Decadence, Radicalism, and the Early Modern French Nobility by Denton Chad;

Author:Denton, Chad;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

In spite of the activities of the police in Paris and other major cities to entrap sodomites, the will to root out sodomy among the nobility was simply not present, suggesting the same implicit “tolerance” that had seen persecutions of noblemen for sodomy dwindle. Saint-Simon agreed with Richelieu’s later observation that Louis XIV had an exceptional antipathy toward sodomy, an intriguing note which may have been connected to the fact that both Louis XIV’s father and brother were popularly suspected of sodomy. Either Saint-Simon was commenting on Louis XIV’s personal zeal, on the laxity shown by France’s high nobility, or both, but Saint-Simon offers no explanations or theories. However, he does explain that Louis XIV’s hatred for sodomy was tempered by pragmatic concerns, and he simply would not deal with sodomites among the high nobility as harshly as did with his own son:

It was most incredible to whoever knew the king, so gallant to the ladies for such a long part of his life and so devout for the rest of it, and often importunate to make others do as he did, that, in both these parts of his life, he was full of a just but singular horror for all the inhabitants of Sodom. Much less than suspicion of this vice, no person had been more disgustingly plunged all his life in this sin than Monsieur de Vendôme, and so publicly that he treated it as no more than ordinary gallantry. Yet the king had always known and Vendôme never found his favor diminish nor was he less liked by the king. This scandal followed him all the way to court, to Anet [a château owned by Vendôme], and to the army. His valets and officers always satisfied this horrible taste [goût] and were known for doing this, and being courted as the familiars of Vendôme who were promoted by him.[69]

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.