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Godfather of the Revolution

The Life of Philippe Égalité, Duc D'Orléans

Peter Owen Publishers

Prince of the Blood

Never has a man been born into greater splendour and died in more ignominy than Louis Philippe Joseph, fifth Duc d'Orléans, better known to history as Philippe Égalité. So important was his arrival at the Palace of Saint-Cloud near Paris on a spring morning in 1747 that a messenger was immediately sent to inform the King at Versailles a few miles away. For this child, given the courtesy title of Duc de Montpensier, would be fourth in line to the French throne and a Prince of the Blood, a direct descendant in the male line of past Kings of France. He would also be heir to the vast estates of the Orléans dynasty, the equivalent of three modern French départements. But as the historian Amédée Britsch has written, 'Philippe would be the fruit of passion rather than of reason.'

Saint-Cloud, presided over by the boy's father, the Duc de Chartres, was then almost as magnificent as the great Palace of Versailles itself, with majestic stone courtyards and a vast marble salon decorated with paintings by Mignard that rivalled the Hall of Mirrors. The wealth that had built Saint-Cloud is almost unimaginable today, for even the greatest of English country houses of the time seemed modest in comparison. Yet this vast palace was but one of a dozen Orléanist mansions scattered throughout the Île-de-France and Picardy. Given by the crown to Monsieur, the dissolute brother of the Sun King, Louis XIV, it had passed to his son Philippe, the second Duc d'Orléans. This brilliant military commander had been Regent of France during the minority of the present king, Louis XV, and in what was to become a family tradition had become notorious as one of the most immoral reprobates of the age. The father of many bastards, he was widely rumoured to have practised black magic and, more dangerously, intrigued with the English enemy. This may well have been true for, unusually for a Frenchman, he openly admired England and all things English, a characteristic that would later be displayed with even greater intensity in his great-grandson, Louis Philippe Joseph.

The Regent's son, the new arrival's grandfather and third Duc d'Orléans, had proved to be the odd man out in this most eccentric of families. Unlike his father and his son, he was a gentle and scholarly soul of such saintly demeanour that he became known as 'Louis the Pious'. Revered by the common people of Paris for his unstinted generosity, particularly in the times of famine that had plagued France for the past century, he had, by the time of his grandson's birth, long retired from the world to lead a life of simple contemplation with the monks at the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève near Saint-Cloud. Leaving the management of his estates to others, he devoted himself to a rigorous study of natural science and ancient philosophies, in the course of which he mastered the archaic languages of Aramaic, Syriac and Hebrew. Moreover his research into ancient philosophy led him to some very odd beliefs, the most bizarre of which was his certainty that death was merely an illusion and that the dead might return at any moment. This strange delusion even led him to continue to pay a pension to a female retainer long after her death in the conviction that the old lady might reappear at any minute.

More damagingly to his family, he was also convinced that his son, the present Duc de Chartres, was physically incapable of fathering a child. Consequently he regarded the arrival of little Louis Philippe Joseph with the deepest suspicion, his scepticism appearing fully justified when one day, soon after the birth, a peasant woman leapt out of the bushes in the abbey grounds and fell at his feet claiming to be the real mother of the new Orléans heir. Accordingly Louis the Pious refused to send even a congratulatory note to his son at Saint-Cloud, and when complimented on the happy event by the Queen through her envoy M. de Chalmazel, Louis replied enigmatically, 'Sir, thank Her Majesty for her kind words, whatever the truth of the matter.' When the Queen told her husband of this odd remark she added a mock warning that if His Majesty was ever tempted, like the mad duke, to retreat to the Sainte-Geneviève she would immediately enter the Carmelite order herself!

