The Captive V pp 403-408

p 403 | Monsieur, like 'Madame,' was a title given to a close relative of the King under the ancien régime. 'Monsieur' was the King's eldest brother, 'Madame' his wife. The 'Monsieur' referred to here, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, Louis XIV's only brother, was notoriously an effeminate homosexual. He had two wives (and several children): the second Madame was Charlotte-Elizabeth, a princess from the Palatinate hence her further name of La Palatine). She was a stocky, down-to-earth German girl who was at first appalled and finally moved to shocked laughter by the atmosphere of Louis XIV's court, where she lived for fifty years, describing it in regular, vivid letters to her relations at home. These were edited and translated in 1863, giving 19th-century Frenchmen a new view of the court of the Sun King. Most of M. de Charlus's scandalous anecdotes come from La Palatine's letters: not, however, the suggestion that Molière was a homosexual, which is not found in 17th-century sources.

Louis II of Bourbon, the Great Condé

p 403 | Louis, Count of Vermandois, Ludwig Wilhelm, Margrave of Baden-Baden (1655-1701),  

• Charles II, Duke of Brunswick (1804-73), 
•  Charles de Bourbon-Condé, Count of Charolais (1700-60),  
• Louis-François, Duc de Boufflers (1644–1711), 
• Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé (1621–86), 
• Henri-Albert de Cossé, duc de Brissac (1645-98),  
• Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme (1654–1712),
• Amaury III de Goyon, marquis de La Moussaye (1601-74?).

p 406 | Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736), Paul Bourget (1852–1935), French novelist & critic; Nicolas du Blé, Maréchal d'Huxelles, (1652-1730);   Life and letters of Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine ("Madame"); François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac (1613–80) noted French author of maxims and memoirs.

Heliogabalus

p 408 | Heliogabalus (also called Elagabalus), dissolute Roman emperor (as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus), c 203–222. The Spanish word heliogábalo means "a person overwhelmed by gluttony."

The Roses of Heliogabalus (1888), Lawrence Alma-Tadema.