Brother of the Sun King V

A Falling out Between Brothers

Louis XIV

The two brothers now fell out over Philippe’s son, an intelligent man, whom Louis was not prepared to advance. Having promised the Duc de Chartres a position in the army, calculating that Philippe would refuse to give permission for his son to take a lowly rank, Louis was stymied by his brother’s agreement. Louis then reneged on his promise and consequently the Duc de Chartres wasted his time in foolish exploits in conjunction with unsavoury companions.

Throughout her life Madame continued her hatred of her daughter-in-law; failing to empathise with the Duchesse de Chartres’ problems with her husband, who was contemptuous of her and spent as little time with her as possible. Monsieur too had no love for his daughter-in-law but, in the etiquette ridden Versailles, insisted on her precedence over her brothers. The de Chartres had six daughters and one son, despite their mutual unhappiness. In addition the Duc de Chartres had numerous illegitimate offspring.

The duke’s continuing poor behaviour infuriated his uncle, who reneged on the promises made to him, prior to the wedding. Madame complained that her husband’s boyfriends were corrupting her son

‘My son has been completely captivated by Monsieur’s favourites; since he loves women, they act as his pimps, sponge off him, gorge and guzzle with him, and drag him so deeply into debauchery that he cannot seem to get out of it; and since he knows I do not approve of his ways, he avoids me and does not like me at all.’[i]

When Louis told Philippe to control his son, Philippe publicly berated his brother for failing to give the Duc de Chartres the same honours, appointments and dignities as his brothers-in-law[ii].

‘Thereupon Monsieur fell into a rage, more from policy than from real anger, and turning upon the king asked to be informed how he should deal with a grown-up son who was given nothing better to do than kick his heels in the great gallery and forecourt of Versailles, a married man yet quite destitute.’[iii]

Louis had no intention of changing his policy vis-à-vis the duke; he was prepared to humiliate the son as he did the father. Philippe may very well have felt betrayed by Louis in this matter, as he had acquiesced in the Duc de Chartres marriage to his cousin.

The Death of Monsieur

A report for the English king gave a pen portrait of Philippe late in his life:

‘He is a good enough prince who does neither good nor ill. He loves the people who love him more than they esteem him. He is two thirds as tall as his brother….. but very fat. He wears a black wig, his nose and the rouge on his cheeks almost obliterate his face…….never has anyone loved himself more than he does……his affections do not go to women whose gallantry seems common to him, nonetheless he affects their manners…..his make-up resembles the ladies more than a general of the armies.’[iv]

Louis had recently been failing to show his brother some of the courtesies he had hithertofore granted Philippe. Monsieur had also been threatened by his confessor with damnation for his homosexual activities:

‘To this he had appended that Monsieur had best beware, for he was old, worn out by debauchery, short in the neck, fat, and to all appearance likely to die of apoplexy at any moment. These were awful words for the most voluptuous and life-loving of princes…….He grew sad, down-hearted and chattered less…..it was not to be wondered at that such heart-ache and the suffering he had endured regarding the king should have been too much for so weak a man.’[v]

Duchess de Chartres

On the 8^th June 1701 June Philippe and Louis had a very public quarrel at Marly as a result of the Duc de Chartres’ ill treatment of his duchess. The Duc de Chartres had fallen in love with one of his mother’s maids of honour, Mademoiselle de Séry, and was pursuing the affair very publicly and embarrassing his wife in the process. Louis coldly reprimanded his brother

‘Monsieur, in the state he then was, needed no such excuse to lose his temper, and before long they were at it hammer and tongs. An usher, hearing the din, went in to tell the King he could be heard distinctly from the drawing room and then immediately retired. This made them lower their voices but did not stop the quarrel; and finally Monsieur flew into a rage, telling the King plainly that when M. de Chartres was married he had been promised the earth and had so far extracted no more than a governorship.’[vi]

St Cloud

Then in the evening Philippe, having returned home to Saint Cloud, suffered a stroke. Louis did not visit his brother for some hours, possibly believing that the affair was a trick to relieve tension between the two of them. Monsieur died the following day; Louis was upset,

‘He may have blamed himself for precipitating Monsieur’s death by that morning’s quarrel; he may also have felt some disquiet, since Monsieur was the younger by two years and had appeared quite as healthy as himself, if not more so.’[vii]

Philippe had been unwell for a long time; during the 1680s he had suffered several serious fever bouts; in the 1690s Philippe became a victim of gout. Having always had a prodigious appetite Philippe now became seriously overweight; Saint-Simon drew a merciless pen portrait when he was newly arrived at court

