Person
Madame de Pompadour
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, was a member of the French court who was the official chief mistress of King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751 and remained influential as court favourite until her death. Born in Paris in 1721, she moved in the salons of the Enlightenment, and the king gave her the marquisate of Pompadour in 1745; she was made a duchess in 1752 and lady-in-waiting to the queen in 1756. She shaped appointments and domestic and foreign policy, patronised the philosophes, among them Voltaire, and bought the porcelain factory at Sèvres in 1759. She died of tuberculosis in 1764 at the age of 42.
See also
Cite this entry
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Madame de Pompadour. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/madame-de-pompadour
- MLA
- “Madame de Pompadour.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/madame-de-pompadour. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Madame de Pompadour.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/madame-de-pompadour.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Madame de Pompadour’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/madame-de-pompadour (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