The Good, the Bad and the Unready (65 page)

Louis XV, king of France, 1710–74

In 1744 Louis set out to join his forces in the second campaign of the War of the Austrian Succession. At the city of Metz he fell violently ill, and for several days lay on what many feared was his deathbed. On the news of his recovery the delighted French people acclaimed their king as ‘Louis le Bien-Aime’. It is a curiously unsuitable nickname for a monarch who received an extremely bad press from his contemporaries, not least because of his scandalous private life.

In 1725 Louis married Marie Leszczynska, a Polish princess,
and together they had ten children. But monogamy was not for Louis, and in 1732 the first in a string of mistresses appeared. His affairs with all three of the Nesle sisters and the former high-class prostitute Jeanne Bécu generated howls of outrage from the press of the day. But it was his liaison with Jeanne Poisson, better known as Madame Pompadour, that caused the greatest offence. It was alleged that when she could no longer satisfy the king herself, she furnished him with a succession of young women (and some very young girls) whom she kept in a house known as the ‘Deer Park’.

There were some things that Louis could do as well as anybody. He was noted, for instance, for his skill in cutting off the top of a boiled egg with one blow of his fork, and he made a point of being served boiled eggs whenever he dined in public. In almost everything else, however, he failed to impress. France was insulted by his sexual antics and dismayed at his abysmal foreign policy that saw the country abandon all its territories in the New World. Well-beloved, in sum, he was not.

Donald the
White
see
COLOURFUL CHARACTERS

Athelfleda the
White Duck

Athelfleda, queen of England, d.c.964

Athelfleda married her childhood sweetheart Edgar the
PEACEABLE
and together they had a son, Edward the
MARTYR
. Histories diverge as to whether she died in childbirth or separated from Edgar after finding out about his affair with a woman called Wulfryth, whom he later banished to a nunnery. No one is exactly sure about the reason for her nickname either, although some propose that ‘the White Duck’ or ‘the Little White Duck’ was simply Edgar’s pet name for his first love.

 
White Hands
see
COLOURFUL CHARACTERS

Mary the
White Queen
see
Mary the
MERMAID

Victoria the
Widow of Windsor

Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom, 1819–1901

Rudyard Kipling, author of
The Jungle Book
and other classics, is somewhat responsible for this nickname. He wrote a poem in 1890 that contained the lines:

After her husband Albert the
GOOD
died of typhoid Victoria spent the rest of her life, much of it at Windsor Castle, wearing the black of mourning. There were some good times in her forty years of widowhood, however, notably her deep affection for her ‘gillie’, or attendant, John Brown, who became her personal aide. Rumours spread that the two had secretly married, and some gave the queen of Great Britain and Ireland and empress of India the additional title ‘Mrs Brown’. Certainly their relationship was close. In her personal diary of 1884 she wrote, ‘I like his strength, his weight, this feeling of security. He calls me Woman; I call him Man… He treats me roughly, he scolds me, he gives me orders and I am happy that he does so.’

Victoria also earned the soubriquet of ‘the Grandmother of Europe’ since on her death her descendants occupied most of the thrones of that continent.

 
Frederick the
Winter King
see
the
WINTER MONARCHS

Elizabeth the
Winter Queen
see
the
WINTER MONARCHS

Albert the
Wise
see
Albert the
LAME

Alfonso the
Wise
see
Alfonso the
ASTRONOMER