‘He was a pot-bellied little man propped up on heels like stilts; gotten up like a woman with rings, bracelets, and jewels everywhere; a long wig, black and powdered, spread out in front; ribbons wherever he could put them; and exuding perfumes of all kinds……With more vivacity than intelligence and entirely without learning, although with an extensive knowledge of genealogies, births and marriages, he was capable of nothing. No one so soft of body and mind.’[viii]

Saint-Simon only saw the Monsieur who had been ground down by his brother’s mistrust and the deliberate exclusion from education forced upon him by his mother and Cardinal Mazarin.

The widowed Duchesse d'Orleans

Madame was upset by her husband’s death; they had recently reconciled themselves to friendship.

‘This comes to your Grace from the most unfortunate of creatures; Monsieur has suffered a stroke last evening at ten o’clock. He is in the throes of death and I….in the most wretched state in the world.’[ix]

When he died the sale of Philippe’s personal jewellery raised over one million livres. He also left a huge personal fortune. Much of his wealth was in real estate, which turned out to be a shrewd investment, leaving his descendants richer than the future king’s brothers.

Philippe’s enormous expenditure was rents, a fifth of the monies expended were for the construction of canals and buildings. Monsieur had also had his income from his brother reduced in 1699 and now Philippe had to pay for his household out of his own rents and income from his estates, not to mention pensions to his servants when they retired.

It is uncertain as to how much of the accumulation of wealth was driven by Monsieur; certainly his contemporaries believed he had no interest in his finances. But Philippe was very acquisitive and if his Superintendant of Finances and his council of advisers did nothing more than follow Monsieur in this, they serve the Orléans family well.

Brotherly Division and Suspicion

Louis had always been taught to treat his brother as a subject by his mother and the Fronde taught him to treat his brother with suspicion. Louis seems to have equated his brother’s actions with his uncle’s frequent rebellions against the crown; a suspicion that seems to have been ill-founded and suspicions that must have caused Philippe pain. Louis’ repression of all Philippe’s attempts to serve France can only have added to the breach between the two brothers and increased Philippe’s sense of isolation from his immediate family.

Saint-Simon tells us that Philippe got on well with his brother

‘What is more, he was truly devoted to the king and had been used to treating him in private with brotherly freedom and to receiving the like, together with all manners of kindness and tokens of love – and of respect too, always provided that there was no danger of giving him any importance.’[x]

Louis did love his brother and closest relative, but he also seems to have found pleasure in humiliating others and possibly particular pleasure in humiliating his brother. This may have been a partly a result of his mother’s encouragement at an early age to consider his brother as his subordinate and his mother’s encouragement of Philippe’s feminine side, as Louis was encouraged to be masculine.

Bibliography

Brother to the Sun King – Nancy Nichols Barker, 1989 The John Hopkins University Press

Louis XIV – Vincent Cronin, The Reprint Society London 1965

A Woman’s Life at the Court of the Sun King – Elborg Forster, John Hopkins Paperbacks 1997

Memoirs Duc de Saint-Simon Vol 1 Edited Lucy Norton, Prion Books 2000

The Affair of the Poisons – Anne Somerset, Weidenfeld and Nicholson 2003

Louis XIV – John B Wolf, Panther History 1970

En.wikipedia.org

---

[i] A Woman’s Life in the Court of the Sun King - Forster

[ii] The bastard sons of Louis

[iii] Memoirs, Vol 1 - Norton

[iv] Louis XIV - Wolf

[v] Memoirs, Vol 1 - Norton

[vi] Ibid

[vii] Ibid

[viii] Brother to the Sun King - Barker

[ix] A Woman’s Life in the Court of the Sun King - Forster

[x] Memoirs, Vol 1 - Norton

Brother of the Sun King IV

The Warrior Prince

Louis XIV as patron of the arts

When Louis went to war against the Dutch in 1667, he claimed that he was upholding the right of his wife Marie Therese to the throne of Spain. Philippe went with the army; determined to learn to fight. He joined Louis at the siege of Tournay, although a volunteer without command Philippe visited the common soldiers, exposed his person to fire and rewarded the troops. He was also present at the siege of Lille in August. Louis excluded Philippe from his councils of war, once again humiliating a brother who wanted to be involved.

