Episode 3 Inside Versailles

Bonjour! And welcome to Inside Versailles.

Well, a pretty thrilling episode, lots of excitement.

And there's a new girl on the block

and that is the marvellous Liselotte - married to Philippe.

And we're joined by Dr Linda Kiernan.

Why choose her? She's from a very minor part of Europe.

Why pick her as a wife for the brother of the King of France?

Like all diagnostic marriages, they are played for the higher stakes.

And they are playing for, basically, their power position within Europe.

So for that reason, royal marriages are obviously never to do with

the matches of the two individuals concerned.

And, I mean, even that is reflected

in the fact that they are married by proxy.

They are already married by the time that they meet.

So it shows, again, that there is negotiation,

there are treaties involved,

a huge amount of paperwork rather than any affairs of the heart.

How does Philippe take to his new wife?

Because, obviously, he's slightly shocked.

We know he's not really into women,

but one of the things I've read is this first thing he says is,

"Do I have to sleep with that?"

Philippe knows what is expected of him,

that he is an incredibly important part of his brother's statecraft.

Certainly, he's not a fan of the ladies, Philippe,

but he is ready to do his duty as a husband, and they do get along.

The other challenge she's got is there is the Chevalier de Lorraine.

How does she react to having, you know,

her husband's lover hovering around?

She's very resilient about it.

She writes that she doesn't...

She hardly knows a single marriage or a single man who does not

-have someone on the side.

-Oh!

Be it mistresses or boys.

So she's resigned to her a lot and to the marriage.

But she does console herself with the fact that so many more

at court are dealing with a third, maybe fourth, fifth party

in their marriages too.

So for that reason she is...

She's putting up with what goes with her husband,

what goes with Monsieur.

She's one of our key sources for this period of history.

You know, one of the people that

actually tells us what it was like at court, and obviously,

-she's incredibly funny and frank and quite rude about herself.

-Mm-hm.

I mean, she has a cold at one point and says,

"I look like a shat-upon carrot," isn't it?

She doesn't see herself as, you know, overly attractive as such.

But, I mean she calls herself hideously ugly in her letters.

And she also asks for her portrait be sent to be sent to her

and she refers to the portrait in code as the

-Bear Cat Monkey Face portrait.

-Right.

-No vanity.

-So she's very...

No vanity there whatsoever.

She also uses a lot of German idioms in the French language that

they don't really translate well, even now.

But she has lots of different lurid stories as well and kind of

more body stuff, which she talks about at one stays for Philippe,

that for a man who is supposedly in charge of etiquette,

they have a passing wind competition.

OTHERS LAUGH

And that Monsieur can make a sound like a flute as well, she mentions.

-An important skill.

-And she's this fantastic figure.

So different to every other woman in court.

She's almost masculine in her behaviour, her love of exercise.

Was that really incredibly shocking?

As a young bride, her lady in waiting panicked when she found

that her trousseau had six shifts and six nightdresses included.

And she had to scramble together a wider wardrobe before the

French ladies in waiting found out and spread the rumours around court.

So in terms of fashion and beauty,

she's very different in that respect.

She doesn't really fit in in the beauty of court.

How did she get on with the epitome of glamour, which is Athenais?

-She doesn't like her.

-Oh.

-She calls her a desperate woman.

She views Montespan as being just after ambition and whatever she can

get out of the position itself.

-She's a gold digger.

-She's a gold digger, so she thinks.

She does believe that Louise de La Valliere

was genuinely in love with the king, but she views Montespan

as a different kettle of fish.

How does she bear the fact that basically in terms of precedence,

it's the queen, the number one woman,

then it's the maitresse-en-titre, and then she comes third?

She doesn't handle it well, from her private correspondence.

She... It's one thing that she constantly harps on about.

Having to walk behind Montespan.

But just precedence in general, even for a woman who's very earthy,

who seems to have the simpler tastes in life - she likes cabbage

instead of chocolate, for instance.

She's at the top level of the royal family.

And, certainly, when she sees these usurpers wheedling their way

in amongst the lineage and in amongst the levels of precedence,

she doesn't like it whatsoever.

And how does Louis react to this German princess arriving?

Because, obviously, he's picked her but now she's at court.

Does he find it a bit, slightly disconcerting

or is he actually rather amused by her?

In her letters she's very admiring of Louis XIV.

She seems to have been cast under his spell.

She seems to have been very much part of his inner circle

for things like hunting.

The whole kind of elaborate hunting outfit that she wore out with him

gets her into some trouble actually

in one of her first hunting trips with the king.

Her dress gets caught underneath her on her horse.

As she tries to pull it out,

the horse bolts and it is Louis who arrives on the scene,

ensures that she's totally fine, checks her skull,

checks everything, goes back with her to the palace,

stays with her to make sure that she doesn't get dizzy.

So he seems to have been quite attentive to her.

Well, I think we're all fans of Liselotte

and I'm hoping to see a lot more of her in this series.

Thank you so much for coming to talk about her, she's an absolute star.

And thank you for joining us tonight.

Hopefully, you'll come back for more next week.

-Until then, bonsoir.

-Bonsoir!