Latest / Women of Versailles: The Court of Louis XIV / Ch. 15: The Daughters of Louis XIV

Transcript

Ch. 15: The Daughters of Louis XIV · Women of Versailles: The Court of Louis XIV

0:00
Section twenty of Women of Versailles. The Court of Louis the fourteenth by Artur
0:05
Leon Ambert de Saint Aman, translated by Elizabeth Gilbert Martin. This LibriVox recording
0:13
is in the public domain. Read by Pamel and A. Gami, Chapter
0:18
fifteen, The Daughters of Louis the fourteenth. The Princesses was the title by
0:24
which the three legitimated daughters of Louis the fourteenth, one by Mademoiselle de la
0:30
Valliere and the other two by Madame de Montespon, were known at court.
0:36
The first of them, born in sixteen sixty six, married Prince Louis armonte
0:42
Comteis, The second, born in sixteen seventy three, married the Duc de
0:48
Bourbon. The third, born in sixteen seventy seven, married the Duc de
0:54
Chartres, who became the Duke of Orleons and Regent of France. The process
1:00
of contie was more beautiful than Mademoiselle de la Valliere. The duchesses of Bourbon
1:07
and Chartes had the wit and pride of Madame de Montespon. The three princesses,
1:14
who were as proud of their birth as if they had been legitimate daughters
1:18
had a great place in the heart of Louis the fourteenth. The courts surrounded
1:23
them with homage, and although they did not play an important political role,
1:29
yet they must figure in the gallery of women of their silles. The birth
1:34
of the future Princess of Contie was veiled in mystery. Mademoiselle de la Valliere
1:41
had concealed her pregnancy the very night before her delivery. She made her appearance
1:47
in the royal apartment in presence of the whole court, in a splendid ball
1:52
dress and with uncovered head. A year later, her daughter was legitimated by
1:57
letters patent char as sign of the times concerning his favorite. Louis the fourteenth
2:05
said, in naming her Duchess, although her modesty has frequently opposed our desire
2:10
to raise her sooner to a rank proportionate to our esteem and her good qualities,
2:16
Yet the affection we have for her and justice do not permit us to
2:22
defer any longer our acknowledgment of merits so well known to us, nor longer
2:28
to refuse to nature the effects of our tenderness for Marie Anne, our natural
2:34
daughter. The child was called Mademoiselle de Blois, In sixteen seventy four,
2:40
the year when the Duchesse de la Valliere retired to a carmelite convent, Madame
2:46
de Savignier wrote, Mademoiselle de Blois is a masterpiece. The King and everyone
2:52
else is enchanted with her. She is a prodigy of attractiveness and grace.
2:59
She has charmed the court by her beauty from her earliest infancy. People pretend
3:04
that the Emperor of Morocco fell madly in love with her at the sight of
3:07
her portrait. She was fifteen years old when in January sixteen eighty she married
3:14
Louis Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, nephew of the Great Conde,
3:20
who like all his family, testified the most lively joy on occasion of this
3:24
marriage. The young married couples seemed delighted with each other. Their love is
3:30
like a romance, wrote Madame de Savignier, and the King is amused by
3:35
their inclination. The courtiers went to the carmelite convent of the Rue Saint Jacques
3:40
to pay their compliments to the former Duchesse de la Valliere, now Sister Louise
3:46
of Mercy, who perfectly conciliated her style in her black veil, her maternal
3:52
tenderness with that of a spouse of Jesus Christ. In this mystic asylum were,
3:59
according to bass Usuway's expression, one is straightened on all sides, so
4:02
as to respire no longer except toward heaven. The pious carmelite, showing yourself
4:10
for the last time, seemed the very image of repentance and sanctity. Madame
4:15
de Savignier thus describes to her daughter the emotion produced by such an angel.
4:21
To my eyes, she still possessed all the charms we saw of old.
4:27
Her eyes and glances were the same. Austerity, poor nourishment, and curtailed
4:33
sleep have neither hollowed nor weakened them. That strange habit detracts nothing from her
4:41
grace or good appearance. She said many kind things to me, and spoke
4:45
of you so well and appropriately. All she said being so perfectly suitable to
4:50
her that I think nothing could be better. Truly, that habit and that
4:57
retreat are a great dignity for her. While the saintly Carmelite was expiating in
5:03
the cloister the birth of the Princess de Conti, the young Princess was dazzling
5:09
the court by her beauty, grace, and spirit. Like nearly all remarkably
5:14
beautiful women, she was coquettish. Her husband managed her badly. He surrounded
5:20
her with the most fashionable young people at the court, which naturally gave occasion
5:26
for scandal. In sixteen eighty five she had the smallpox, and the Prince
5:31
de Conti, having shut himself up with her, took the disease and died
5:38
of it. Suddenly, what a death was that of the Prince de Conti,
5:44
After having escaped all the infinite perils of war in Hungary, he has
5:48
just died here of a malady which he scarcely had. He is the son
5:54
of a saintly man and a saintly woman, and in consequence of wrongly directed
5:59
thought, he has played the fool and debauchi and died without confession. Footnote.
