Madame de Pompadour and the Theaters of Power

Abstract

The accession of Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Madame d'Etiolles, as Louis XV's maitresse en titre in early 1745 occurred under circumstances that were as daunting as those faced by any previous holder of this position. To be sure, because their security rested on little more than the king's often mercurial favor, all royal mistresses had run the same risk of instant dismissal.' But the events of the previous year-Louis's solemn renunciation and exile of two earlier favorites, the duchesse de Chateauroux and the duchesse de Lauraguais; their near dismemberment by crowds who blamed them for what had briefly seemed a fatal illness of the king; and the mysterious death of the duchesse de Cha-teauroux widely attributed to poisoning-made longevity as the king's mistress appear as unlikely as ever. Beyond these ominous developments, there lurked the danger posed by the queen's party, or parti devot, which gradually formed during the 1740s. Eventually to include the royal family, powerful ministers such as the comte de Maurepas and the comte d'Argenson, and influential allies among the Jesuits and the episcopacy, this party constituted an institutionalized court opposition to almost any woman threatening to capture and to capitalize upon the king's affections.2 That under these circumstances, Madame d'Etiolles, whose anoblissement as the marquise de Pompadour neither camouflaged her dubious social origins nor protected her from witticisms upon her maiden name of Fish, overcame all opposition and