La Pompadour- [Madame de Pompadour]

A King's consolation, and one of the dominoes that eventually led to the French Revolution.

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764), commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French court. She was the official chief mistress of King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751, and remained influential as court favourite until her death.

Pompadour took charge of the king's schedule and was a valued aide and advisor, despite her frail health and many political enemies. She secured titles of nobility for herself and her relatives, and built a network of clients and supporters (as was the norm of court at the time.) She was particularly careful not to alienate the Queen, Marie Leszczyńska. On 8 February 1756, the Marquise de Pompadour was named as the thirteenth lady-in-waiting to the queen, a position considered the most prestigious at the court, which accorded her with honors.

Pompadour was a major patron of architecture and decorative arts, especially porcelain. She was a patron of the philosophes of the Enlightenment, including Voltaire. Despite her internal grace, she was later blamed for the wasteful over extravagance of the French court, and by some accounts blamed her for wasting some 10% of France's royal coffers on her projects. Traditional conservative accounts also blamed her hand for several foreign disasters in which France entered. Namely the 7 Years War where her personal hatred for the Prussian Frederick the Great forced France to enter into a fruitless alliance with Austria and resulted in the kingdom being humilated at the hands of both Great Britain and Prussia. The compounding effect of France's ruined coffers and foreign failures led some historians to blame her as one of the dominos that led to the French revolution, though other historians pointed out that she (an easy scapegoat as often the case for none- queens like Madame de Maintenon) actually had very little influences in such matters.

Eventually madame's frail health caught up with her and she died in her middle ages. Madame was greatly mourned by the indecisive Louis the 15th, in his later years, he transferred his favoritism to Madame Du Barry, who was in fact a prostitute and a commoner.

Music while working:
Medici Season 1 + 2 Revolution Bones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIJIYEqL6o0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVtQ-O_C4SQ

The Horatio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmurlHGi7so
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtiVeQHbiGg