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Content Warning: this post contains discussion of homophobia
Few places are as synonymous with European royalty as the passion project of the Sun King himself: the palace (or palaces) at Versailles. The prodigious grounds of the royal-residence-turned-tourist-attraction exude the elegance of the Baroque and Rococo eras which coincided with the height of the ancien régime. But few students of the era would associate Versailles with a flamboyant queer culture – a culture which infiltrated to the very top of the Bourbon family power structure (or perhaps trickled down).
From Hunting Lodge to Splendor
King Louis XIV of France (r. 1643 – 1715) arguably represented the pinnacle of royal absolutism in Europe. It should perhaps have come as no surprise to his contemporaries that he spent a vast fortune constructing a palace of a scale to match his domineering personality. His father, Louis XIII, had built a royal hunting lodge in the teeming forests between Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Paris in the 1620s.[1] His august son, Louis XIV, saw not only prolific hunting opportunities therein but also the foundations (literal and figurative) for a regal complex worthy of his personal vision.
Work to design, then construct, the fabulous chateaus and residences that would fill the Versailles grounds began in earnest in 1661 and continued through Louis XIV’s death in the following century.[2] Though the investment to create the Versailles which stands today was disbursed over decades of expenditure, modern estimates suggest that a similar complex would cost between $200-$300 billion to complete.[3] Though these projections are highly debatable, such financial outflow on what amounted to a vanity project (for one of the most vain monarchs in history) was a risky proposition. One source notes that, “in spending so lavishly on Versailles, [Louis XIV] actually weakened the foundations of his throne…he virtually assured that the monarchy would ultimately be brought to the abyss of revolution.”[4]
But it did not seem so in the 1660s as the King and his glittering court inexorably migrated away from the French capital in Paris toward the glamorous new site. In time, Louis XIV would make Versailles not only the de facto seat of his government but also a beacon of architectural splendor, a repository for the finest paintings and sculptures, a center for the dramatic arts and the cultural heart of early modern Europe.
It was also, as soon became clear to His Majesty’s courtiers, a magnet for a burgeoning gay subculture including the most elite men of the court.
Monsieur
Any discussion of the gay community at Versailles must include the notorious “Monsieur”, the polite title given to Louis XIV’s younger brother Philippe, Duc d’Orléans. I’ve previously discussed Philippe’s life and flamboyant style at his brother’s court in more detail here. Notably, Philippe was hardly the first queer member of the French royal family (that discussion could take us back to medieval times or even earlier!)
Philippe was, however, a key figure in a wider queer subculture of powerful and privileged men which made their home at the burgeoning royal compound. As a youth, Philippe showed “feminine” traits, behaviors and interests (particularly in high fashion). As the “spare” in his illustrious family tree, he was likely discouraged from taking any interest in affairs of state or competing with his powerful elder brother.
Even so, the pair enjoyed a close, supportive relationship. One analysis frames their bond thusly: “[Philippe’s] relationship with his brother had always been a complex one, but they shared a deep fraternal affection.”[5] Perhaps most importantly to his regal brother, Philippe was a superb soldier. The prince ably led his brother’s troops during the latter’s interminable wars, and especially distinguished himself during the War of Devolution (1667 – 68) and the Dutch War (1672 – 78).[6]
But Philippe did not just enjoy leading men into battle; he led them to bed with just as much alacrity. As a valuable Bourbon prince, Philippe was required to produce children to bolster the royal family tree. As a matter of dynastic policy, he was married twice to women over the course of his long life and ultimately produced a succession of descendants who would go on to occupy various European thrones. But his male lovers were always his primary passion. Even as a newly-wedded husband to English princess Henrietta Anne, the prince “preferred the company of handsome young men to that of his wife and soon tired of making love to her.”[7]
The objects of Philippe’s passion varied over the course of his life, but one of his most influential favorites was the cherubic Chevalier de Lorraine, with whom the prince had a more or less open relationship from the late 1660s until the prince’s death in 1701.[8] Over the span of their nearly forty-year affair, the Chevalier profited enormously from the royal largesse and amassed a slew of titles, properties and income to match.[9] To those at Versailles and Philippe’s official residence at Saint Cloud, “[Monsieur] appeared to be completely dominated by him.”[10] The Chevalier’s outsized influence, which was well-known to be connected to his sexual relationship with the prince, was a source of immense frustration to both Duchesses de Orléans.
