ABSTRACT
In June 1682, a shocking scandal rocked the court of Versailles: a number of the most high-ranking sons of the aristocracy were unmasked as members of a confraternity devoted to debauchery and were sent away from court. One of these was the King’s own illegitimate son, the Comte de Vermandois. A close examination of this incident, using the memoirs of one of the great court insiders, the Marquis de Sourches, reveals the complexity of the King’s relationship with senior courtiers and members of his own family and same-sex behaviour. Louis XIV repeatedly affirmed his abhorrence of the sin, and yet, actively tolerated senior courtiers whose services were useful to him and to the monarchy. Yet 1682 can be seen as a turning point in the reign of Louis XIV, a move towards greater piety at court connected to events like the deaths of the Queen and his mistress Mlle de Fontanges, the Affair of the Poisons and the rise of Madame de Maintenon. This essay argues that the scandal of June 1682 and the subsequent death of young Vermandois contributed just as much to this pivot to piety, though at the same time, a quiet toleration remained for those senior courtiers and members of the royal family whose lifestyle differed from that of the King and his pious inner circle. They became the Other on the inside: outsiders tightly connected to the most intimate court insiders. This toleration is in contrast to the increased tightening of the laws against sodomy and similar crimes amongst the population of France more generally in the late years of the reign of Louis XIV. And though it is hardly surprising to claim that during the ancien régime, there was a separate set of standards for the elites and for the masses, a closer examination of the attitudes towards sexual deviance at court in the middle years of the reign of Louis XIV is revelatory also in understanding the shift away from Versailles and its inner circle by courtiers, artists and society, turning Versailles itself into the Other by the end of the reign.
