Noble Blood - Live by the Guillotine, Die by the Guillotine

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

On October 6, a mob from Paris descended on Versailles, demanding blood. They stormed the palace, trying to find the private chambers of Marie Antoinette. But more shocking than a mob forcing their way through the royal gates was the member of the group rumored to be in their midsts: Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orleans, and a prince of the blood. A cousin of Louis XVI, he became a folk hero of the revolution. But did he actually believe in what the revolutionaries stood for, or was he merely serving his own best interests? In the end, he would be forced to make a choice and pick a side, a decision that would cost more than his title.Support Noble Blood:— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon— Noble Blood merch— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. On the morning of October 5th, 1789, a furious mob of protesters gathered in Paris and marched to Versailles. fed up with food shortages, rampant poverty, and the excesses of the royal family, the crowd charged into the palace's vast royal gardens, armed with muskets, shouting, When will we have bread? One group broke away from the mob and headed inside the palace itself, intent on finding King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's private apartments. overwhelming the royal guards, protesters fought their way through the palace with the goal of assassinating their hated Austrian queen, who had become a scapegoat for everything wrong with France.

Marie Antoinette terrified only narrowly managed to escape. One of her servants locked the door to her bedroom, which gave her enough time to sneak out through a corridor to the king's bedchamber. The March on Versailles, sometimes called the Women's March, because of the supposed proportion of the group who were angry fishwives of Paris, is one of the most significant early events of what would soon become the French Revolution. But the crowd was not just made up of motley discontents and starving fishmongers. astonishingly, rumored to be among the crowd violently beheading guards while forcing their way into the palace was a member of the nobility, Louis Philippe II, the Duke of Orleans, and King Louis XVI's cousin. One could hear protesters chanting, Viva or Leone, and Long live our father, long live King Dorilion, as they stormed their way through Versailles. Rumors about Louis Philippe's involvement in the October 5th riot abounded. One rumor alleged that the Duke had paid Versailles cafe owners to provide food and drinks to the rioters.

Others whispered that he had bribed assassins to help murder the royal guards. The most outlandish rumors claimed that the Duke was seen in a gray riding coat holding a whip, which he used to point the mob toward Marie Antoinette's apartment. We don't know for sure whether or not Louis Philippe was there that day, but the rumors themselves are astonishing that a nobleman would cast his lot

not with his own kin, but with the proletariat. Louis Philippe, who would rename himself Louis Egalite during the revolution, was fourth in line to the French throne when it still existed. and heir to the biggest fortune in France, aside from the fortune of the king himself. Still, eventually he made the dangerous choice to align himself with the revolutionaries.

It was a choice that put his personal fortune and political status at risk in the short term, but in the long term, it would cost him a lot more than that. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. Louis-Philippe d'Orlion did not start off life as a rebel. As a teenager and young adult, he was a dutiful member of the royal court, conducting himself with a stiff but dignified air. A member of the court wrote that he was so emotionless that he seemed, quote, more like a wooden puppet

than a real man composed of flesh and blood. In 1769, all signs indicated that he was going to live the life of a normal French aristocrat, and he married a woman named Louise Marie Adelaide de Bourbon, the daughter of one of the richest men in France, at a lavish ceremony at the chapel of Versailles. But that very year would set the stage for young Louis-Philippe's rebellion. King Louis XIV was still king at this point, and Louis-Philippe and his father were presented with a proposition from King Louis XVI to raise taxes. to cover debts incurred from the disastrous seven years' war. Louis Philippe and his father had felt that taxation needed the consent of the people

through the Estates General, a quasi-democratic assembly that included representatives of the clergy, nobility, and commoners that the king could consult with. The king cast off their protests and forced the tax through anyway. But with that, a precedent was set. The Orleans family was aligned with the people. They were aristocrats, but they were championing, at least relative, democracy. Louis-Philippe's brief foray into political reform didn't lead to much at first. As a young adult, he focused his energy on acting out in less high-minded ways.

