal politics that this remarkable woman paid most attention. She made herself indispensable to Louis. She died on April 15, 1764, at the age of forty-two See Capefigue, Madame la marquise de Pompadour (i858) ; E. and J. de Goncourt, Les Mattresses de Louis XV., vol. ii. (I86o) ; and Campardon, Madame de Pompadour et la tour de Louis XV. au milieu du dix-huitieme siecle (1867). Far more valuable are Malassis's two volumes of correspondence, Correspondence de Madame de Pompadour avec son pere M. Poisson, et son frere M. de Vandieres, etc. (1878), and Bonhomme, Madame de Pompadour, general d'artnee (188o) , con taining her letters to the Comte de Clermont. See also P. de Nolhac, La Marquise de Pompadour (1903).