The history. Great Characters. Madame de Pompadour was a mistress, friend and advisor to Louis XV, remaining with him until her death in Introduced in the Court by well-placed connections, she caught the King's eye and soon became his official mistress.
Her traces in Versailles The Mistresses' Apartments. She was invited to the great masked ball held to celebrate the marriage of the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand.
The King was smitten with her and brought her to the Palace of Versailles that same year, providing her with an apartment just above his own. A secret staircase allowed the monarch to access his mistress's apartment without being seen. In July he presented her with the Pompadour Estate and made her a Marquise, officially presenting her to the Court in September Her bourgeois, non-aristocratic roots she was the daughter of a director of provisions for the army , however, soon drew harsh criticism from certain members of the nobility.
Nonetheless, she succeeded in having her brother, the Marquess of Marigny, appointed Director General of the Royal Palaces. During the s she ceased to be the King's mistress but retained considerable influence over the monarch. After moving to the ground floor of the main wing of the Palace in , her role changed from that of mistress to that of confidante. She oversaw new construction projects and busied herself primarily with her patronage of the arts.
Madame de Pompadour had a fondness for truffle soup, chocolate and champagne, but was also just as keen to nourish her intellect. In she supported the publication of the first two volumes of Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopaedia. Thereafter she split her time between the capital and the Palace of Bellevue, in Meudon. She died of tuberculosis at the age of just 42, passing away at Versailles in The King was greatly affected by the end of this "twenty-year friendship".