This strange recluse finally died in 1752, still believing that his grandson was an impostor. Just forty-eight years old, he was already prematurely aged by a life of self-denial. Yielding to his confessor's pleas, he grudgingly agreed to receive his infant grandchildren for a final audience before promptly dying of a heart attack. True to his scientific beliefs and convinced that a man should be useful to others even in death, he left instructions that his mortal remains be passed to the Paris anatomists for dissection. Curiously he did not find this incompatible with his firm conviction that death was transitory and that the deceased would soon reappear in a different guise. His funeral at the Church of Val-de-Grâce complemented the simplicity of his life, as did his many legacies. To the monks of Sainte-Geneviève he left his modest furniture and his much-cherished laboratory equipment; to his doctor he passed a cabinet containing an impressive collection of fossils and botanical specimens. A tormented soul, he had throughout his life displayed the altruism that was the obverse side of the Orléans character. In death he remained revered by the common people of Paris, who flocked to his funeral in a moving tribute to a royal prince who had chosen the life of a simple monk. His bond with the people would have an uncanny resonance thirty years later when his grandson experienced the same popularity, leading him to the very steps of the throne of France.

The new head of the family could not have made a greater contrast with his saintly and eccentric father. Known as 'Philippe the Fat', he represented a return to the Orléans tradition of extravagance and debauchery. Lazy and unprincipled, he was given to a life devoted to hunting by day and gambling and dissipation by night. Then suddenly and unexpectedly he fell in love and abandoned a life of pleasure for one of constancy. The object of this devotion was Louise Henriette de Bourbon Conti, daughter of the formidable and ambitious Princesse de Conti. Educated in an exceptionally strict convent, Louise Henriette had emerged into French society as an attractive young woman. Her fine looks and noble bearing had even attracted the Venetian adventurer Giacomo Casanova when he visited Paris. He described her in his memoirs as the most charming girl he had met in France. The Contis, like their cousins and fellow Princes of the Blood, the Condés, were considered by their contemporaries to be a family with even more questionable morals than the Orléans themselves. More importantly, Louise Henriette's father, the Prince de Conti, was deeply unpopular at court, having led the early opposition to the arbitrary power of Louis XV – a role that Louis Philippe Joseph was later destined to fulfil.

Captivated by Louise Henriette's beauty, 'Philippe the Fat' set his reservations aside and in November 1743 formally asked the King's permission – as required by every Prince of the Blood – to marry her. The King consented, and bride and groom appeared together at Versailles a month later, he dressed in cloth of gold and she in silver brocade. After the ceremony, attended by the entire court, the newlyweds had the honour of being formally escorted to their marriage bed by the King and Queen. The following morning, as was the custom, the court assembled to watch them dress, for little was done in private at Versailles.

Unusually for an age when cynicism and dynastic considerations prevailed over emotion, their union appeared, at first, to be a true love match. The besotted Duc de Chartres confessed to feeling such passion in the presence of his young bride that his entire body felt as if it was on fire. This passion was certainly reciprocated, and the lovers appeared, to the amusement of the courtiers around them, to be physically obsessed with each other to the point of abnormality. So passionate was their behaviour in public that, even in this most sensual of societies, many declared themselves shocked by it. One observer, the Duchesse de Tallard, wryly commented that they were making married love seem positively indecent! A year later this emotion seemed undimmed, for even when they were parted by the Duc's military duties in the War of the Austrian Succession they wrote passionate and erotic love letters to each other every day. Perhaps inspired by his love for Louise Henriette the young Duc performed the part of the warrior prince so valiantly that he was awarded the Order of Saint Louis by the King and promoted to Lieutenant General of the army. When campaigning ended for the winter, as was customary in the warfare of the mid-eighteenth century, the lovers were restored to each other at Saint-Cloud. It proved a productive season, for by the following spring Louise Henriette was six months pregnant. Nevertheless, she still insisted on accompanying her husband when campaigning resumed.

On 13 July 1746 their first child, a daughter, was born, to the ill-concealed disappointment of her father. However, the child soon died and the following year Louise Henriette fell pregnant again, this time with the future Louis Philippe Joseph. When her confinement was safely completed, Louise Henriette again insisted on accompanying her husband on campaign, leaving her baby to be cared for at Saint-Cloud by a retinue that consisted of no fewer than three wet nurses, five nursemaids and two male valets. Chartres, delighted to have produced an heir, continued his military success and was further rewarded with the governorship of the Dauphiné province. When the war finally ended, in October 1748, with the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the young Duc and Duchesse de Chartres, now much in favour at court, returned to Saint-Cloud. Here they began entertaining the French aristocracy in a style said to be worthy of the King's influential mistress, Madame de Pompadour.

