Did Henry the Xiv Wife Have a Black Baby
Sexual activity, spies and the Queen'due south black infant: the real history of Versailles
Period dramas are becoming increasingly raunchy – from the entirely fictional Poldark to the likes of The Tudors, which is based on existent events. Last week, the BBC premiered its lavish enterprise with Culvert Plus, Versailles.
The show lurched between scenes that seemed stranger than fiction; from the royal taxman reprimanding a fraudster in a brothel, to the queen briefly – and unwillingly – receiving oral sex from her dwarf jester. Simply how much of this actually happened?
We spoke to Greg Jenner, co-presenter of Inside Versailles and consultant to the BBC's Horrible Histories, to discover out which parts of the show are based on real history, and which $.25 were made with a little dramatic license - from the lustrous hair to right downwards to the Queen's pet dwarf.
Did the Queen accept a black baby?
The TV series' surprise nativity is a tenuous storyline, admits Jenner, but rumours did circulate throughout the court of Versailles that this actually did happen. "This story is gossiped virtually by lots and lots of people in Louis's reign. Most of information technology is a bit cloudy, nosotros're non sure of the truth. The reality for historians is that probably information technology'south not a black baby, rather the child had dark, purplish pare from oxygen deprivation, and it died presently later on. That's the version that near historians would tell you."
To add to the conspiracy theory, at that place is a portrait of a famous Benedictine nun, Louise Marie Thérèse, known every bit the Black Nun of Moret who was rumoured to exist of royal descent. It has been said that this could be the grown-upwardly daughter of Queen Marie Therese. Jenner believes that the Nun of Moret could have been of royal descent, only thinks that Louise Marie Thérèse is more likely the illegitimate daughter of Louis XIV.
"Perchance Louis has had a romp with one of his servants? There were a few black servants. In that location's quite a lot of trading with North Africa, he sets upwardly the Senegal Visitor. Certainly, exotic animals would have arrived for his menagerie and the women from Africa were also considered exotic and beautiful – he may have slept with them and produced a black child. And then nosotros certainly know that at that place is a black baby built-in, probably to Louis XIV himself, who ends up in a nunnery."
Was the hair really that sleeky?
Information technology'southward a question that comes up time and once more in menstruation dramas – in a world without Herbal Essences and Colgate, surely the real Louis XIV and his mistresses would've been much less bonny. Historians don't know much about the courtiers at Versailles, just they were definitely beautiful, if a little smelly, says Jenner: "We know that people didn't actually wash their hair. They didn't really wash full cease actually. In the seventeenth century people don't wash much in water because it was believed to open up the pores and so permit Plague into their body.
"What they were doing was wiping themselves downwardly with clammy rags, or more likely smearing their body in sweetness-smelling rosewater and rosemary and lavender, things that scent pleasant – and they are using very expensive, lavish perfumes. Louis 14'due south France is where perfume actually starts, and and so in terms of hygiene they probably would have smelled very floral, and there might have been quite a strong sub-olfactory property of sweat."
And what about the hair? "Quite a lot of people find that if you don't launder your hair, and you castor it a lot, it becomes very shiny – because the natural oils in the hair build upward, and you end upward brushing the natural oils through the hair so yous get a dainty sheen to it. What'southward interesting is that while they didn't wash their hair, they might accept had soft shiny hair which was then probably spritzed with a nice odour."
Were the royal teeth actually that white?
People are often outraged at the very idea actors in period dramas don't accept dodgy teeth, as they imagine people living in an age before dentistry to have a oral fissure riddled with decay. These were the days before dentists, after all. "In the 17th century dentistry is not very proficient, and they're eating lots of sugar in their diet. Particularly at Versailles, where the food is very rich and expensive and they can have rather lovely, elegant sugary dishes," says Jenner. "Certainly with the young beautiful women who came to court, there are many letters describing how they had lovely smiles… and all of their teeth, and that Louis was very taken with them. Later on in life, peradventure then, probably problems would take fix in."
The young ladies at courtroom might have had gorgeous smiles, but Louis XIV's teeth left a lot to be desired. According to Jenner, the King's breath was so bad that he had to spritz himself with perfume, and his mistresses would do the same if they went almost him.
Did Fabien Marchal, chief spymaster and torturer, be?
Apparently Louis and the other key royals and nobles that characteristic in the drama were real people, but there are a few characters who are most probable an amalgamation of dissimilar people. There's no exact equivalent of Fabien Marchal, whose sole purpose at court is to bring down conspirators, but there were definitely men like him working for Louis XIV.
