pommier sauvage

an amateur artist interested in history

[mtkay13]

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 🫵🫵🫵🫵

FRENCH

[oystercherie]

i can't figure out what chev's coat colour should be so.. green it is 🙂‍↕️ phil's outfit was inspired by the one from un lieu, un destin

[oystercherie]

i can't figure out what chev's coat colour should be so.. green it is 🙂‍↕️ phil's outfit was inspired by the one from un lieu, un destin

[mtkay13]

As I wAs SaYinG----

Shotgunning!!!

[pommiersauvage]

😍😍😍😍

[mtkay13]

I wanted to draw Philippe in his INCREDIBLE Royal Carrousel fit because it's so goddamn fab and perfect 🤌🤌🤌 and I added Marie-Louise because I CAN

And a high definition picture of the OG engraving below that I took from the version of the Carrousel I bought 2 weeks ago 🥰🥰🥰🥰

[mtkay13]

A little comic out inspired by Philippe's adoration for his first daughter, Marie-Louise. Of course, it's very silly, but unfortunately rooted in a lot of very complicated things linked to the implication of having a girl back then. I guess I wanted to show some excitment at the idea of having a girl, even if it's for silly reasons, because of how many gender reveal disappointments and disaster videos we see online these days...

A bit more below, ainsi que la version française !

Henriette explicitly didn't want a girl, and she was said to have deplored that Marie-Louise wasn't a boy to the point of not even wanting to see her. In a letter sent to his aunt, Philippe says that he didn't think it was necessary to send a man to deliver the news, since it's "only" a girl, though he finds her really adorable.

As it stood, Henriette could only really secure her position as the duchess of Orleans if she had a boy, as it was her primary "duty". Like many others in her time, she grew up in fear and insecurity; she'd been rejected by the king as a child, and she now had to assert her position in court, as well as her "relevancy". The news of her baby being a girl was simply a source of deep worry and stress, considering that her bad constitution made pregnancies particularly taxing.

Speaking of which, it's often said that Monsieur deliberately made her pregnant over and over out of spite, to keep her out of parties and compromise her health further; it's a bit of a skewed interpretation of the events, naturally. Sure, Monsieur has been odious to her--they both have, as they simply made the worst come out of each other; a shame, given how well they used to get along. Once again, looking not only at the facts but also at the political reality of the times: Henriette was pregnant about once a year; a similar rhythm as Liselotte, the main difference is that it happened nine times for Henriette, and only three for Liselotte. Why that difference? Well, we can't read their minds retrospectively, but once fact is observable: they didn't have a boy yet, and it mattered to Henriette at least as much as it did to Philippe.

I guess I wanted to elaborate on that a little as, while I'm sure most people around here know, I don't want for Henriette to simply seem so dismissive of Marie-Louise out of pure misogyny; it's a lot of sad, complicated factors.

FR:

[mtkay13]

A true story that I never tire to read, by Liselotte, who reports that Philippe sometimes needed her to decypher what he wrote. Here is the exact quote from one of Liselotte's letters:

His writing was so terrible that he often brought for me to read the letters that he himself wrote, and he'd say, laughing: "You are, Madame, used to my writing; take a look at this, I don't know what I wrote. We often laughed about this.

And we can confirm that it's terrible, indeed, with the examples below the cut:

(FR en dessous)

A few stunning examples from Elisabetta Lurgo's work on his letters)

FR:

Et la citation de Liselotte sur laquelle est basée la BD:

Il écrivait si mal qu'il m'apportait souvent, pour les lires, les lettres qu'il avait faites, et il disait en riant: Vous êtes, Madame, accoutumée à mon écriture; lisez-moi un peu cela, je ne sais ce que j'ai écrit. Nous en avons souvent ri de bon coeur.

Je ne m'en lasse jamais 😭😭😭

[mtkay13]

studied a bunch of my favorite phil portraits to get his features down, even tho they vary from portrait to portrait.

I'm finally catching onto the fact that he's got sliiightly downturned eyes which i hadn't noticed before; that explains the soft gaze i like so much in all these portraits most likely!

[mtkay13]

Starting off pride month with some wholesome melancholic monchevy again because the end of chev's bio BROKE MY HEART with that paragraph which I'm gonna put here:

Unique example of someone being integrated to the royal family through a homosexual relationship, he was brought to the forefront overnight. He was there to stay, protected by his princely status, by his family's clan and by a solid network. One other thing explains his exceptional longevity: Monsieur loved him boundlessly until the very end.

(Le Chevalier de Lorraine by Joan Pieragnoli, p375-376)

and then I died

Et la photo du texte original parce que j'en pleure toujours.

[pommiersauvage]

STOP CRYING STOP CRYING STOP CRYING 😭💔😭💔😭

[wnt1]

my babiessss :]]]

[mtkay13]

Inspired by the hell that is writing monchevy writing and a convo with flashbic lol sigh anne d'autriche thanks for nothing really

[mtkay13]

yes it's the 19th century what about it

[mtkay13]

okay it pissed me off so i corrected it but i'm not erasing the og post cos it's lowkey funny

[mtkay13]

Amazingly similar pattern between how Daniel de Cosnac, Monsieur's almoner, and Liselotte, interacted with him and talked about it. I'm paraphrasing, of course :P

and no shade to them (okay just a little) but at some point you gotta get a clue yo

FR below the cut!

[wnt1]

study Monsieur from BBC Charles II the power and the passion

[pommiersauvage]

Incredibly beautiful ❤️‍🔥

[mtkay13]

Followup to my comic about Liselotte and Philippe meeting for the first time! Unlike part 1, this is 100% from my imagination.

Next pages, french version and some musings below the cut!

Part one: HERE.