As both shared the contemporary aristocratic passion for amateur drama, the little theatre at Saint-Cloud was completely renovated and soon became a great attraction for the court at nearby Versailles. Chartres himself displayed an unsuspected talent for acting, making his début as Rondon in Voltaire's new play, L'Enfant prodigue. A few weeks later he repeated his success, this time in the more challenging role of M. de Forlis in de Boissy's Dehors trompeurs. On this occasion he had the honour of playing opposite the formidable Madame de Pompadour, no mean actress herself. The Duc de Luynes, a perceptive critic of court theatricals, considered that Chartres gave an exceptionally fine performance for a novice and performed without displaying a trace of nerves.

Offstage he largely ignored his infant son while continuing to pay passionate attention to his attractive young wife. She, however, had begun to follow the advice of her interfering mother, the Princesse de Conti, by attempting to control the extravagance of her feckless husband. A far greater threat to married bliss of the Chartres now arose, for the louche atmosphere at Saint-Cloud, with its constant round of visitors, was beginning to affect Louise Henriette in dangerous ways. Raised almost exclusively in the company of chaste young women, the presence at Saint-Cloud of so many virile and attractive young men began to intrigue and fascinate her. It soon became obvious that her feelings towards her husband had cooled and that they were growing apart. The Marquis d'Argenson, a frequent guest, noted in his diary that 'although they spend the day together the Duc and Duchesse de Chartres now sleep in separate rooms'.

Then, in acknowledgement that all passion for her husband had finally died, Louise Henriette abruptly demanded that he return her love letters. When told by a servant that she had immediately burnt the letters, Chartres was mortified. As bitter confirmation that their passionate relationship was indeed now over he immediately rented a small, charming and discreet villa in the rue Cadet in the smartest area of Paris and invited his friends the Comte d'Estrehan, the Chevalier de Dampierre and several other trusted companions to share it with him. The rue Cadet would be their communal love nest, a venue where they could entertain the attractive and readily available actresses from the Paris theatres. When informed of this arrangement Louise Henriette showed little concern, having recently begun passionate affairs of her own with several young men. Among them was the 26-year-old Comte de Melfort, a man described by the diarist de Cheverney as being as beautiful as a classical statue and as strong as Hercules.

For the next three years the Duc and Duchesse de Chartres went their separate ways, then in late 1749 Louise Henriette discovered that she was again pregnant. When told the embarrassing news her husband insisted that they must be seen together in public again and, above all, that they must spend their nights together in the same bedroom at Saint-Cloud. Perhaps he recalled his wife's indiscreet words when her son's legitimacy was once humorously questioned in her presence: 'When you fall on to a pile of thorns do you know which one has pricked you?' This pretence of renewed conjugality fooled no one, but it did permit a daughter, Louise Bathilde, to be born without the taint of illegitimacy in July the following year.

Predictably the child's arrival did little to mollify the hostility between her parents, and the Duc soon resumed his old promiscuous routine. Each evening he would drive from Saint-Cloud or the Palais-Royal, the Paris mansion of the Orléans family, to the little house in the rue Cadet and spend the night there with one of his mistresses. His favourite was an eighteen-year-old actress known as 'La Chanterie', but she would soon be supplanted by 'La Petite Coupée', a dancer at the Paris Opéra, infamous for her licentious manner.

These comings and goings at the rue Cadet, discreet as they were, did not escape the attention of Louis XV's secret police. A careful record of each girl's movements, including a detailed description of their supposed 'specialities', was kept and regularly reported to the King at Versailles. This practice of using the police to spy on the nobility was unique to France and had begun under Louis XIV, who was prompted by his childhood fear of an untrustworthy aristocracy. This clandestine surveillance would continue until 1789 when the revolution swept it, and the aristocracy it was meant to control, away. Hatred of this constant shadowing by unseen agents was one of the many reasons that would later lead Louis Philippe Joseph to praise the openness and personal freedom of English society. Far better, he believed, to have an uncensored press that openly criticized and mocked both aristocratic and political misdemeanours than to be subject to a network of spies responsible to no one but the King.