Jenner said: "Obviously there were some shady characters that worked for Louis XIV, because Louis was a fairly paranoid King who did accept a ruthless fearfulness of conspiracy because he'd grown upwards between ii civil wars. He'd seen his male parent being challenged by his own brother, so he was quite suspicious of the nobility and he did accept a pretty constructive police force forcefulness… I think Fabien is a combination of perhaps ii or three senior people who lurked in the shadow."
Did spies rifle through ladies' underwear?
In the opening episode, we saw a coven of spies reading the courtiers' post and a woman in the laundry reporting the contents of ladies' knickers. Co-ordinate to Jenner, that really happened. "He had code breakers, people intercepting letters, spies in courtroom who would go through people's underwear. They would know where someone was at all times."
It goes without maxim that we don't know all of Louis Fourteen'due south espionage techniques (otherwise his spies wouldn't have been very good at their task), but, there are some things we know, as Jenner tells us, "we know that at that place was a very famous mathematician who was hired as a cryptographer to create and suspension codes in a room known by the slightly saucy, sinister name of the black chamber.
"There's quite a lot of subterfuge there, so the interception of post is peradventure the near common technique where they are opening messages and reading letters without people knowing really that their letters accept been read.
"It's certainly likely that people knew when female courtiers were ovulating and when they were menstruating, and if someone missed their period and then that might hateful they are meaning – considering, ultimately, Louis wanted to know what was happening in his court. Very few secrets would have been kept, it was a very invasive courtroom in terms of privacy."
How powerful was Bontemps?
In the show, Louis XIV is tended to past his well-nigh loyal servant and first valet, Alexandre Bontemps. Co-ordinate to Jenner, the affectionate relationship is consummate fact. "He was absolutely Louis's correct-hand man and was incredibly trusted. Not but every bit a senior valet, but he was also given political power, he was ennobled, he was given money and wealth, various jobs at Versailles – so Louis trusted him absolutely, implicitly, and gave him increasing amounts of responsibility over the years. The depiction in the drama of Bontemps as this human who was constantly by his side is absolutely fair, because that is absolutely grounded in truth."
Were revenue enhancement collectors tortured?
In the prove, a peculiarly officious royal retainer goes afterward a dodgy taxman, reprimanding him with some gruesome torture subsequently tracking him downwards to a brothel. This exact scene probably never happened, as Jenner explains: "he certainly reformed the tax collecting, just I'1000 not sure he did it with hitmen in brothels".
Just that doesn't mean he wasn't averse to roughing upwardly those officials who tried to dupe the royal accountants. "Knowing Louis, I wouldn't put it past him that he might take fabricated a couple of examples of people. There's no evidence really for that level of brutality that we tin say, just knowing how Louis operated, I wouldn't be massively surprised if some people got pushed downwardly the stairs or some heads got bashed together.
"That's how he ruled, he ruled with a combination of glorious, lavish elegance, and a kind of underhand subterfuge, and quite a cynical utilise of not necessarily brutality and violence, only certainly intimidation and coercion, because that is how y'all rule in 17th-century France, particularly afterward a ceremonious war. You accept to ensure your power."
Did Louis XIV slumber with his sis-in-police?
In the show, Louis XIV is embroiled in a passionate affair with his brother'due south married woman, Henrietta, who was likewise the girl of England's Charles I. The short respond, co-ordinate to Jenner, is no. Just Louis Fourteen and Henrietta certainly had a very close human relationship. "I tend to think information technology'southward not a sexual relationship, information technology'due south a very powerful flirtation. In that location's lots of evidence that when they were quite immature, they spent a lot of time together, and there's definitely a lot of chinwagging at court."
"Some historians accept said, OK, well they're probably fooling around. Doing stuff. Well other historians have said that would be incest, because nether Catholic law at the time, your sister-in-law was your sister, as soon equally your brother married a woman so you became family. Then to go all the way, and to consummate that relationship, would exist quite controversial in the optics of God. They are immature, they are glamorous, they are probably, at that place's certainly an element of being in dearest but whether they had sex… it's probably unlikely."
Was the life of Marie-Therese actually that alone?
She may take been one of the well-nigh powerful, influential women at the nigh glamorous courtroom in the world, only spare a idea for Marie-Therese. Starting life every bit a Spanish Princess, she became Queen of France when she was married to Louis Fourteen for political expediency. Being the Male monarch's consort was a lonely life – peculiarly in a foreign foreign land. "The King was often off either having affairs, or dealing with his affairs of land. He'd be busy conducting wars or planning for the revenue enhancement economy, simply queens would get quite lonely."
Still, the Queen didn't exactly help herself, says Jenner: "Queen Marie-Therese arrived from Spain and she didn't really learn French very comfortably, she never really settled at the courtroom and she surrounded herself with Spanish ladies in waiting, who all spoke Spanish to each other."