‘Brother, you may go amuse yourself elsewhere, we are going to take counsel.’[i]

It was ten years later at the battle of Cassel that Philippe was to win his spurs; he had been allowed to campaign with the army several times. In the spring of 1677 the latest campaign of the Franco-Dutch war began.

In the previous year’s campaigning Condé and Bouchain had been taken after investiture by French forces. Philippe had been with the army at Bouchain, but had been called to Louis’s side when the Dutch and French looked as though they were going to engage at Heurtebise. In the event Louis, advised by his generals, did not proffer a fight. Both brothers were eager to win valour in battle. Philippe then returned to Bouchain, which by the end of the campaigning season was captured. 

It had never been intended that Philippe would be allowed to risk the French army in a battle. Louis divided his forces; he went with one army to Cambrai and Philippe went with the other to Saint Omer. Then the king and his advisers discovered to their consternation that the Dutch were marching to the relief of Saint Omer. With reinforcements en route Louis ordered Philippe be

‘At liberty to conform as far as he thinks practical’[ii]

to the instructions he had already received to prosecute the siege, while stopping the Dutch attempt to lift it.

Prince William of Orange

On 11^th April 1677 the Dutch and French forces faced each other at Cassel, the French had over 10,000 more troops. The Dutch were led by their Stadtholder William, Prince of Orange a general with several victories already under his belt. Philippe was on the field early in the morning and took active management of the battle, ordering the decisive charge on William’s weak flank.

The chance of totally routing the Dutch was lost when the French soldiers plundered the baggage train, leaving William to continue his fight against French hegemony in Europe almost single-handedly.

‘The victory had brought him not only honour and public acclaim but, for the only time in his life in an event of any importance, the knowledge that he had succeeded where his brother had failed.’[iii]

Louis never again allowed Philippe to demonstrate his prowess as a soldier. The following year Philippe was only allowed to accompany the army as a mere observer for fear of further honours falling in his direction.

Marital Infelicity

Duchesse d'Orleans

The Orléans marriage turned very sour around 1677, the couple moving into separate bedrooms, much to the relief of Madame, who was pleased to be rid of the burden of child bearing and more than happy to retire into chastity. Philippe was at the time being punished by his brother, jealous of his victory at Cassel. The break-up of Monsieur and Madame’s friendship was engineered by a cabal headed the Chevalier de Lorraine, his mistress and his acolyte the Marquis d’Effiat, presumably to reduce Liselotte’s influence over her husband.

At the time Liselotte was worried that her father would remarry, having divorced her mother some years before[iv]. She feared that her legitimacy would somehow be affected; was she afraid of being cast off by her husband on the orders of his brother? There is no suggestion of this in her correspondence but, knowing that her letters were read by the French officials, she may not have wished to mention what could have become a nightmare for her. In 1680 she was overset by her father’s death from a heart attack.

In 1682 the cabal set about a rumour that Madame was enamoured of one of the young officers who accompanied her when she hunted. The Palais Royale was riven with the bitter quarrels of Philippe and Liselotte, despite Philippe assuring his wife that he knew there was no truth in the rumours. Eventually Madame went to the king and demanded permission to leave court and retire to a convent. Louis refused saying

‘You are Madame, obliged to keep this position. You are the wife of my brother, so I would not permit you to do him such a turn that would hurt him in the world.’[v]

The unhappiness between the couple rumbled on; Madame was horrified when it was proposed that one of the cabal, the Marquis d’Effiat be made the Duc de Chartres’ governor. It was only due to her strenuous efforts that the appointment was avoided.

In 1693 she commented

‘Monsieur is still the same as he was in his youth. This very winter he purchased 200,000 guilders worth of charges in the regiment of the guards with which to reward some young fellows who have entertained him in not exactly an honourable fashion……[I] would happily say to these fellows ‘you are welcome to gobble the peas, for I don’t like them’.’[vi]

She obviously tolerated his homosexual liaisons, if not approving of them[vii] Again in 1696 she was making caustic comments about the money Monsieur spent on his ‘boys’ and his gambling.

‘All he has in his head are his young fellows, with whom he wants to gorge and guzzle[viii] all night long, and he gives them huge sums of money; nothing is too much or too costly for these boys. Meanwhile, his children and I barely have what we need. Whenever I need shirts or sheets it means no end of begging.’[ix]

Monsieur was hampered by his brother’s refusal to use his undoubted abilities and, like his son after him; Philippe was reduced to staving off boredom with gambling and lovers.

