MEMOIRS
OF THE
Marchioness of Pompadour.
WRITTEN BY HERSELF.
Wherein are Displayed
The Motives of the Wars, Treaties of Peace, Embassies, and
Negotiations, in the several Courts of Europe:
The Cabals and Intrigues of Courtiers; the Characters of Generals,
and Ministers of State, with the Causes of their Rise and Fall;
and, in general, the most remarkable Occurrences at the Court of
France, during the last twenty Years of the Reign of Lewis XV.
Translated from the French.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
Printed for P. VAILLANT, in the Strand; and
W. JOHNSTON, in Ludgate-Street.
MDCCLXVI.
THE
EDITOR’S PREFACE.
The following work must be acknowledged highly interesting to these
times; and to posterity will be still more so. These are not the memoirs
of a mere woman of pleasure, who has spent her life in a voluptuous
court, but the history of a reign remarkable for revolutions, wars,
intrigues, alliances, negotiations; the very blunders of which are not
beneath the regard of politicians, as having greatly contributed to give
a new turn to the affairs of Europe.
The Lady who drew the picture was known to be an admirable colourist.
They who were personally acquainted with Mademoiselle Poisson, before
and since her marriage with M. le Normand, know her to have been
possessed of a great deal of that wit, which, with proper culture,
improves into genius.
The King called her to court at a tempestuous season of life, when the
passions reign uncontrouled, and by corrupting the heart, enlarge the
understanding.
They who are near the persons of Kings, for the most part, surpass the
common run of mankind, both in natural and acquired talents; for
ambition is ever attended with a sort of capacity to compass its ends;
and all courtiers are ambitious.
No sooner does the Sovereign take a mistress, than the courtiers flock
about her. Their first concern is to give her her cue; for as they
intend to avail themselves of her interest with the King, she must be
made acquainted with a multitude of things: she may be said to receive
her intelligence from the first hand, and to draw her knowledge at the
fountain head.
Lewis XV. intrusted the Marchioness de Pompadour with the greatest
concerns of the nation; so that if she had been without those abilities
which distinguished her at Paris, she must still have improved in the
school of Versailles.
Her talents did not clear her in the public eye; never was a favourite
more outrageously pelted with pamphlets, or exposed to more clamorous
invectives. Of this her Memoirs are a full demonstration; her enemies
charged her with many very odious vices, without so much as allowing her
one good quality. The grand subject of murmur was the bad state of the
finances, which they attributed to her amours with the King.
They who brand the Marchioness with having run Lewis XV. into vast
expences, seem to have forgot those which his predecessor’s mistresses
had brought on the state.
Madame de la Valiere, even before she was declared mistress to Lewis
XIV. induced him to give entertainments, which cost the nation more than
ever Madame de Pompadour’s fortune amounted to.
Madame de Montespan put the same Prince to very enormous expences; she
appeared always with the pomp and parade of a Queen, even to the having
guards to attend her.
Scarron’s widow carried her pride and ostentation still further: she
drew the King in to marry her, and this mistress came to be queen, an
elevation which will be an eternal blot on the Prince’s memory.
This clandestine commerce gave rise to an infamous practice at court,
with which Madame de Pompadour cannot be charged. All these concubines
having children, to gratify their vanity, they must be legitimated; and,
afterwards, they found means to marry these sons, or daughters, of
prostitution, to the branches of the royal blood; a flagrant debasement
of the house which were in kin to the crown: for though a Sovereign can
legitimate a bastard, to efface the stain of bastardy is beyond his
power. The consequence was, that the descendants of that clandestine
issue aspired to the throne; and, through the King’s scandalous amours,
that lustre which is due only to virtue, fell to the portion of vice.
It was given out in France, and over all Europe, that Madame de
Pompadour was immensely rich: but nothing of this appeared at her death,
except her magnificent moveables, and these were rather the
consequences of her rank at court, than the effects of her vanity. This
splendor his Majesty partook of, as visiting her every day.
The public is generally an unfair judge of those who hold a considerable
station at court, deciding from vague reports, which are often the
forgeries of ill-grounded prejudice. Madame de Pompadour has been
charged with insatiable avarice. Had this been the case, she might have
indulged herself at will: she was at the spring-head of opulence; the
King never refused her any thing; so that she might have amassed any
money; which she did not. There are now existing, in France, fifty
wretches of financiers, each of a fortune far exceeding her’s.
It was also said, that the best thing which could happen to France, was
to be rid of this rapacious favourite. Well; she is no more; and what is
France the better for it? Has her death been followed by one of those
sudden revolutions in the government, which usher in a better form of
administration? Have they who looked on this Lady as an unsurmountable
obstacle to France’s greatness, proposed any better means for raising it
from its present low state? Is there more order in the government? are
the finances improved? is there more method and oeconomy? No, affairs
are still in the same bad ways the lethargy continues as profound as
ever. The ministry, which before Madame de Pompadour’s death was fast
asleep, is not yet awake. Every thing remains in _statu quo_. Some
European governments have no regular motion; they advance either too
fast, or too slow; their steps are either precipitate, or sluggish.
