Three years after her marriage, court doctors prescribed large doses of liquor to make her more fertile, which gave her face a permanent blush. During her 1725 pregnancy, Charles unsuccessfully had her bedchamber decorated with erotic images of male beauty so as to make her expected baby male by stimulating her fantasy. After this, the court doctors prescribed a rich diet to increase her fertility, which made her so fat that she became unable to walk, experienced breathing problems, insomnia and dropsy and had to be lowered into her chairs by a specially constructed machine.
OMG. I feel like... a certain kind of person might actually enjoy being prescribed lots of alcohol, porn, and rich food? Well, probably not the "up to the point of having medical problems" part. But hopefully she enjoyed at least some of that? *facepalm of not wanting to be a woman in the past*
Yeah, I had the same reaction: I hope she enjoyed the fun parts, because the constant being treated as a breeding animal, the message from society that she was failing in her duty and the one thing that made her worth anything as a human being, and the resulting medical issues don't sound fun at all. Gah.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Montesquieu in Germany
Date: 2021-08-04 05:33 am (UTC)OMG. I feel like... a certain kind of person might actually enjoy being prescribed lots of alcohol, porn, and rich food? Well, probably not the "up to the point of having medical problems" part. But hopefully she enjoyed at least some of that?
*facepalm of not wanting to be a woman in the past*
Re: Montesquieu in Germany
Date: 2021-08-04 12:58 pm (UTC)