The Marriage of the Duc de Chartres

The relationship between Philippe and his wife was exacerbated by the marriage in February 1692 of their son, the Duc de Chartres. Madame had obtained a promise from her husband that he would not agree a marriage with one of the boy’s legitimised cousins[x], whom Madame viewed with extreme disfavour.

Madame de Maintenon

Unfortunately Madame was up against the determination of Madame de Maintenon[xi], whose arrival in the innermost sanctum of power led to a corresponding fall in Madame’s influence. The king and Madame de Maintenon, the children’s former governess, were determined that the king’s bastards should be given the highest positions in court and had arranged advantageous marriages for them.

Both Madame and Monsieur disapproved of Louis’s morganatic marriage to de Maintenon, but while her husband kept his feeling to himself, Madame poured out her disgust in her letters home. Madame’s frankness in her letters had earned her the enmity of the king and Madame de Maintenon, but de Maintenon kept up a façade of affection for Monsieur in front of his brother

‘The old woman, the Maintenon, gets her pleasure from making the King hate everyone in the royal house; except Monsieur; him she flatters to the King and sees to it that he is well liked and given whatever he desires……..Behind his back, however, this old woman …………whenever the courtiers speak to her, she says the very devil about him, calling him worthless, the most debauched person in the world, unable to keep a secret, false and faithless.’[xii]

It was this enemy of Madame who was now determined on a marriage that Madame had set her face against; a battle Madame was destined to lose. Madame had long ago lost the confidence of her son, as she battled to save him from the wicked ways he had fallen into. The failure to give her son worth-while employment, while those around him were given honours and appointments galore, Liselotte blamed on Madame de Maintenon[xiii].

Francoise Marie de Bourbon

The duke’s potential bride was Francoise Marie de Bourbon[xiv], the legitimised daughter of Louis and his former mistress Françoise Athénaïs, Madame de Montespan. Prior to the marriage being proposed to Monsieur and Madame they were the recipients of unusual favours; Louis escorted the couple to Flanders, where their son underwent his first trial by arms; Madame was given 2,000 pistoles and Madame de Maintenon dined with the Chevalier de Lorraine. The Palais Royale was added to Monsieur’s by now vast estates.

The bride brought with her a fabulous dowry; two million livres, a pension of 150,000 livres and 600,000 livres worth of jewellery. But first the marriage had to be agreed. Louis used as his agent, to pressurise Monsieur into agreeing to the marriage, his lover, the Chevalier de Lorraine. The Chevalier had been promised a reward by the king[xv].

‘[Louis] had already made the first moves, which had been all the more difficult because Monsieur attached infinite importance to all that appertained to his rank, and Madame was of a nation that abhorred bastardy and misalliances and of a character that was little inclined to yield to persuasion……..to overcome these obstacles the King desired…..to enlist the services of….the Chevalier de Lorraine, who ruled Monsieur in everything.’[xvi]

Madame was desolated by the command from Louis, through Philippe, enjoining her to agree to the marriage of de Chartres to a woman she despised;

‘At half past three Monsieur came in and said to me ‘Madame I have a message from the King for you, and you are to give him your answer in person by tonight. The King wishes me to tell you that since he and I and my son are agreed on the marriage of mademoiselle de Blois to my son, you will not be foolish enough to demur.’’[xvii]

Her distress at the marriage was visible to all at court; not only did she weep publicly, but she also slapped her son’s face, in front of other courtiers, for agreeing to the marriage against her wishes.

Bibliography

Brother to the Sun King – Nancy Nichols Barker, 1989 The John Hopkins University Press

Louis XIV – Vincent Cronin, The Reprint Society London 1965

A Woman’s Life at the Court of the Sun King – Elborg Forster, John Hopkins Paperbacks 1997

Memoirs Duc de Saint-Simon Vol 1 Edited Lucy Norton, Prion Books 2000

The Affair of the Poisons – Anne Somerset, Weidenfeld and Nicholson 2003

Louis XIV – John B Wolf, Panther History 1970

En.wikipedia.org

---

[i] Memoirs, Vol 1 - Norton

[ii] Brother to the Sun King - Barker

[iii] Brother to the Sun King - Barker

[iv] Her mother refused to acknowledge the divorce and there was the possibility of Madame’s father blackening her mother’s name to the courts of Europe

[v] Brother to the Sun King - Barker

[vi] Ibid

[vii] Her objection was to the cost not the reward itself

[viii] Reference to Monsieur’s prodigious appetite for food as well as (presumably) his sexual appetites

[ix] A Woman’s Life at the Court of the Sun King - Forster

[x] Louis’ legitimate family were unhappy about the legitimising of his bastard children, an action encouraged by Madame de Maintenon

[xi] She undertook a morganatic marriage with Louis in the winter of 1685-6 in a private ceremony. They were married by the Archbishop of Paris.

[xii] A Woman’s Life at the Court of the Sun King - Forster

[xiii] To be fair to de Maintenon Louis was merely continuing the policy he used with Monsieur

[xiv] Known as Mademoiselle de Blois

[xv] Payment had been rendered up front, the award of the exclusive Order de l’Esprit de St Louis.

[xvi] Memoirs, Vol 1 - Norton

[xvii] A Woman’s Life at the Court of the Sun King - Forster

Brother to the Sun King III

Death of Madame

Madame painted after her death 

Henrietta died suddenly in June 1670 and there were plenty of people happy to claim that Philippe had murdered his wife. The trip to England could not have helped what was already a frail constitution, possibly ravaged by anorexia.

‘Listless and tired throughout the journey, she took no nourishment except milk; on alighting from the carriage in the evening she retired immediately to her quarters, generally to take to her bed.’[i]

Henrietta arrived back in Saint-Germain on 18^th June. Philippe refused to follow court etiquette and meet her and escort her to the chateau. Both Louis and Charles had showered money on Henrietta, who was also loaded with honours and showered with attention by the court. The following day Louis returned to Versailles, but Philippe refused to follow to ensure that his wife could not continue to bask in the courtier’s admiration.

Henrietta began to complain of pains in her side and stomach; but despite this went bathing in the river and as she was unable to sleep took late night promenades in the garden. When she took a nap after dinner on the 29^th her face appeared to have changed beyond all recognition and the following day Henrietta was so ill that even her husband remarked upon it. He was preparing to spend the evening in Paris and came to take his leave of her.

Every afternoon Henrietta habitually drank a cup of chicory water[ii]. As she drank the chicory water she clutched her side and cried of a pain in her side. As she was undressed and her confessor was sent for Henrietta claimed she had been poisoned.

‘Fixing her eyes upon the cup from which she had drunk, she pronounced that one bottle had been substituted for another, that she had been poisoned and was going to die.’[iii]

Philippe, who was present, agreed that poison remedies should be procured for Madame and ordered that the remainder of the chicory water be tested on a dog. As it became obvious that Madame was beyond saving Louis, Mademoiselle, Louise de la Valliére, Madame de Montespan and others came and said their adieus to the dying princess.

Madame assured her husband that she had never been unfaithful to him. She died in the evening of 30^th June 1670[iv]:

‘No one was talking of anything but the death of Madame, of the suspicion that she had been poisoned, and of the terms which she and Monsieur had long since lived.’[v]

It is unlikely that Philippe had anything to do with Henrietta’s death, despite Charles (who detested his brother-in-law) apparently believing the rumours. But even if they had been true it is exceptionally unlikely that Louis would have had someone as close to him as his brother brought to justice.

Marriage to a German Princess

Immediately after Madame’s death Mademoiselle was offered the position of Philippe’s wife by his brother. She declined the honour; currently infatuated with a guardsman in the king’s service. She then began to have second thoughts about improving her status at court, but so too was Louis. He realised that marriage to his cousin would place Philippe in control of one of the largest fortunes in France and this would lessen the financial hold Louis had over his brother.

Elisabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine

Philippe married again in 1671. Once again his marriage was a state affair, the bride chosen for him by his brother and his advisers. This time Louis looked to Germany for a princess for Philippe; the choice was Elizabeth Charlotte (known as Liselotte) daughter of the Elector Palantine. Liselotte’s father had been contacted about the possibility of Liselotte replacing Henrietta in the role of Madame, within 12 days of the death of the latter. The suggestion came from Liselotte’s aunt Anna Gonzaga, the Countess Palatine, an intellectual at the French court.

The negotiations dragged on, as Liselotte was endowed with only a modest dowry and had no expectations, her father Karl Ludwig being one of the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire. As minor royalty Karl was extremely eager to ally his house with the mightiest monarchy in Europe. Why Louis agreed to the match is less comprehensible.

By August 1671 the major hiccup to the marriage was the question of the bride’s religion. A Protestant bride was not acceptable for a Catholic prince. A reluctant Liselotte was secretly instructed in the Catholic faith and on a trip to Metz to see her aunt was accepted into the Catholic church. For the sake of his Protestant subjects the Elector immediately made public his ‘disapproval’ of the conversion.