In this favourite’s time, there was too much shifting and changing in
the ministry; now she is gone, there is none at all, &c. &c.
I am very far from intending a panegyric on Madame de Pompadour. Faults
she had, which posterity will never forgive. All the calamities of
France were imputed to her, and she should have resigned in compliance
to the public: a nation is to be respected even in its prejudices. With
any tolerable share of patriotism, Madame de Pompadour would have
quitted the court, and thus approved herself deserving of the favour for
which she was execrated; but her soul was not capable of such an act of
magnanimity: she knew nothing of that philosophy which, inspiring a
contempt of external grandeur, endears the subject to the Prince, and
exalts him above the throne.
There is great appearance that this Lady intended to revise both her
Memoirs and her will, and that death prevented her: she used to write,
by starts, detached essays, without any coherence; and these on separate
bits of paper. These were very numerous and diffuse, as generally are
the materials intended to form a book, if she really had any such
design.
We were obliged to throw by on all sides, and clear our way through an
ocean of writings, a long and tiresome business.
It is far from being improbable, that Madame de Pompadour got some
statesman, well versed in such matters, to assist her in compiling this
book: however that be, we give it as it stands in her original
manuscript.
[Illustration: text decoration]
MEMOIRS
OF THE
Marchioness of Pompadour.
The following narrative is not confined to the particular history of my
life. My design is more extensive: I shall endeavour to give a true
representation of the court of France under the reign of Lewis XV. The
private memoirs of a King’s mistress are in themselves of small import;
but to know the character of the Prince who raises her to favour; to be
let into the intrigues of his reign, the genius of the courtiers, the
practices of the ministers, the views of the great, the projects of the
ambitious; in a word, into the secret springs of politics, is not a
matter of indifference.
It is very seldom that the public judges rightly of what passes in the
cabinet: they hear that the King orders armies to take the field; that
he wins or loses battles; and on these occurrences they argue according
to their particular prejudices.
History does not come nearer the mark; the generality of annalists being
only the echoes of the public mistakes.
These papers I do not intend to publish in my life-time; but should they
appear after my death, posterity will see in them a faithful draught of
the several parts of the administration, which were acted, in some
measure, under my eye. Had I never lived at Versailles, the events of
our times might have been an inexplicable riddle to posterity; so
complicated are the incidents, and in many particulars so
contradictory, that, without a key, there is no decyphering them.
Ministers and other place-men are not always acquainted with the means,
which they themselves make use of for attaining certain ends. A
plenipotentiary very well knows that he signs a treaty of peace, but he
is ignorant of the King’s motives for putting an end to the war.
Every politician strikes out a system in his own sagacious brain; the
speculatists have often fathered on France what she never dreamed of;
and many refined schemes have been attributed to her ministers, which
never made part of their plan.
It is not long since a minister of a certain court said to me at
Versailles, That the two last German wars, which cost France so much
blood, and three hundred millions of livres, was the greatest stroke of
policy which the age afforded; as this court had thereby insensibly, and
unknown to the rest of Europe, reduced the power of the Queen of
Hungary: for, added he, if, on the demise of Charles VI. this crown had
openly bent all its forces against the house of Austria, a general
alliance would have opposed it; whereas it has weakened that house by a
series of little battles and repeated losses, &c. &c.
The inserting such an anecdote in the annals of our age would be
sufficient to disfigure the whole history. The truth is, that they who
were at the head of the French affairs, during these two wars, had no
manner of genius.
All details not relative to the state I shall carefully omit, as rather
writing the age of Lewis XV. than the history of my private life. The
transactions of a King’s favourite concern only the reign of that
Prince; but truth is of perpetual concern.
I hope the public does not expect from me a circumstantial journal of
Lewis XV’s gallantries: the King had many transitory amours during my
residence at Versailles; but none of his mistresses were admitted into
the public affairs. The reign of the far greater part began and ended in
the Prince’s bed. These foibles, so closely connected with human nature,
belong rather to a King’s private life, than to the public history of a
Monarch: I may sometimes mention them, but it will only be by the way. I
shall likewise be silent in regard to my family. The particular favour
with which I have been honoured by Lewis XV. has placed my origin in
broad day-light. A Monarch in raising a woman to the summit of grandeur,
of course lays open the blemishes of her birth. The annals of the
universe have been overlooked, to make a singular case of what has been
almost a general practice in the world.
The Roman Emperors often raised so favour and eminence women of more
obscure birth than mine: but, without going so far backward, the history
of our own Kings abounds with such instances. Though the widow of
Scarron the poet rose a step higher than I, she was not born to such
exaltation. It is true her father was a gentleman; but all women, not
born Princesses, are at a like distance from the throne.
A multitude of injurious reports have been propagated concerning my
parents. A wretched anonymous writer has gone even farther, by
publishing a scandalous book with the title of the history of my life.
