A continuation of my comic about Philippe's high heels, which you can find here! Next pages below the cut! (Ainsi, comme d'habitude, de la version française, sous la coupure donc !)
This isn't based on any historical anecdote, me and Zennie just thought it'd be funny if Chev happened to want to buy very high heels as well just to mess with Phil, except, well... he definitely doesn't have the balance to pull it off :P
(also, in my head, this is pre-relationship, so they're good friends but not there yet, which is why Phil is so flustered by the proximity lol)
FR
Comme je le disais pour la version anglaise, ceci n'est pas basé sur une véritable anecdote, mais simplement le produit d'une discussion avec zennie sur le fait que Chev aurait bien été du genre à s'acheter des talons très hauts juste pour ennuyer Phil, mais qu'il n'aurait pas vraiment eu l'adresse nécessaire pour les assumer :P
(dans ma tête on est dans du pré-relation à ce stade, donc ils sont très amis mais il ne s'est encore rien passé, ce qui explique l'émoi de Phil quant à leur proximité physique)
At this point Dubois is no longer Philippe’s preceptor, and that means he didn’t have to sleep in his student’s bedroom anymore. We don’t know where he lived, but most likely he had a small apartment somewhere near the Palais-Royal or something (although a few years later there's a whole saga about a little house he owned... Maybe we'll get to that someday). In the following years, Dubois’ position remains ambiguous; obviously Philippe appreciates his company and wants to keep him around… But Dubois isn’t really given any important charges either.
The future regent’s love for music is well-known. He loved singing and playing instruments, but also enjoyed doing composition. We know he played the harpsichord, the flute and the viola da gamba… Here he’s playing some kind of old-timey guitar because the dumb joke wouldn’t leave my head, but it’s not completely impossible that he knew how to play that too: while Liselotte never had any serious musical training, we know she occasionally played the guitar!
La VF est ici!
À ce point-ci, comme Philippe de Chartres est assez vieux, Dubois n’est plus son précepteur. Et donc celui-ci n’a plus à dormir dans la chambre de son ancien élève. On ne sait pas trop où il vivait, mais vraisemblablement il devait avoir une petite chambre quelque part, sans doute pas très loin du Palais-Royal (quoique. il y aura aussi toute une saga concernant une petite maison qui viendra plus tard. On en parlera peut-être un de ces jours...). Pendant les années qui suivront, son rôle auprès du prince demeurera un peu flou: Philippe apprécie clairement sa compagnie et souhaite le garder à ses côtés, mais il faudra bien longtemps avant que lui soit offerte la moindre charge!
L’amour du futur Régent pour la musique ne le quittera jamais. On sait qu’il jouait de la viole de gambe, du clavin et de la flûte, et qu’il savait très bien chanter! Bon, ici pour la blague il joue d’un genre de guitare, mais comme sa mère Liselotte, elle, savait en jouer un peu, on peut supposer qu’il avait peut-être appris aussi…
Est-ce qu'on sait comment se comportaient les minions de Monsieurs avec ses enfants?
Étaient tout aussi hypocrites que les autres courtisans?
ENGLISH BELOW
ALORS
on ne sait pas vraiment, non. Avec ses filles, on a très peu d'infos; il me semble avoir lu quelque part que Marie-Louise ne s'entendait pas mal avec le chevalier, mais je ne trouve pas la source donc je ne vais pas l'affirmer.
Ce qu'on sait, par contre, c'est que Philippe II est resté proche du marquis d'Effiat, et qu'il a même offert à Chev de continuer à lui verser les allocations que lui versait Phil, ainsi que de garder ses appartements (Chev a gardé les apparts, mais refusé les allocs). Soit, Philippe II était d'une bonté infinie, ce dont je ne doute pas bien sûr, soit, en plus de ça, on peut en déduire qu'ils s'entendaient plutôt bien. En soi, les intérêts de Philippe II ont eu l'air de plutôt correspondre à ceux d'Effiat et de Chev, donc je ne serais pas surpris qu'ils se soient bien entendus et qu'ils l'aient peut-être même influencé (au grand damn de Liselotte)
EN
Do we know how Monsieur's minions behaved with his kids? Were they as hypocritical as the other courtiers?
SO
We don't really know, no. With his daughters, we barely have any infos; I feel like I read somewhere that Marie-Louise got along with the chevalier rather decently, but I can't find the source so I won't affirm it.
What we do know, is that Philippe II remained close to Effiat, and that he even offered Chev to not only keep his apartments, but also to maintain the allowance that Phil was paying him (Chev refused the allowance, but kept the apartments.) Either Philippe II was immensely generous, which I don't doubt for a second, or, on top of that, we could deduce that they got along well enough. Technically, Philippe II's interests seemed to match well with Chev and Effiat's, so I wouldn't be surprised that they got along quite well and that they even influenced him (much to Liselotte's dismay)
This setup would not leave my mind so i spent far too much time drawing this absurdly niche crossover. You’d think the puzzles would be easier with two people solving them, but these guys can’t do teamwork so actually it’s worse.
