Chapter 41 - Chad Denton

From Galanterie to Scandal: The Sexuality of the King from Louis XIV to XVI

The biographies of the first three King Louis of France’s Bourbon dynasty—Louis XIV, XV, and XVI—reveal striking contrasts in their intimate lives and how their relationships with women were received by the French public. Specifically, Louis XIV had numerous adulterous yet formalized relationships that attracted criticism from ecclesiastic authorities but were generally perceived as gallantry. Louis XV likewise had a series of mistresses, but the public criticized him intensely because of his sexual inclinations. Modern historians have even put forward the theory that Louis XV's adulteries undermined the monarchy itself. Finally, Louis XVI completely eschewed having an “official mistress” and constructed a model of royal domesticity with his queen Marie Antoinette. At the same time, hostile critics at the eve of the French Revolution cast Louis XVI as a weak, impotent king and portrayed Marie Antoinette as a corrupt nymphomaniac. While one should not neglect the factors of the kings’ individual personalities and behaviors, these kings' public reputations were very much molded by the broad social and cultural changes of the early modern era. This chapter focuses on how the kings’ sexual lives were comprehended by the public and how the public were informed by ongoing changes in popular perceptions of religion and morality, gender, and marriage and domesticity unfolding across the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

By Chad Denton

Chad Denton

Chad Denton received his PhD in history and a graduate minor in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Missouri. His specializations are in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, France and northern Italy, the history of gender and sexuality, and the history of emotions. Recently he published his dissertation, The Enlightened and Depraved: Decadence, Radicalism, and the Early Modern French Nobility, through Rowman & Littlefield.

Bibliography

Primary

Addison,Joseph. The Spectator No. 435 (July 17, 1712).

Addison,Joseph. The Spectator No. 433 (July 19, 1712).

Argenson, René-Louis de. Mémoires Paris: P. Janett, 1857.

Astell, Mary. A Serious Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement of their True and Greatest Interest. London, 1694.

Barber, Edmond-Jean-François. Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris sous le Regne de Louis XV. Paris: 10/18, 1963.

De la Barre, François Boullain. De l’Égalité des deux sexes, discours physique et moral où l’on voit l’importance de se défaire des préjugés. Paris, 1673.

Berly, Cécile. La Reine scandaleuse, Idèes reçues sur Marie-Antoinette. Paris: Editions Le Cavalier Bleu, 2012.

Bernis, Cardinal de. Mèmoires et lettres. Paris: Librairie Paul Ollendorf, 1903.

Caylus, madame de, Marthe-Marguerite de Mursay. Souvenirs. Edited by Bernard Noël. Paris: Mercure de France, 1965.

Chansonnier historique du XVIIIe siècle. Edited by Marie André Alfred Émile Raunié. Paris: A. Quentin, 1879-1894.

Croÿ, duc de, Charles-Alexandre. Journal inédit. Edited by Vte de Grouchy and Paul Cottin. Paris: Ernest Flammarion, 1996.

Farr, James R. Authority and Sexuality in Early Modern Burgundy (1550 – 1730). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Louis XIV. Mémoires for the Instruction of the Dauphin. Translated by Paul Sonnino. New York: Free Press, 1970.

Raunié, Émile, ed. Recueil Clairambault-Maurepas: Chansonnier historique du XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 1882.

“Sur le roi qui prenant le parti de la dévotion, renonçait à la galanterie.” In Liselotte und Ludwig XIV, Historische Bibliothek:  Herausgegeben von Redaktion der Historischen Zeitschrift, edited by Michael Strich, 95. Munich: R. Oldenbourg,1912.

Guitton, Georges. “Cas de Conscience pour un confesseur du Roi: Madame De Monespan.” Nouvelle Revue Theologique 77 (1955): 61-70.

Lugée, Carolyn C. Le Paradis des Femmes:  Women, Salons, and Social Stratification in Seventeenth Century France. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976. 

[Mairobert, Pidansat de]. Anécdotes sur la comtesse du Barry. London [Paris], [1775], 1776.