He had already been sleeping around covertly throughout his adolescence, and he didn't give that up even after he got married, starting an affair with one of his wives' ladies in waiting shortly after the wedding. When Louis Philippe wasn't pursuing affairs, he was gambling, hunting, and drinking. In the meantime, a new king and queen of France were crowned in 1774,

Louis XVIth, and his wife, Marie Antoinette. Louis-Philippe was on pretty good terms with them, until 1778. After a decade spent listlessly philandering, Louis-Philippe was bored and in search of a purpose, and he decided to join the military. The king appointed him a naval officer during the Battle of Ashant, a skirmish against England that was meant to divert British resources away from the Revolutionary War in America. After the battle, Louis Philippe arrived at Versailles at 2 a.m., demanding the king wake up before announcing to the sleepy king that they had gloriously won the battle. Louis Philippe was given a hero's welcome, with a 20-minute standing ovation the next night at the opera, and the recitation of a heroic poem written in his honor. But slowly, the king realized that those honors were not.

deserved. It turns out that the battle had not been a French victory. It ended indecisively with no ships lost on either side. Louis XVIth was outraged to find out that Louis Philippe had either been vastly mistaken or else grossly exaggerated his glory. Humiliated, Louis Philippe resigned. He tried many times to bribe military officials and back. the king and queen for another chance in the Navy, but they refused. Louis-Philippe would hold that grudge for the rest of his life, saying that the king and queen, quote, condemned him to a life of perpetual idleness. Outside of his personal issues with the king, Louis-Philippe's commitment to political reform didn't begin in earnest until he went on a trip to London. He went to a

parliamentary debate at the House of Commons, where he witnessed powerful speeches attacking the power of the crown. Louis Philippe was thrilled by this, telling several MPs that he saw a real democracy in action for the first time. Louis-Philippe described London as the, quote, womb of liberty. There, his political philosophy began to develop. The professor and writer George Armstrong Rung Kelly described Louis Philippe's philosophy as a commitment to absolute liberty, which united his democratic leanings with his personal libertine habits. Louis Philippe supported equal opportunity for all a little bit out of his own self-interest. A more democratic government would allow him to do whatever he wanted without the king's meddling.

After all, he couldn't have even gone to London without the king's approving. approval. Louis-Philippe wrote at the time, quote, I don't give a damn what the estate general accomplish, but I wanted to be there at the moment when they took up the matter of individual liberty, so as to give my vote to a law that would assure me that whenever I wanted to leave for London, Rome, or Peking, nothing could get in my way. I couldn't care less about the rest, end quote. Returning from London, Louis-Philippe was invigorated to campaign for a French democracy, and over the next decade, Louis-Philippe tried to maintain his bon vivant lifestyle while taking on a more active role in politics. Louis-Philippe became the patron

of several subversive intellectuals who wanted to reform or overthrow the monarchy. He also funded a vast array of anti-Versai propaganda and hosted salons at the Palais Royal, where politicians, philosophers, and artists decried the despotism of the king. Meanwhile, by the late 1780s, France's financial crisis was worsening, with a national debt of a hundred million livres. The Assembly of Notables, a group of high-ranking nobles in state politicians that met on extraordinary occasions to advise the King, were convened to discuss the tax issue.

The last time an Assembly of Notables had convened was 1626, more than a century earlier. This time, Louis Philippe was elected president. With that, Louis Philippe emerged as the public face of opposition to the monarchy. Even though he was aloof, self-interested, and not exactly reliable, Louis-Philippe was also open-minded, humble, and committed to reforming the French government. as the richest and most politically powerful supporter of democracy, and one with direct ties to the monarchy, he could potentially reform the French government from the inside.

One intellectual called him, quote, the one man who was capable of reuniting France, hoping that he would become the king in a monarchy under a democratic constitution like they had in England. But when the Assembly of Notables, first convened to discuss the issue of taxation, Louis Philippe didn't show up. He had gone hunting and only appeared at the assembly a few hours later. A few days later, he failed to appear yet again. Turns out he was out hunting again, but this time he chased a stag into the heart of Paris and

killed it in front of an excited crowd. While he was away, the assembly rejected any attempt to raise taxes. To such an absurd extent that an effigy of the man who drafted one proposal was burned in a public square, forcing him into exile. Clearly, no pun intended, things were getting heated. Making little progress, the Assembly of Notables kicked the tax issue to the Estates General. Like the Assembly of Notables, the Estates General had no actual power over the King's decisions, but unlike the Assembly of Notables, the Estates General was more explicitly democratic, with representatives for regular people, the group that made up the vast majority of France. When the Estates General met, the King tried to lobby four higher taxes from Versailles.

He insisted that he was already cutting costs and vastly scaling back his expenses, but it turns out that all he was doing was laying off a few retainers and firing some of his hunting dogs. The assembly, unimpressed by his paltry concessions, refused to budge. Finally, the king arrived at the assembly in person to try to figure this out once and for all. They debated for seven straight hours. Finally, the king simply ordered the tax to be passed through by force. Louis Philippe rose and said, quote, If the king holds a royal session of parliament,

the votes should be collected and counted. But if this is a lead to justice, he imposes silence on us all. The king, growing angry, said, this was indeed a royal session. Louis-Philippe countered, quote, in which case, sir, allow me to lay at your feelings the illegality of your order.

