Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, later Madame de Pompadour, was born on December 29, 1721, in Paris. Her legal father, François Poisson, worked in finance and supply contracting, while her mother, Madeleine de La Motte, moved within prosperous financial circles. After François Poisson fled France amid accusations of financial misconduct, the wealthy tax farmer Charles François Paul Le Normant de Tournehem helped support Jeanne Antoinette’s upbringing and education.

She received unusually broad training for a girl outside the hereditary aristocracy. Tutors taught her music, dancing, drawing, literature, theater, and polite conversation. She spent time at a convent school but was chiefly prepared for elite Parisian society. In 1741 she married Charles Guillaume Le Normant d’Étiolles, Tournehem’s nephew, and presided over a household at Étiolles where writers, artists, and financiers gathered.

Jeanne Antoinette attracted the attention of Louis XV and became his official mistress in 1745. The king granted her the estate and title of Marquise de Pompadour, and she was formally presented at court. Her bourgeois origins drew hostility from aristocratic rivals, but she mastered Versailles ceremony and built influence through intelligence, charm, and careful patronage. Even after her sexual relationship with the king ended, she remained his close friend and confidante.

Pompadour supported painters, architects, writers, the porcelain works at Sèvres, and major building projects. She also cultivated ministers and diplomats, making her household an important channel of political access. By the 1750s she favored the diplomatic rapprochement with Austria promoted by Kaunitz and supported officials associated with the new alliance. She held no formal office, yet her proximity to the king meant that appointments and strategic arguments often passed through her circle as Europe moved toward war.