The Doctor's Royal Mistress
Doctor Who’s episode “The Girl in the Fireplace, ” featured Madame De Pompadour. The Doctor first meets her when he looks through the fireplace portal on the ship. Pompadour is currently a little girl and tells the Doctor her name is Reinette and she is currently in her bedroom in Paris in 1727. By the time the Doctor uses the fireplace to transport to her room, several months have passed. Throughout the episode, we see Reinette grow up a learn she is Madame De Pompadour, the mistress of King Louis XV.
What exactly did it mean to be the mistress of a king in the 1700’s? A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present, discussed the roles of a royal mistress. The authors Bonnie Anderson and Judith Zinsser mentioned that women who were royal mistresses by the eighteenth century were similar to a principal minister to the crown. French monarchs had a tendency to have royal concubines, so by the seventeenth century, they became an extramarital part of the permanent court. Pompadour focused on the king’s interests and reaped the rewards of access to a royal presence and power of royal favors (Anderson and Zinsser 1988.) It may sound like being a mistress is mostly about sex, but there were several royal mistresses who were not just a companion to the king. Pompadour was more than partner to King Louis, but this aspect is not necessarily seen throughout the episode she is featured in.
Colin Jones described some of Madame de Pompadour’s roles in his article “The Fabrication of Madame De Pompadour. Because she was a woman in the 1700’s of low social standings, power was not easy for her to gain. During this time, women were under the authority of men, so becoming an influential part of the government was difficult. Colins mentions how beautiful people thought Pompadour was, and also described her as having charm, beauty and grace. It is also not clear who Pompadour’s biological father is. Pompadour got married in 1741, but became King Louis XV’s mistress sometime around 1745 and became separated from her husband. Pompadour suffered from several miscarriages, but this did not hurt her relationship with the king. Jones article states that she had several roles within the army, court, administrative support, and several other policy issues, along with a little involvement in foreign policy, which was usually kept within a small number of confidants. She stayed at the King’s side until she became ill and died in 1964 (Jones 2002). Madame De Pompadour had several other roles within her position, but we do not necessarily see that side of her in Doctor Who.
When the episode begins, Pampadour talks about the Doctor. She describes him as the man who has been watching over her and the only man she has ever truly loved. She calls for him in the fireplace because it is time for him to save her. By the third time the Doctor and Reinette meet, once she is no longer a child, she kisses him. Afterwards, the Doctor realizes who she is and lists off all of her accomplishments, he says "I’m the Doctor, And I just Snogged Madame De Pompadour" (Moffat 2006.) According to Cambridge Dictionaries, snog is usually used in the context of kissing or holding someone in a sexual way (Cambridge Online Dictionaries.) The way the Doctor says this line, and uses this word, almost seems as though he is bragging. To the Doctor, this seems like an accomplishment. When the Doctor and Pompadour interact again, she persuades him to join her at the party where the spend the evening together. When Rose warns Pompadour to be prepared sometime after her 37th birthday, she mentions something about the Doctor being worth all of the monsters. This statement gives the impression that she is willing to do what it takes, to see the Doctor again, and would do anything
he needs her to do. Through this scene, it is clear the Doctor means a lot to her.
Picture Above From:
“Amy Pond’s Test Run,” Countdowntothe50th (blog.) August 30, 2013.
https://countdowntothe50th.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/amypondtest/
Though Pompadour takes control in the ballroom when chaos hits, we do not see much more regarding her power within her role. When the portals close while saving Pompadour, the Doctor realizes he is stuck, until they remember the fireplace will still work. She tells the Doctor she had the fireplace transferred from her childhood room, in case he ever returned. He crosses back to the ship and tells her to pack a bag and chose where she hopes to travel. When he returns for her, he learns she has died at the age of 43 because she was ill. The King tells him she hoped he would visit again, and left a note for him. In the letter, she expresses her love and concern of never seeing him again, and it is obvious much the Doctor meant to Madame de Pompadour. Elizabeth Barber published an article about the love within the Doctor Who series. She mentions that the Doctor spends such a brief time with her, and she becomes just one of his many loves. However, to Pompadour, he is her one love (Barber 2013.) Though this episode features a very important and powerful woman from history, we do not see her accomplishments within the plot. Doctor Who focuses on the love life of Pompadour, and chooses not to show the several other reasons she was a successful royal mistress during her time.
Doctor Who may have gotten Madame de Pompadour’s title and timeline correct, but there were several other key parts the show left out. The Doctor did mention several of her accomplishments in the beginning of the episode, but the entire focus shifted to the love Pompadour had for the Doctor. However, this is a science fiction series, so it does not necessarily need to include all of the facts. Perhaps they did not have time to put anything else into the episode, or they just wanted it this way. As a series that began as a show intended to teach children about history, it is important to understand there is more to these historical women than Doctor Who may portray.
Picture Above From:
"Madame de Pompadour," The Love of History: Another Site/Blog for Loving History (blog.)
May 14, 2011. https://theloveforhistory.wordpress.com/people/madame-de-
pompadour/
Resources used for this blog post:
Anderson, Bonnie S., and Judith P. Zinsser. A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present. Harper & Row, Publishers, 1988.
Barber, Elizabeth. "Doctor Who: The many loves of The Doctor," Christian Science Monitor, The (Boston, MA), November 23, 2013, accessed March 9, 2016,
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/14A4446B57C4A3F8?
p=AWNB.
Doctor Who. “The Girl in the Fireplace.” DVD. Directed by Euros Lyn. Written by Steven
Moffat. BBC Wales, 2006.
Jones, Colin. 2002. "The Fabrication of Madame de Pompadour." History Today 52, no. 11:
36. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed March 10, 2016).
“Amy Pond’s Test Run,” Countdowntothe50th (blog.) August 30, 2013.
https://countdowntothe50th.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/amypondtest/
"Madame de Pompadour," The Love of History: Another Site/Blog for Loving History (blog.) May 14, 2011. https://theloveforhistory.wordpress.com/people/madame-de-
pompadour/