The Count D’Affry wrote to me from Holland, that this production was of
the growth of Great-Britain. The English seem to make it their
particular business to throw dirt at persons of distinguished rank at
the court of France: that government is said to claim such a privilege,
in order to keep up the hatred between the two nations.
Though my birth had nothing great in it, my education was not neglected.
I was taught dancing, music, and the rules of elocution, by excellent
masters; and those little talents have proved of the highest use to me.
I also read a great deal, and a favourite writer of mine was one Madame
de Villedieu. Her picture of the Roman empire entertained me
exceedingly. I even felt a very lively joy in observing that the
greatest revolutions in the world have been owing to love.
After bestowing on me all the accomplishments which advantageously
distinguish a young person of my sex, I was married to one whom I did
not love; and a misfortune still greater was, that he loved me. This I
call a misfortune, and indeed I know not a greater on earth; for a woman
not beloved by a man, whom she likewise has married without any
affection, at least comforts herself in his indifference.
During the first years of my marriage, the King’s gallantries were much
talked of at Paris: his fleeting amours opened a field for all women,
who had beauty enough to put in for his heart.
The post of mistress to Lewis XV. was often vacant. At Versailles all
the passions had an appearance of debauchery. In that airy region love
was soon exhausted, as consisting wholly in fruition. Nothing of
delicacy was to be seen at court; the whole scene of sensibility was in
the Prince’s bed. This Monarch often laid down with a heart full of
love, and the next morning rose with as much indifference.
This account made me shudder; for I own I had then formed a design of
winning the heart of that Prince. I was afraid that he was so used to
change, as to be past all constancy.
I even, then, blushed at the thought of giving myself up to an
inclination of no farther consequence than a momentary gratification of
the senses; but was fixed on my design.
I had often seen the King at Versailles, without being perceived by him;
our looks had never met; my eyes had a great deal to say, but had no
opportunity of explaining my desires. At length I had an interview with
the Monarch, and, for the first time, talked with him in private. There
is no expressing what passed in me at this first conversation; fear,
hope, and admiration, successively agitated my soul. The King soon
dispelled my confusion; for Lewis XV. is certainly the most affable
Prince in his court, if not in the whole world. In private discourse his
rank lays no restraint, and all ideas of the throne are suspended; an
air of candour and goodness diffuses itself through every part of his
behaviour; in short, he can forget that he is a King, to be the more a
gentleman.
Our conversation was to me all charming: I pleased and was pleased. The
King has since owned to me, that he loved me from that first interview.
It was there agreed that we should see one another privately at
Versailles: he was very much for my immediately coming to an apartment
in the palace: he even insisted on it; but I begged he would give me
leave to remain still incognito for some time; and the King, being the
most polite man in France, yielded to my request. On my return to Paris,
a thousand fresh emotions rose in my breast. A strange thing is the
human heart! we feel the effects of those passions of which we know not
the cause. I am still at a loss whether I loved the King from this first
meeting: that it gave me infinite pleasure, I know; but pleasure is not
always a consequence of love. We are susceptible of a multitude of
other passions, which may produce the like effect.
I experienced a thousand delights in our secret intercourse: little do I
wonder that Madame de la Valiere, in the infancy of her amours with
Lewis XIV. was so transported with the sole enjoyment of that Monarch’s
affection: but at length, the King requiring that I should live at
Versailles, I complied with his desire.
Now was my first appearance at court. Very faint and imperfect are the
descriptions which books give of this grand theatre. I thought myself
amidst another species of mortals: I observed that their manners and
usages are not the same; and that in regard to dress, deportment, and
language, the inhabitants of Versailles are entirely different from
those of Paris. Every courtier, besides his personal character, frames
to himself another, under which he acts his several parts. In town,
virtue and vice are streightened; here both range at large. The
passions are the stronger, as they happen to be at the source of the
means of gratifying them. Private interest, from whence they derive all
their activity, is there in its centre. The Prince’s favour gives life
and motion to the courtier’s soul: without a beam from the throne, it is
all a horrid gloom.
To appear with dignity on this theatre, where I was an utter stranger, I
saw that it behoved me to make it my first care to examine into the
temper of those actors who played the capital parts.
Of his Majesty I knew nothing, but by common report; and that, when it
relates to a reigning Prince, is generally wrong; either flattery
attributing too many virtues to him, or malevolence charging him with
too many vices.
Lewis XV. is endowed with great natural parts, a surprising quickness of
apprehension, and solidity of judgment. He, at once, discerns the
springs which give motion to the most complicated affairs of politics:
he knows all the weaknesses of the general system, and the faults of
each particular administration. This Prince has a noble and exalted
soul: the blood of the legislator, the hero, and the warrior, runs in
his veins; but a narrow education has stifled the effect of these
advantages. Cardinal Fleury, having not one great principle in himself,
trained this Prince to nothing but trifles: yet this unequal education
did not extinguish in him the most amiable qualities which can adorn a
Sovereign. It is impossible to exceed the goodness of Lewis XV’s heart:
he is humane, mild, affable, compassionate, just, delighting in good, a
declared enemy to every thing which does not bear the stamp of honour
and probity, &c. &c.