Philippe’s relationship with the Chevalier was certainly his most enduring, but it was hardly his only one. His first boyfriend was likely the Duke of Nevers, and he was reputed to be simultaneously involved with the Marquis de Effiat during his affair with the Chevalier – and rumor suggested numerous, much briefer affairs purely for pleasure. His second wife, Elisabeth Charlotte, opined in her expansive journals that “Monsieur [the Duc d’Orléans] is still the same as he was in his youth” and complained bitterly of his financial expenditure on his male lovers.[11] Her Highness left no uncertainty in her commentary of what she meant:
“This very winter [Monsieur] purchased 200,000 guilders’ worth of charges in the regiment of the guards with which to reward some young fellows who have entertained him in not exactly an honorable fashion. When it comes to that, no expense is spared, and this is the most annoying part, for otherwise I should not care at all and would happily say to these fellows: ‘You are welcome to gobble the peas, for I don’t like them.’”[12]
“These detestable vices…”
But the Duc d’Orléans was not the only Bourbon involved in the (much wider) queer community of men surrounding the Sun King. The obvious pattern of “these detestable vices”, according to one of Louis XIV’s advisors, was well-known and distressing to many at court – including the King himself.[13]
In theory, the stridently Catholic monarchy had a zero-tolerance policy for “buggery” or homosexual behavior of any kind. Officially, such acts among men were considered criminal under the ancien régime and subject to capital punishment. The latter half of Louis XIV’s reign, according to historian Jonathan Spangler, saw a tightening of penal code against homosexuality as the King devoted himself more deeply to Catholic conservatism.[14] Even though homosexuality would be decriminalized amid the societal upheaval of the French Revolution in 1791, gay men remained subject to police harassment and social opprobrium well into the 20th century.[15]
But the flagrant sexual preferences of Philippe and his public affairs with men reveal that homosexuality at court was punished sparingly. Part of the problem was that the issue hit too close to home. The King’s second (unofficial) wife, the devout Madame de Maintenon, reportedly pressed him firmly on the matter of expelling the most notorious gay men from the court, but the King retorted, “Am I then to begin with my own brother?”[16]
The King, however much he disliked or simply could not understand the queer men around him, grasped that expelling his brother from court (and presumably other influential and capable nobles) over such prejudices would have consequences – personal, and potentially political. Indeed, one source suggests that when the King considered purging known homosexual men from the upper cadre of the French military, his Secretary of War the Marquis de Louvois argued that doing so would be disastrous for His Majesty’s campaigns.[17] The King apparently relented; as ever, nothing mattered more to Louis XIV than la gloire.
But not all of the King’s closest circle were so fortunate, as one episode in the second half of his reign reveals. In 1682, the King’s fifteen-year old illegitimate son, the Comte de Vermandois, confessed to his father his involvement in what may have been a polyamorous clique of gay men.[18] The Comte was summarily exiled to Normandy by his disappointed father, along with several other nobles (or relatives of nobles) who were shown the door to the chateau.
“They speak openly of it…”
But despite a handful of banishments from court, gay love seemingly thrived on the grounds of Versailles.
Elisabeth Charlotte, second wife to the Duc d’Orléans, had (by virtue of her marriage) a front row seat to the robust queer culture of Versailles. Her own writings are unequivocal that said subculture did not just involve her husband and his paramours, but rather was a feature of the court. She intimated that noblemen saw their gay affairs as a perfectly normal and morally neutral pastime, writing that “[t]hey hide it as much as they can as to not scandalize the common people, but they speak openly of it amongst people of quality.”[19]
Modern research largely confirms the Duchess’s resigned assessment. Apart from her husband and his paramours, the record suggests that multiple high-ranking officials were living openly as homosexuals and fostered private communities around their properties facilitating their own and others’ queer affairs.
Prominent among these was Louis Joseph, Duc de Vendôme, one of Louis XIV’s more successful generals and a key player in the War of the Spanish Succession. He was also a known protector and patron for other gay men in and around the royal court. He reportedly enjoyed multiple affairs with his young valets (some of which may have been purely transactional in nature) at his estate and patronized artists (such as opera legend Jean-Baptiste Lully) who were widely known to be gay.[20] It seems that, regardless of the King’s complex views on the matter, queer men could (and very much did) have long and lucrative careers at Versailles. These diverse outcomes were likely a result of intertwined factors, but perhaps also the simple fact of strength in numbers.
Fraternities
Indeed, the “numbers” of queer men in the French royal court were substantial and would remain so for decades after the Sun King’s reign. Historians cite evidence of the so-called “confréries” or “fraternities” which proliferated on the royal grounds during subsequent reigns in the 18th century. These gatherings, by all contemporary accounts, were dedicated to dancing, partying and in some cases, group sexual intimacy among elite noblemen.