The king replied, but it is legal because I wish it, and he stormed out of the hall. Louis Philippe was swept up into the crowd and carried out in triumph. He had done the unthinkable. He had openly opposed the king in a democratic forum. He claimed that he did it for personal rather than political reasons. In his characteristically aloof fashion, he said he stuck up for the Estates General because the king, quote, treated him with some.

much insolence. The king and queen exiled Louis Philippe from Paris as punishment. When he received the order, he laughed. He set off from the Palais Royal at 11 the next day, smiling and waving to cries and cheers of long live the Duke d'Orlion from the surrounding crowd. Until this point, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette hardly imagined Louis Philippe as a person of any real consequence. They saw him as a waste role, hiding his lack of ambition behind hastily adopted political ideas that really were more self-serving than anything else. But with that episode, the king and queen were beginning to realize just how big of a threat the Duke of Orleans really was.

By the time Louis Philippe returned to Paris from exile, he was a popular hero. Pamphlet after pamphlet, depicted. acted him as the victim of a tyrannical king. At times, the praise was so over the top that it covered superhuman acts of charity, like one anonymous writer claiming that he had seen Louisville personally rescue a jockey from drowning. Meanwhile, the king was still trying to pass a tax bill to fulfill the royal debt, but the Estates General wouldn't entertain it, and the growing animosity between Versailles and politicians,

made normal government procedures impossible. As the price of bread had skyrocketed, people were beginning to clamor for revolution. Louis-Philippe started to hear, wipe out all aristocrats in the bourgeois and let's burn Versailles on the streets of Paris. One day, graffiti appeared on a wall at Versailles, palace for sale, ministers for execution,

and crown on offer. In this social context, Louis-Philippe began to grow more and more radical. When a document circulated through the Assembly of Notables reifying the right of the aristocracy, Louis-Philippe refused to sign it, arguing that the entire political system needed to be overhauled. He wrote, quote, For some time now having mixed with different classes of society, I have been developing a taste for liberty. One of the intellectuals Louis Philippe was supporting even ghost wrote him a manifesto,

including concrete policy proposals like legalizing divorce, the right to privacy, individual property, freedom of expression, higher taxes on the rich, and a detailed proposal of a new parliamentary system and how it would work. It seemed like exactly the right moment for Louis Philippe to make good on his lofty political ideals, or even to take his allies' suggestion to declare himself the new king of a democratic constitutional monarchy. He was even granted the perfect opportunity. Representatives of the commoners at the Estates General set up yet another assembly aiming at reform, the National Assembly, and they elected Louis Philippe as the president.

But he rejected the position, saying, gentlemen, if I believed that I was able to fill the place to which you have elected me, I would accept it. But I would be unworthy of your goodness if I did accept, knowing how little I am fitted for it. Instead, Louis Philippe supported the burgeoning revolution from behind the scenes. He fed and gave money to the poor and housed the homeless during the winter of 1788. He gave a thousand livres was worth of bread to the poor every day. Even though he was rejecting political power and abdicating it at every opportunity, the Jacobin were going to local committees around Paris,

arguing that Louis Philippe should be made the intermediary between the king and the people. Stuck in legislative gridlock, the Estates General could not make any progress on any reforms, let alone the complex issue of taxes. Meanwhile, burglaries were breaking out throughout Paris. A bookseller at the Palais Real Arcades wrote, quote, An air of discord hangs over the city.

All it needs is a single spark to ignite some terrible conflagration. That spark arrived in the summer of 1789 when the National Assembly led a crowd of Parisians to storm the Bastille, an old fortress that had been used as a city. state prison, liberating the seven prisoners inside. Although Louis-Philippe was not involved in the demonstrations, the crowd displayed busts of Louis-Philippe as they set off from the Palais Raul.

Louis-Philippe became even more of a folk hero. He was nicknamed the Avenger of the People, at a time when aristocrats were never less popular. This was yet another ideal moment for Louis-Philippe as the de facto representative of the people among the nobility, to pursue a more central or balanced political position. At the very least, he could make some demands on the king, even if he didn't want to take political power for himself. Louis-Philippe could have increased the power of the National Assembly. He could have made any of the policy proposals laid out in his manifesto

or even bought enough time to prepare a new constitution that could have created a democratic monarchy. But all he asked for was to visit London to check in on a few business interests. This was a strange choice, confounding the intellectuals and politicians who stood by Louis Philippe's side. Was Louis Philippe running away and avoiding responsibility?