So of course this is the result of me wanting to also show how they absolutely managed to develop a friendship as it went, despite their odd first impressions and apparent incompatibility. I also wanted to hint at a little crush on Liselotte's part as, per her own admission, she did fall in love with Phil. It appears, from her letters, that while she is often rather condescending of him and doesn't have his intellect in high esteem, she is especially fond of his humor and ability not to take himself too seriously, so I wanted to channel that in this little comic.

French version:

[leshell21]

doodles of philippe and his wonderful life during his first marriage

[mtkay13]

The Scandal of 1682

The rest of the pages below the cut, as well as the french version and an explanation!

So, a few notes. (the french version is right underneath this!)

First of all, I really want to insist on how horrible this all was, and how bad I feel for Vermandois. It was meaningful for me to take his point of view, despite this comic initially started to, admittedly, present a different narrative than the one commonly found where it is said that Chev was indeed responsible for Vermandois' demise. The fact of the matter is, there's only one person responsible for the tragedy of Vermandois' life, and it is the king himself. I'm not entirely sure about the tone of the whole comic, to be honest. I know it's a bit silly, because there is something deeply absurd about the whole case--and I wanted to make Vermandois sweet and personable as well as emphasize how ridiculously demonized Chev tended to be in court, and how that largely participated to why he ended up accused.

Nevertheless, I don't think Vermandois can be blamed at all; the poor kid was trying to save his case and did what he could, and I'm fairly sure I would have done the same.

Additionally, well, we weren't there, and we will never know. I translated a passage of Chev's bio (again) which served as the main source for this comic:

[...] despite the boy being handed to Mme Colbert to be taken care of at a young age, he was in dire lack of affection, which he found by the duchess of Orleans. For her, there was no questioning Lorraine’s guilt in this affair. She remained convinced of it until she passed, and likely wasn’t the only one. It is difficult to make a statement about the favorite’s involvement: we can only note that it wasn’t in his interest. Let’s not linger on the alleged sodomite brotherhood in which Philippe de Lorraine would have tried roping in Vermandois in order to use him as a shield against the royal fury. Aside from the fact that said brotherhood never existed, Lorraine had no use in such a tactic to benefit from impunity obtained by his status as a favorite.  The king’s son was said to be beautiful, despite a reported slight strabism, and back then, it was considered normal for adults to have sex with teenagers. For an expert seducer, Vermandois also represented the spice of prohibition, and Lorraine himself was known to be daring.  Sure, but he wasn’t completely stupid either, and didn’t need to be an erudite to understand how much trouble such an enterprise could bring. That however isn’t the most important part: to paint le Chevalier de Lorraine as Vermandois’ careless initiator, is to forget that the two men hated each other. The utterly inane rumor of an affair between the royal bastard and madame wasn’t, as it is often said to be, spread by the Chevalier de Lorraine as a revenge for having been involved by them in the scandal of 1682. The princess actually specifies that the rumor had been circulating several months prior already, proof that the relationship between him and Lorraine were difficult even before this infamous case.  Because, aside from the conflict opposing Lorraine and the Conti, princes that Vermandois supported out of familial solidarity, another, more recent conflict existed between them around the Chevalier’s hotel in Versailles. Lorraine was deeply attached to this place, recently enlarged by the acquisition of another plot on which he’d had new buildings erected. Unfortunately, the king wanted to acquire this residence for his son, and Lorraine had no choice but to accept. The purchase happened on june 25th according to Noël de Beauvais, for an amount of a hundred thousand pounds, precisely during the first waves of the scandal. Nothing, there, that could appease the relationship between Vermandois and Lorraine.

(original at the bottom)

So yeah. We will never know, but given how prevalent is the version where Chev is guilty, when truly we have no proof that he is, and that he wasn't even mentioned in the pamphlet nor by anyone else than Vermandois, I think it doesn't hurt to offer a different perspective.

And once again, goddamn, the kid didn't deserve any of this.

FR:

Et les photos des passages originaux du texte traduit ci-dessus:

[mtkay13]

Liselotte and Philippe meet for the first time! And their mutual first impressions... part 1! (part 2 will be uploaded soon)

Next pages below the cut, as well as the usual sources, explanations, and french version!

This little comic is based on their reported mutual first impressions which are quite funny. I plan on releasing a second part that is more of my own imagination, which is why I didn't include it in this segment.

Liselotte's first impression of Philippe is reported by herself in her letters, and goes as such:

"Monsieur doesn't look bad, but he's very short, has pitch-black hair, eyebrows and eyelashes, big brown eyes, a long and rather narrow face, a big nose, a mouth too small and ugly teeth, more feminine than masculine [...]"

(am i mourning the teeth part, yes, i am)

As for Philippe, he was reported by Primi Visconti to have said the cruel:

"How am I ever going to sleep with her?!"

upon first seeing her. Oh well, at least they managed that.

FR:

Et leurs premières impressions respectives, en français:

Liselotte rapporte ceci dans ses lettres:

"Monsieur n'a pas l'air ignoble, mais il est très petit, a des cheveux, des sourcils et des paupières d'un noir absolu, de grands yeux bruns, un visage long et plutôt étroit, un gros nez, une bouche trop petite et des dents laides, plus féminin que masculin [...]"

(la remarque sur les dents 🥲)

Et bien sûr, d'après Primi Visconti, la célèbre remarque de Philippe:

"Mais comment vais-je réussir à coucher avec elle ?!"

Une deuxième partie à ce comic va suivre, mais elle est principalement imaginée par mes soins donc je ne l'ai pas inclue ici vu que le but de cette première partie était de se baser sur ce qu'on sait qu'ils ont pensé respectivement :)

Mention spéciale à la tronche de Phil qui me donne tellement de vie: