 |
| Comte de Guiche |
In his
adolescence Philippe
was certainly interested in girls; Cardinal Mazarin
objected to his attentions towards one of his nieces and Philippe was clearly
able to father children with both his wives.
However
Mazarin was soon warning the Comte de
Guiche’s father to keep his son away from court and Philippe’s attentions.
Anne forbade Philippe to see the Comte without others being present. Like
Lorraine after him de Guiche[i] lorded it over Philippe
with an arrogance that scandalised the court and enraged Anne. De Guiche was
‘The handsomest young man at
court, well-built, gracious, gallant, bold, brave, of elevated rank and
station. He was haughty of attitude, but all recognised that no one had more
merit than he.’[ii]
In France
homosexuality was punishable by death, although in practise this rarely
happened. Philippe did not hide his aberrant
(as it was viewed at the time) behaviour. Sodomy was viewed as impure and
profane by the church. Practitioners were often accused of even more horrendous
crimes[iii]
 |
| Chevalier de Lorraine |
‘The Chevalier de Lorraine,
who ruled Monsieur in everything. He had been compellingly handsome; Monsieur’s
taste was not for women; he made no attempt to disguise it; he had taken the
Chevalier de Lorraine as his master and so he remained throughout the rest of
his life.’[iv]
Lorraine was
to dominate Philippe for the rest of his life.
Louis was of
a religious turn and when cavorting with his many mistresses would go without
the consolation of his religion. He sneered at Philippe’s propensity to go to
confession even though he was breaking the church’s dictum on homosexuality.
‘He would not play the
hypocrite like him, who went to confession because the Queen Mother wished it.’[v]
Exile of a Favourite
Henrietta holding a portrait of Monsieur
Louis did
not hesitate throughout the nine years of the Orléans’ marriage to sow discord
between the unhappy couple. Philippe was resentful of his brother’s
interference and that resentment was fuelled by Louis’ early interference in
his marriage. Henrietta’s
affair with the Comte de Guiche continued for four years until he was exiled
from court by Louis, whom de Guiche had offended.
In 1666
Conti died and Philippe again wanted the post of Governor of Languedoc. Acting
on the same priorities that had driven him six years before, Louis refused his
brother’s request. At the same time Louis also refused a request for a fauteuil[vi] for Henrietta. In the
etiquette of the court the right to be seated in the presence of the royal
family was a great honour. Duchesses had the right of the tabouret, but only
queens had the right to the fauteuil. In his memoirs Louis recalls that he hypocritically
told Philippe
‘I did not believe, out of
consideration for the dignity of my rank and for the lack of precedent of his
petition, that I could permit him to lessen the distinction between us.’[vii]
In
January1666 Louis declared war on England[viii], Philippe had tried to
act as a go-between for the two monarchs. His brother-in-law, Charles despised
Philippe as did his brother. 
Charles II
Louis wanted
to extract Charles from an alliance with the Dutch to facilitate his own
planned war with the Netherlands. Henrietta was heavily involved in the
negotiations between the two kings. Louis played on Charles’ strong affection
for his baby sister. Charles wrote to his sister almost every week and in
December 1669, when the negotiations were at their peak declared to one of
Louis’s special ambassadors in the matter
‘The intermediacy of Madame
was absolutely essential.’[ix]
Henrietta’s
mother had died in September and Madame was now the sole point of personal
contact between Louis and Charles.
Henrietta
intensely disliked the hold the Chevalier de Lorraine had on her husband and
was prepared to use her brother’s influence with their cousin Louis. Henrietta
demanded Lorraine’s exile from court, and Louis was happy to oblige,
particularly after Charles had intervened saying
‘He was still disappointed
that the king of France had done nothing for Madame that could compensate her
in the eyes of the court……[He was].aware that Monsieur was treating Madame
badly….he attributed the abuse to the intrigues of Lorraine.’[x]
On 30th
January 1670 a contingent of soldiers burst into Philippe’s apartments in the
Palais de Saint Germain and seized the Chevalier who was taken to
Lyon and imprisoned. Philippe was horrified and devastated. Naturally this did not improve
relations between him and his wife; the battle between husband and wife raged
on.
Failing to
receive satisfaction from his brother Philippe insisted on moving his court and
his wife to an isolated chateau in his own domains. Philippe refused to return
to court unless Lorraine was released and Louis upped the ante by transferring
Lorraine to the Chateau d’If[xi].
Chateau d'If
After 25
days Philippe gave in and returned to court, bringing Henrietta in his wake.
Their return was announced abroad. The negotiations between the brothers
resulted in the release of the Chevalier de Lorraine from his incarceration,
but he was not allowed to return to Paris. Instead he moved to Rome. Henrietta
was to find her success a mixed blessing:
‘The absence of the
Chevalier de Lorraine was a new source of discord between Madame and Monsieur.
Every day they had another row’[xii]
wrote Mademoiselle,
their mutual cousin. In their battles Philippe was fighting against his wife as
proxy for the brother he could never hope to defeat.
The Treaty of
Dover
However
Madame’s presence was essential during the negotiations of the treaty and it
appears that her presence, for which Philippe’s permission was required, had
not been included in the agreement between Louis and Philippe. In late March
Philippe was still refusing to allow Henrietta to travel to England. But Louis
forced his acquiescence in this matter, as in all others.
Madame de Montespan
Louis took
the court on a tour of Flanders, ostensibly showing his queen her heritage.
Louis and his queen were also accompanied, in their carriage, by his new
mistress Madame de
Montespan. Philippe was not the only person Louis was happy to humiliate.
Philippe was in a foul mood during the trip, his wife was to leave for England
to continue with her diplomatic duties; duties that Philippe himself longed to
undertake. On May 24th the royal party arrived at Dunkirk and Madame
and her retinue embarked on an English warship.
Henrietta’s
role was essential to Louis and Charles who, in a secret addendum to the peace
treaty of Dover signed in June 1670, agreed to change his religion and in
return was to be a secret pensioner of the French crown[xiii]. The effects of the
treaty were not visible until nearly fourteen months after Henrietta’s death
when Louis declared war on the Dutch[xiv] and was followed the
following day by a declaration of war by the English on their co-religionists.
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]
Who bore an uncanny resemblance to the king
[ii]
Brother to the Sun King - Barker
[iii]
The Chevalier de Lorraine being accused of Henrietta’s ‘murder’ and of the
death of her elder daughter.
[iv]
Memoirs, Vol 1 - Norton
[v]
The Affair of the Poisons - Somerset
[vi]
The armchair was for very senior members of the Royal family, instead of the
tabouret or stool.
[vii]
Memoirs, Vol 1 - Norton
[viii]
Joining on the side of the Dutch in the Second Anglo-Dutch War
[ix]
Brother to the Sun King - Barker
[x]
Ibid
[xi]
One of France’s most notorious prisons
[xii]
Brother to the Sun King - Barker
[xiii]
This allowed Charles to reign without parliament for the last years of his life
[xiv]
Whereby Louis appropriated the former Spanish Netherlands in what the French
called the War of Devolution
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