Singular likewise are the virtues of the Queen: she has laid all
domestic hardships at the foot of the cross; so far from lamenting a
fate, which would have embittered the whole life of another Princess,
she considers it as a particular favour of Heaven, from a persuasion
that Providence is pleased to try her firmness in this life, in order to
confer the greater reward on her in the next. None of those fretful
words which speak a rankled heart ever came from her: she dwells with
pleasure on the King’s eminent qualities, and draws a veil over his
weaknesses: she never speaks of him but with a sensible respect and
veneration: it is impossible for any lady to carry Christian perfection
to a higher degree, and to concenter so many qualities in a rank, where
the least defects efface the greatest virtues.
The Dauphin, being at that time very young, did not in the least concern
himself in public affairs. The King had ordered him not to interfere in
politics, and he seemed sufficiently inclined to conform to such
injunctions.
The young Princesses kept pretty much in their apartments, and read a
great deal. Sometimes, indeed, they went a-hunting, dined with the King
in public, shewed themselves at the balls; then withdrew, without much
minding the intrigues of the court.
The Duke of Orleans, though first Prince of the blood, seldom came to
Versailles: he had given into devotion, and spent his life in deeds of
charity.
The Prince of Conti was at that time in the field, and wholly taken up
with military glory.
Condé was very young, and his uncle Charolois sunk in the most debauched
intemperance.
The other Princes of the royal blood had little or no share in public
affairs; accordingly they never came to Versailles, but to be present at
a great council, or at the King’s levee.
Cardinal Tencin bore a great sway at court; the King confided in him
very much; so that they often used to be busy together. The most weighty
concerns of the crown were put into this ecclesiastic’s hands. Many
extolled him as a great minister; but as I scarce knew the man, I shall
say nothing of him: yet, when I think how much France has suffered by
Richelieu, Mazarin, and Fleury, I own I do not like to see people of
that class at the head of affairs.
The Count de Maurpas excelled all the ministers of that time in genius,
activity, and penetration: he was of as long a standing in the ministry
as Lewis XV. in the sovereignty. To him the kingdom is indebted for
several noble institutions. It was he who re-established the navy,
which, after the death of Lewis XIV. had been most shamefully neglected.
I have been told that the Levant trade was entirely his work. He was
indefatigable in his department; and his dispatches were surprisingly
accurate. I have seen many of his letters; and think it is scarce
possible to comprize so many things in so few words.
The d’Argensons, who had been introduced lately into the ministry, had
as yet no settled character: they were said not to want either genius or
probity; but that is not always sufficient for a proper discharge of
such a post. I have heard that many qualifications are requisite; and
that, if the least of them be wanting, there is no making any figure in
the ministry.
The Count de St. Florentin, who managed ecclesiastical matters, was
little considered either at court or in town. He kept himself neuter
amidst the intrigues of Versailles, minding only the business of his own
department. As no great genius is required to issue letters _de cachet_,
and banish priests, he filled his post with all the dignity of a
minister whose only business is to sign.
Orry, the Comptroller-general, was looked upon as a man of abilities,
from his talent at scheming pecuniary edicts. Within some months after I
had been settled at Versailles, he laid before the King no less than
twenty-five, and these were to bring in two hundred millions. He was
called the _Grand Financier_, from his finding resources for the King,
by impairing those of the state.
The Prince de Soubise was a man of parts and discernment. He knew a
great deal; but his friends could have wished that he had not embarked
in war. The soldiery had no opinion of him: perhaps in this they were
wrong; yet a great man, who would be useful to his country, must give
way to public prejudice.
Marshal Noailles had still greater abilities; so that it may be
questioned whether ever any one statesman or general possessed so
extensive a knowlege. The forming of him was an effort of nature. There
is not a science relating to political, civil, and military government,
with which he was not intimately acquainted; but the exertion of these
qualities was limited to the cabinet. His timidity and irresolution, in
a day of action, benumbed his faculties, otherwise so excellent: his
genius was certainly vast and extensive; and I question whether Europe
had his equal in council.
Marshal Belleisle was then in high reputation: the court and town were
full of his praise. There was not in all France a man who had been at
more pains to acquire a superficial knowlege of useless things: he
pretended to be acquainted with every subject, and he had the art of
making others believe so; hence it was not in the least suspected that
he understood the art of war as little as that of negotiation: his
manners were mild and engaging, and he had an agreeable fluency of
speech; but he was so conceited of his knowlege, that although he
affected a certain degree of modesty, still his deportment was sure to
betray his pride: in short, I never knew a vainer creature.
The Chevalier Belleisle did not affect to have so much understanding as
his brother, which shewed him to have the more; but he had all the
excessive ambition of the Marshal, and lost his life in attempting to
force an intrenchment, the success of which would have raised him to the
same rank.
