Has reading Philippe and the Chevalier's biographies been turning me into an actual shipper?
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-----
Okay so it totally did and I really wanted to translate this particular passage from Chev's bio because it's just... everything to me in this particular moment.
Also, yeah, it motivated me to depict their relationship which is definitely not necessarily "equal" but far more reciprocal, in a very literal sense, than what either have typically been credited for historically.
More (a lot more), including the translation, below!
oh, and isolated versions to better see, uwu
Pictures of the OG text can be found below for those who want to read the original french version!
Translation of pages 198 to 202 of Chev’s biography by Joan Pieragnoli
Two years had passed between the chevalier’s arrest and his return to Court. The duke of Orleans hadn’t made use of these lengthy months to learn how to live without his favorite. It is often said, paraphrasing La Rochefoucauld, that absence weakens mediocre passions and strengthens the great ones, like wind puts candles out but fans fires. Upon Philippe de Lorraine’s return, Monsieur hadn’t had enough, quite the opposite.
More than ever, his lover inspired an amorous passion that the brother of the king lived like an addiction, but that contemporaries interpreted in various ways. Francesco Michieli, venetian ambassador, attests of that, when he describes the duke of Orleans inspecting the “approaches” during the siege of Zutphen:
We speak highly of the prince in this enterprise, praising his courage, and saying that, often exposing himself to danger, he reaches the last approaches with a sensible passion for the chevalier of Lorraine, who benefits from a distinguished place in the gracious spirit of His Royal Highness, such that, to distract him from peril, it is said that he [the chevalier] resolutely protested risking his own person like that, exposing himself to enemy outrage. By that, he shows that he understands how much the duke favored him with such a generous and partial sentiment, that with so much evidence of his goodness, he had more than once shown to the court of France and to the world that he wouldn’t walk away from danger before His Royal Highness was at a safe distance from the approaches. With such fervent and reverential marks of affection brought to the conservation of such an esteemed prince, the chevalier of Lorraine has acquired the titles of courageous and loyal.
Despite the seemingly explicit character of these lines, it would be mistaken to interpret them as evoking homosexual love instead of a sublime relationship that couldn’t be seen as scandalous. The tone used denotes admiration, the vocabulary belongs to the register of loyalty.
Michieli doesn’t write anything different from Cosnac, a few years prior. The only difference lays in the kindness of his words. The Venetian describes a relationship of harmonious loyalty between a prince who insured the fortune of his favorite and receives blind devotion in exchange. New proof, most likely, that it would be ludicrous to try and parse, in the relationship uniting Philippe of Lorraine to Monsieur, interest from true feelings. The question, in a society entirely ruled by the dynamics of patronage and marked by the narrow overlap between public and private life, wasn’t asked in those terms.
For Philippe of France, the generosity extended to his favorite was a manifestation of his own status as a protector, and the expression of his magnificence. That is why it had to be spectacular, such as when he acquired, in september 1672, the hotel that the marshal of Bellefonds had erected in Versailles.
This dwelling, of which the gardens extended up to the castle, cost Philippe de Lorraine the trivial sum of ninety-thousand pounds, paid to Bellefond’s creditors. Certainly, this purchase was in response to the favorite’s expressed desire, as his italian adventure had given him a taste for autonomy and that he had been thinking about having his own house for a while. It also revealed a will to reinforce his rank through the constitution of a real estate heritage, necessarily implying a more direct social impact than the accumulation of money. In that, he didn’t behave any differently from the royal mistresses of the time.
In his case, this behavior was rooted in the uncertainty of his younger years, though he’d also been undeniably reminded of the fragility of his position by his recent experience of disgrace. The duke of Orleans, by his contribution to this purchase, reaffirmed the bond of loyalty, and loving by definition, that he held with his favorite; a bond that went beyond an exchange of service typical of clientele.
It is therefore unsurprising that the terms used to describe their relationship borrowed as much from the vocabulary of romance as it did from the military and political, as is shown by this “generous and partial sentiment” which, according to the venetian ambassador, characterized the king’s brother. The word “partial” evoked, literally, and in a positive sense, a partial attachment to someone. But it also had, especially in italian, a more ambiguous sense, which could express attraction for someone. Significantly enough, it is again this notion that the Venetian refers to when reporting about this donation by the king’s brother:
Monsieur the duke of Orleans, by an act of remarkable generosity, has proven his partial inclination for the chevalier of Lorraine, handing him ten thousand [doubles tournois] in order to buy, in Versailles, a very noble palace built by Monsieur the marshal of Bellefonds, who has since retired from Court [...]
This letter, like the previous one, doesn’t illustrate the relative acceptance of homosexuality in the modern era court culture. Despite the misleading interpretation that a shallow reading could provide, this was by no means a praise of homosexuality, which would have had no place in an official report. When more open-minded contemporaries evoked, in these terms, the liaison between Philippe of France and one of his favorites, they attested to a princely misconduct worthy of indulgence.