6:05
Madame de Savigner, a widow at twenty and easily consolable, The young
6:12
princess continued to be the ornament of Versailles. Monseigneur, as the Dauphin was
6:16
styled, was continually in her apartments. Versailles became rejuvenated in this little haunt
6:24
of pleasure there was nothing but promenades, rendezvous, love letters, serenades,
6:30
and all that was found delightful in the good old times. It was there
6:35
that Monseigneur became acquainted with Mademoiselle Choin, who is made of honor to the
6:40
Princess. According to Madame de Caelouse, this young lady's mind was not calculated
6:46
to shine anywhere except in an ante chamber, and was capable of nothing better
6:51
than describing what she had seen. And yet she adds in her souvenir,
6:58
this same Mademoiselle Choin carried off from the most beautiful princess in the world,
7:02
the heart of Monsieur Clermont. At that time an officer of the guards.
7:09
Monseigneur had a particularly good opinion of him, and had introduced him to the
7:14
Comtesse de Comtie, whom he made such love too, that he inspired her
7:18
with a rather lively inclination. The King, having been informed of this intrigue
7:24
by means of letters intercepted at the post office, sent for his daughter,
7:30
and showed her not only though she had written to Clermont, but those which
7:33
the latter had addressed to Mademoiselle Choin. The princess thought she would die,
7:39
says Saint Simon. She threw herself at the King's feet, bathed them with
7:45
her tears, and could hardly articulate. There was nothing but sobs, pardons,
7:50
despairs, rages, and entreaties for justice and vengeance. She was speedily
7:57
heard. Clermont and Madeimeemoiselle Choin had to leave the court and resign their appointments,
8:03
but Mademoiselle Choin remained the favorite of Monseigneur. This happened in sixteen ninety
8:09
four. The Princess de Conti resumed her accustomed dissipations and amusements, pleasure parties,
8:18
balls, hunts, cards, collations at the Trianon or the menagerie,
8:24
night promenades in the gardens. Meanwhile, Sister Louise of Mercy was redoubling her
8:30
austerities. Her natural delicacy had suffered infinitely from the real severity of her corporal
8:37
and spiritual penitence, as well as from that of a very sensitive heart,
8:43
which she concealed as well as she could. She died with every mark of
8:46
great sanctity, in the midst of the nuns to whom her gentleness and virtues
8:52
had given delight. The Princess de Contie, notified too late, only reached
8:58
the karmelike convent of the Rue Saint Jacques in time to see her mother breathe
9:01
her last. At first she seemed very much afflicted, but San Simon says
9:09
she was quickly consoled. The whole court paid her visits of condolence. The
9:16
children of Madame de Montespon, who had lost their mother three years before,
9:22
were greatly mortified by these public visits, seeing that in a parallel case they
9:28
had not dared to receive any such They were still more so, add San
9:33
Simon, when they saw Madame the Prancess de Conti, contrary to all custom,
9:39
drape her apartment in mourning for a simple nun, although she was her
9:43
mother. They who had none, and who for that reason had not dared
9:48
even to wear the least sign of mourning on the death of Madame de Montespon.
9:54
Between the situation of the Prancess de Conti and that of the two other
9:58
legitimated daughters of Louis the fourteenth, there existed this difference. The first were
10:05
designated in her letters of legitimation as the daughter of Mademoiselle de la Valliere,
10:11
while in those of the other two, their mother's name was not mentioned.
10:16
This is why Saint Simon, distinguishing between the simple and the double adultery,
10:22
says that the Princess de Comtis had named and recognized mother, while the Duchesses
10:28
of Bourbon and of Chartre had not. The Duchess of Bourbon, who was
10:35
at first called Mademoiselle de Nantes, had been legitimated in the year of her
10:39
birth by letters patent, in which Louis the fourteenth, without naming the mother,
10:45
had contented himself by alleging the tenderness which nature gave him for his children,
10:50
and many other reasons which considerably increased these sentiments in him. The young
10:58
princess was still a little girl when she married in sixteen eighty five, the
11:01
Duc de Bourbon, grandson of the Great Conde. It was a ridiculous thing,
11:09
says the Marquis de Souche, to see these two marionettes Mary, for
11:13
the Duc de Bourbon was excessively small. It was feared he would remain a
11:20
dwarf, and they were obliged to wait until July before Mademoiselle de Nantes would
11:24
be twelve years old. Madame de Caelous says that the Great Conde and his
11:31
son neglected no means of testifying their joy, as they had omitted nothing to
11:37
bring about this marriage. As she grew up, the Duchess became very pretty.