Philippe really did leave a positive impression to everyone who had to deal with him during this campaign, but truth be told it’s only during the later ones that he really got to dive into the action (including the cavalry charge depicted here!). For now, while his zeal and desire to please were evident, he had to be kept away from anything important, as ordered by Louis XIV… who wanted his own son to play the bigger role, of course.
The two gifts offered to Dubois here are real, but it’s entirely possible that he got them for a different reason! In 1691, Philippe de Chartres’ marriage with one of Louis’ daughters is still fairly recent, and while we don’t have any hard proof of it, it’s very, very, very plausible that Dubois was asked to convince the king’s nephew to agree to it. The Saint-Honoré canonry briefly mentioned here won’t remain on the list of Dubois’ honors for very long though, for reasons that will later be explained…
S’il est vrai que Philippe fit des débuts prometteurs et se montra très zélé durant cette campagne, en vérité c’est plutôt durant les suivantes qu’il put vraiment montrer de quoi il était capable (et mena la charge avec la cavalerie!). Pour celle-ci, on dût surtout tenir à l’oeil, puisqu’il avait été demandé par Louis XIV que son neveu soit gardé loin de l’action… Le beau rôle devait, après tout, être pour le duc du Maine.
Les deux récompenses offertes à Dubois ici lui ont bel et bien été données, mais à vrai dire c’est tout à fait possible qu’il les ait plutôt reçues pour une tout autre raison! En 1691, le mariage de Philippe de Chartres est encore très récent, et si on n’a pas de preuve définitive que Dubois ait reçu l’ordre de convaincre son élève de s’y plier, c’est très, très, très probable. Le canonicat de Saint-Honoré dont il est question ici ne restera toutefois pas sur la liste des honneurs accordés à Dubois bien longtemps, pour des raisons dont on reparlera…
Next up someone is going to claim that the Narnia series isn't kids books.
Kids books is probably not the best way to word it, you can enjoy them at every age, including your childhood, as you get older you may find new truths in them, but they're still good for any age.
I want you to understand this. I NEED you to understand this. My mother read me the hobbit as bedtime story, and I started pushing myself to read before pre-school so I could in fact read the hobbit for myself instead of having to wait for bedtime.
I didn't do so right away but jesus wept I PUSHED myself to learn to read SPECIFICALLY so I could read The Hobbit! It is, in fact, a children's story! And children only see page count as 'there is a lot of this fun story to read!'
the "my favorite character did nothing wrong" mindset is completely unappealing to me because i love thinking about all the things my favorite characters did wrong
A little comic based on an anecdote by my dearly hated Cosnac, LOL. More below the cut, ainsi que la version française, comme d'hab.
This one is based on Cosnac's amazing, incredible memoirs, that are a delightful read not only for the awesome anecdotes it gives us, and also because of how unhinged and delusional this guy was. For the reminder, Cosnac was Philippe's almoner during the 1660's, but was far more interested in the crazy intrigues of his court than he was in his religious duties. By his own admission, he initially didn't want to be in Philippe's service because he thought he was a useless jackass (paraphrasing but you know) until he heard about Philippe throwing a bowl of mash at Louis which prompted him to think that "there was still some hope (=virility) in him" and thus accept the job.
Later on, not only did he attribute most of the credit of the few of Philippe's actions he approved to himself, he also kept calling him a dumbass and criticizing him while, sorry for the crude language, gargling on Louis' balls and making shit up to stir the pot of the Orleans Wars even harder. Amazing guy, really, LOL (but funny as hell).
This specific anecdote, from page 305-306-307 of Cosnac's memoirs, relates how he tried to instill some "good" in Philippe and teach him how to properly submit to the king and come back in his good graces (after some fight they had), only for Philippe to interrupt him between 10 to 12 times and even leave several times over the course of 30 minutes "for inane bullshit" according to Cosnac.
I said all these things in much of a hurry, as Monsieur left about ten to twelve times in about half an hour to give way to inane stupidities. I was still keeping hopes that he would think about his conduct more seriously than he had in the past. What convinced me is that, by the end of each conversation, he asked me to deepen the subject with him again next time. I also thought that I should write all of these to him, so he could better commit them to memory.
