In the grand tradition of French royal mistresses: Marie-Antoinette, Sarkozy & Bruni
The French have always loved to hate royal mistresses.
During a New Year’s Eve party in Paris, I was taken aback by the guests’
hostility towards poor Carla Bruni, the French President’s new lover. Well,
maybe “poor” and “Carla Bruni” shouldn’t be used in the same sentence. She is
an heiress (though not of the Paris Hilton type), a top model, an award-winning
singer. For those of you who still have any doubts, check this out on You Tube. Or this.
So what if this lady has never lacked suitors? Have the French become as puritanical as the Saudis, who nixed Carla’s presence at Sarkozy’s side during a State visit?
Probably not, but this kind of hostility hails back to the days before the Revolution. It was a firmly established tradition for the Kings to keep semi-official mistresses in grand style. Look at Louis the Fourteenth, the Sun King: 2 wives, 18 known mistresses, 23 children! His great-grandson and successor, Louis the Fifteenth, followed in his footsteps.
All this came to an abrupt end fifteen years before the Revolution. When Louis the Sixteenth became King, he had already been married for five years to Marie-Antoinette. Yet he was a virgin, as his brother-in-law’s correspondence attests. It took him another few years to muster the nerve to consummate the marriage. Even then, he only displayed lukewarm interest in sex, so mistresses were clearly out of the question. In the meantime Marie-Antoinette very publicly enjoyed the attentions of a group of admirers.
Prior Queens had been discreet, retiring, devout ladies of unquestioned virtue. Popular anger and contempt was reserved for royal mistresses, reviled for their debauchery and luxury. Now Marie-Antoinette flaunted her beauty, her youth, her gowns, her sexual power, her gambling addiction, her political influence over the King, in much the same fashion as royal mistresses under prior reigns. She became as unpopular as those women had been.
The same seems to be happening to Carla Bruni. Even her impending marriage to President Sarkozy may not be enough to salvage her image.
Categories: French Revolution,Louis the Fifteenth,Carla Bruni,Louis the Sixteenth,Marie Antoinette,Sarkozy,royal mistresses
Never thought of this in this light before, but it sounds right. The French guillotined their King and Queen and are apparently not ready to get a replacement. Congrats on the new blog!
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This is very interesting, and takes another tack than that raised in a lengthly article ("I am a cat, a tamer of men") which ran on 18 Jan. in the Guardian Unlimited, and concluded with the following:
"Christine Clerc, an expert on French first-lady protocol and biographer of France's premières dames, warns that there is no precedent for a French president marrying into the world of showbiz. 'We reproached Marie Antoinette for her clothes and lifestyle, but what if she had been an actress? I think our judgment would have been different. From a showbiz star, we accept a certain way of life that we wouldn't tolerate from a politician. Now we have a mixture of the two, it will be very interesting to see how we judge Bruni. Will we be lax or more demanding?'
"Colombe Pringle, Bruni's acquaintance from her modelling days, now edits the celebrity magazine Point de Vue, which broke the story of the relationship. 'Everyone is fantasising about this relationship, even those who say it's boring. Really, they can't get enough,' she says. 'All presidents of France have had a back-street love life behind closed doors. But here is someone who puts it on display in his window. It's completely new. He says he doesn't want to engage in hypocrisy and lies but, in fact, he actively, deliberately wants to show it off.'
Sarkozy says he should have a right to happiness. But how much loved-up smirking can France endure? The political analyst Dominique Reynié says it was a 'big mistake' for Sarkozy to tell the nation about his personal joy. 'Basically, taking about your own happiness when you're president is like telling the French you're a little bit less interested in theirs.' France's new all-giggling, all-smiling, jewel-bedecked king and queen have been warned."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2242816,00.html
I suspect the jury is still out on the question of a first lady who doesn't believe in monogomy. Thank you for this fundamental insight.
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I agree that it is a very risky game for Sarkozy to play. The analogy with the French Revolution is all over the French blogs. We shall see...
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