Philippe, Duc d'Orleans

The next gay icon is also a royal and lived about 200 years before the eventful Ludwig II. His name was Philippe de France (21 September 1640 – 9 June 1701) and he was the only brother of the famous French Sun King, Louis XIV. It was a time when kings were untouchable and their conduct was unquestioned. Public opinion was something you threw out on the streets of Paris and eccentricity was a virtue! Not only did Philippe live his life notoriously open as a homosexual, he also became the father of most of the royal houses of Europe, including that of France, Italy and Spain.

Childhood days

It does not often happen in life that your mother encourages your homosexuality from an early age. This is taking the concept of an over compensating mother one step further. Philippe, as mentioned, was the second child of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. Louis XIII, his father, died when Philippe was still only 3 years old and Anne took over the regency of the under aged Louis XIV.

Anne was the ultimate gay mother. She apparently encouraged the femininity of Philippe. Initially the argument was that this way he posed less of a threat to his elder brother and seemingly later on it amused and delighted! Honestly, from what one can read and see, it was blatantly obvious that Philippe was gay from his effeminate behavior. His father, Louis XIII had had a very tumultuous relationship with his brother, Gaston, Duke of Orleans. So Anne decided to protect the future king, Louis XIV, by making sure that his younger brother, Philippe, had no part in any political or military office. The queen and Mazarin discouraged Philippe from traditional manly pursuits such as arms and politics, and encouraged him to wear dresses, makeup, and indulge in feminine behavior. It is said that Queen Anne called Philippe such nicknames as "my little girl". In court slander he was apparently called the "silliest woman who ever lived".

Deflowering

One of the most bizarre and rather frequently mentioned “joys” of the French court of the time was the deflowering of boys at a seemingly very young age! Philippe was “corrupted with the Italian vice” when he was merely 18. Gay was referred to as the “vice Italian” at the time – apparently the Italians referred to it as the “French vice”!

And who was the lucky man to enjoy the fresh chicken meat? Apparently, Cardinal Mazarin, no one less than the prime minster of Queen Anne’s regency period, arranged for the de-flowering of Philippe at the hands of his own nephew, Philippe Mancini. Philippe was also only 19 at the time and it is quite possible that the two men were attracted to each other and consented to the whole affair. Needless to say, it is a very horny lifetime and both Philippe’s made no secret in later life of their preferences.

Philippe Mancini’s mother was the sister of Cardinal Mazarin. After his father’s early death, Philippe and his 5 gorgeous sisters were shipped off to Paris to make their fortune. They were the “belles” of the French court and managed to sleep their way to the very top. Philippe Mancini was no exception to the rule.

The amazing thing seemingly, is that the deflowering of young boys would become quite a pastime for Philippe and his bad-influence gay cronies in later life!

The fabulous Minette

Philippe was destined to marry the most beautiful woman in court, Henrietta of England, or Minette as she was lovingly called. She lived at court with her mother, who was the widow of the beheaded king of England, Charles I. Both she and her mother were high profile at the French court and her wit and beauty was well recognized and respected at court. She had many avid admirers. She brought with her a great wealth and her brother would be reinstated as Charles II of England!

One thing that stands out about Minette is that she was very, very ambitious. Her first target was none other then Philippe’s brother, Louis XIV. They flirted rather openly at court and there can be no doubt that they had a couple of passionate nights together. The court gossip of the time was that Louis was the father of her first child. Things got so bad that the aged Queen Anne had to resolve the escalating jealousy between her sons. Louis was reprimanded and Philippe and Minette moved to another palace in Paris.


Picture: Philippe with a painting of his favourite daugther Marie Louise, the future Queen of Spain

Soon afterwards in 1662 they, or possibly Louis and Minette, had their first daughter, Marie Louise. She would later become the future Queen of Spain and was Philippe’s favorite daughter – bizarre! Apparently Minette was very disappointed that it was a daughter and threatened to throw the baby in the Seine - giving you a good idea just how limitless the ambition of Minette was.

Her second target was the lover and infatuation at the time of Philippe, Armand de Gramont the Count of Guiche. He was a notoriously handsome playboy which was seemingly not afraid of anything. Looking back at his career, one could call him a professional mercenary. He fought in numerous battles not only for France, but also for Poland and Holland. The crowning glory was when he rejoined the troops of Louis XIV in their battle against the Dutch. In which he was bravely swam across the Rhine, encouraging his troop to do the same, and bringing them to safety!

Minette out of spite, or out of genuine lust, had “private interviews” with the dashing noble. Once again Philippe accused her of infidelity and rushed off to complain to his mother. As a dashing compromise the handsome Armand exiled himself on the pretext of having problems with the king himself – or rather the king’s family!

Love of his life!

Around this period Philippe met the love of his life, Philippe de Lorraine, known as the Chevalier de Lorraine. He was described “as beautiful like an angel, but devoid of any sense of morality”!

Philippe housed, or rather allowed, Philippe de Lorraine to live in the same palace with him and his wife. The stories about their exploits make your ears tinge! Philippe and Loraine had the ultimate gay open relationships. They seem to have had a predilection for younger men and Lorraine assured a constant supply of these at court. In one horrendous incident, Lorraine was implicated in the unfortunate death of a young waffle maker that seemingly refused to cooperate in their pedophilic plans and was murdered by Lorraine and his troop!


Picture: The handsome Louis de Bourbon, Comte de Vermandois.