11:43
San Simond praises her figure formed by the tenderest loves and her mind made
11:48
to enjoy them to her liking, but without being dominated by them. But
11:54
he represents her at the same time as egoistic, deceitful, and setir miracle.
12:01
She was, he says, the siren of the poets. She had
12:05
all their charms and all their perils. She loved pleasure, luxury and extravagance.
12:11
Thanks to Madame de Mantineau, she obtained in seventeen hundred the payment of
12:16
her debts by the king, who kept her secret from her father in law
12:20
and her husband. If Saint Simon and Madame de Caylus were to be believed,
12:26
her conduct was not exemplary. She may have been the mistress of the
12:31
second Prince de Conti, he who had been elected king of Poland in sixteen
12:37
ninety seven after having fought valiantly at Florus, Steinkerk, Nea, Vinda and
12:43
in Hungary, but who was unable to take possession of his crown. The
12:48
Prince de Conti, says Madame de Caelouse, opened his eyes to the charms
12:52
of Madame the Duchess by dint of being told not to look at her.
12:58
He loved her passionately, and if on her part she loved anything, it
13:03
was certainly him. Whatever may have happened, since this affair was conducted with
13:09
such admirable prudence that they never gave any one any hold over them. According
13:16
to San Simon, the Prince de Comtie was perfectly happy with Madame the Duchesse,
13:22
although Monsieur the Duke was very singular and strangely jealous. The Duke died
13:28
on Shrove Tuesday in the year seventeen o nine. Madame the Duchess, although
13:33
surrounded by finery, masquerading habits, and a crowd of invited guests, lost
13:39
none of her presence of mind. With her tearful ways, she extorted from
13:45
the King, though against his will and tardily enough, an income of thirty
13:50
thousand livres. Then her tears dried up and her good humor returned. She
13:56
received everybody in state. She was on her bed in a widow's gown bordered
14:01
and lined with ermine. The Prince de Contie died almost at the same time
14:07
as the Duke. Madame the Duchess, says Saint Simon, was the only
14:11
one to whom he had not been in constant. He would have paid her
14:16
the homage of his grandeur, and she would have shown by his luster,
14:22
what disheartening memories with no consolation but Laseille junior footnote Laseilles was a brigadier of
14:30
infantry. According to Saint Simon, he became openly the master of Madame the
14:35
Duchess and the director of her affairs. Back to main text. For want
14:41
of a better she became inordinately attached to him, and the attachment has lasted
14:46
four thirty years. She was not made for tears. She wanted to forget
14:52
her troubles, and to do so plunged first into amusements and then into pleasures,
14:58
even to the mo most extreme indelicacies. Considering her age and condition,
15:05
she tried to drown her vexations in them, and she succeeded. San Simon's
15:11
exaggerations are to be suspected. However, he is always malevolent and often unjust.
15:18
The suspicions of the ruthless Duke and Pierre constantly hover over the private lives
15:22
of two of the daughters of Louis the fourteenth, but he spares the third
15:26
one at all events, and though he accuses her of an almost satanic pride,
15:33
he insinuates nothing against the purity of her morals. This princess was at
15:39
first styled Mademoiselle de Blois, the same name as the daughter of Mademoiselle de
15:43
la Valliere. She was fourteen when she was married in sixteen ninety two to
15:50
the Duc de Chartre, son of Monsieur, Duke of Orleon. Sain Simon
15:54
has described the exasperation of the young prince's mother at seeing her son espouse a
16:02
bastard. She strode up and down, handkerchief in hand and weeping, unrestrainedly,
16:07
talking rather loud, gesticulating and reminding one of Ceres. After the abduction
16:14
of Proserpine people generally going to await the breaking up the council and the king's
16:19
mass in the gallery, Madame went there. Her son approached her, as
16:25
he did every day, to kiss her hand. At that moment Madame gave
16:30
him so resounding a slap that it could be heard several paces off, and
16:36
which in presence of the whole court, covered the poor prince with confusion,
16:41
and filled the very numerous spectators, of whom I was one, with prodigious
16:45
astonishment. Let us note in passing that in a letter to the Rheingrave Louise
16:52
Madame says that a rumor is in circulation that she had slapped her son in
16:56
the face, but that it is absolutely false. The marriage was celebrated with
17:00
great pomp. Louis the fourteenth was gratified to find the great lords and ladies
17:07
rivaling each other in magnificence. There was a great ball at Versailles, where
17:11
the Duke of Burgundy danced for the first time, and it was the King
17:15
of England who gave the bridegroom his shirt. Reader's note the exile James the
17:21
Second. A month later, March nineteenth, sixteen ninety two, the Duc
17:26
de men the eldest of the children of Louis the fourteenth, by Madame de
17:30
Montespont, married Mademoiselle de Charrolet, daughter of the Prince and granddaughter of the
17:36
Great Conde. The legitimized thus found themselves established in the court of Versailles,
17:41
which they could not have left without sadness, for it was the most brilliant
17:47
and most envied abode in Europe. Louis the fourteenth, who had originally said,
17:52
concerning the offspring of adultery, these persons must never marry, caused them
17:59
to make me magnificent marriages curious thing. The Duchess of Sharp naively fancied that
18:06
she had honored the king's nephew by marrying him. Madame wrote on this head,
18:11
my son's wife thinks she did him a great honor in marrying him.