Marais, Mathieu. Journal et mémoires. Paris: Firmin Didot frères, 1863-1868.

Marie-Antoinette Correspondance (1770-1793). Edited by Evelyne Lever. Paris: Tallandier, 2005.

Minois, Georges. Bussuet entre Dieu et le Soleil. Paris: Perrin, 2003.

d'Orlèans, Elisabeth Charlotte, duchesse. Correspondance complete. Translated by M.G. Brunet. Paris: G. Charpenter, 1857.

Petitfils, Jean-Christian. Madame de Montespan. Paris: Fayard, 1998.

Pinot-Duclos, Charles. Considérations sur les mœurs de ce siècle. Amsterdam, 1751.

Rheims, Maurice. La vie étrange des objets: histoire de la curiosité. Paris: Plon, 1959.

Rouvroy, Louis de, duc de Saint-Simon. Mémoires. Edited by Yves Coirault. Paris: Gallimard, 1983.

Visconti, Primi. L'Histoire et Mémoires. Edited by Emmanuel de Waresuqiel. Paris: Perrin, 1988.

Secondary

Adams, Tracy. “H-France Review: Adams on Wellman, QUEENS AND MISTRESSES OF RENAISSANCE FRANCE.” September 31, 2015. https://www.h-france.net/vol15reviews/vol15no114adams.pdf.

Berly, Cécile. La Reine scandaleuse, Idèes reçues sur Marie-Antoinette. Paris: Editions Le Cavalier Bleu, 2012.

Crawford, Katherine B. “The Politics of Promiscuity: Masculinity and Heroic Representation at the Court of Henry IV.” French Historical Studies 26, no. 2 (2003): 225-252.

Darnton, Robert. The Devil in the Holy Water, or The Art of Slander from Louis XIV to Napoleon. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010.

Fraser, Antonia. Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King. New York: Doubleday, 2006.

___________. Marie Antoinette, The Journey. New York: Anchor Books, 2001.

Gibson, Wendy. Women in Seventeenth Century France. Houndmills: Macmillan, 1989.

Guicciardi, Jean-Paul. “Between the Licit and the Illicit:  The Sexuality of the King.” In ‘Tis Nature's Fault:  Unauthorized Sexuality during the Enlightenment, edited by Robert P. Maccubbin, translated by Michael Murray, 88-97.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Hardman, John. Louis XVI. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.

Hilton, Lisa. Athénais: The Life of Louis XIV's Mistress, The Real Queen of France. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2002.

James, Colin. Madame de Pompadour: Images of a Mistress. London:  National Gallery Company, 2002.

Kates, Gary. Monsieur d’Eon is a Woman: A Tale of Political Intrigue and Sexual Masquerade. Baltimore:  John Hopkins Press, 2001.

Knecht, R.J. Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I. Cambridge University Press, 1975.

Lee, Vera. The Reign of Women. Cambridge: Schenkman Publishing Company, 1975.

Lever, Evelyne. Madame de Pompadour, A Life. Translated by Catherine Temerson. New York:  Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.

Lugée, Carolyn C. Le Paradis des Femmes:  Women, Salons, and Social Stratification in Seventeenth-Century France. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976.

Merrick, Jeffrey. The Desacralization of the French Monarchy in the Eighteenth Century. Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press, 1990.

Reddy, William M. The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Sharpe, Kevin. The Personal Rule of Charles I. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.

Swain, Virginia E. “Hidden from View:  French Women Authors and the Language of Rights, 1727-1792.” In Intimate Encounters, edited by Richard Rand, 21-38.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Vale, M.G.A. Charles VII. London: Eyre Methuen, 1974.

Wellman, Kathleen. Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.

