cahn

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In the previous post Charles II found AITA:

Look, I, m, believe in live and let live. (And in not going on my travels again. Had enough of that to last a life time.) Why can't everyone else around me be more chill? Instead, my wife refuses to employ my girlfriend, my girlfriend won't budge and accept another office, my brother is set on a course to piss off everyone (he WILL go on his travels again), and my oldest kid shows signs of wanting my job which is just not on, sorry to say. And don't get me started about Mom (thank God she's living abroad). What am I doing wrong? AITA?

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From:

cahn

Ha! Well, yes, David/Jonathan canon is rather... let's say that small!me didn't know I was shipping it, but I totally did :)

Liselotte, for whatever reason, does the Chevalier a big favor by arranging for his illegitimate son the army deserter to get a place at the Hannover court with her aunt and marry into her governess' family... I think there were limits of what he could have reached for with Monsieur, let alone Louis.

...that makes total sense! (That it changed her relationship with the Chevalier, I mean.)

So I think what the Chevalier did, nasty as it was, was from his pov a pre-emptive strike.

*nods* In my family-of-origin there's a lot of fear of stepmothers, and I could totally see this kind of pre-emptive strike thing happening.

So the Chevalier has no more reason to make trouble for Liselotte. (Whose way of describing the Chevalier's famed looks, btw, was tartly declaring that if his character had matched his exterior, she'd never had a single objection to him at all.) Added to which: she does him the above named favor.

I can see how that would work. Thank you! :) I've been wondering about that for a while.

Having thus reduced her enemy to an apology, Madame de Maintenon accepted it and Liselotte wasn't ordered into a nunnery but remained free of same.

I'm glad that Liselotte didn't have to go! Though now of course I am wondering what she said about Maintenon :)

From:

selenak

Though now of course I am wondering what she said about Maintenon :)

A lot. Keep in mind that Madame de Maintenon's ascendancy to exclusive maitresse en titre happenened simultanous to Louis invading Liselotte's home, and the Chevalier and friends are on the attack, so yes, she's in a terrible mood.

The King imagines himself to be devout now because he doesn't have sex with young women anymore, but all his piety consists of is being awful, having spies everywhere, to flatter his brother's lovers and to plague all humanity in general. The old bitch Maintenon has fun making all the members of the royal family hated by the King, and thus to rule unchallenged, except for Monsieur, whom she flatters. (...) But afterwards the old woman is afraid that people should believe she actually esteems Monsieur, and thus as soon as someone at court talks to her about him, she demonnizes (literally: makes a devil of)him: says he's of no use to anyone, that he's the most debauched man at court, unable to keep a secret, faithless and disloyal.

(You can imagine that at this point if his spies made a copy of this letter, Louis stopped being charmed by Liselotte's frankness.)

Another example:

That the woman as your Grace says should have become pregnant by a fart, by your leave, by your leave, doesn't divert me; on the contrary, I can't believe there to be a worse devil in the world than her with all her devoutness and hypocrisy, and I find she proves the truth of the old German saying that where the devil can't go, he sends an old woman towards.

Maintenon wasn't pregnant. It's also worth remembering that like Liselotte, she had started out as a Protestant, but unlike Liselotte, who had converted solely because that's what you did if marrying a Catholic prince and remained an only nominal Catholic with no liking for the religion for the rest of her life, the former Francoise Scarron converted out of her own free will and was full of the zeal of the converted, which is another reason for the bad blood between the two women.

On a more cheerful note, before settling into pious monogamy with Madame de Maintenon, Louis' breakup with his previous Maitresse en titre, Madame de Montespan, came in various steps, one of which illustrates why Athenais de Montespan was so famed for both her wit and her charm. So, imagine at this point, she and Louis are already technically broken up and "just friends", and Maintenon is in the ascendancy. Then, according to Antonia Fraser (Bossuet is the priest with high hopes on Maintenon reforming Louis' character.)

Great care was taken that 'respectable ladies' should be present as chaperones, and at first Louis spoke to his former mistress in grave tones as though he was some kind of cleric - a Boussuet, Athenais interrupted him: "It's useless to read me a sermon; I understand that my time is over.' then gradually the pair - who had not been alone together for fifteen months - withdrew to a windowed alcove, while the courtiers, including the respectable ladies, remained at a respectful distance. The conversation grew more intense, and later still more tender. "You're mad," said Athenais. "Yes, I am mad," replied Louis ardently, "since I still love you." After this avowal, both King and Athenais "made together profound reverence to these venerable matrons". Then they withdrew to her bedroom. This was the moment feared by Bossuet and Madame de Maintenon alike.

Presumably that's when Madame de Maintenon decided to become Louis' mistress and make her bedroom a chapel after all.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Because Aurora somewhat accidentally gave birth to her son Maurice de Saxe/Moritz von Sachsen, the famous general and future defeater of "Butcher Billy" Cumberland, in small town Goslar, Saxony, on a trip, as opposed to in state in a proper palace in Dresden or somesuch, Liselotte felt called upon to comment, "This Aurora of Königsmarck must be a strange creature, to make the mayors and syndics in a city witnesses when she brings a bastard into the world."

From:

cahn

Heh. Liselotte in a terrible mood is something else.

But afterwards the old woman is afraid that people should believe she actually esteems Monsieur, and thus as soon as someone at court talks to her about him, she demonnizes (literally: makes a devil of)him:

Yes, I can see why Louis might not... be overly charmed by this! (But I'm charmed :) )

"You're mad," said Athenais. "Yes, I am mad," replied Louis ardently, "since I still love you." After this avowal, both King and Athenais "made together profound reverence to these venerable matrons". Then they withdrew to her bedroom.

Hee! Go Madame de Montespan :D