Nothing of sorts in Michieli’s words, whose tone was that of unbridled approbation. In that, this description of such passionate masculine friendship was nothing extraordinary.
After reading so many of the chevalier’s enemies’ writing, it is easy to forget how common these laudatory testimonies of virile love were in western societies. In that sense, historian C. Stephen Jaeger uses the example of some monks who exchanged tender words, hard to interpret as erotic invitations, especially when their mentions of kisses and embraces were about men who had never even met.
In fact, if those evocations borrowed from the language of illicit affairs, it was to better underline the elitism of the sentiments and behavioral norms superior to that of the commoners. In the aristocratic society of these times, that kind of speech aimed to silence critiques [...]
That being said, though there was restraint in the way contemporaries testified of Monsieur and his favorite’s relationship – and about the way they themselves wanted to represent it, if not live it as such, it is obvious that it doesn’t take anything away from this bond rooted in very strong sexual attraction.
Lorraine and Monsieur were lovers, something obvious that Michieli was too naive to apprehend, or too concerned with propriety to expose it in official correspondence – other ambassadors didn’t have these reservations. And no matter the Venetian’s potential lack of clairvoyance, his observations on the duke of Orleans’ passionate attentions for Lorraine remain eloquent about his state of dependency to his lover.
The fact that the latter hasn’t manifested such an irrational passion for Philippe of France doesn’t necessarily make him a machiavellian manipulator. On the contrary, Lorraine revered in Monsieur the instrument of his elevation, the one who had decided of his fortune. His own sentiments were likely closer to the gratitude of a follower to his protector. If he felt passion for Monsieur, it was in the same way the venetian ambassador wrote it. And if, in the past, he may have acted somewhat duplicitous towards his benefactor, the constant and reiterated protection of the duke of Orleans had allowed for him to evolve. His relationship with him, most likely, remained unbalanced, for their respective feelings weren’t in the same register. Nevertheless, Lorraine was ready to sacrifice his own life to protect the duke of Orleans, as Michieli reported it.
It is of course warranted to note the period-typical emphasis of such declaration of behavior, but it is note-worthy that the chevalier of Lorraine was accustomed to that kind of attachment to his protectors. In Rome, already, he claimed to be willing to give his life for cardinal Altieri. Those weren’t just empty words. This trait is also highlighted by other sources reporting that Lorraine would lose control when Monsieur was spoken of negatively, to the point of becoming violent.
With regards to the conceptions of these times, it is thus normal that Philippe of France would cover him in benefits and that he himself would get richer in his service. His enemies saw there a proof of his cupidity, and the others, like Michieli, the rightful reward to his devotion to Monsieur.
French scans:
I think that what gets me really excited about this analysis and discussion, aside from the important context that it brings (and how it reframes their relationship historically, where Chev expressing the same sort of passionate love that Phil did would have been odd and, given what we know of the guy, uncharacteristic) is that it also steps away from a very common subconscious bias that I think I've been observing in a lot of even very recent approaches to their relationship, rooted in the notion that someone like Philippe, for how unmasculine he was, couldn't be anything else than used and exploited.
Am I trying to go all "let's redeem Chev in fact he was great and was only ever devoted to Philippe with all the loyalty in the world", no, not in the slightest, but a lot of actions still speak a lot louder than words and I think it's worth giving credit where credit is due 🫱🫱🫱
SLAMS HANDS DOWN
MARCKUS MY BABY BOY NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
D, PLEASE GO GET YOUR FUCKING SON BACK OH MY GOD I CRIED
ALFABUSA HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MEEEE TORE MY HEART IN TWO ON VALENTINES DAY MAN
So I watch Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... holy shit I love this movie.
I'd never gotten around to watching this movie till 1am tonight and it is some of the funniest shit I've every seen. It's got found family, silly Mikey who is both party dude and big heart boi, angst, blood, Leo having the the pressure of the world- ok you get it. but while watching it I noticed some things that made me grin and flap my hands like a nerd.
so every leo just has the silly gay slut pose? hell yeah that's hilarious.
god I love this stupid van. I need Leo to say this rn "Batman, we need something stronger to get in that base, the bat mobile just isn't made to take a real beating... so batman, get in the party wagon."
Nightwatcher is canon in tmnt 2019 and no one can tell me otherwise
poor Donnie, just put the poor boy down. not to mention how Donnie gets his arm super broken later in the movie. sigh, send him help.
Leo. GET THERAPY, when you start hallucinating the first thing that pops into your brain shouldn't be: "Oh dang all my brothers are dead and It's all my fault, I'm a terrible leader and it should've been me"
also the first of his brothers both 2012 and 2019 Leo try's to help/cheek on/ try's to get up is Mikey cause he's the baby... omg I love this.
The Movie is so good and if you haven't seen it go do that right now. I will be drawing so much fanart for this movie... oh no.... OH. NO. I"M MAKING AUS IN MY BRAIN!! NOOOOO SOMEONE STOP ME NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