The Duke de Richelieu was still more idolized than Marshal Belleisle.
The King could not be without him. He was sure to be one at the private
suppers, and he superintended all the diversions of Versailles. Never
was any man like him for striking out a party of pleasure, and
enlivening it by little incidents. He made it his business to divert the
King, and was very alert in seizing every opportunity conducive to that
end: but it was not for the King’s sake that he gave himself all that
trouble: his motive of acting was his own aggrandizement; for he is
insatiably greedy of rank and distinctions. Though of no genius for war,
he had the ambition of being created a Marshal of France; and without
any political talents, he was for thrusting himself into the ministry.
Maurice of Saxony was the hero of France: he was esteemed the kingdom’s
guardian angel. I shall speak of him when I come to treat of the battle
of Fontenoy.
Monsieur d’Estrées had the reputation of an able general: I shall make
farther mention of him in the sequel.
The greater part of the other courtiers were subordinate officers: they
used to come from the army to Versailles, and then go back from
Versailles to the army; all their business at court being about
preferments. These were the Dukes of Grammont, Piquigny, Biron, la
Valiere, Boufflers, Luxembourg; the Marquisses of Putange, Maubourg,
Bregè, Langeron, Armentieres, Creil, Renepont; the Counts Coigny, la
Mothe-Houdancourt, Clermont, Estrées, Berenger; Messieurs d’Aumont,
Meuse, Ayou, Cibert, Chersey, Buckley, Segur, Fenelon, St. André,
Varennes, Montal, Balincourt, la Fare, Clermont-Tonnerre, with many more
who were for raising themselves by the sword.
There was, at that time, scarce a woman at court who aspired at the
King’s affections. Those of a distinguished rank disdained to be the
objects of a transient love; and others, who courted that situation, had
neither beauty nor graces sufficient to obtain it; so that it was only
Parisian Ladies who entered into any of these intrigues: several were
sure to place themselves in sight whenever the King dined in public; and
always attended him to the chace: in short, they were ever dangling
after his Majesty, which was just the very way to come short of their
aim.
My thoughts were employed to secure myself in the station to which
fortune had raised me. The King was with me as often as the affairs of
the crown would allow; leaving all grandeur behind him, and coming into
my apartment without any thing of that state which attends on him at
other places: for my part, I closely studied his temper.
Lewis XV. is naturally of a saturnine turn: his soul is shrouded in a
thick gloom; so that, with every pleasure at command, he may be said to
be unhappy. Sometimes his melancholy throws him into such a languor that
nothing affects him, and then he is quite insensible to all
entertainment and pleasure. In these intervals, life becomes an
insupportable burden to him. The enjoyment of a beautiful woman for a
while diverts his uneasiness; but so far is it from being a lasting
relief, that his melancholy afterwards returns upon him with redoubled
weight.
Another misfortune in this Prince’s life is, the continual conflict
between his devotion and his passions; pleasure drawing him on, and
remorse with-holding him: under this incessant struggle, he is one of
the most unhappy men in his kingdom.
I perceived that the King’s disposition was not to be changed by love
only: this put me on engaging him by the charms of conversation; which
has a stronger influence with men than the passions themselves. Of this,
history furnished me with an instance in the person of his great
grandfather. Lewis XIV. had so habituated himself to Madame de
Maintenon, that no other woman could make any impression on him; and,
tho’ the court at that time was full of celebrated beauties, Scarron’s
widow, at an age when female influence over man is generally on the
decline, found means so strongly to fix his affection, that her death
only put an end to the charm.
I planned a series of diversions, which, following close on one another,
got the better of the King’s constitution, and diverted him from
himself. I brought him to like music, dancing, plays, and little operas,
in which I myself used to perform; and private suppers terminated the
festivity. Thus the King lay down and rose in perfect satisfaction and
good humour. The next day, unless detained on some great council, or
other extraordinary ceremony, he would hasten to my apartment, to take,
if I may presume to use the expression, his dose of good humour for the
whole day. He grew fond of me from that instinct which makes us love
what contributes to our happiness. All the favourites before me had
thought only of making themselves loved by the King: it had not come
into their heads to divert him.
Thus I became necessary to his Majesty; his attachment grew stronger
every day. I could have wished that our union had rested on love only;
but with a Prince accustomed to change, we must do as well as we can.
After the first moments of surprize, which naturally arises in our minds
upon any great change, I, in my turn, gave myself up to uneasy
reflections. Amidst all the King’s affection, I feared the return of his
inconstancy. I could lay but little stress on my elevation; all bow the
knee to the idol whilst the Prince worships it; but on his
over-throwing the altar, it is trampled under foot. Some days after I
thought I had more reason than ever to fear; for the King, coming to sup
with me, seemed more thoughtful than usual. Instead of that gaiety which
began to be natural to him, his countenance was quite clouded: all his
talk was about politics, the affairs of Europe, and dispatching a
courier to the army; thus, after a short conversation, he withdrew. This
abruptness filled me with alarms: I had not a wink of sleep; and next
morning I sent him an account of my condition in the following note:
“SIRE,
“Your politics have quite broke my heart. I was going to say a
thousand pleasant things to you, had not your dispatches
interrupted me. I have not closed my eyes during the whole night;
for God’s sake, Sire, leave Europe to itself, and allow me to lay
open to you the state of my heart, which is on the rack when you
deprive me of any opportunity of telling you that I love you with
an affection, the end of which will be that of my life.”
