POMPADOUR, pitN'pa'dour', .TEANNE ANTOI NETTE POISSON, Marquise de (1721-64). A mis tress of Louis XV. of France. She was burn in Paris, December 29, 1721, of obscure parents, hearing the name of Poisson. Lenormant de Tournehem, a rich farmer-general, was supposed to he her father, however. and he saw that she was well educated and well provided for. She excelled in music. elocution, and drawing; but what charmed the brilliant society that fre quented the salons of the rich financier was the perfect grace and beauty of her figure, and the exquisite art with which she was dressed. A crowd of suitors sought her in marriage, but in 1741 she became the wife of De Tournehem's nephew, Lenormant d'Etioles. In 1745 Mme. d'Etioles, who had attracted the favorable notice of the King, was installed in the palace of Ver sailles; soon after she was ennobled by the title of Marquise de Poinpadour, and long, ruled the King, first as mistress and afterwards as an in dispensable purveyor of diversions. The King believed her extremely clever, and after he had lost his first, passion for her as his mistress was glad to avail himself of her services as his chief political adviser. In fact, for nearly twenty years her influence was predominant in all im portant affairs of State. The choice of ministers, of ambassadors, of generals, depended on 'la Pompadour' and her favorite millions. The Aus
trian Prime Minister, Kaunitz, even induced Maria Theresa to sacrifice her pride to the exi gencies of her position, and the Empress-Queen wrote the royal mistress a letter in which she addressed her as ma cous,inc. Largely through the influence of the Marquise of Pompadour was that diplomatic revolution effected which in the Seven Years' War ranged France on the side of her hereditary enemy, Austria. (See KAUNITZ.1 She made and unmade ministers, and Choiseul Amboise (q.v.) owed his influence to her support. She was a bitter enemy of the Jesuits and re sponsible to a great degree for their expulsion from France. She was also noted for her patron age of artists and literary men. She was in re ceipt of an income of 1,500,000 francs a year. and had apartments at Paris, Versailles, and Fon tainebleau. She died at Versailles. April 15. 1764. Consult: Goncourt, Madame de Pompa dour (Paris, 1887) : Pavlovski, La marquise de Pompadour (ib., 1SSS) ; Dietriek, Les mailressrs de Louis X V. (Vienna, 18811 ; Sainte-Beuve, rauseries du lundi (vol. xi.) ; Fleury, Louis _VV. iiititno (Paris, 1899) ; and De Caraman, La fa millr de la »uirquise rue Pmnpadour 19001; also her Cornspondance, edited by Malassi (Paris, 1878).