cahn | 18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 35

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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

But Louis stayed in bed and hid behind his curtains and only let his servants pass in some bouillon, for several days.

I gotta say I'm wondering if he's one of these guys who, when he gets a cold, announces that he's dying :)

In order to be qualified to receive extreme unction, Louis had to stop living in sin. Which meant with his double-adulterous mistress. So when Damiens stabbed Louis, for several days, Pompadour's position was extremely tenuous.

When I got to the point in Zweig where Louis actually dies, I enjoyed how opinionated Zweig was on "look, guy is dying, why separate him from the person who he actually cares for and vice versa?"

Him: "DON'T. Say you're leaving, keep your head down, act like you're leaving any moment now, but at all costs, whatever you do, do not leave. The King isn't dead yet, and whoever leaves the court in this game of power-behind-the-thrones, loses."

...yeah, sounds like pretty good advice in general -- and in this case in particular! Especially since the King was actually OK, though wow, that sounds like a very (sort of needlessly??) tense situation.

From:

selenak

I gotta say I'm wondering if he's one of these guys who, when he gets a cold, announces that he's dying :)

Well, if your entire family (minus Great-Grandpa) got wiped out by a combination of measles and smallpox within days and you only survived due to her governess locking herself up with you in the bedrooom, and four of your first few mistresses died in a row, too, you'd be nervous as well...

When I got to the point in Zweig where Louis actually dies, I enjoyed how opinionated Zweig was on "look, guy is dying, why separate him from the person who he actually cares for and vice versa?"

Ah yes, poor Dubarry. Mind you, I'm trying to think of an example where the mistress was allowed to remain at the deathed (once it's clear the sickness is actually lethal), not just among the Catholic but also the Protestant royalty of the era, and failing.

(Royalty, that is. As we know, Émilie had her husband, her current lover and her ex lover around in her dying days.)

Incidentally, Louis XIV took his leave of Madame de Maintenon three times because his dying took so long, but despite them being morganatically married, she wasn't allowed to permanently stay at his side, either, every time after these supposed final goodbyes she left.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

What

selenak said about losing your entire family to illness, plus Schultz makes the case that Louis was devastated to learn that he was not universally beloved. He seems to have been prone to "melancholy," which I think is understandable if everyone you loved sequentially died or you were taken away from them over and over again in your childhood. Even Horowski says that those childhood experiences emotionally messed with Louis. Which again, I believe.

Mind you, I'm trying to think of an example where the mistress was allowed to remain at the deathed (once it's clear the sickness is actually lethal), not just among the Catholic but also the Protestant royalty of the era, and failing.

I only have a brief summary, not the full story, so this may not be an example, but from my Schultz reading last night (bio of Henri IV), Henri's father, King Antoine of Navarre, may have been allowed to keep his mistress with him as he was dying:

Badly wounded, he was brought by ship to Paris, with Louise de La Béraudière [his mistress] constantly at his side. But death overtook him four weeks later in Andelys...Jeanne d'Albret [his wife], who was not unaware of her husband's wounding, did not go to him--she certainly also feared a confrontation with his mistress.

Now, maybe in those four weeks she was sent away for the extreme unction too, but this at least seems like a possible 16th century candidate.

Edited Date: 2022-04-09 02:49 pm (UTC)