Episode 5 Inside Versailles

Bonjour, and welcome to Inside Versailles.

Well, we've seen a pretty grisly amputation and we've seen

the Duke de Cassel lamenting the fact he doesn't have fire insurance.

So that's not gone well for him.

We've also seen, of course, the rise of a new mistress,

Athenais, who is Louis's new paramour.

There's a new girl on the block and she's glamorous, she's beautiful.

One problem - she's got a husband.

-Ah.

-And that's difficult because some husbands will put up

with their wives being mistresses to the King.

They'll think, "Oh, well, I'll get money out of it."

Not this one.

He gets pretty upset, so we don't see any of this in the drama.

We do see Athenais saying, "I hate him, I never want to see him again."

But he tries to get VD.

He says, "I'm going to try and get a venereal disease,

"give it to you and then you can give it to the king."

And doesn't he even hold a funeral for her?

Yeah, I think he does throw this fake funeral to say,

"You're dead to me. You know, my wife is dead

"and this woman now is a harlot."

So clearly, he's not enjoying the fact that he's been

cuckolded by the king of France.

Well, Greg, another thing we saw in this episode

was the fabulous entertainment in the gardens.

And to tell us more about this, we're joined here

-by Dr Linda Briggs. Hello, Linda.

-Hello.

What is this a picture of here?

Another big Louis party?

It is. So this is one of Louis's festivities -

not the one we see in the drama, but from 1664,

which is entitled The Pleasures Of The Enchanted Isle.

And this was a festivity that was supposed

to be in honour of his mother and his wife,

but was tacitly acknowledged as being also

an homage to his mistress, Louise de La Valliere.

And we can't quite see all of the things in the picture

but the festivity was quite exciting

because it involved a tournament,

it involved a comedy ballet by Moliere and Lully and also

three separate plays by Moliere including the premiere of Tartuffe.

And this is an engraving, isn't it,

that Louis created of the wonderful party and then sent out everywhere

to make sure that everyone knew that he threw the best parties?

-Exactly, this is...

-And you weren't invited.

This is something he chose to do himself and he had it

magnificently illustrated, sent to all the European courts

-so they could see what they were missing...

-"Ha-ha-ha".

..and also what they ought to be doing

to show that they are as thriving in their state as he is.

So this is propaganda, this is PR.

This is a way of making everyone else jealous?

Yes, exactly.

And there was all kinds of exotic stuff, wasn't there?

There were fireworks, the menagerie was out

and I believe there were even ornamental whales...

-There were.

-..coming down the Grand Canal as the grand finale.

And part of the reason why Louis had to have these parties outside

was because there was no room inside.

Exactly. As we're seeing in the show, he's still in the process of

building Versailles, and some of the rooms just aren't big enough to hold

the number of people at court, of which there are thousands.

So he has most of it in the gardens, which at this point are landscaped.

So it's quite a nice place to be.

So you've said that this party is, in theory, to celebrate

-his queen and his mother, but he's throwing it for his mistress.

-Yes.

Is this his way of showing off?

Is he doing this for other people?

A way of demonstrating his greatness and his power?

Yes. Well, he's doing it for his mistresses as almost

like a peacock with a feather.

But he's doing it for the nobility at large for a number of reasons -

it's his means of trying to create control over his nobility,

so he's trying to divert them, he's trying to give them

something to do so they're not creating coups against him.

He's also trying to communicate

that it's going to be a very prosperous age, a new golden age.

So he's throwing, what, ballets, masques?

What's going on in terms of the entertainment,

musically and theatrically? You mentioned Moliere and Lully -

what are they composing for him?

Well, there's a genre of play at this time

which is the comedy ballet, which doesn't actually have a plot,

it's just a series of set pieces,

which was originally designed so there could be vast costume changes.

Great costumes and bling and glitter...

Why not? Exactly.

He's the Mariah Carey of the 17th century.

LAUGHTER

So, yes, there are some pastoral scenes which involve dancing.

Then there are musical interludes

while the costume changes take place.

So it's just a sort of grand affair

that Louis himself will have been involved with

and a lot of the other nobles as well who are all dancing together,

supplemented with professional dancers as well.

But I should say that Louis XIV was actually

a really fantastic ballet dancer,

so he doesn't need the professional dancers all that much.

So in the drama, we see Louis watching his entertainments

but in reality, he would have been centre stage.

Exactly, he would have been the star.

He takes part in a number of ballets from 1653 up until 1669,

and he is almost always the centre of it, usually playing Apollo.

-Mr Prima.

-Exactly.

And he has all the nobles dance around him,

which he uses to reinforce the hierarchy of court

where everyone has to congregate around him.

He is the sun and they are the planets.

So Moliere is one of my favourites - I've read a few of his plays

and they're pretty satirical, they're full of jokes.

But he pokes a lot of fun at the rich and powerful.

How does that go down, given that the audience is rich and powerful?

This sees the premiere of Tartuffe, which is a very satirical play

about an impostor who comes into a family

and turns everything upside-down and pretends to be very pious

but in fact is very not pious.

And it's banned almost immediately by bishops.

And Louis, for his part, actually doesn't mind it -

he thinks they're quite funny and he really respects Moliere

and is quite a good friend of his.

But even he agrees that it can be banned.

But the satire tends to go down quite well at court

because it's all quite tongue-in-cheek.

So he's a patron of the arts but he's also politically savvy,

-he knows when to put his foot down?

-Yes, exactly.

So this was 1664.

In the drama, we're seeing a big entertainment in 1668.

Does that really happen?

Yes, it does, and in fact it dwarfs the 1664 ceremony.

It was bigger and better?

Much bigger, the best that he throws, actually.

Crucial question - are there whales?

No, there are dolphins and there is a giant bronze dragon.

-Oh, what else do you need?

-That's OK, that's fine.

Exactly. Who needs a whale?

So the drama suggests that this festivity

was actually created in celebration of the end of the war.

-But the ceremonies took up to two years to put together...

-Heavens.

..so it was started much earlier.

And in fact, in the account that's sent out to all the different courts

in Europe, it specifically says that the ceremony has been put back

because Louis has been at the front.

So they've been sitting there with all their fireworks going,

-"Where is he?"

-Just waiting.

-Awkward.

So Louis really was a party king,

but it was also party politics at the same time?

Exactly.

Thank you so much, Linda, it's been great to have you with us.

So, what an episode.

Join us next week for some more Inside Versailles.

-Bonsoir.

-Bonsoir.