Sexuality

Philippe's relationships with women are extremely problematic because they reflect a dramatic antinomy: Philippe is heterosexual but hates and despises women. While with men he has had more and more equal relationships, with women he has always felt exploited and humiliated.

Philippe’s sexual initiation was extremely premature: “I was barely ten when Monsieur de Coulmers got me into bed with him”; “Four years later Madame de Crécy offered me - or rather forced me into - the shelter of her alcove. She must have been in her forties. " We know from his father that in his early adolescence, after M. de Coulmers, he became a page to Cardinal Mazarin, whose entourage is known for "love à l’italienne". When Angélique first meets him, the fifteen-year-old boy, according to her father, looks like "a pretty girl" and has effeminate manners. But the following year, at the age of sixteen, he shows his appreciation for Angélique's beauty, telling her mother that Mlle de Senlis, who was to sit next to him, had been “advantageously replaced." Of course, Philippe does not question anything, that is life, the education of a young gentleman destined for a court career involves these steps, and it is not possible to do otherwise. Angélique should not be shocked, knowing full well that her brother Albert, a page to the Marshal of Rochant, "makes love with the knight" and probably also with his chubby wife. She should also remember Henri de Roguier, the page she met in Poitiers when she was a schoolgirl. The boy talks to Reverend Vincent de Paul about the mature ladies who lure him into their alcove and whom he must please. He also adds that he was able to enter the King’s service thanks to the Knight of Lorraine "who …. who liked me ”. The basic difference, however, is that Albert was seventeen and Henri was sixteen while Philippe started as a child. In the scene of the conversation about Cantor's departure, Philippe advises Angélique to forget about her scruples and to ignore what happens to a young page. Later on, however, he will console his wife after the death of her son, telling her that, dying young, he has remained pure and has spared himself "the tears of shame that children taken unaware drop into their pillows” (today we would say abused children). A handsome teenager Extraordinarily handsome and desired, the teenager Philippe has many experiences both homosexual and heterosexual: in the same scene already mentioned, to Angélique who asks him if he has ever known love, he replies that in that field his experiences have been "numerous and varied'. However, one gets the impression that human relationships, at any level, that Philippe has with men are less confrontational than those he has with women. And the same must have been in the intimate sphere. Philippe’s sexual relations, which, by his own admission, contributed to his rise at court, continued to be bisexual until he met Angélique. The matter is in the public domain, and nobody is shocked, except perhaps Angélique herself. Caravaggio: Fanciullo con canestra di frutta, 1593-94 Philonide de Parajonc, the “Précieuse”, who at the first meeting is with the protagonist in the gardens of the Tuileries, seeing him leaning against a statue in the park, says: "He is certainly waiting for his beau, no doubt." Marie-Agnès, Angélique's sister, who was a lively maid of honour in the court for two years, stigmatizing Philippe's brutal behaviour with women, says "He probably keeps his pretty graces for his boyfriends." Interestingly, Ninon de Lanclos, the courtesan, does not mention this aspect, perhaps considering it normal, or, more sharply, considering it secondary for Philippe. Desgrez, the policeman, tells Angélique that "her cousin" was "part of Monsieur's gang," and everyone knows what it means. In a subsequent volume he is referred to as "Monsieur's favourite." Intendant Molines, speaking of the Marquis's education, informs Angélique that he was initiated into "Italian practices" from a very young age. Angélique is always annoyed when somebody talks about Philippe in these terms and generally she silences the person she is speaking to. However, she reveals her concern to Desgrez, that is, she wonders whether the use of the so-called "Italian practices" might jeopardize procreation (she has obviously every intention of giving birth to children). Desgrez reassures her with a laugh: "Considering how that young man is built, it seems to me that he has everything he needs to make a woman happy and to give her a string of children." Philippe's relationships with women are extremely problematic because they reflect a dramatic antinomy: Philippe is heterosexual but hates and despises women. While with men he has had more and more equal relationships, with women he has always felt exploited and humiliated.

Monsieur de Guiche Attracted by his athletic build and by his angel face, they compelled him since he was a young boy to adult-level performances, with claims of skill and experience that he could not have. As a consequence, Philippe has always felt inadequate, not up to par or in any case anxious about the performance and the expectations of his expert and experienced partners. The result was disappointing, especially in relation to the expectations towards a boy and then a young man "gifted with the physical perfection of Apollo", who “should be capable of…supernatural performances". In the same scene of the rug, the most erotic of the novel, Philippe asks Angélique, with “ bitterness in his voice", to teach him "what women like you expect from a lover as handsome as a god". Philippe was formed fearing women, dominated and mocked in the relationships that "mature dames and young minxes at Court" imposed on him, and he subsequently took his revenge by the use of violence. The elegant and sophisticated Marquis will no longer have sex with women separately from the use of force, with an evident inclination for sadism. War will offer him multiple opportunities to give vent to his warped sexuality. A reputation Elisabetta Sirani: Portia Wounding Her Thigh, 1664 Angélique, at the first meeting in the Tuileries, talking to Mlle de Parajonc, had immediately justified Philippe for his brutal behaviour, instinctively guessing that "women have hurt him on account of his beauty" (and letting her friend stunned, since she asserted this claim without even knowing him). Despite his terrible reputation, however, women "swoon" at the sight of Philippe and "won’t rest till they’ve managed to slip into his bed". Angélique will join the series. Yet Philippe, as has been said, is clearly heterosexual. Homosexuality is a habit, is fashion, is a common practice, a compulsory step for young aristocrats, who, later, used to take the orientation which suited them best. In the "gang of Monsieur", alongside personages with markedly and almost exclusively homosexual tendencies, such as the Chevalier de Lorraine and Monsieur himself, there are others who have bisexual behaviours, such as the beautiful Count of Guiche, who is credited a relationship with Monsieur but also with Madame, his wife, or others like Péguilin de Lauzun, the unambiguously heterosexual court playboy. Philippe is very responsive to the sight and contact, even fleeting, of the female body. He cannot get close to Angélique without feeling the desire, which he hides with strong self-control or which he disguises under pretexts of revenge or of "punishment". His eyes betray the excitement when they linger with emotion on specific details of her body, especially on her neck, on her nape, on her throat. His hands immediately go to her hips, to her breasts, to her "arched waist", “ the hollow of her back”, to her arms (from which he pushes the bracelets up to caress her smooth skin). Before the wedding, everyone knew the "orgies" done at war and the "resounding love affairs” mentioned by M.lle de Parajonc and by Marie-Agnès (perhaps from direct experience, given the emotional tone with which she speaks of him). After meeting Angélique, there is no longer any reference to Philippe's sexual relations with men or with women, even though nothing obliges to exclude them a priori. However, they seem unlikely to be hypothesized because, in a gossipy and malicious environment like the court’s circles, this would have been immediately known. Angélique never appears jealous of Philippe, despite being in love with him, and the envious courtiers would not have missed the chance to inform her about her husband's infidelity. « Back to the Philippe du Plessis-Bellière: Part I