The King having read my letter, came in person to my apartment to make
me easy; and he was now more gay than usual. I think I never saw him in
a better temper. He had already given me some insight into the great
events at that time on the carpet, and I was for diving into the truth
of these abstruse mysteries; but not a word did I then understand in
politics. I have heard that the English ladies have every morning ready
laid on their toilet a paper giving them an account of the affairs of
Europe, whereas all that we French women find there is our paint-boxes.
I applied to Marshal Belleisle. “My Lord, be so kind as to instruct me
in what you call politics, which every body here is continually talking
of.” He answered me smiling, “I cannot bring myself, Madam, to instruct
you in a science which will prove destructive to many.” Yet the veteran
courtier talked to me of systems, and enlarged upon the methods to be
used by a state for its aggrandisement.
After listening to him for some time, I concluded, though a novice at
court, that this science is not reducible to principles nor general
rules, as totally depending on time, place, and circumstances, and these
almost ever arising from chance.
In order to get a knowlege of the preceding administrations, I set
myself to read the history of our government; but it was not in books
that I sought for this knowledge, having always looked on them as the
source of public errors. I consulted original manuscripts, which were
put into my hands by the King himself. Here I saw all the former
mistakes, and the original causes of them.
As it was known both at Paris and Versailles that Lewis XV. was
unsettled in his amours, his favourites had no very regular court. It
often fell out that a lady whom the King had distinguished, lay down in
high favour, and rose in disgrace: for vacant employments and temporary
grants the favourites were practised on; but for the great purposes of
ambition other springs than mistresses were set to work.
In the first months of my favour scarce any body came near me. The Duke
de Richelieu was the only nobleman who visited me in the King’s absence;
but when, by the Monarch’s order, I made my appearance as Marchioness de
Pompadour, and his Majesty was continually giving me marks of his
esteem, the face of things changed. Envy and ambition formed two
numerous parties. The former blackened me with the most virulent malice;
and the latter as much exceeded in the most fulsome adulation. The
motive in one was hope of preferment, the other acted from a despair of
ever being preferred: both, however, joined in asking favours of me.
I used my interest with the King in behalf of both. If I raised a person
to a considerable post, or procured him a large pension, I surely drew
on myself a hundred enemies, besides his ingratitude. At length all the
kingdom came to pay their court to me; for the royal favour continued to
shine on me as bright as ever. They who had been the most forward in
reviling my birth, now claimed kindred with me. I shall never forget a
letter I received at Versailles from a gentleman of one of the most
ancient families in Provence, in the following terms:
“Dear Cousin,
“I did not know that I was related to you till now that the King
has created you Marchioness de Pompadour: a learned genealogist has
demonstrated to me, that your great-grandfather was fourth cousin
to my grandfather; so you see, dear cousin, our alliance is
indisputable. If you desire it, I’ll send you our pedigree, that
you may shew it to the King.
“In the mean time, my son, your cousin, who has served with
distinction several years, wants a regiment; and as he cannot hope
to obtain it by his rank, be so good as to ask the favour from the
King.”
I sent him the following answer:
SIR,
“I shall lay hold of the very first opportunity to desire his
Majesty to give your son a regiment. But I likewise have a favour
to ask of you, which is to dispense me from the honour of being
related to you. I have some family reasons which forbid me to
think, that my forefathers have ever been allied to any of the
ancient houses of this kingdom.”
Half France would hide themselves for shame, were I to give a detail of
all the mean, fawning letters sent to me by persons of the first
families in the kingdom. A Princess could write to me in this manner:
“My dear Friend,
“I beg you would ask the King for a grant of farmer-general for Mr.
Armand M----, a superannuated clerk, whose fortune I would gladly
make. For this favour I shall hold myself obliged to you as long as
I live.
I am, my dear,
With all possible regard,
Your most humble servant.”
The public envy, however, increasing with the marks of royal favour, the
world, at any rate, would make me answerable for the events of the
times. It has been in every body’s mouth, that all the misfortunes of
France were owing to me. If there were any grounds for such a charge,
the kingdom must have been in a prosperous and flourishing state when
his Majesty called me to Versailles; whereas it was very far from being
so. The cause of the evil lay deep; so that France, under all its
pressures, was only fulfilling its destiny. The misfortunes of the
administration in this reign are to be considered as flowing from the
former administration.
