In the program "Historically yours", Stéphane Bern tells the story of the true story of the "debauched regent" Philippe d'Orléans, whose famous "small suppers" were immortalized by Bertrand Tavervier in the film "Let the party begin" .
The historian Alexandre Dupilet, who has devoted three books to the regent, unravel with him the truth of the fantasy.
INTERVIEW
This libertine inspired the cinema.
Philippe d'Orléans' evenings of debauchery, which have remained under the name of "small suppers", marked the collective imagination, thanks in particular to Bertrand Tavernier's film
Let the party begin
.
The one who ruled France during the minority of Louis 15 and popularized champagne was certainly a great lover of good food and sex.
But not all the rumors that have circulated about him are true.
Among the worst of them, we find the mark of his detractors, ready for the worst to harm him.
"If the regent has remained in collective memory as the incarnation of the libertine, it is because there is a real basis of truth and that the little suppers really existed", warns Alexandre Dupilet, historian and author of the book
Le regent: Philippe d'Orléans, heir to the Sun King
.
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Women, a youthful obsession
The future regent, Philippe duc d'Orléans, was born in 1674 at the Château de Saint-Cloud.
His father is none other than "Monsieur", the brother of King Louis 14, who is said to share his wife's lovers.
Her mother is Elisabeth-Charlotte of Bavaria, known as the Princess Palatine.
Raised first by women, Philippe was then entrusted to a tutor, Guillaume Dubois.
This funny thirty-year-old abbot gave him a remarkable education: religion, history, science, chemistry, Latin, Greek, English, German… We will then find him in the stories of the little suppers.
"Philippe was someone who had conversation", adds the historian of Alexandre Dupilet.
"We know he had wit and a certain sense of humor."
Philippe's sex life starts at 13, when he is deflowered by a countess who is fifty years older than him.
The princess palatine said of her son that "his love consists only in debauchery".
At 14, he made the daughter of the Palais Royal furniture concierge pregnant.
"His mother says of him that he has a pretty pretty face. But that he lacks grace, except when he dances," adds historian Alexandre Dupilet.
"A forced marriage made her seek other pleasures"
But the future Regent does not need to dance to give in to his impulses.
At 20, Philippe frequented the prostitutes around the Palais Royal and the dancers at the nearby Opéra Garnier.
"Given his level of notoriety, the dancers bowed to this type of great lord", indicates Alexandre Dupilet.
"Today his behavior would be really very problematic."
It was at the age of 20 that his uncle, King Louis 14, married him to Françoise-Marie, a bastard that the king had with Montespan.
Louis 14 certainly legitimized it, but the Princess Palatine, very stuck on etiquette, saw her son's marriage as a shame.
She also writes about her daughter-in-law that she "looks like an ass".
Philippe d'Orléans nicknamed his wife "Madame Lucifer", which did not prevent him from having eight children.
In his Memoirs, Saint-Simon writes about Philippe d'Orléans, "the disgust of a forced marriage so unequal made him seek to compensate himself with other pleasures."
These are the pleasures that will cause scandal.
A life too private for the time
Philippe becomes regent on the death of his uncle Louis 14 in 1715, because the future Louis 15 is still too young to reign.
The regent immediately left Versailles to settle in the Palais Royal in Paris.
But, unlike the Sun King who did everything in public, he hates being in performance.
We owe him much of the invention of privacy in the 18th century.
The regent works all day, allowing himself only a few cups of chocolate for lunch.
In the evening, he closed the doors of the palace and asked the valets to leave.
"We stayed in small groups. This is where the famous little suppers took place," reveals the author of
La Régence Absolute: Philippe d'Orléans et la polysynodie (1715-1718)
.
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This taste for secrecy, frowned upon by his contemporaries, gave birth to the wildest rumors about the nights that the one who was quickly nicknamed the "debauched regent".
So much so that a popular pamphlet of the time said about Philippe d'Orléans "And this admirable prince / Spends his nights at the table / Drowning himself in wine / Near his whore."
Omelet and champagne
According to his rumors, the "debauched regent" spends his nights at the table surrounded by "roués", friends thus nicknamed because worthy of the torture of the wheel as they are debauched.
Among them, there would be the Marquis d'Effiat and La Fare, and the Grand Prior of France, Monsieur de Vendôme.