And did she keep a dwarf as a jester?
In Versailles, Queen Marie-Therese'southward dwarf is part-jester role-pet. There's even a baroque, slightly unsettling scene, in which he plays beneath her skirts. Turns out he really did exist – and keeping a dwarf was a mutual thing for Spanish royalty, says Jenner.
"It was a Spanish custom. This is a Spanish royal matter that the Hapsburg royal dynasty did, she brought her dwarf with her. Other royal families had dwarfs, similar the Tudors, Mary Tudor famously had a dwarf. So it was quite normal for dwarfs to be welcomed into the court if they had a skill, like a naughty sense of humor, or could juggle and entertain and amuse."
Was giving nascency a public spectacle?
What made the situation more chaotic was the entire court, who were at that place to witness the nascence, had to be ushered out of the Queen'southward birthing chamber. While most of us like to call back of labour as a private affair (save for fans of Ane Born Every Infinitesimal), having as many witnesses equally possible at the nascence was incredibly important. This is one of the few things that the drama actually plays downward – at a standard royal birth there would have been far more people present.
Jenner says: "In the drama it'south actually quite restrained, in reality the room would exist heaving with people. Childbirth is a huge moment, of course, in a woman'due south life, but in purple circles the nascency of a child is political: it'south standing the dynasty and of course at that place are these concerns that the babies might be swapped or smuggled away or hidden. But information technology's also a formalism thing. It'south hugely of import, the king wants to show off that his new daughter or son arriving. A woman'southward life, whether they're a duchess or a queen, was very public, particularly at Versailles, where then much is ritualised."
Was the Rex'southward brother gay?
In the show, Philippe, Louis XIV's younger brother is involved in a romantic tryst with dashing nobleman the Chevalier de Lorraine. "He had a very long, very peppery relationship with the Chevalier de Lorraine. The Chevalier is described equally beingness this beautiful, angelic, lithe young homo and Philippe is besotted with him – and they're a very powerful couple at court, though controversial at times."
Jenner is quick to bespeak out, notwithstanding, that information technology would exist incorrect for us to label Philippe as gay or homosexual – because the words and concepts simply didn't exist the Seventeenth Century. "They didn't use those words – there's no such identity equally a gay person – there were gay acts, and you could have homosexual sex activity. But you were notwithstanding a man and people wouldn't describe yous as a gay man, y'all were a man who has gay sex."
Was this not frowned upon? Afterward all, there were some strict ideas on morality in Early on Modern Europe. "It's an interesting issue because homosexuality is not something that the Catholic Church is very keen on and it's a controversial issue. But it is permitted to some extent, perhaps because he's the King's brother."
It wasn't just in his choice of lovers that Philippe pushed 17th-century boundaries, though. He also enjoyed wearing women's clothing. "He wears women's clothes and he does so quite flagrantly, quite wantonly parades around court in cute clothes, dresses, wearing earrings with his hair up and he's described by some people at courtroom every bit 'the silliest of all the women at court'."
Simply Philippe really was a bright soldier, something we'll encounter more of equally the show progresses. "What's also interesting most Philippe is that also every bit the cantankerous-dressing, he's likewise quite a talented soldier. He'south successful, he leads his troops in battle several times and we'll seen in the drama that he does very well in battle. It becomes a real tension point for his blood brother Louis, who feels slightly upstaged by Philippe."
Were the Male monarch'south mistresses gluttons for penalization?
Louise de La Vallière was i of Louis XIV's immature, beautiful mistresses. She was incredibly pious, as was near of the court at Versailles, and struggled to reconcile her affair with the married Louis. Over the years, she had several children by him, and was totally besotted. But she also tormented herself over the religious implications.
As Jenner, explains, "The interesting thing about Louise de la Valiere is that she seems to have a real guilt complex. She falls for her male monarch, she's totally in dear with him, she gets pregnant several times and has children past him. Merely she likewise whips herself. She's very cut up about the idea of cheating with the Rex, because he's married. Simply she probably can reconcile it to herself because he is appointed by god."
In the 17th century, Louis XIV and many other believed in the divine right of kings. This meant that God had appointed him to rule over France, and they were a sort of mortal deity in their own right. "So Louise is saying, well Louis is appointed by God and if I dear him and go to bed with him, and so this is a form of worshipping God."
"We see whipping herself in the sleeping room [in the bear witness], and that'due south probably grounded in truth because on several occasions she ran away to a nunnery and Louis had to go and get her and bring her back. That element of the story is very authentic. They've just slightly compressed the timeline."
Did Henry the Xiv Wife Have a Black Baby
Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/06/05/dwarves-sex-and-spies-how-historically-accurate-is-versailles/