At the time of the demise of Lewis XIV. the kingdom was in a dreadful
disorder; the debts of the nation were immense, and the public credit
totally ruined; so that the state then laboured under an evil, which was
not to be cured by temporary remedies. Lewis the Great, by his excessive
fondness for splendor, had impoverished the people. The preceding Kings
were contented with being the stewards or managers of the general
wealth, but he made himself the proprietor of it: he became master of
the nation’s treasure, all the finances were in his hands: he had
augmented the crown revenues beyond all relative proportion: in the
course of three years the whole species of France came into his coffers:
besides, his magnificence had set his subjects the pernicious example
of impoverishing themselves by profuse expences.
The duke of Orleans, who was at the head of the state after Lewis XIV.
so far from restoring order, increased the confusion. He promoted a
system of finances, which proved their utter ruin. All the riches of the
monarchy changed hands. No such thing as money was to be seen;
foreigners ran away with one part, and domestic stock-jobbers secreted
the other; no plan of administration could be contrived, capable of
putting a stop to evils, unprecedented from the very foundation of the
monarchy. This revolution greatly affected the several branches of the
national strength. Agriculture, trade, arts, and ingenuity, were
sufferers by it, and still suffer: for I have heard very knowing persons
say, that the grand system had given birth to many detrimental systems
in the state.
Cardinal Fleury succeeded him; and things went still worse: he alone did
more harm to France than all those before him, who had like to have
ruined this realm. His particular qualities were order, oeconomy, and
moderation; virtues excellent in a private person, but in a statesman
often very great vices. All his view was, to fill the treasury, fancying
that if the King were but rich, the state would no longer be poor. Thus
he went on increasing the opulence of the crown, from the people’s
subsistence. Intent upon saving, he let the navy run to ruin, that is,
he deprived France of the only way left for retrieving itself.
Fleury died; but this produced no amendment in the administration.
France had not a minister capable of setting things to rights. They who
were put at the head of affairs, were very busy, but without any
knowledge. I have been told by a very experienced person, who used to
come and see me at Versailles, that if at the Cardinal’s death the
ministry had been put into the hands of an angel, he could not have done
the crown much good. He added, that all the most able minister could do,
was to prepare materials for a better administration. The government,
said he, has six capital imperfections, and these are not to be amended,
but by casting the constitution in a new mould.
Another outcry was my being the source of favours, and that I disposed
of every thing in the kingdom; with this addition, that I had brought
the King to such a custom of visiting me, as had made it a kind of law
to him, never to refuse me any thing. To this I answer, that it is an
evil both necessary and natural to absolute government. Sovereigns must
either have a confident or a mistress; and of the two the state
generally suffers most by the former. Men in general have ambitious
views, which a women does not trouble herself about. The confident
studies to avail himself of the prince’s favour in all the means of
raising himself to the highest fortune; he gets the sole management of
the public finances; he engrosses the most lucrative posts, and
distributes among his relations and creatures, those which he does not
take for himself: the consequence of this is a general revolution in the
government. In short, he has schemes of grandeur and elevation quite
foreign to our sex.
I have read in the annals of our monarchy that Richelieu’s ambition
brought a thousand mischiefs on France: that favourite of Lewis XIII.
sacrificed every thing to a giddy desire of appearing to be the only
person of consequence in the kingdom. He cut the very sinews of the
political power of all other bodies. He annulled the privileges of the
nobility, which alone could make any stand against the despotism of our
Kings; and therein he did more harm to France, than ever it has to fear
from any mistresses.
Mazarine, the second favourite, had an army in pay, and personally made
war on the state. He imprisoned the princes of the blood, and raised
such animosities and disturbances as in a manner subverted all
government. He got the public treasure into his possession; almost all
the money of the kingdom was in his coffers. He used to sell the
principal state employments: when the King wanted money he was obliged
to apply to him. And our times have seen Count Bruhl, the King of
Poland’s favourite exceed his master, in extravagance.
There are, at this time, several Dukes in the kingdom[1] who give France
cause to remember that its Kings have had favourites; whereas what great
fortune, what titles or distinctions has my brother Marigni? Die when
he will, he will leave no monuments of the particular favour with which
Lewis the XVth honoured me.
I have been likewise accused of introducing into the ministry persons of
no turn for business, ignorant, shallow, and superficial fellows: but
where shall I find any other in France? The human mind seems to have
been degenerated among us.
The French nobility, though most concerned in the public administration,
give no attention to business; their life is a round of indolence,
luxury, and dissipation. They know as little of politics as of finances
and œconomy. A gentleman either spends his life at his seat in rural
sports, or comes to Paris to ruin himself with an opera girl. They who
have an ambition to figure in the ministry, have no other merit than
intrigue and cabal. If they are traversed in their views, or afterwards
superseded, such measure is with them an effect of the prince’s
prejudice.
The age of able ministers in France seems past. After all my inquiries
for a Colbert and Louvois, I could only meet with Chamillards and
Dubois’s; so that I was forced to commit all the branches of government
to financiers by profession; a set of people void of capacity, and only
skilful in one thing, which is pillaging the state.