Annotated bibliography

  • Berly, Cécile (2012) La Reine scandaleuse, Idèes reçues sur Marie-Antoinette Paris: Editions Le Cavalier Bleu.
    • This study provides a detailed discussion of negative depictions of Marie Antoinette before and during the French Revolution.
  • Darnton, Robert (2010) The Devil in the Holy Water, or The Art of Slander from Louis XIV to Napoleon (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
    • Darnton’s recent contribution discusses how the popular press of late-seventeenth and eighteenth-century France satirized various members of the royal family and mistresses.
  • Gibson, Wendy (1989) Women in Seventeenth Century France Houndmills: Macmillan.
    • A classic survey of women’s social, economic, religious, and political lives in seventeenth-century France.
  • Guicciardi, Jean-Paul (1987). "Between the Licit and the Illicit:  The Sexuality of the King", trans. Michael Murray in 'Tis Nature's Fault: Unauthorized Sexuality during the Enlightenment (ed.) Robert P. Maccubbin  University of Cambridge Press, 1987.
    • This essay analyzes the ways in which Louis XV’s sexual behavior impacted the popular perception of Monarchy.
  • Kates, Gary (2001) Monsieur d'Eon is a Woman: A Tale of Political Intrigue and Sexual Masquerade Baltimore: John Hopkins Press.
    • Although as the title suggests it is a biography of the Chevalier d’Eon, it also contains a fascinating analysis of how gender roles shifted in eighteenth-century Europe.
  • Wellman, Kathleen. Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.
    • Even though the book does not cover the period discussed in the chapter, this provides an important discussion of the roles both queens and mistresses played in the French monarchy from Charles VII’s mistress Agnès Sorel to Henri IV’s mistress Gabrielle d’Estrées. 

Reading and Viewing Lists

  • Fraser, Antonia (2007) Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King
    • This book gives a biographical overview of the women in the life of King Louis XIV, including his mistress Madame de Montespan and morganatic wife Madame de Maintenon.
  • Anne Somerset (2003) The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV (New York: St. Martin’s Press).
    • Covering a scandal involving Madame de Montespan, the book presents an account that encompasses the fragility of a mistress’s position and the internal politics of the court at Versailles.
  • James, Colin (2002) Madame de Pompadour: Images of a Mistress (London:  National Gallery Company).
    • An overview of art depicting Louis XV’s most influential mistress, Madame de Pompadour, this volume discusses Pompadour’s biography as well as how artistic representations were used to promote an image of Pompadour as a cultural patron.
  • Algrant, Christine Pevitt (2003) Madame de Pompadour: Mistress of France (New York: Grove Press)
    • A biography of Madame de Pompadour that pays particular attention to the role that she, as the “official mistress” of Louis XV, played in court life and cultural and intellectual patronage.
  • Fraser, Antonia (2002) Marie Antoinette: The Journey (New York: Anchor)
    • This biography of Marie Antoinette encompasses her life from her childhood as an Austrian princess to her trial and execution with particular attention to how her personal life, personality, and relationships with her husband and children shaped the monarchy as well as how hostile propaganda distorted her public image.
  • Ridicule (France, 1996)
    • This film depicts a portrait of aristocratic life at Versailles, particularly how power and hierarchy were maintained through wit, favors, and patronage, and touches on the moral reforms at court Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette attempted.
  • Marie Antoinette (U.S., 2006)
    • Although this biographical film of Marie Antoinette does not depict the events of the French Revolution, it is a detailed visualization of Marie Antoinette’s everyday life at Versailles.

Keywords

Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Madame de Montespan, Madame de Maintenon, Madame de Pompadour, Madame du Barry, Marie Antoinette, mistresses, queens, gender

Related Chapters

Hélder Carvalhal: Kingship and Masculinity in Renaissance Portugal (Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries) (See Chapter 18)

Jonathan Spangler: A Family Affair: Cultural Anxiety, Political Debate and the Nature of Monarchy in Seventeenth-Century France and Britain (See Chapter 27)

Christine Ekholst & Henric Bagerius: For Better or for Worse: Royal Marital Sexuality as Political Critique in Late Medieval Europe (See Chapter 38)

Susan Broomhall: Ruling Emotions: Affective and emotional strategies of power and authority among early modern European monarchies (See Chapter 40)