looking to form a cabal

Homesick

Pager 21-22

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The anecdote Dubois starts telling here is funny so I couldn’t pass the opportunity to throw it in there, but most likely it never happened and was part of the (very) long list of stories people made up to discredit him. The story goes that, as a child, Dubois stole some antimony (a powerful laxative) from his father’s shop and, as a prank, threw it in the pot of soup served to students at the priory… And sure, the whole thing was most likely made up, but, well. it IS pretty funny 😅

Anyways!! Here it is, a whole little story about this priory where, in the end, Dubois never went back. His relationship with Brive was complicated; from his writings it seems like he certainly had some fondness for the place, but his ambitions also meant that he spent the bigger part of his life distancing himself from it. Regardless, his successes were very much celebrated back home; there are accounts of days-long celebrations when he became cardinal!

On Dubois’ death, a good part of his fortune ultimately went to Brive and the priory; his brother Joseph reinvested a lot of the money to maintain roads in town, build a bridge (the Pont Cardinal, which still exists today!) and modernize the priory. Of course we can’t know for sure if that’s what Dubois would’ve wanted, but I like to think he wouldn’t have objected :D

Homesick

Pages 19-20

Page 23

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In the letters concerning the priory, Dubois tries to justify his demands as much as possible. On Fénelon’s advice, he tries his best to minimize the potential monetary benefits he might gain here, being perfectly willing to concede some of the things he already has in exchange for this one. While the priory might have sentimental value for him, he knows money will speak louder in the end here, especially to the king. So, he does some maths!

Some of these letters are written during the Leuze campaign, during which the first half of this comic took place. This certainly must’ve added to Dubois’ fears. In the same letters he writes regarding the priory, we see him deal with the little cabal of mysterious people (probably some friends of Monsieur!) spreading rumors about him. It was a lot to deal with for someone who, most likely, was still struggling to find his place in the House of Orléans.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9o3XvSPfru

Dress

c. 1910-1912

I'm BACK with a new fanfic! Finally properly introducing my own interpretation of Antoine d'Effiat to my little exploration of historical monchevy's dynamic and relationship.

Once again it's explicit smut because my brain can't be bothered to write anything else. Enjoy it here!

happy pride! remember that being a transgender is everything but fiction. there are so many real historical figures from every century about whose transgenderism we aren't even aware of

Page 17-18

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As mentioned earlier, i did simplify the events here, since the goal was to focus on Dubois and Philippe’s relationship. This whole priory affair took place over some time, and Philippe wasn’t the first person Dubois tried to get help from! Initially you can tell he doesn’t really know how to tackle this situation, and so before he even considers asking directly, he asks a few close friends for advice…

The first person he writes to is his friend, the abbé de Fénelon, who at the time was on good terms with Madame de Maintenon. Most likely, Dubois hoped that his friend could convince her to intervene. Fénelon’s response is a gentle “sorry, but no”: such a demand coming from Maintenon would inevitably allow the king to figure out who was behind the whole thing. Fénelon recommends asking Philippe to intervene in his favor, and to also keep in touch with De La Chaise, the king’s confessor. Later on, when Dubois wants something, he’ll always be extremely careful: if he’s going to ask for something, he’s gonna make sure no one can figure out his plans!

La VF est ci-dessous!

Purse

c. 1650-1680

silk, metal, glass

French Revolution oc, Agathe !

Agathe is a revolutionist with very firm and harsh ideals. She grew up envying the nobles in their frilly dresses and dances while she didn't have the chance to even eat a crumble of bread daily. She used to dream of becoming rich, but reality soon shattered upon her making her realise that what was needed was equality, obtainable only through a revolution in her eyes. She is very strong‐willed, serious and respected amongst the other revolutionists.

She wears male clothing to rebel and show her strength and intelligence are equal to those of men.

Homesick

Pages 15-16

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We don’t know a whole lot about Dubois’ parents, but we DO know he wrote to his mother somewhat regularly! As for his father, a letter sent by Dubois to an old friend regarding this thing about the priory hints that Jean Dubois could be a little intense! Paraphrasing, but the sentence “if I don’t get the priory I think he might die” is… pretty close to the original text, honestly.

What amused me about this whole priory affair is that later on plenty of people will complain (not without reason, let's be real) that Dubois is acquiring all these abbeys and important jobs to enrich himself. This particular case stands out in comparison because while obviously the money is a nice bonus, you can tell Dubois wants this priory for personal reasons: to please his family, but also because most likely he still had some attachment to the place (he wrote so, at least!). Amusingly, he writes that it might be nice to have a place he can go back to one of these days, when he's older... Of course, he might've only written that to pull at some heartstrings, but let's be real, at this point he had no way to tell which direction his career might take!

La VF est juste en dessous, comme toujours!

Homesick

Pages 13-14

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One endearing (or annoying, depending on who you ask!) trait of Dubois is that, in the end, the man was a worrier. In his letters, you get to constantly see him worry about everything and anything; often with good reasons…. but also often for unimportant ones. The complete opposite of Philippe, who wasn’t as nonchalant as Saint-Simon wrote, but who certainly didn’t fuss over things nearly as much as his old preceptor did. In some letter exchanges, notably during Dubois’ diplomatic missions, while he's away and Philippe is still in Paris, you can hear the annoyed teacher voice while reading, it’s great.

James Stanhope, who was generally friendly with Dubois but also had to negotiate with him during the Régence, describes the way he would kinda ramble a lot when nervous… It’s something Dubois likely learned to control better over time, as he got used to all these important meetings, but early on he very much struggled to hide how he felt about things!

La VF est sous le cut, comme toujours!