The invited women can be daughters of Opera or women of the world, such as Mesdames de Tencin, de Sabran, d'Averne or de Phalaris.
Most would be his mistresses.
During these "little suppers", we drink and eat until we get sick.
Oysters, considered to be aphrodisiacs, are eaten at the same time as broths, lobsters, langoustines, crayfish and foie gras.
The diners are also addicted to sugar, swallowing mountains of meringues and ice cream.
The name "small suppers" is therefore very ironic.
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To slide the food into the stomachs, the "debauched regent" made the champagne flow afloat, thus launching fashion in France.
"What really is not a legend is that the guests of Philipe d'Orléans drank a lot", confirms Alexandre Dupilet.
The historian however qualifies the food orgy.
"As the servants had left, you should know that the regent and his guests had to cook themselves", he recalls.
"However, the regent was only a specialist in one dish: the omelet. It is not something gargantuan either."
The thin parts of the regent?
But it is not the food component of small suppers that causes the most scandal.
These meals would be, according to rumors, the occasion for the regent of all the sexual eccentricities.
He would nickname his mistress at table, Madame de Parabère "my leg of lamb" and "my sirloin".
And each guest thus has his tendentious nickname.
The Duke of Brancas becomes "the gay Caillette", the Count of Nocé "Braquemardus", but also "my brother-in-law", because he sleeps with one of the regent's mistresses, who passes him from one embrace to another.
So some would sleep with the others, in front of the eyes of all the guests of what would be real fine parties.
But are these rumors really true?
"The problem is that we don't know anything about it. We can't prove it", explains historian Alexandre Dupilet.
"A priori, these orgies were only immense drinking bouts. That these orgies degenerated into thin parts is of the order of the fantasy."
A not-so-vicious Abbot Dubois
True or not, these orgies shocked the regent's contemporaries, who nevertheless had fun spreading the rumor.
Above all, they denounce the active presence at the small suppers of Father Dubois, the very one who gave his instruction to the regent.
The people of Paris nicknamed him "the mackerel" and created for him the contrepèterie "he runs, he runs, the ferret".
Saint-Simon describes this funny character in his Memoirs as "a thin, slender, sly little man with a blonde wig, with a weasel face".
The word is even whispered that the abbot, holy horror, would be an atheist.
But then again, the historical reality seems a little different.
"There is no real proof that the abbot was not even present at these small suppers", corrects the historian specializing in the regent and author of the book
Le Cardinal Dubois - Le genie politique de la Régence
.
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According to him, the modest origins and the growing political power of Father Dubois are frowned upon.
Rumors are born about him in order to harm him.
"Saint-Simon largely contributed to forging this legend of an abbot who was an atheist", he explains.
"Dubois had mistresses, but for the clergymen of the time it was quite common."
Incest rumors
The worst rumors, however, do not concern Abbé Dubois, but directly Philippe d'Orléans.
In 1710, his daughter, nicknamed "Joufflote", was preparing to become Duchess of Berry.
At the same time, Saint-Simon writes that "the most horrible things are being said about the father's friendship for the daughter".
In other words, the regent would sleep with his daughter, especially during small suppers.
A rumor that could earn Philippe d'Orléans his regency and his head.
"It is a rumor which is completely unfounded and which is launched by the enemies of his daughter, including the Duchess of Bourbon, to harm him", reassures Alexandre Dupilet.
"It is true that the regent adored his daughter, and Bertrand Tavernier shows it well in his film. But the rumors of incest are absolutely unfounded."
A successful regency despite rumors
Despite the opprobrium cast on the regency of Philippe d'Orléans, history retains its good ability to govern the country from these eight years.
The man did not however see himself remaining in the history of France.
"He had great difficulty in taking himself seriously, including in his profession as a regent", indicates the historian specializing in Philippe d'Orléans.
"He was under no illusions about the political imprint he might leave."
According to him, the "debauched regent" nevertheless succeeded in his interim mission, before his death in 1723. "He is really an excellent politician and a brilliant figure," he observes.
But the historian also explains that Philippe d'Orléans gets tired of his role quite quickly.
"From 1720, when he has only governed France for five years, he already wanted to retire", he explains.
And for good reason, the regent is a jack-of-all-trades who likes to go from one passion to another.
"He's a very, very good musician, but also a very good painter and a very good chemist who is interested in everything," he reveals.