In another horrendous, politically more sensitive, story, Philippe and Lorraine, “deflowered” Louis de Bourbon, Comte de Vermandois, the illegitimate son of the king himself! The young Vermandois was put into the care of Philippe’s wife when his mother fell out of favor with the king and retired to a monastery. From engravings of him one can see that he was a very handsome young man. Needless to say this did not escape the eyes of Philippe. He soon came under the influence of his uncle and at the very young age of around 15 he was “deflowered” by his uncle and his entourage! It turned out to be a terrible mistake by the under-aged Vermandois. His father, the king was disgusted, and he was banned from court. Finally he was shipped off to fight in the French-Dutch war and died on the front at the very young age of only 16 years.

In Philippe de Lorraine, Minette had met her match. Her relationship with Lorraine was openly hostile. She did all in her power to undermine him. She convinced the king to imprison Lorraine on the grounds (probably true) that he had boasted that he could convince Philippe to divorce her. He finally went in to exile in Rome. This was oil on the fire and Philippe dragged his wife from court and forced her to reside in one of his country estates. Then Philippe finally nagged and convinced the king to allow Lorraine back in France. Soon afterwards under very mysterious circumstances the 26 year old Minette died. She apparently collapsed on the terrace and when she was taken inside cried out that she was poisoned. The official autopsy declared that Minette died of a perforated ulcer and traumatised abdomen – says it all does it not!

Liselotte

Louis XIV himself occupied himself to find a replacement for Minette as quick as possible. A quick search was done of the available candidates and just over one year after the death of Minette, Philippe was remarried with a German princess, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, familiarly called Liselotte.

She did not have the beauty of Minette and apparently Philippe on seeing her remarked "how will I ever be able to sleep with her?" Well, it all turned out just fine. She was well respected at court and her German directness was strangely appreciated. She bore Philippe a string of kids and also lovingly looked after the favorite daughter of Philippe from his first marriage. She performed her maternal duties and bore Philippe 3 children, one son and two daughters, that would continue the line of Orleans and make the House of Orleans at least equally as important as the House of Bourbon. She wrote over 50,000 letters during the run of her life to her aunt and family in Germany that proved to be invaluable information about the goings on at the Sun King’s court! Obviously a lot that we know about Philippe came via these letters. She, however, meticulously burnt all the letters that Philippe himself had written during his life to his lovers and acquaintances. And last but not least, unlike Minette, she somehow tolerated the promiscuous gay ways of Philippe and his crowd of gay friends that hung around the palace all the time.

In spite of the blatantly promiscuous husband, she was rather prudish. For example, she was disgusted when her only son was married off to the legitimized daughter of the mistress of the king, Madame de Montespan. This was a compromise that had been reached between the king and Philippe to cover up the scandalous affair with the under-aged Vermandois previously mentioned. Once again, however, all would finally turn out well, as her son became the regent for the under aged Louis XV and her grand daughter would be none less than the mother of Louis XV.

After the death of Philippe she wrote rather poignantly: "I won Philippe over during the last three years of his life. We even managed to laugh together about his weaknesses. He had confidence in me and always took my side, but before that I used to suffer dreadfully. I was just beginning to be happy when the almighty took poor Philippe from me"

Last days

Philippe lived to the ripe old age of that time of 60 and died in his bed of a stroke, one year before the death of his lifelong companion the Chevalier of Lorraine.

So what could possibly be the legacy of Philippe of France, Duke de Orleans, to our world? As with most gays, Philippe was the ultimate patron of the arts. He housed and supported the theatrical troop of Moliere. In actual fact it was Philippe that introduced the great writer and playwright to the Sun King’s court. He loved music and was a avid patron of Lully, who was by the way also gay. He started a fantastic collection.

Furthermore, like Ludwig, he was great fan of architecture. He turned a hunting estate, in the outskirts of Paris, called Château de Saint-Cloud, into a magnificent palace. Unfortunately during the Franco Prussian wars the palace was bombed and completely burn down. Many of the rooms in the Palais Royal were also renovated by him.

Most enduring for his relatives (and the House or Orleans), was the fact that he was a great investor and financier. In those days a great financier meant something like a great collector of titles. As the second son of the realm he had rights to taxes from the provinces of Anjou. When his uncle, Gaston Duc d’Orelans, died in 1660 without an heir the Duchy of Orleans reverted to Philippe. This was one of the richest duchies of France and included such fertile areas as Chartres. Finally when the only daughter of his uncle died, she also left all her wealth and estates to Philippe. As far as we can see Philippe was at least good in making sure that his estates were well managed and develop. For example, he took a keen interest in the building of canals to encourage trade in his domains.

To me the most endearing legacy would be the obviously, or some would say inevitable, gay lifestyle that he chose to live. He made no secret about the fact that he was gay. Even more so, he had no qualms about the fact he was gay. He was no brooding character like Ludwig and he died peacefully in bed surrounded by this family and not childless in some cold lake. He was quite willing to marry and fulfill his marital duties and, perhaps even more impressive, his military duties. And he had his promiscuous fun, to the point that it borders on smut!

He was a personification of the dandy, the metro sexual male of ages to come. There was no need to be mucho to be accepted and successful. There was no need to fit the cookie cutter male role model to become a successful and endearing part of society! He fitted perfectly into an age of sexual tolerance at least within the aristocracy, where fine manner, food, clothing, and culture were the ultimate achievements in life!