The marriage took place on 16^th November 1671. The new Madame was to have a jointure of 30,000 livres per annum; heady stuff for a princess from an impoverished minor court, whose prince had his shoes repaired when they wore out. At the time of his marriage Philippe’s annual income from his brother was 1,212,000 livres (about 80% of his total income). Louis commented in his memoirs

‘The sons of France must never have any home but the court nor any resource but the love of their brother.’[vi]

The new Madame was fascinated by the strange world she found herself in;

‘It is not that I am taking more strenuous walks here than I used to do, but the people here are as lame as geese, and except for the king, Madame de Chevreuse, and myself there is not a soul here who can do more than twenty steps without sweating and puffing.’[vii]

Madame dressed for the hunt

Presumably Monsieur, never one for outdoor activities unlike his hunting mad brother, was one of the sweaters and puffers. For the first few years the married couple got on together well enough; Madame wrote to one of her correspondents in December 1672

‘I only say this, that Monsieur is the best man in the world. We are getting on very well together, he does not resemble any of his portraits.’[viii]

This was despite the recall to court in that year of the Chevalier de Lorraine. Madame de Sévigné noted a conversation between Louis and his brother:

‘’But do you still think of this chevalier de Lorraine? Do you still care for him? Would you like to see him returned to you?’

‘Truly Monsieur’ replied Monsieur, ‘that would be the greatest joy that I could know in my life.’

‘Very well’ said the king ‘I wish to make you this present; in fact the courier left two days ago…..I give him back to you.’’[ix]

Philippe threw himself at his brother’s feet in gratitude, but the chevalier’s return did not spoil the marital felicity of Monsieur and Madame.

Duc de Chartres

By September the following year Madame was pregnant with her and Philippe’s first child. The Duc de Valois was born on 2^nd June 1673, but died less than three years later while his mother was pregnant with her third and last child, a daughter Elisabeth Charlotte born in September 1676. The Duc de Chartres was born in August 1674. Monsieur sat with Liselotte through her confinements.

Madame was naturally devastated by the death of her first-born

‘I was too stricken by the unexpected disaster God Almighty has visited upon me; I simply cannot get over it…….they have strange ways here with children.’[x]

Liselotte blamed the death of her son on the foreign ways of the French court and she was left alone to grieve as Philippe had followed Louis on campaign. Of her second and third children she wrote in her very down to earth fashion

‘He is now, thank God, in quite perfect health as is his baby sister, who is as fat as a stuffed goose and very big for her age. On Monday last both of them were christened and given Monsieur’s and my names.’[xi]

Madame also had two stepdaughters from Philippe’s marriage to Henrietta to care for too, until their marriages; one to the king of Savoy and the other to the king of Spain.

An illness of Madame’s in 1675 saw an outpouring of love between the couple and indeed Philippe wrote to his father-in-law telling of his relief at the recovery of Liselotte from her illness.

‘And as for myself, I was more dead than she, for I do not think that since the world began, there has been a better marriage than ours. I pray that it may long endure.’[xii]

Bibliography

Brother to the Sun King – Nancy Nichols Barker, 1989 The John Hopkins University Press

Louis XIV – Vincent Cronin, The Reprint Society London 1965

A Woman’s Life at the Court of the Sun King – Elborg Forster, John Hopkins Paperbacks 1997

Memoirs Duc de Saint-Simon Vol 1 Edited Lucy Norton, Prion Books 2000

The Affair of the Poisons – Anne Somerset, Weidenfeld and Nicholson 2003

Louis XIV – John B Wolf, Panther History 1970

En.wikipedia.org

---

[i] Brother to the Sun King - Barker

[ii] Chicory is known to be an ancient German remedy for everyday ailments. The flower has oils that are used for appetite stimulants and treatment for gallstones, gastro-enteritis, sinus problems and cuts and bruises – www.kalamala.com

[iii] Brother to the Sun King - Barker

[iv] The autopsy showed the death as peritonitis, resulting from a perforated ulcer

[v] Brother to the Sun King - Barker

[vi] A Woman’s Life at the Court of the Sun King - Forster

[vii] Ibid

[viii] Ibid

[ix] Brother to the Sun King - Barker

[x] A Woman’s Life at the Court of the Sun King - Forster

[xi] Ibid

[xii] Ibid