9. Madame de Pompadour laid much of the groundwork for the French revolution.
The favorite mistress of Louise XV of France, Jeanne Antoinette Poisson is better remembered by history as Madame de Pompadour. However, de Pompadour was much more than the King’s lover. She acted as his closest adviser, instructing him over policy, making public statements on his behalf — and controlling who accessed him. People grew to resent de Pompadour’s extravagance and the debts she ran up. They also blamed her poor advice for France’s failure in the Seven Years’ War. Although she was a famed patron of the arts, Madame de Pompadour ensured that Louis’s reign was a disastrous one. She played her part in inadvertently sowing the seeds of discontent that bloomed into the French Revolution.