The surprising link between Versailles & London Pride

Last weekend, 35,000 people gathered in central London to celebrate diversity & LGBTQI+ rights & culture, & as the path wove its way from Hyde Park to Whitehall in a quarter circle centering on Buckingham Palace, we thought back to the prominence of queer culture at the French court of VERSAILLES.

Anyone who enjoyed Amazon’s Versailles series might have been pleasantly surprised by the flamboyance of Philippe, the Duc d’Orleans, Louis XIV’s brother, with an open penchant for big gay orgies; yet the mediaeval academic historian Andrew E. Larsen thinks the depiction, far from exaggerating, falls short of the glorious reality.

The real Philippe - who initially worried he’d be “the cloud to the sun king”, but was also called its rainbow - was possibly gender non-binary, and grew up wearing mostly female clothes. He was noted for his love of ribbons, perfume, rouge, high heels (perfect taste), and full on cross-dressing, and though he had a forced straight marriage, his main life-long partner from 18 was Philippe, the Chevalier de Lorraine (who may have later poisoned the wife).

By 1682 they had both set up a secret gay club, and both maintained multiple gay relationships, which were their primary passions; Philippe juggled the Duke of Nevers and the Marquis de Effiat amongst many others.

It was brave and pioneering. Homosexuality was precarious, illegal, and condemned by the catholic church, yet somehow flourished at Versailles - a precursor of sorts to today’s glorious celebration. The later revolutionary word “fraternity” had quite a different insinuation at the earlier court, where it referred to orgiastic queer confréries like the one in 1722 where seventeen noblemen were caught having a mass orgy in the Tuileries.

Andrea Mariana writes “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.”

History has so often been “his story”, the tale of the male; less lines are devoted to lesbian history, like the affair between Marie-Antoinette and the Duchess of Polignac, and later the Princesse de Lamballe, even though Antoinette’s name later became the very codeword for queerness, and she herself a lesbian icon.

This brief blogpost has a lush tour of LGBTQ rulers through history, with Versailles only one of many flourishing epicentres.

Whatever your gender or preference, here’s to you, and here’s to Pride!

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Come revel with us at our very own Versailles on September 14th!