What is The Yew Tree Ball?
'''The Yew Tree Ball''' ({{lang-fr|Le bal des if}}) was a masked ball. It was held in the [[Hall of Mirrors]] at [[Versailles]] on the night of 25-26 February 1745. Fifteen thousand people waited in the [[Hercules Room]] for the ball to begin.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://en.chateauversailles.fr/history/versailles-during-the-centuries/living-at-the-court/the-yew-tree-ball |title=The Yew Tree Ball |access-date=2013-01-21 |archive-date=2015-05-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502050358/http://en.chateauversailles.fr/history/versailles-during-the-centuries/living-at-the-court/the-yew-tree-ball |url-status=dead }}</ref> King [[Louis XV]] and several of his gentlemen courtiers attended dressed as [[topiary]] [[yew]] trees. The ball is notorious for being the venue in which the king made contact with [[Madame de Pompadour|Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson]]. He had first seen her while hunting at Senart. On 14 September 1745, Poisson was officially presented to the Court as the Marquise de Pompadour. She was the king’s official mistress until her death in 1764. == Gallery == <gallery> File:Louis XV France by Louis-Michel van Loo 002.jpg|Louis XV File:Chateau Versailles Galerie des Glaces.jpg|Hall of Mirrors File:Bal des Ifs-galerie des glaces.jpg|The Yew Tree Ball, 1745 File:Jean-Marc Nattier, Madame de Pompadour en Diane (1746).jpg|Pompadour dressed as Diana, 1746 </gallery> == Notes == {{reflist}} == References == * {{citation |url=http://en.chateauversailles.fr/history/versailles-during-the-centuries/living-at-the-court/the-yew-tree-ball |title=The Yew Tree Ball |publisher=Chateau de Versailles |accessdate=January 18, 2013 |archive-date=May 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502050358/http://en.chateauversailles.fr/history/versailles-during-the-centuries/living-at-the-court/the-yew-tree-ball |url-status=dead }} * {{citation |url=http://www.madamedepompadour.com/_eng_pomp/galleria/biograf/ilballo.htm |title=The Yew Tree Ball |accessdate=January 18, 2013}} * {{citation |url=http://www.metm