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"Et puis vous pourriez pas lui dire que le chapeau, c'est juste pour les cérémonies?!!!!"

"Oh, il le sait."

One of the things that come up over and over is that he was, ultimately, kind and quick to forgive; unable to hold a grudge for very long and willing to ignore things that a lot of people would’ve been resentful for. It’s something Saint-Simon (but he definitely isn’t the only one!) laments a lot; the way his forgiveness could, in the eyes of a lot of people, so easily be seen as weakness. He preferred to laugh things of rather than making head rolls; but the truth is when something actually mattered enough, he could very much make a decision.

And in a sense, that connects to another main thing: laughter! It comes up so much whenever contemporaries write about him. Faced with insults and enemies, he would laugh things off and let it go, he sought the company of people who could make him laugh and always loved having the last, smartass word in a conversation. He was a funny guy and he valued that a lot in other people. Liselotte mentions in one of her later letters how he would always take some time to visit her, and would always find the words or the right story to make her laugh.

He loved his parents! We know more about his relationship with Liselotte since she wrote so much about it, but frankly there isn't anything to let us know he wasn't in good terms with his father too. The way i see it, he took after both of them a lot : Monsieur's easy-going nature and Liselotte's sharp side and curiosity! AND all three of them had a strong sense of humor too, let's be real. One thing he did NOT have in common with them was patience! As Liselotte said (in a quote that very much echoes my very first point haha) :

He was smart and a lot sharper than people often gave him credit for; perfectly able to play people against each other to get what he wanted out of them. Louis XIV had his “I’ll see”, Philippe’s version of that was closer to “sure, I guess” : he had this infuriating habit of agreeing with people only to later do what he likely had already decided instead! This lead to a lot of the frustration you can feel when reading Saint-Simon’s memoirs: Saint-Simon was one of his close friends, and it does seem like Philippe valued his opinions and judgement… but they also clearly disagreed on a lot of things. Like, y’know, how to run a kingdom.

He likely had a bit of a nerd streak; Louis XIV jokingly called him "the doctor of the family", and that might've also been a thinly-veiled criticism because he did get into things with more passion and interest than was typically expected of nobles at the time? In that a prince was expected to be interested in things, of course, but not to get invested as deeply as Philippe did. He was passionate about science (the Palais-Royal had its very own lab where he would make experiments and create perfumes!), music (he composed a lot of music, some of which you can listen to here! And here! ) and painting/drawing (he illustrated (he def had some help, but still!) an edition of Daphnis et Chloé, one of his favorite books!), but really you kinda get the sense that he was just passionate about anything new that captivated him, changing interests fast, always willing to learn about new things. That kinda went for his love life as well: he had multiple mistresses, but as far as we know he never got particularly attached to them even if he enjoyed their company.

A lot of people theorize that he must’ve been a bit shy, and maybe he was, but also you just kinda get the sense that he wasn’t super into court life in general? Which is amusing because he could perfectly play that role… when he wanted to. He fiercely valued his private life, typically preferring the company of a few close friends over big crowds.

During Louis XIV’s reign, as time went on and he was being kept away from any sort of power, he dedicated his life to his pastimes and pleasures, caring very little about his reputation and generally doing as he pleased. He kept himself busy by indulging in his (numerous!) hobbies, but ultimately you kinda got the sense that he was bored and aimless.

On a battlefield he was very much like his father: eager to go into battle, brave to the point of carelessness and, from what we did get to see, very talented in general.

Once he became regent, he threw himself into work and followed a pretty strict schedule, which is hilarious because no one expected that from him! He showed himself to be hardworking and generally seemed to enjoy the challenge, but he also drew a VERY strong line between his work and his leisure time. He worked until 8PM, and from then on it was Philippe Time : he would not hear a word about his job or about politics. There’s this funny bit from Saint-Simon where he’s kind of impressed because apparently no matter how drunk Philippe would get, you couldn’t get him to reveal a single state-related secret.