Inglorious Royal Marriages by Leslie Carroll

Author:Leslie Carroll
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2014-08-12T04:00:00+00:00

PHILIPPE OF FRANCE, DUC d’ORLÉANS

AND

HENRIETTE-ANNE OF ENGLAND

MARRIED: 1661–1670

AND

ELISABETH CHARLOTTE von der PFALZ, PRINCESS PALATINE

MARRIED: 1671–1701

Everyone loved “Minette,” except her own husband. What a waste! is probably the first phrase that sprang to mind regarding the mismatched union between the younger son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, and his first cousin—the eighth and last child of Charles I of England and Philippe’s aunt Henrietta Maria.

Perhaps they were too much alike—both so fine boned and physically beautiful, so enamored of sumptuous fashion and lavish jewels. Both of them outrageous flirts. And both so attractive—and attracted—to men.

Anne of Austria learned a valuable lesson during her husband’s reign: Louis XIII’s younger brother Gaston had attempted more than one coup d’état. Consequently, she was determined to raise her own younger son in a way that would present no threat to his elder brother Louis XIV’s government or throne. Like seventeenth-century royal daughters, “Monsieur” (as a king’s next-youngest brother was styled) received lessons in decorum, music, and dancing, but he was deliberately not taught the skills necessary to rule France. This tactic seems absurd, given the high infant mortality rate and the likelihood of Monsieur inheriting the throne himself, but Philippe was consciously denied any education in statecraft, history, or the humanities. Moreover, he possessed only the rudimentary fundamentals of grammar and spelling in his own tongue, and was unskilled in other languages as well—a far cry from Renaissance-era princes. Monsieur’s penmanship remained so poor throughout his life that he could barely decipher it himself.

Given the title of duc d’Anjou at his birth, Philippe spent his earliest years in his mother’s household among her attendants. He performed many of the activities that a daughter would have done under the same circumstances, such as accompanying the queen mother on her visits to convents—where the nuns made as much of a fuss over him as did her ladies-in-waiting. Anne often referred to him as “my little girl.” Always petite and dainty, a delicate boy with dark eyes, a profusion of long brown curls, and the same swarthy complexion as his older brother, Philippe was the darling of Anne’s entourage. He became fascinated at a tender age by their colorful, extravagant gowns and accessories, and particularly by their makeup and jewelry. If it glittered, Philippe loved it. According to Madame de Motteville, whose mother was the private secretary to Anne of Austria, and whose own memoirs paint an indelible picture of the Bourbon court, Monsieur enjoyed the company of women and girls and loved to style them—delighting in dressing their hair, and offering makeup tips. When Philippe did play with other little boys, his usual companion was François-Timoléon de Choisy, the future abbé (and transsexual), whose mother was raising him as a girl. François-Timoléon had pierced ears, was dotted with decorative mouches, and dripping with diamonds, and when Monsieur came over to hang out, the children played dress-up in women’s clothes.

As a young man, the prince enjoyed attending parties and balls in female attire, although it was the notion of flamboyance, no matter the disguise, that most intrigued him.

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.