GLR January-February 2025

stopped loving her once she had an affair with his valet. All three were appointed along with the Marquis de Biran. This foursome drew up the statutes of the order in a country house and, two days later, back in Paris, they presented their constitution. Its articles stipulated that all candidates for admission had to be “visited” by the four “grand priors” to guarantee that their bodies are sound and can “support the austerities.” Any sexual re lationship with a woman will mean immediate expul sion. Any rank may be admitted. One remains a novice only “until the beard appears on the chin.” Marriage is allowed only for reasons of property and begetting an heir, but the member must not love his wife and will be allowed to sleep with her only once a week. All private affairs must be shared, but the “mysteries” of the order must not be revealed to anyone other than potential can didates. The grand priors get first pick of the guests and the others “must be contented with the leftovers from their table.” Through the back channels of gossip, their secret was soon out. In summer 1682 a pamphlet declared “France is become Italian” and stated that there existed a confraternity of noblemen calling itself “The Holy Congregation of Glorious Pederasts”: “All the ladies had made their charms so accessible that the young men despised them ... debauchery reigned in court more than anywhere else in the whole land and although the king had on several occasions expressed an inconceivable horror of these sorts of pleasures, that was the only case in which he was disobeyed.” Princes of the blood and distinguished gentlemen rushed to be admitted. Among the first was the Comte de Vermandois, Louis XIV’s illegitimate son by Louise de la Vallière. In 1681, he was fourteen and as beautiful as his mother, and had been named Admiral of France. Rumor had it that he had first been debauched by Monsieur’s lover Lorraine. Vernandois was ad mitted, but, as an illegitimate child of the King, he requested that the rites of initiation be dispensed with. This was not al lowed, but as a special favor he could choose which of the pri ors he preferred for his “visitation.” He was also permitted to designate his “partner in pleasure” from among the brothers. In gratitude, Vernandois spread word of the brotherhood to drum up candidates. This caused such an eagerness in high society to enter the order that word of it came to the King’s ear. N OBLEMEN B EHAVING B ADLY Before the Sun King got wind of these goings-on, rumors about these extra-curricular activities had already scandalized the pub lic. During one spree in a brothel, the Chevalier de Tilladet, the Marquis de Biran, the Duc de La Ferté, and the son of Finance Minister Colbert sodomized their favorite female prostitutes, bound one of them to a bed, placed a fuse in her vagina, and set it alight, deaf to the screams of their victim. They then caroused drunkenly through the streets all night, breaking lanterns. Stop ping at the wooden bridge that led to the Ile de la Cité, they tore down its crucifix and tried in vain to set it on fire. These depredations caused a great to-do. At first the may hem was attributed to valets, no one “believing that men of rank

army of its best generals—such as the burly Huxelles, who pro moted good-looking junior officers and well-built man-servants; or Vendöme, who boasted far and wide of his preference to be buggered by farmhands, chair-bearers, and stable boys. Louis even congratulated him on surviving two operations for syphilis. They were but a few of the sodomites who had won battles, conquered towns, and gained the favor of the mob, like Prince Eugene of Savoy, one of the greatest strategists of his time. The Prince was known as “Madame Puttana” for making himself available to any interested young man. F RANCE T URNED I TALIAN A ROUND 1678, an exceptionally bold group of adolescent lords, including Guy-Armand Gramont, Comte de Guiche, an intimate of Monsieur, decided to found a secret society whose statutes in cluded total abstinence from women (but for less noble reasons than the gentlemen in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labours Lost ).They wore a badge showing a man trampling a woman at his feet in imitation of the order of St. Michael, with the angel trampling the devil. This misogyny was partly for fear that women, born gossips, would give away their secrets. There was a struggle for primacy among the founders. The Marquis de Manicamp claimed to have the most experience at the practice; the Duc de Gramont, Guiche’s brother, pulled rank as a duke and pointed to his reputation as the greatest sodomite in the land. The Chevalier de Tilladet pointed out that he was a Knight of Malta, itself an advanced degree in debauchery. Gra mont was accused of loving his wife too much; he said he The Chevalier de Lorraine, portrayed as Ganymede, catamite and cupbearer of Zeus. Portrait by Baldassare Franceschini.

January–February 2025

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