| Louis III
(1668-1710)
Monsieur le Duc His parents: Henri-Jules
and Anne de Pfalz-Simmern.
|
 |
|
|
|
| So young,
he just turned seventeen, and was already violent, choleric, brutal, morbid,
with an not dissimulated appetite for the suffering of others. However,
nothing was saved to transform into a prince, the dark and secret son of
Henri-Jules the crazy and Anne of Bavaria the martyr. At seven he came
out of the hands of the women, he followed until his fifteenth year the
lessons of the Jesuits, who since three generations formed the elder
house of Condé. In their college of Clermont, he had as all the
interns a room but did not sleep there and was lead to the lessons twice
the day. One taught to him the old history and the geography, the size
of his country and his place in the world, Latin and of course Greek, and
also some rudiments of physics. No sport nor music. A secretary took notes
in his place, so that the constraint of the study did not tire him nor
did it not weary him. At his return to the Petit Luxembourg, where his
family lived, he found ready to assist him in his efforts, two tutors Jesuits,
a Master writer, a Master to dance, plus quantity of subalterns devoted
to prepare versions and calculations for him. So many care alas bore little;
the boy is sick, nervous, irritable with excess, incapable to concentrate
more than one moment on the same matter. His diseases and his deformity
served as a pretext for his idleness. One forgave him his requirements
and his malignity. His sisters and his people suffer his tortures
without daring to complain, suffering that he beat them, spit to them,
overpowered them by pleasure of ill treatments. He respected only his mother,
pious and soft, noble in his misfortune, and Mr. the Prince his grandfather.
Louis III has as much mortuary than his father, Henri-Jules, has little
of it. The “cockerel” does not have even a figure to repay his bad behavior.
Much considerably smaller than smallest of men, he is large without however
being fat, the enormous head, the alarming face, of a livid yellow. With
that,hunchback, in front as much as from behind, so badly that the court
called him " Green Monkey ". He has the looks of vice and the ways of exaggeration.
Not a lady at Court, was it for the glory of a similar rank, would like
to live under his dependence.
He inspired fear and disgust rather than respect. He is proud, daring with some spirit, litterate , some remainders of his education, courteous, even graceful, when he wants it. But evil is everywhere in him, all his actions are submitted to wrong doing. In Paris, the courtesans fear him more than the “French disease”.Insults and cruel behaviour are his relaxations in which his extreme pride takes pleasure; he marks with red iron, he whips, bite, his ringed fingers striate the flesh with long scratches, he likes the smell of mixed blood and semen. Why would he constraint himself? His ferocity passes for prerogative of his rank, and his quality of prince of the blood protects him better than any armour. The King never would have him tried, he is his son-in-law afterall. Would he rape, would he kill in the street , the case would certainly be extinguished; he would only suffer a short exile. When the King does not require his presence, he resides at the castle of St-Maur where he avoids the smothering of Chantilly. There, it is the reign of blows, brimades, insults and ill treatments. People have to suffer it or change sponsor. He distinguished himself nevertheless at the time of the battles of the League of Augsburg and in particular at Steenkerque and Neerwinden. |
|
|
|
|
| He even has no need to seek for a bride, the Conde clan since the Blois-Conti weddings has already someone in sight: Louise-Francoise de Nantes, daugther of the king. Louis III, aged seventeen; his so full of vice, that if he waits too long to marry, he might loses his reputation completely, and the King will not agree any more. Louis II, prince de Condé, besieges the King more narrowly than if the safety of the Kingdom depended on his approval. His eagerness, his flattering manners, his servility make a lot of fuss; times are gone when the princes of the blood could feel equal to their sovereign! Mr. the Prince obviously hopes to erase by this marriage the memory of the Fronde that still stains the family in the eyes of the King. |  |
  |
Louise-Françoise,
Melle de Nantes aged 37 |
|
|
|
| The young bride is only eight and looks at the man whom she was just married to. The prince has a cast in an eye and under the other he has a large wart, with hairs on it! Out of disgust she moves back abruptly, her hand in her husband’s starts to shake and the ring Louis was to put around her fourth finger falls on the carpet, rolls on the marble. People whisper, everyone around leaps forward to grab it. The crowd is agitated, ventilates.Louis III takes the faulty hand and, slipping his fingers to the wrist, higher still, under laces. He grips the fat of the arm and squeezes, so hard that the blood cannot runs anymore. Louise-Francoise tries to get loose but doesn’t want to draw the attention; but he holds her strongly. Large tears of pain in the eyes, she bites her cheeks in order to avoid groaning. Louis III, a grin on his lips, with his right hand passes the ring to her. | |
|
|
|
 But
the day is not completed yet. After the dinner it is still necessary to
hear the symphony, then, wisely, to attend the supper of the King. No sweets,
no candy this time! The new duchesse de Bourbon is too young to let her
hunchback husband to have her! It will be waited until she reaches thirteen,
or her first menstruations. taking the virginity of a child is nothing;
but to bend her body with hard frolicking before she can procreate would
make her sterile in no time. Abstinence! The husband is stripped in the
living room of the large apartment, at the end of the gallery. His Majesty
holds the nightdress for him. Promptly Louis III puts it on sideways: he
prefers to show his genitalia than the bump of his back; the one on his
chest no way the King could have missed it when his coat was removed.
