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Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 47
We haven't had a new post since before December 25, so obligatory Yuletide link to this hilarious story of Frederick the Great babysitting his bratty little brother, with bonus Fritz/Fredersdorf!
Re: Two Philippes, no waiting, redux
According to the French bio of Philippe by Alexandre Dupilet I'm reading (published 2020), the level of drama in this episode lies somewhere between Voltaire's account and Kamen's account.
The main source for both Kamen and Dupilet seems to be the famous memoirist Duc de Saint-Simon. Now, he's considered a very biased source, but Dupilet says that while Saint-Simon is prone to exaggerating his own role in events, modern scholars think the basic outline of these events probably happened roughly as described by Saint-Simon.
Here's the account as given by Dupilet:
Philippe d'Orleans was sent to Spain during the Spanish War of Succession, to help protect Louis XIV's grandson Philip V (future Frog) in hanging onto his rule of Spain, against future MT's dad.
Things were fine at first; Philippe made a name for himself as competent and courageous, and the queen, Marie Louise*, was sympathetic to his place in the line of succession.
* If you consult the family tree in the post directly above this, you'll be reminded that she was his niece.
But the war effort in Spain is a struggle, because there's never enough food or supplies for the soldiers. The Princess d'Ursins, who has a lot of influence on Marie Louise, who has a lot of influence on her husband Philip V, takes the blame for everything.
Philippe d'Orleans starts making snarky remarks about her in public, including an insulting toast at dinner that makes everyone laugh. Word gets back to her, naturally. She has to bite her tongue, because someone has to make sure Philip V and Marie Louise don't lose Spain, and Philippe d'Orleans is needed.
But, while Philippe is out campaigning, his ambitions start to show. When he conquers a city, he deals with the locals, grants them mercy, negotiates terms, and just keeps Philip "the Frog" in the loop, not asking permission. He starts acting like a viceroy, in other words.
And, as I remember Kamen saying in his bio of Philip V, Philip V as king of Spain was furious with all the regions of Spain (especially Catalonia) that defied him. He kept wanting to go "off with their heads!" and his generals (like Berwick) kept going, "But, Sire, these are your SUBJECTS, and if you don't want rebellions throughout your entire reign, you are going to have to show some MERCY."
So while Philip the future frog is all "Off with your heads!" to the rebellious Spanish nobles, and Philippe the future regent is all "Sure, I'll let you off easy," guess who's more popular with the locals? Which contributes to Philippe's ambitions, the ease with which he can get things done in Catalonia, and the fury of the court at Madrid. Philippe even submits a memo to the king on "How to govern Catalonia now that I've reconquered it." The memo was received "coolly", as you can imagine.
Philippe was widely suspected of having designs on the throne, but that couldn't be proved. So when he spent the winter of 1708 in Versailles, the Madrid court had to stay on his good side, so that he could advocate for Spain getting the resources it needed from France so Philip could keep his throne. (Remember that when Philip first arrived in Spain, its army, treasury, and bureaucracy lagged way behind modern powers, and if he wanted to keep his throne, he was very dependent on Grandpa Louis XIV.)
But! The winter of 1708-1709 is the worst winter in the history of modern Europe. This is when the wine was freezing in Louis' glass in Versailles, Liselotte was writing that she was wrapped up in furs and still barely able to write for shivering, and icicles were hanging from the ceiling. The war is going badly in the east, thanks to Marlborough and Eugene, and Louis is talking peace.
And the peace negotiations are when the British and Austrians overplay their hands and insist Louis has to make war on his grandson Philip V (since they themselves keep losing to people like Berwick and Philippe the Regent). Now, as we know, Louis refuses, and we end up with the battle of Malplaquet. But there are rumors going around that a face-saving compromise would be for Louis to insist Philip V abdicate in favor of Philippe d'Orleans, future regent. He has a claim on the throne, he's not a Habsburg (so Louis will be happy), and he has close ties with the British (so the British can claim they 'won' without having to fight a war), and so it might work.
This is when Ursins tells Louis never to send Philippe back to Spain, he's not welcome there.
So when Philippe leaves Spain, he leaves behind a couple of aides, like his secretary Regnault, to prepare the next campaign. Now, this secretary starts corresponding with the British. Who, you may remember, are campaigning in Spain to overthrow Philip the Frog and put MT's dad, future Charles VI, on the throne of Spain. So corresponding with the British looks VERY VERY suspicious.
Things get so hot back in Versailles that Louis makes Philippe explain himself. Philippe rather insouciantly says that his secretary's activities were totally unauthorized, and they should definitely send someone to recall him.
Saint-Simon says the reason Philippe was so confident was that this was all secretly Louis' idea anyway. Because, as I expained above, Philippe would have made a good compromise candidate. Dupilet finds it likely that Philippe, as reckless as he could be, would never have dared conspire against Philip V without Louis' support.
The plot thickens when the guy sent to recall the secretary, Lotte, starts conspiring with the secretary! The two of them get caught and interrogated, and one of them has a letter in their position from the English general offering Philippe the throne if/when Philip V steps down.
Dupilet says that even with Louis' secret support, Philippe told his henchmen not to act on the letter from the English, but they were stupid enough to hang on to the letter and get caught, rather than destroy it.
Because of Louis and Philippe both denying their involvement, it's difficult to tell who knew or approved of what action. But Dupilet finds it rather difficult to believe Philippe's secretaries were acting totally alone.
After Philippe returns to Versailles, he runs afoul of Philip the Frog's father, the Dauphin of France. This being Versailles, there are cabals, and the Dauphin's cabal sets out to make Philippe miserable. They start rumors that he was planning to set aside his wife (Louis' illegitimate daughter, whom Philippe was forced to marry), marry the widow of Carlos II of Spain, and claim the Spanish throne with her to help reinforce his claim, etc. Philippe becomes a pariah at court.
According to Saint-Simon:
Never such universal clamors, never such a great uproar, never abandonment similar to that in which the Duke of Orléans found himself, and that for a folly.
Where Voltaire says, "In France the whole kingdom cried out against the duke of Orleans," Saint-Simon says, in effect, "The whole kingdom except for meeee! I saved him!"
Where Voltaire says, "The dauphin, father of Philip V., proposed in council to bring the offender to justice; but the king chose to pass in silence this abortive and pardonable scheme, rather than to punish a nephew, at the time that a grandson was on the verge of ruin," Saint-Simon rather implausibly takes the credit for talking Louis out of the trial by throwing around some legalese at him.
So while I don't know how much to trust Dupilet (and as he himself says, we don't know the full truth), and Saint-Simon is pretty suspect according to everything I've ever read, Voltaire's account is at least more or less in line with Saint-Simon's. Meaning he didn't make it up, though the story has grown a little in the telling.
Re: Two Philippes, no waiting, redux
Re: Two Philippes, no waiting, redux
All this happened much closer in time to other events than I had realized. The chronology is really quite compact.
1709: Philippe is suspected of having conspired with the British to put him on the throne of Spain in place of Philip V. He becomes a pariah at court.
1710: Philippe breaks up with his unpopular mistress, in order to regain favor at court.
1710: Philippe is in favor enough that his favorite daughter (the one he's accused of incest with) is married to Louis XIV's youngest grandson, the Duc de Berry.
1711: Louis's son, Philip the Frog's father, who hates Philippe for having conspired to get the throne of Spain, dies. Now his son, who actually likes Philippe, is heir to the throne. Everyone thinks Philippe has it made!
1712: The new dauphin, his wife, and his son, all die from the same measles outbreak. On the one hand, the new heir is a 2-year-old kid, future Louis XV, and the obvious regent is the Duc de Berry, who is seen as inexperienced with a weak personality, and it's widely believed that he will defer to his father-in-law, Philippe, a lot. So it looks like Philippe has it made! On the other hand, Philippe is widely suspected having poisoned everyone to bring about this exact outcome. It gets so bad he offers to check himself into the Bastille for an interrogation to prove his innocence. Louis XIV is like, "No. The Bastille is not where princes of your rank go."
1714: The Duke of Berry dies from a hunting accident, leaving Philippe the obvious candidate as regent. Since, uh, we're not exactly letting the unstable king of Spain take over France*.
1715: Louis XIV dies, leaving Philippe as regent.
It's enough to make you believe in the wheel of fortune! (And, of course, this is not taking into account the topsy-turvy developments of how Philippe became regent, which Horowski tells us about.)
* ETA: Nope, I have read a bit further, and one of Louis' advisors thinks the unstable king of Spain is just the guy to be regent of France! All he has to do, says the advisor, is have a delegate in France to carry out his wishes.
This argument does not fly.
Something I had forgotten or not learned, btw, is that while Philip V is renouncing all claims to France (and clearly crossing his fingers behind his back as he does), Philippe and the Duc de Berry have to renounce *their* claims to Spain. This is all part of the Treaty of Utrecht, which was fought to keep the Bourbons from owning France *and* Spain *and* Spain's giant empire, so it makes sense that the British are demanding these renunciations as part of the peace agreements.