I'm gonna paraphrase the next part, as Cosnac is pointlessly verbose, but it is funny:
I had the letter sent to him by M. Meril, elaborating on how he was to behave with the king's ministers. I wrote as a very zealous, very devoted subject. [...] He later replied (something along the lines of) "I was very happy to receive your letter, I know they come from a good place and out of appreciation for me and my reputation. It aligns with my intentions, and should it not, I know it still comes from a good place. I would tell you about my progress [in his relationship with the king] but then I should say nothing at all, as I have committed to laying low for a while, as I said I would. I give you my deepest thanks and compliments, I genuinely appreciate you, and hope you can continue appreciating me and my honor."
Then, I regretted sending him this letter and speaking so freely, because who knows to what purpose it could have been used [against him] for? But as it was a done deed, I decided to turn this into a merit and told Monsieur I was happy he kept my letter. He told me that he found the letters really useful and didn't suspect it had any ulterior motive. I told him that I never thought this letter could ever desserve me.
Cosnac you crazy bastard
Anyway--of course, the funny part in all this, aside from Cosnac constantly flip-flopping, is Philippe's disastrous attention span, at least when he isn't really interested in the subject. Given said subject, it's not very surprising (and I'm sorry but, well deserved, Cosnac). Unfortunately, that anecdote, among many others, has been used by many historians to once again discredit Philippe's intellect and seriousness (or lackthereof). Lately, I've been really baffled to witness how comfortable many of these historians and writers were with openly shitting on Philippe's alleged lousiness and alleged stupidity, a lot of which stems from misogyny as, according to them, whatever is of Philippe's interest is "futile and uninteresting", as opposed to latin philosophy and politics. It makes me want to try and highlight all the ways Philippe manages to shine in what interests him, as I have admittedly focused on his siller sides a lot since I find them very endearing.
Anyway, that's it for today, suck it Cosnac I still hate your ass even if you make me laugh 🫵🫵🫵🫵
A little comic + article about Philippe's shoes, and height, and a bit more! Next two pages below the cut (ainsi que la version française !)
(Analysis here, and français tout en bas)
The other day, at random, I stumbled upon this page which allows us to behold an authentic pair of shoes owned by Philippe, and currently preserved at the Louvres' labs. It is no surprise that the heels are fairly high, as Philippe was indeed famous for his humongous, stilt-like heels. To quote Madame de Montespan, Philippe was "very embarrassed by his small stature, and therefore had two big extra inches added to most of his heels." (😔😔😔)
As it so happens, I am currently in this mood where I feel like I need to know anything and everything I can about him, and decided, thanks to the provided measurement of the heel on the website (8,6cm), to find out his shoe size.
(measurements in centimeters)
Following the curve and shape of he shoe, I tried to approcimate a foot size in it, and given the flatness of the tip that we can see on the picture, I figured the toes likely weren't reaching. This leaves us with a whopping size 4~5, or 35.5 in EU sizes.
Those weren't necessarily his highest heels either, as I saw a couple of sources bring up around 4 inches (mind you, inches were a bit bigger back in XVIIth century France; nowaday 1 inch ((pouce)) is 2,54cm, however it used to be 2,72cm)
So Philippe had tiny feet, which also concurs the contemporary descriptions of his remarkably short stature.
Now, for those, like me, who really need to know everything, how tall, or rather how short was he? We don't have a precise account, but here is the result of my findings:
Let's first list everything we know.
Philippe is described as either "short" (Saint-Simon), "very short" (Liselotte), or "princess sized" (Madame de La Fayette), which seems to indicate that he was much shorter than average if it's that visible
He was described by Liselotte as shorter than the king, who was estimated to be around 163cm (5"4) as attested by his armor (and mind you, he also wore rather high heels to make himself taller...)
The average male height in the 17th century was the lowest it ever was in France: 161cm / 5ft3 (source)
From this, combined with Philippe's shoe size (while there isn't an absolute correlation between shoe size and height, it's still indicative of a short stature), we can estimate that he was probably around 10cm/4inch below average, as any less than that is typically not very noticeable. I thus evaluate his height as approximately 151cm / 4ft11, which corroborates La Fayette's description of "princess sized" as 151 was closer to women's average height. (again, this is an estimate, it isn't proven or validated)
Of course, 151 is remarkably short for a man nowadays, but let's again keep in mind that the average height was barely 10cm above that, that Louis himself was barely taller than average, that the marquis d'Effiat was described by Saint-Simon as being of "mediocre size" (so likely around 160cm as well), and that despite being described as "tall", the Chevalier may as well have been around 168cm (5"6) that it would already have counted as such.
Anyway, so yeah, we're stanning short kings and princes here 🙌🙌🙌
(a little extra note: the reference to China is deliberate, as Philippe was very passionate about Chinese art and furniture, and was even a precursor in that regards; I thought it could be funny that he could use that as some form of excuse since nobody could really verify the information)
Imagine if we did the “public libraries are punk” thing for other subcultures. Imagine if people made shirts that said “Soup kitchens are grunge” or “Mixed Use Urbanism is Juggalo”.
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