Sunday, April 18, 2010

A Fractured Alliance

As readers may have guessed, I have recently become interested in the House of Orléans since the first Belgian queen, Louise-Marie, came from that family. So I was pleased to find this article, by Leah Marie Brown, discussing the alliance rings and the unhappy marriage of Louise-Marie's grandparents, the infamous Louis Philippe Joseph, Duc d'Orléans (Philippe Egalité) and his forlorn and forsaken wife, Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre. While I don't believe that inanimate objects can really harbor traumatic memories, the Duc's broken wedding band does seem strangely evocative of a man who broke faith...

1 comment:

Lucy said...

I'm presently reading about Louis XV- so this is most interesting! Thanks, Matterhorn:)