In September 1751 the strained relationship between the Duc and Duchesse de Chartres erupted into public scandal. During a royal levee at the Palace of Fontainebleau, Louise Henriette entered the crowded salon alone and approached her lover, the Comte de Melfort. He, in complete violation of established etiquette, remained seated as they engaged in intimate conversation. It was an unwitting but public admission of their intimacy, and all the more shocking for being performed in the presence of the King. When told of her blatant indiscretion, her husband Chartres was furious and as punishment for the humiliation he had suffered wrote formally to his wife informing her that he considered himself no longer responsible for her many debts.

When Louis the Pious died the following year all the dukes moved up a rung, and Louis Philippe Joseph, aged five years and three months, became the new Duc de Chartres. It was time for him to pass from the hands of women into those of men. In a traditional Orléanist ceremony he was led into a salon at Saint-Cloud and in front of an audience of doctors and noblemen was divested of his childish robes. Standing naked yet unembarrassed, he submitted to a close inspection of his body by the physicians before being declared, as required, undoubtedly male and perfectly healthy. At a command from his father, servants then entered carrying a diminutive set of richly embroidered male courtier robes and carefully dressed the child. A prince in miniature, he stood patiently while his ringlets were drawn back into a man's queue and his hair anointed with white powder. The child had become a man. That evening he returned, not to the nursery at Saint-Cloud and the familiar female faces that he had known since birth, but to new apartments in the Palais-Royal and unfamiliar companions, now exclusively male.

His appointed guardian was to be the Comte de Pons Saint-Maurice, First Gentleman of the Palais-Royal. The King, who had as a courtesy been consulted on the proposed appointment, declared that he thought the urbane Pons an excellent choice. Whatever his suspected intellectual inadequacies, Pons was certainly a man of supreme style and fashion and obsessed by the meticulous etiquette that was so important in France at the time. Admired for his exquisite manners, Pons was a skilful player in the comedy of manners that characterized the French court under Louis XV. Unusually for a man of the world, he was said to have remained celibate until the age of forty-two, when he suddenly fell in love with and quickly married the rich widow of the Parisian banker Mazade. It appeared to be an idyllic and practical union as his wife's fortune enabled Pons to refuse graciously any remuneration for his new responsibilities as governor of the young Duc de Chartres. Nor did he consider his educational duties onerous enough for him to relinquish his other positions in the Orléans household, including that of Colonel of the Regiment of Dragoons. Yet for all his urbanity Pons was later to be castigated by his successor, Madame de Genlis, for having selfishly neglected the intellectual development of the young duke. Many, including the Prince de Montbarrey, the Minister of War, shared her opinion. He later wrote that Pons 'had been too concerned with his own affairs and had left too much of his young charge's education in the hands of underlings'. This charge of intellectual neglect seems odd seeing that Pons chose as his principal assistant Étienne Laureault de Foncemagne, a most eminent member of the Académie Française and an expert on monarchy in general and Salic law in particular. So formidable was Foncemagne's reputation as a scholar that Louis XV had even considered him a worthy tutor for his own son, the Dauphin, not least because Foncemagne had written a powerful defence of the divine right of kings – a subject close to the heart of any Bourbon king. But Foncemagne had modestly declined that honour while securing for himself the more lucrative and far less arduous position of Keeper of Antiquities at the Louvre. When approached by Pons, who was convinced that this famous scholar would more than compensate for his own intellectual inadequacies, Foncemagne accepted the post with alacrity, suggesting as his own assistant and principal instructor to the young duke the formidable educationalist, the Abbé Allaire.

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Excerpted from Godfather of the Revolution by Tom Ambrose. Copyright © 2008 Tom Ambrose. Excerpted by permission of Peter Owen Publishers.
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