Quick nitpick: Madame de Maintenon had no children by Louis XIV. Philippe II. d’Orleans’ rival for the Regency was a previous mistress’ son, Madame de Montespan’s, I think, and unless I am remembering wrongly, the additional irony was that Philippe was also married to his sister, another bastard of Madame de Montespan’s. (Which got him slapped by his mother Liselotte for saying yes.)
Also, as an example of how bad in an age of bad medicen those doctors were: the otherwise interminable and boring movie about the death of Louis XIV makes a good point of showing their methods. Go governess indeed!
You're welcome. I think one of the reasons I can keep them apart in my head is that I encountered them first in the Angelique novels, where Montespan is usually refered to by her self chosen first name of Athenàis (she was christened Francoise, but that was too boring for her), and Maintenon by her pre-title name of Madame Scarron, since in the time from of the novels she's first a poor Protestant widow (before her Catholic conversion that was to have such fateful consquences, as she had all the fervour of the converted against her former fellow Protestant) and then as the governess of Athenais' children by Louis. (The series Versailles caused itself a real problem by reducing the Montespan/Louis children from seven to one, which dies as a baby, while also otoh wanting to cover the Louis/Maintenon relationship in the third season. Since without kids there is no reason for her to hang around and have encounters with the King, he thus had to fall out of love with Montespan and in love with Maintenon at lightning speed.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: In which the royal family falls like dominoes
Date: 2021-02-14 07:56 pm (UTC)Also, as an example of how bad in an age of bad medicen those doctors were: the otherwise interminable and boring movie about the death of Louis XIV makes a good point of showing their methods. Go governess indeed!
Re: In which the royal family falls like dominoes
Date: 2021-02-14 08:01 pm (UTC)Re: In which the royal family falls like dominoes
Date: 2021-02-15 05:45 am (UTC)