My enemies have farther affirmed, that I put the King on too frequent a
change of his ministers; but that is an invention, which, in no wise,
belongs to me. Before ever I knew the court, placemen were not more
settled in their posts than since. Every day saw such creations and
institutions; and this, perhaps, may still be a necessary evil in
France. Before those gentlemen are in place, nothing can come up to
their plan of government; they have effectual ways and means for
reforming every thing that is amiss; they know the seat of the disease,
and what will remove it: but no sooner have they got the reins of
government in their hands than their incapacity throws every thing into
confusion. On the public misfortunes they scarce bestow a thought; all
they mind is their own personal interest. The ambition of being prime
minister soon gets footing in them; and its continual agitation leaves
no room in their mind for any attention to the kingdom. Ten years of
administration in France make a minister so absolute, that he grows a
mere Pacha; any intimation of his is a peremptory order: the Grand
Signior is not more despotic at Constantinople than a French Secretary
of State, after spending ten years at Versailles.
It is the same with military affairs: however brave and courageous the
French nobility may be, they have little or no genius for war: the
hardship of a campaign immediately puts them out of conceit. France has
no military school[2]. A young nobleman is made a Colonel before he is
an officer, and then steps into the general command, without any
experience. If two Frenchmen are appointed to command the armies in
Flanders or Germany, immediately the spirit of envy kindles among them,
and they will gratify their private piques and quarrels, whatever
becomes of the state. In the mean time, the enemies profit by these
divisions, and forward their schemes. In the late war, the King was
obliged to commit the safety of his crown to two foreigners: had it not
been for the Counts Saxe and Lowendahl, the enemies of France might have
been at the gates of Paris.
It is a mistake to think that a woman, who is in distinguished favour
with a Prince, stands in need of weak ministers and bad generals to
support her: incapacity spoils all and answers no purpose. Political
mistakes, at the same time that they throw a shade on the Prince’s
glory, utterly efface the lustre of his favourite. I can truly say, that
most of the vexations I have gone through, since my residence at court,
proceeded from hence. On every advantage gained by our enemies the king
used to be melancholy and full of thought; and though this Prince be
extremely polite, and not one disobliging word came from his mouth, yet
his discomposure, at that time, embittered every other enjoyment of my
life.
I never made a minister, I never advised the King to confer the command
of an army on any person, of whose abilities I was not certainly
convinced, and whose merit was not universally confessed. The great
used to compliment me on it, and the King himself congratulated me on my
good judgment of men; their fitness was proclaimed by the universal
voice.
I must here mention the troubles the court laboured under, when the King
gave me an apartment at Versailles; the occurrences of those times
belonging to the plan of these Memoirs. Without that crowd of incidents
which then fell out, and which the King used to communicate to me, my
favour perhaps had never risen to such a height; for the events of this
world are always directed by second causes.
Ever since the year 1741, France had continued to wage war in Italy, in
Flanders, and in Germany. Charles the VIth, the last male descendant of
the house of Austria by the male side, had an ambition, which was not to
be limited even by death; he was for surviving himself, and
transmitting his power beyond the grave.
This Prince, after acquiring a very large extent of dominions, had
procured them to be guarantied by the chief powers of Christendom. The
small military force at that time on foot in Europe, had induced the
Christian Princes, to such a weak compliance. Italy was quite spent; all
the petty governments of the empire were under a political slavery; and
the great houses of the North were little better. On the decease of that
Prince all began to breathe, and every one claimed their respective
right.
The Elector of Bavaria demanded a part of the succession; Augustus King
of Poland set forth his pretensions; the King of Spain likewise put in
for a share: and, what is more, there appeared two pragmatic fanctions;
one giving the Austrian dominions to the Archduchess, spouse to the
Polish Prince; and the other securing them to Maria Theresa, Charles’s
eldest daughter. Such a contrariety of interests must of course give
rise to a general war; but it began from a quarter which policy would
never have apprehended.
The King of Prussia, almost the only Prince in Europe who had no
pretensions to the Austrian succession, yet made his demands, and,
instead of manifestoes, asserted them by the sword. His troops invaded
the very best province of all the Queen of Hungary’s dominions, and made
themselves masters of it. The crown was of no long standing in the
Brandenburgh family: it had first obtained the title of Majesty from the
Emperor Leopold; and this honour had little added to its real greatness.
The King of Prussia was of little account among the European potentates;
and what claims he had to any of the Austrian effects were merely on a
private account; and turns on the restitution of some duchies, which his
family had been possessed of by right of purchase; yet he invades
Silesia as a sovereign.
I have heard that Maria Theresa was on the brink of ruin, when her very
enemies saved her. The Hungarians, who for ages past had been
endeavouring to overthrow that family, now, one and all, vigorously rose
in her defence.
The Duke of Belleisle told me, that this change in the political world
was wrought by that Princess’s haranguing them in Latin; “a great
change, indeed (added he), for had the Hungarians abandoned that
princess, very probably we should have heard no more of the house of
Austria.”