Madame de Pompadour was the most influential mistress of Louis XV. Even though having influence over a king was no small deal, there is more to De Pompadour than just that role. “The power of ...

When Louis XV, King of France, first met the woman who would become his chief mistress, she was dressed as a domino, and he was dressed as a plant. It was 1745, and Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, the ...

Jeanne Poisson, the headstrong, ambitious, witty and erudite, catches the eye and heart of French King Louis XV at a costumed ball. She masters the art of seduction well enough to become accepted even ...

AFTER the various balls celebrating the marriage of the Dauphin, Madame d’Étiolcs was frequently observed flitting in and out of the palace. Nobody knew whether she slept there, and if so in which ...

Catalog of an exhibition held under the aegis of the French Regional & American Museums Exchange at the Musée des beaux-arts, Tours, Oct. 11, 2008-Jan. 12, 2009; and at the Portland Art Museum, Or., ...

MADAME DE POMPADOUR (324 pp.) Nancy Mitford— Random House ($4.75). When the mob marched on Versailles in the French Revolution, palace guards ran to close the massive iron gates. They tugged in vain: ...

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, may be best known as King Louis XV's chief mistress. But she was also a well-educated... More Than A Mistress: Madame De Pompadour Was A Minister Of ...