One such incident occurred in April 1722, when seventeen noblemen met for an apparent orgy just outside the Tuilieries Palace.[21] The men involved were caught in this particularly egregious act (although the evidence is unclear for how long these sorts of parties had been occurring among this group). Regardless, their leader was imprisoned and other members of the “fraternity” were exiled from court. It is possible that Louis XIV’s illegitimate son, the Comte de Vermandois, was in fact involved with such a fraternity when his father confronted him about his own sexual activities forty years earlier – suggesting that such communities persisted over decades around the court and may have been something of a tradition among the nobility.
The information surrounding these “fraternities” raises manifold questions: how many such fraternities existed, and for how long? How tacitly or openly accepted was homosexuality (or perhaps bisexuality) among the French nobility? Was queerness assumed among “men of quality” at Versailles, as the Duchess d’Orléans suggested?
(Gay) Ghosts of the Past
This tantalizing information about the queer subcultures of Versailles unfortunately leaves these and many more questions unanswered. Versailles itself has been transformed in the decades since its abandonment amid the French Revolution, perhaps leaving the ghosts of the central figures in the site’s queer history behind for good. What does seem clear is that the royal compound was home, at least temporarily, to a thriving queer world of men whose views on human sexuality more closely reflect those of the 21st century rather than the 17th.
Of course, all of this is likely far from the whole story of queerness at Versailles. This narrative as it stands is exclusive of sapphic experiences and those of other queer women, trans and nonbinary people. Further, these details about the desires and activities of the upper classes leave out other socioeconomic groups – specifically, the middle and lower classes of people who surrounded Versailles and among whom queer persons inevitably existed. Nevertheless, this piecemeal evidence about a handful of privileged men is a crucial glimpse into a fascinating queer community of the past, and its influences and impacts on the modern world.
[1] Chateau de Versailles, “Louis XIII and Versailles,” accessed December 15, 2023, https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history#louis-xiii-and-versailles1607-1638.
[2] Chateau de Versailles, “Reign of Louis XIV,” accessed December 15, 2023, https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history#the-reign-of-louisxiv1638-1715.
[3] History Extra, “How much did it cost to build Versailles?”, BBC History Magazine, February 26, 2016, https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/how-much-cost-build-versailles-money/.
[4] Christopher Hibbert and the Editors of the Newsweek Book Division, Versailles, pg. 10 (Newsweek, New York), 1972.
[5] Chateau de Versailles, “Philippe I, Duke of Orleans,” https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/great-characters/philippe-i-duke-orleans.
[6] Amy Tikkanen, “Philippe I de France, duc d’Orléans,” Encyclopedia Britannica, June 5, 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Philippe-I-de-France-duc-dOrleans.
[7] Hibbert, et. al., pg. 18.
[8] Jonathan Spangler, “The Chevalier de Lorraine as ‘Maître en Titre’,” Bulletin du Centre de recherche du château de Versailles, Articles et études, 2017, https://cour-de-france.fr/individus-familles-groupes/nobles-et-tiers-etat/etudes-modernes/article/the-chevalier-de-lorraine-as-maitre-en-titre?lang=fr.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Hibbert, et. al., pg. 63.
[11] Chad Denton, The Brotherhood : Male Same-Sex Love Among the Early Modern Court Nobility, Paris, Cour de France.fr, 2014, Article inédit mis en ligne le 1er juin 2014, https://cour-de-france.fr/article3332.html.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Hibbert, et. al., pg. 61
[14] Jonathan W. Spangler, “Pivot to Piety,” in Significant Others: Aspects of Deviance and Difference in Premodern Court Cultures (eds. Zita Eva Rohr, Jonathan W. Spangler) (Routledge, London), 2021.
[15] Julian Jackson, “Homosexuality in France from the Revolution to Vichy,” Living in Arcadia: Homosexuality, Politics, and Morality in France from the Liberation to AIDS (University of Chicago Press), 2009, https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226389288.003.0002.
[16] Hibbert, et. al., pg. 61.
[17] Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization (Belknap Press), 2006, pg. 347.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Jason Thompson, “Queerness in French Baroque Opera: The Relationship Between Achilles and Patroclus in Jean Baptiste Lully’s Achille et Polyxène,” University of Northern Colorado (Master’s Thesis), May 7, 2021, pg. 7, https://digscholarship.unco.edu/theses/210.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Chad Denton, ibid.