Episode 1 Inside Versailles

Bonjour. Welcome to Inside Versailles,

where we'll be chatting more about the history

behind the show we've just seen.

-And it's a really exciting start, isn't it?

-Amazing episode.

Power, intrigue, glamour, amazing costumes

and quite a lot of bedroom action.

Absolutely, which I think is valid, because Louis XIV,

he was known for loving the ladies.

The most important lady, really, diplomatically,

we've just seen giving birth to a black baby.

This is an amazing moment.

There really was a baby

and there was some discussion about what colour it was.

It's controversial stuff, but we should talk about the queen herself.

So here's the queen.

She is a great diplomatic match

because she's the Spanish princess.

She is not really Louis' type.

She's not witty. She can't speak French.

She prefers to play with her dogs and her dwarves.

So Louis very much sees her as someone that he takes for politics,

but not for love.

In terms of the scene, we've got so many people

packed into that bedroom, watching the...you know, the birth.

Oh, public birth was the thing.

We see the queen in the drama saying, "There's too many people,"

but actually, for a queen, she had a tiny crowd.

Usually, those birthing chambers were so full of people

that poor old Marie Antoinette, some years later,

she had to have the windows open because it was just so overwhelming.

Births were packed out.

It was an honour, and also people were there

to make sure that the right baby came and was kept.

-So no stunt babies brought in.

-No stunt babies.

OK, that's interesting.

So, Marie-Therese,

not particularly charismatic,

which is why, perhaps, Louis is drawn to...

Somebody else, and that is Henriette-Anne.

We've got a portrait of her here,

looking absolutely marvellous.

We first see her in the drama

coming out of the water in a sort of 17th-century swimsuit.

-Yes, although it's not really a swimsuit.

-(Not really.)

It's more her underwear.

She's English. She's been brought up at the French court.

She comes here from England aged, what, two?

Aged two, after her father, Charles I,

is about to be executed.

She's sent over, and there she grows up with Louis.

It's a perfect friendship and he really, really loves her.

Only one tiny problem.

Minor snag is that she's married to his brother,

and, under 17th-century Catholic law,

there's no such thing as a sister-in-law.

-You're a sister.

-You're a sister.

So, the idea is, basically,

that if you're having an affair with your sister, that is a sin.

That's incest. It's straight to hell.

It is. "Do not pass Go."

And not even Louis is going to do that.

No. So, in the drama, we see him quite happily cavorting with her

and some historians have gone down that path,

but I think it's more likely there was certainly an emotional affair.

I think they had a dangerous friendship

-and it COULD have tipped over.

-Yeah.

But even flirting with your sister-in-law

is outrageously shocking, and they've got this amazing idea

to cover up this shocking affair that's going on.

So what they're going to do, their cunning plan,

is to use someone as a clever decoy.

-Yeah, it's a genius plan.

-Genius.

Apart from the fact that Louis then falls in love with the decoy.

Well, let's have a look at the decoy.

And the decoy is this lady here,

Louise de La Valliere.

We see her in the drama, giggling at mass with the king.

-Yes.

-And she is the lady-in-waiting to Henriette.

So the idea is that they're going to pretend that he's flirting with her,

but really he's going to be flirting with Henriette.

But it works too well.

Yeah. I mean, she's beautiful. She's young - she's 16 or so -

and one of the things that Louis loves about her,

and many of his mistresses, is that she loves to hunt and to ride.

So that's why she's all Diana'd-up here.

Yes. Diana, goddess of the hunt.

She can ride, she can shoot, and that's...

-What more could you want in a girl?

-Well, yeah, but it's also useful,

because you can take her away from the prying eyes of the court.

You can take her off a few miles out and go "chasing stag",

but, actually, you're having a lot more fun rolling in the hay.

What about his 30 promise?

So this is the thing.

When he's in his 20s, he promises his mother and his queen

-that when he hits 30, he's going to stop flirting.

-Settle down.

You know, he's going to be a proper husband and king.

At the beginning of this drama, he's 29 years old.

-He's on the threshold of 30.

-Oh, carpe diem.

-Carpe diem.

Grab those moments.

Carpe ladies, I think is also happening at the moment.

The question is, is he actually going to settle down,

or is he going to keep with the wandering eye -

and the wandering hands?

Well, what an episode.

It's been full of sex and drama and excitement and violence -

and there's lots more next week.

So join us next week for more Inside Versailles.

-Absolutely. Bonsoir.

-Bonsoir.