18:17
She says, he is only the nephew of the king, while she is
18:21
his daughter. This is to forget that one is also the son of his
18:26
mother. Never would she comprehend that. Duclose says that people jocosely compared her
18:33
to Minerva, who, recognizing no mother, prided herself on being the daughter
18:38
of Jupiter. Haughty as she was, this princess was timidity itself. In
18:45
presence of Louis the fourteenth, the king could make her faint with a single
18:49
severe look, and Madame de Maintenon too. Perhaps at all events she trembled
18:56
before her and about the most ordinary things, and in public. She never
19:00
replied to them without stammering and looking frightened, I say replied, for to
19:07
address the king first was beyond her strength. The Duchesse de chart was none
19:12
the less a woman of great intelligence, having a natural eloquence, a justness
19:18
of expression, and affluency and singularity in the choice of terms, which always
19:23
surprised one, together with that manner peculiar to Madame de Montespon and her sisters,
19:30
and which was transmitted to none but those intimate with her, or to
19:33
those whom she had brought up. In spite of all her intelligence, the
19:40
Duchess was unable either to gain the attachment of her husband or to give a
19:45
good education to her daughter, who married in seventeen ten. The Duc de
19:48
Berrys, third son of the Grand dauphin Saint Simon, whose tongue is always
19:56
envenomed, has ill treated no woman in his memoirs so much as this poor
20:00
Duchesse de Berrie, who a widow at seventeen, died at twenty four.
20:07
If one must believe the spiteful Duke in Pierre, she was a bad wife,
20:11
a bad daughter, and a bad Christian. She got drunk, she
20:17
mocked at religion, and she wanted Lais, her husband's equerry, to elope
20:22
with her. She was a prodigy of art, pride, and gratitude and
20:26
folly, and also of debauchery and stubbornness. The duchess was very wrong,
20:33
without any doubt, but we incline to think that Saint Simon exaggerates. Possibly
20:38
she was neither better nor worse than many women of her time. It is
20:42
certain at any rate that she grieved her mother, Already much tormented by the
20:48
rivalries and dissensions of the court. The three daughters of Louis the fourteenth were
20:55
not always on good terms with each other. There was a time when their
20:59
quarrels multiplied to such a degree that the king threatened if they continued to in
21:03
turn all three of them in their country houses. The menace was effectual,
21:10
and thenceforward they disputed on the sly. Louis the fourteenth loved his daughters greatly
21:15
in spite of their defects. He was at the same time a just king
21:19
and an affectionate father. He showed a real tenderness, a solicitude, and
21:26
a devotion in his treatment of them, which never altered when they were ill.
21:30
He was grieved and troubled, he would rise several times in the night
21:34
to go and visit them. Madame de cay Loose relates that the Duchess of
21:40
Bourbon, having been seized with smallpox at Fontainebleau, Louis the fourteenth was absolutely
21:47
determined to go to see her. The Prince the Great Conde stood at the
21:52
door to prevent him from entering. There, a great struggle took place between
21:56
paternal love and the zeal of a courtier, a struggle very glorious for Madame
22:03
the Duchess. Louis the fourteenth was the stronger and went in in spite of
22:07
the resistance of the Great Conde. Thus behaved this king, who can only
22:15
be treated as an egotist by those who know him badly or who do not
22:19
know him at all. End of Section twenty