Together, the King and his daughter-in-law, the Dauphine who in this office
replaces the late queen, lead the grooms to the layer. Curtains are drawn,
doors are closed just to be reopend right away. And then the new weds are
brought back to their respective appartements.
1686, the marriage has been consumed and the smallpox strikes the family again. Not being able to kill the princesse de Conti it had found revenge in Louis-Armand. Today it is the turn of the duchesse de Condé. But this time there will be no attendance of the husband. Louis III will not take any risk. He will go to his wife only the evening, before supper, so that the visit does not exceed the bare minimum. He never removes the handkerchief which he holds under the nose, and in the course of the day will drive out as much as he can, to fight the contagion by fresh air and movement. |
|
|
|
|
| Louis III
rapes and kills, if not in the street, at least in full light. At the brothel
of La Chevalier, he disapproved the “kindnesses” of a girl; he shook the
faulty one, beat her a little to untie her legs, and went back to his work.
But the things did not go to his taste; the whore had such a generous mood
that in her he did not feel himself.
"Ah! rascal, where does this cave come from, where one is mislaid? Your employment is to overheat the heats, and you embed them in a pool! Do you know what it costs not to satisfy me? " The girl fades under the violent red that smeared her cheeks. " Monseigneur, please... " Louis III twisted towards the poor one with a sardonic look. The mouth of hell itself, stinking, with greenish teeth.The whore, who was not fifteen, looked at him, petrified. The terrifying dwarf, with the complexion of mildewed silt, froliked on the cushions, which he scattered. He shouted insults, dribble soiled his hanging cheeks, his anger went up in poisonous bellows. In this cloud of feathers, one could believe a mad fox laying in a hen house. Naked bottom under the short shirt, the livid thighs, pasty, the fat belly, with hooked feet, these are the looks of a demon. " No mercy for the bad workers! I will educate you my way." Louis III always has fun with some company; in case some faintness takes him, because he is extremely prone to vapors, he wants people near him during his frolicking. two of his men who were having their way on the couches, left their work at once. Famous livelihood those vices of the prince; but one must not be fainthearted. "Hold this young lady strongly. What I am going to stick in her at least she will feel it!” So Louis III sticks a petard inside the girl, who was promptly bound to the columns of the bed. The poor girl ingnated like cardboard. Iit took her three hours to die, her exploded belly losing all her blood. At Versailles, the son-in-law of the King, merry of the trick he played, was already sleeping at the side of his wife Louise-Francoise. The day after he would celebrate his eighteenth birthday, and also the first birthday of his weddings of flesh with his delicious wife. The case made great noise, so much to come to the ears of the King. |
|
|
|
|
| In 1692 at the battle of Steenkerque, he behaves with courage, it is him who as day officer lays out the troops for battle, this will have to contribute to the success of the troops of the marshal of Luxembourg. But on his return in France, the honors of the victory go more to his Conti cousin. This one has all the ladies at his feet, including the wife of the jealous Louis III, this last one makes his wife pregnant each year so that she will not have the idea to get lovers. Because rumours circulate. François-Louis de Conti with his wife that may not be! His cousin, he cannot put him to the question. But sends spies to the beautifull prince. | |
|
|
|
| The regular abbot of Saint-Victor, Santeul, was a monk, a well-read man, a sharp spirit with the most brilliance of his time. Always in the surroundings of the Condé, he is the fun of the salons and his spirit was often requested by everyone. Called to chair the States General of Burgundy in turn for his father, Louis III decides to take along the abbot. Santeul refuses but in front of the violent insistence of the duc, he must give in. As Louis is in Dijon only for the time of the States, Santeul lives with him. This last one was of very good company, drinking with all but moderately, eating at all tables but without excess. But one evening, at supper, the champagne flows together with good food and Santeul is found quite merry. Louis III pours him still more wine so that in the end the poet is quite drunk. The prince then does not find any better entertainment than to pour him the contents of his snuffbox in his champagne glass and to make it drink to the abbot. Just to see what would happen. Vomiting and fever followed, the poor poet took two days to die in atrocious pains. | |
| Louis III had all the qualities to foresee for his future and the one of his children the greatest hopes: the rank, military success, taste for public affairs. His wife then decided to bring him closer to the Dolphin. Little by little the figure of the next reign took shape, smiling to the Condé and their allies. Louise-Francoise would control Monseigneur the Dolphin thanks to that Mr. le Duc, having more courage than capacity, would control the fate of the armies and of the state. This was without taking death into account. For two years a tumour had corroded the brain of the ugly prince, who suffered great pain. He even lost the taste for vice which he practised less. Once just to satisfy his doctors, he took only cow's milk, five times a day, and one per week some donkey milk. But this disgusted him and made him vomit and so he returned to his usual meals. On March 12, 1710, Mme la Duchesss is a widow. If she will not reign through her husband, she will try to do so through her son, and continues her intrigues. | |
