De Cape, de Robe et d'Épée - Xian Moriarty

Homesick

Page 12

Next pages (soon!)

At this point Dubois is no longer Philippe’s preceptor, and that means he didn’t have to sleep in his student’s bedroom anymore. We don’t know where he lived, but most likely he had a small apartment somewhere near the Palais-Royal or something (although a few years later there's a whole saga about a little house he owned... Maybe we'll get to that someday). In the following years, Dubois’ position remains ambiguous; obviously Philippe appreciates his company and wants to keep him around… But Dubois isn’t really given any important charges either.

The future regent’s love for music is well-known. He loved singing and playing instruments, but also enjoyed doing composition. We know he played the harpsichord, the flute and the viola da gamba… Here he’s playing some kind of old-timey guitar because the dumb joke wouldn’t leave my head, but it’s not completely impossible that he knew how to play that too: while Liselotte never had any serious musical training, we know she occasionally played the guitar!

La VF est ici!

A continuation of my comic about Philippe's high heels, which you can find here! Next pages below the cut! (Ainsi, comme d'habitude, de la version française, sous la coupure donc !)

Homesick

Pages 10-11

Next pages (soon!)

Philippe really did leave a positive impression to everyone who had to deal with him during this campaign, but truth be told it’s only during the later ones that he really got to dive into the action (including the cavalry charge depicted here!). For now, while his zeal and desire to please were evident, he had to be kept away from anything important, as ordered by Louis XIV… who wanted his own son to play the bigger role, of course.

The two gifts offered to Dubois here are real, but it’s entirely possible that he got them for a different reason! In 1691, Philippe de Chartres’ marriage with one of Louis’ daughters is still fairly recent, and while we don’t have any hard proof of it, it’s very, very, very plausible that Dubois was asked to convince the king’s nephew to agree to it. The Saint-Honoré canonry briefly mentioned here won’t remain on the list of Dubois’ honors for very long though, for reasons that will later be explained…

I'm gonna be honest

I'm currently reading Jean-Michel Riou's "L'honneur m'est plus cher que la vie", a historical novel about Philippe's life told from his POV, and there's this scene I absolutely loved about how he made fun of the bishop to entertain Louis the night before the consecration :P I had to illustrate it somehow. FR and more below ⬇️