Episode 8 Inside Versailles

Hello, and welcome to Inside Versailles.

So, Greg, Henriette, she's had a miscarriage,

she's been shot at and now she's off to negotiate a treaty?

-Yeah, it's a busy week.

-Busy stuff.

-Definitely. It's very difficult stuff.

-But thankfully, we are joined by Dr Phil McCluskey...

-Hello, Phil.

..who knows all about this kind of thing.

So, Henriette-Anne, sent off to England as a diplomat. Is that rare

for a woman to be sent off to do these kind of high-level negotiations?

It's relatively rare, but I think we have to remember that women

did have a place in diplomacy at this period,

particularly between England and France, because there's very

close relations between the Bourbon and Stuart dynasties.

They were cousins and so,

Henriette-Anne was somebody who both sides could trust.

So although Henriette-Anne was brought up at the French court,

her first language was French, she was actually Catholic. At the same time,

the English saw her as one of theirs and Charles II, who we've got

a fabulous portrait of here, he thought she was quite marvellous.

She was rather a favourite?

Yeah, they have a very close relationship.

We know they were very close and corresponded a lot.

The correspondence still exists and he is very, very fond

of her and I think it's fair to say that

he didn't really like anybody in the world better than her.

So she was his favourite? You can see quite a lot of similarities

between Louis and Charles, couldn't you?

They both liked mistresses and they both liked money and they both liked glory!

There are some similarities.

But I think there's two key differences between them.

The first one is about the context in which Charles finds himself.

He comes to the throne at the Restoration in 1660. However, there

are quite severe constraints placed upon him as a ruler by Parliament.

He's given quite a small amount of money to run the government

with, and that includes being able to fund the Navy and things like that.

So basically, he doesn't have a free hand.

Louis obviously does, because of the system in France.

-He's a shoestring king?

-Indeed.

And on a personal level,

he's just not really as good a politician as Louis.

He's quite devious, people don't trust him.

Part of the problem with Parliament is that people can't really work with them.

But also, of course, Charles is in power off the back of a Civil War.

His father had his head chopped off and Cromwell ruled for

a good number of years as a Lord Protector.

And obviously, Louis emerged from the Fronde Civil War as an absolutist monarch.

So interestingly enough, you have two kings,

one who has absolute power, and one who is quite nervous of Parliament?

Yeah. And I think they're both the product of the people who

came before them, so Charles's father has lost the Civil War,

whereas during the Fronde, Louis XIV's mother,

Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin, who was chief minister,

faced down the opposition and actually succeeded and what

-emerges is a much stronger crown.

-It's fascinating, isn't it?

Because in the drama, we see Louis saying, "What do you give the king who's got everything?"

-You give him Catholicism, because that's what he really wants.

-Mmm.

And we do know, don't we, that Charles did have two marriage ceremonies?

One Protestant and public and the next one secret and Catholic.

Did that really reflect his attitude towards religion?

Perhaps. I don't think anybody really knows whether Charles was sincere

in his desire to convert to Catholicism.

He ended up doing so on his deathbed, but at this stage,

he may have just been using it as a kind of bargaining chip with Louis.

Whether he was sincere or not, we don't know. He was a devious man.

Sometimes I think he was hedging his bets.

-He's got one foot in both camps, really.

-Exactly.

And Louis obviously is an absolutist monarch with

a huge amount of cash, a lot of power.

How are other kings around Europe reacting to what he's doing?

Because, obviously, in England it's gone a bit wrong for absolutist monarchs.

Louis seems to be making a pretty good fist of it.

Is he actually setting a new example,

are people trying to learn from him or emulate him?

Yes, well, because I think France is the dominant power in Europe by this stage,

Louis's style of kingship is seen as particularly successful.

It's brought order where there was chaos before,

a lot of other European rulers admire that.

A lot of people hate him because they see him as the disturber

of peace, they see him as a big warmonger.

But equally, there's a lot of people, including Charles,

who did admire him and admire his style of ruling.

Do they all want their own little Versailles?

Yes, it actually seems so.

Versailles is a very, very successful statement that Louis makes

and the other European rulers at this time try to emulate that

in a lot of ways.

Charles II actually does a lot of building work at Winchester

for a big palace there, where he thinks he's going to move his court.

He makes Versailles at Winchester?

Indeed, yes, if you can believe such a thing.

And I suppose the thing we haven't mentioned is that Philippe, Louis's brother,

they're often falling out over things and once again,

this is an example where Louis's policy has angered Philippe,

-because Philippe doesn't want Henriette-Anne to go...

-Mmm.

..and he does quite a lot to try and stop it.

He complains about it,

he tries to set limitations about how far into England she can sail.

Is Philippe a thorn in the side in this? Or is he just being Philippe?

I think he's just being Philippe.

He's extremely possessive of her, because of the jealousy with this relationship.

And as you say, he set certain constraints on her movement while she was over in England,

so she wasn't really allowed to go much further than Dover.

But she did, while she was there, have various reunions with her

family members, Charles obviously, and the Duke of York, her other brother, as well.

So she has a few days in England getting to catch up,

-but ultimately, Philippe is demanding her back?

-Indeed.

Ah, always the way. OK, well, thank you so much, Phil.

I'm afraid we've run out of time on that one. So please, join us next week

-for more on the inside of Versailles. Bonsoir.

-Bonsoir!