Episode 2 Inside Versailles


Episode 2

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Bonjour!

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Welcome to Inside Versailles, where we have seen...well,

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new people arriving at court, which is a good thing,

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but we're seeing poisonings - bad thing.

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What are the kind of pressures at court for these new families

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arriving and why is that contributing to

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a sort of atmosphere of murder and intrigue?

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To us, Versailles is so beautiful, so glamorous but, to them,

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it was cramped and dark and damp.

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And also, they were crammed in with the people they hated most.

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Unsurprisingly, you not only got jealousy, cruelty and rivalries,

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but also we're starting to see just a little bit of poison and murder.

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And maybe we'll see some more.

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The other thing we've seen is Athenais dancing in

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a pretty tight-fitting corset and now going into labour.

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It's interesting because Athenais is the maitresse-en-titre -

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she's the official mistress, she's got all the power.

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She is legit, in some ways, and yet there's still pressure on her

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because, actually, the Church isn't too keen.

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And here we're seeing a portrait of Jacques-Benigne Bossuet,

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and we've seen tonight he's been remonstrating with the King

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and with Athenais, saying she's got to give up the affair -

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it's scandalous and immoral.

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So he is the main religious figure at court, isn't he?

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So Bossuet's quite supportive of the absolute divine right of

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Louis to rule, but he is not supportive of his rather

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dubious morality and, of course, the great problem with Athenais -

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unlike Louise de La Valliere, who we saw in Series 1,

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flagellating herself, devastated - Athenais simply doesn't care.

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She does it for show and she's openly and obviously Louis' mistress,

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and that really sets her in opposition to Bossuet,

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who thinks this is disgraceful behaviour.

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So she is scandalised at court and, as you say, the Church is conflicted

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on this because you can't criticise the King,

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but you can perhaps try and set a moral guidance.

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And we know from history that Louis regularly went to confession

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and he sometimes would skip the sort of basic Eucharist because

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he felt guilty about things.

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And sometimes the priests would give him an unconsecrated host

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so it looked like he was taking communion, but he wasn't really.

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But you might say,

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why does the Church put up with Louis behaving in this immoral way?

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And it's really because their interests are

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so tied because what they think is that Louis'

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going to impose Catholic orthodoxy on France and get rid of the Protestants,

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and also get rid of some of those very annoying

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-Catholic sects.

-Yes, they're called the Jansenists.

-Oh, horrors!

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And they are quite a weird bunch because they believe in predestination -

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they believe that only a certain set of people are going to be going

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to heaven, that God has already decided who they are in advance.

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And, to Catholics, they go, ooh!

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That's not how we do things around here.

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And Bossuet will be saying, no, no, no, as long as you do the Seven Sacraments

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and all the things a good Catholic does, you go to heaven.

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-And Jansenists say, well, you know, maybe not.

-Maybe not.

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And that's scary because it means that some people might not

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get to go to heaven, even if they're good Catholics.

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And also, it takes away quite a lot of control from the priests

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-because the priests are the gateway to heaven.

-Exactly.

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You have to do what they say, and if it doesn't matter what they say,

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-then that's pretty scary for them.

-Absolutely.

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But this is also interesting cos it's about the Pope versus Louis,

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and Bossuet's sort of stuck in the middle because he's ultimately a fan

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of Louis, he's one of Louis' chief supporters,

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and yet it's the Pope who appoints him.

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It is, and we always see kings in opposition to monasteries

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because they're so powerful, they've got so much land, they've got so much money,

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but they're not answerable to the King - they're answerable to Rome.

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But it's interesting, isn't it, because you have the Chevalier de la Reine,

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who couldn't be more wild in his behaviour?

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But he is the titular head of four abbeys,

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-so so many powerful aristocrats are linked to these monasteries.

-Absolutely.

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So they are bases of not only religion and not only money, but also of power.

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It also sums up a singular battle going on at the courts

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between the faction...the devout faction called le Devout and then

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also the party aspects of the Palace - the glory, the glamour,

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the sex, the rock and roll.

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So there's a man here at odds with himself, isn't there?

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He's torn between being the playboy king and being the good Catholic.

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Let's see how the series progresses.

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-Join us next week for more Inside Versailles. Bonsoir!

-Bonsoir!

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