The Heinrich letter was the one I had vaguely recalled, and it's neat the Voltaire letter compliments it (though I had misremembered the per annum/in the entire reign ratio). I agree that Fritz does better than many a current day right wing politician when it comes to the connection between infanticide and shaming/punishing women.
I might add I was immediately skeptical that it's impossible to persecute the lower classes of Paris for something that the upper classes are doing
Hard same. Especially in a country where the law is highly capricious and backwards as hell, see also the Calas affair (okay, Toulouse, not Paris, but still). Also, disregarding all the enormous other differences between the respective historical situations for a moment, but: Ernst Röhm being openly gay and the leader of the SA as well as one of the few people to be on a "Du" footing with Hitler didn't do squat to protect gay men outside of Röhm's immediate circle even before the Night of the Long Knives and Röhm's arrest and death.
Back to France in the era of Louis XIV: we also have the Affair of the Poisons as an example of how the various participants were punished, and boy was there ever a difference in rank. La Voisin, non-noble abortionist and poisoner? Excecuted. Madame de Montespan, mistress of Louis (soon to be ex mistress), her likely client? Not so much, though the fact that she lost all influence was a punishment, just not a legal one.
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Re: Sodomy
Date: 2021-01-26 02:18 pm (UTC)I might add I was immediately skeptical that it's impossible to persecute the lower classes of Paris for something that the upper classes are doing
Hard same. Especially in a country where the law is highly capricious and backwards as hell, see also the Calas affair (okay, Toulouse, not Paris, but still). Also, disregarding all the enormous other differences between the respective historical situations for a moment, but: Ernst Röhm being openly gay and the leader of the SA as well as one of the few people to be on a "Du" footing with Hitler didn't do squat to protect gay men outside of Röhm's immediate circle even before the Night of the Long Knives and Röhm's arrest and death.
Back to France in the era of Louis XIV: we also have the Affair of the Poisons as an example of how the various participants were punished, and boy was there ever a difference in rank. La Voisin, non-noble abortionist and poisoner? Excecuted. Madame de Montespan, mistress of Louis (soon to be ex mistress), her likely client? Not so much, though the fact that she lost all influence was a punishment, just not a legal one.