| Henri-Jules
(1643-1709)
Duc d'Albret His parents: Louis II,
the Great Condé and Claire-Clémence de Maillé-Brézé
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| He returned to France
with his father after the signature of the treaty of the Pyrénées.
He was anorexic, ugly, debauched and brutal, He was a notoriously deranged
person. He ran after favours as much as possible. He stroked, caressed,
crawled - even at the feet of the King to get some priviledge. He shared
during the time of the Fronde, the adventurous life of his mother.
Even though showing a lot of courage during the military campaigns of his father, it is not possible, because of his illness, to him give a command even though he held rank of lieutenant-general and afterwards field marshal. |
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  A
strange figure, and the most worrying. If the King had in the mind something
else other than the rank of the husband in the marriage of his bastard
daughters he would have hesitated to give his daughter to the son of such
an infamous character. The man was crazy and his bouts of madness lengthened
as he grew older. At Chantilly, bat wings grew in his mind. He covered
his room with wood and the ceiling with thick fabric to protect himself
from to bruising against the walls and floor when flying around. In his
hotel at Versailles, he thought that a fairy had changed him into a plant
and demanded his servants to water him. He beat them up if they didn't.
When his mania took him over, there was no other way to control him other
than to enter his game. His people knew it and they joined in to bring
him back to reason. |
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There was the time
when Henri-Jules thought he was dead. He wondered if there  was
a need of food beyond the grave? The Prince fasted with application and
no means to dissuade him could be found. If a trick hadn't been found,
he would have died of hunger. Happily, two of his servants, Girard and
Richard, imagined to cover themselves with cloths and to enter in disguise
in the bedroom, the one under the name of the late Marshall of Luxembourg
and the other under the one of his grand-father. After a conversation which
went on the land of the dead they told him they had come to stay with him,
they begged him to have dinner at the deceased Marshall of Turenne's place,
where they intended to go. Surprise !. He thought, how was this possible?
Does one eat once dead? Yes, of course, affirmed the accomplices and with
good appetite. Pleased, because he had in fact great hunger, Henri-Jules
followed his visitors into an under passage in the Hotel of Condé
where he found... the Marshall of Turenne, covered in the same way of the
hosts. The guests joined the table, ate gallantly and rejoiced, served
by some other servants wrapped in white cloths. As long as that this queer
mania lasted, people brought the Duke twice a day in the under passage,
in order that he could take his meals with all the great deceased men he
knew.
In his house, people took all this for exhilaration and excessive activity.  His
wife, and ever a victim, hid her bruises under her hats. Her girls endured
slave-like conditions, but shame and fear sealed their mouths. At court
also, Henri-Jules out comings terrified more than they entertained. People
lowered their eyes and tried to forget this small man skinny who barked
like a dog in public. His neck tight and his mouth torn by effort, would
be at the death of the Great Condé, his father, the first Prince
of the blood of the Kingdom.  Only
in front of the King, does the poor man seem to behave; the majesty of
the Master shines so much and forces respect, that it would command even
to the devil. The Duke yelled like dog or wolf, according to the inspiration
of the moment, but without a sound. The King greeted him with courtesy
showing nothing in his attitude to tell that he noticed the pathetic game.
Outside of this behaviour, the extravagances of the Prince knew no curbs.
That the rascal Louis III was a son-in-law of His Majesty did not please
Henri-Jules and he wove himself other ties. His daughters are almost dwarfs.
So small that the duchess of Bourbon, their sister in law, called them
the "dolls of the blood" So what? Once a Condé is there need for
any incentive ? |
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