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More diaries of our favorite 18th-century Prussian diary-keeper have been unearthed and have been synopsized!

January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!

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From:

selenak

Well, to Angelique readers, Fouqet's main crime was a), that, and b) (not in Louis' eyes but those of the reader) having been part of the conspiracy against Joffrey de Peyrac in order to get his greedy hands on Joffrey's possessions, which is why he's one of the main reasons for our heroine's misery in volume 1, which is why news of his fall and internment is greeted with much cheer on the part of the reader. Also, since his nickname in the novel is "the squirrel", I keep thinking "Fouquet the squirrel" every time you mention him, I have to admit.

Maybe teenage Louis just had more interesting things to do, and it wasn't until his 20s that his willingness to do tedious work met with the opportunity to do it--maybe in his teens, he didn't want it badly enough to oust the guy who was sparing him the time-sucking tedium. Maybe.

Excellent point. Would make sense, especially since teenage Louis while having his own hang-ups did not suffer from a FW like figure in his life who told him that if he didn't work until and including his death bed, he was a lazybones and unworthy to take the crown. As parent figures go, the combination of Anne and Mazarin was actually a pretty good one for the period. (One of the reasons why I was stunned when Le Roi Danse decided to make Anne into Mean Mom.) (Good for Louis, that is. Philippe is arguable, depending on whether or not you believe Saint Simon - who of course wrote this decades later, knowing the end result and without ever having met Anne - in his assertion Anne deliberately raised Philippe in a way guaranteed to ensure he'd never be a rival to Louis, since she had her brother-in-law Gaston as a warning example of what a scheming King's brother could do.)

From:

cahn

This is all super interesting! Did Anne leave anything in the way of writing that might shed light on what she was thinking when she raised Philippe? And who is Saint Simon?

Edited Date: 2022-08-13 05:17 am (UTC)

From:

selenak

The Duc de Saint-Simon is a member of the high nobility who was bff with Liselotte's son Philippe the Regent and wrote some very entertaining memoirs about Versailles during Louis' XIV later reign and during Philippe's regency. If he had a FB profile, it would list "bastards" and "nobles with less than 100% blue blood" among his intense dislikes, which is why he feuded with some of Louis' kids by Madame de Montespan. A main source for many an anecdote about Versailles, but for obvious reasons more reliable regarding the time he himself experienced than Louis' and Philippe the Gay's youth.

As to a first person testimony from Anne re: her second son, alas the only quotes I know are from arranging his marriage to Minette with her sister-in-law Henrietta Maria. There's no "I decidedt hat the way to prevent Philippe becoming like Gaston is to make him as effeminate as possible" quote that I know of - though with our luck, such a quote exists SOMEWHERE and is just waiting for me to deny it - but that's what she was thinking according to Saint-Simon, who never met her. (Liselotte and Philippe the Regent didn't meet her, either, since she was already dead when Philippe the Gay married a second time.)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

If he had a FB profile, it would list "bastards" and "nobles with less than 100% blue blood" among his intense dislikes

And more generally: "Not conforming to social rules." In addition to being a snob, he was a stickler for etiquette in a way that stuck out at Versailles. Versailles. !!

Among his intense likes would be listed: "Being consulted on the etiquette for any given social occasion." Because 1) he knew all the rules and enjoyed being the expert, 2) nothing more satisfying than seeing an event go the way it's supposed to!

though with our luck, such a quote exists SOMEWHERE and is just waiting for me to deny it

AHAHAHA. It's true, we've all been burned in salon. :D

From:

cahn

Ohhhh interesting, thanks!

though with our luck, such a quote exists SOMEWHERE and is just waiting for me to deny it

I mean. Part of me is like "yes, please, deny it!" because this seems to be a good way of getting more delicious gossip :D

But... from what I know about Philippe, really, this seems like the sort of thing where no matter what Anne did Philippe was going to turn out SRSLY GAY, so it seems like Occam's razor to postulate she didn't do much :P

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Part of me is like "yes, please, deny it!" because this seems to be a good way of getting more delicious gossip :D

Lol, I had the exact same thought! "Quick, someone deny it!"

But... from what I know about Philippe, really, this seems like the sort of thing where no matter what Anne did Philippe was going to turn out SRSLY GAY, so it seems like Occam's razor to postulate she didn't do much :

I was also thinking this, namely that no matter what Anne did, if Philippe hadn't already been inclined that way...I don't think he would have been so enthusiastic about swimming upstream against societal expectations.