Or was he biding his time to wait for an even better moment to try to push through his political agenda? In any case, Louis Philippe's hesitancy. was a bad call. While the king reluctantly agreed to the National Assembly's demands, most of Louis Philippe's political allies saw Louis Philippe as a failure for having the opportunity to advocate for real change, but ultimately doing nothing.

That said, he still had the support of the people. There were rumors that he was leading the crowd on the October 5th March on Versailles, and stories were circulating that he pointed protesters toward Marie Antoinette's personal chambers. The king asked Louis Philippe to come present himself at court within the next couple of days, and Louis Philippe assumed that he was going to be reprimanded for his role in the riots, either real or imagined.

Instead, the king said that he would set aside Louis Philippe's purported involvement in the assassination attempt if he agreed to go on a diplomatic mission to London and leave France. Louis-Philippe's political allies begged him not to go, saying that it would look cowardly. One said, quote, if you go, it will look like you are running away, ask to be judged, and say that until you have been, you will neither leave the assembly nor France. But Louis-Philippe accepted the mission and went to London. Scholar Tom Ambrose attempting to explain this counterintuitive move, wrote, quote,

the emotional austerity of Louis-Philippe's childhood had produced a dichotomy in his personality, for he was both rebellious and eager to please. Perhaps he saw this as a way of redeeming himself diplomatically before the king after his disaster at the Battle of Ushant, the failure that sparked his feud with the king in the first place. Perhaps he was just fleeing under pressure, like when he went hunting during the meetings of the Assembly of the Notables,

or when he turned down the presidency of the National Assembly. Louis Philippe returned to France in the spring of 1790 to a Chile reception. With whatever goodwill carried over from his earlier, more active role in the revolution, Louis Philippe could ride his carriage around the city without provoking suspicion, unlike most of the aristocrats at the time, But his former allies had turned on him, considering him a, quote, political phantom haunting Paris. One former ally said, quote, he thinks I'm one of his most ardent supporters, but I wouldn't even hire him as my valet. One publisher wrote of Louis Philippe's uselessness, quote,

Here's what you get for having neither talent, courage, nor even virtue. It's not as though Louis Philippe was clamor. for a political career anyway. He was annoyed at being blamed for the October riots, and he told a colleague that he was, quote, sick of being the object of every scandal and the pawn of every rogue that comes along. But he didn't have much else going on.

His son recalled that Louis Philippe, quote, had adopted a very withdrawn and even monotonous style of life. The theater was sort of a compulsion for him. He went nearly every night. Since he never had a taste for work or had become accustomed to it, he did not know how to fill his day. At age 44, it was as if Louis Philippe was back in his early 20s, listlessly looking for a purpose and a vocation.

He would spend the next two years that way, depressed, aimless, and trying to fly under the radar. But the tenor of the revolution was, quickly changing, and Louis-Philippe could not ignore it for long. On one early September morning in 1792, Louis-Philippe was eating breakfast and heard some unrest in the gardens outside. When he looked out the window, he saw the head of a woman who had once been his lover on a pike being paraded across the garden by an unruly crowd. In his characteristically cold, he saw a head of a woman who had once been his lover, and wooden manner, he said nothing at the time, but later called the murder, quote, abominable and

shocking. Louis Philippe realized that he might be next. Louis Philippe was growing increasingly paranoid about being targeted by the reign of terror, so he started taking more active steps to align himself with the revolutionaries. His first task was picking a new last name. Because he had given up his connection to the monarchy at this point, Louis-Philippe had no last name and was instead referred to as the, quote, nameless citizen, much to his humiliation. One day he showed up at the commune offices to pick a new last name. A member of the commune's eyes landed on a statue that represented the virtue of equality and proposed egalite. Louis-Philippe felt that he had no choice but to agree, even though privately he thought that the name was corny.

He used his new name to sign an announcement that the Palais Real was now democratized to become the, quote, garden of the revolution. This was just the first test of Louis Philippe's loyalty to the revolution. As Louis Philippe started to hear shouts of execute the king on the streets, his son asked him what he would do if the king would be brought to trial. Louis Philippe scoffed saying, It would be madness for anyone to suggest harming him. But lo and behold, on December 11, 1792, Louis XVIth was brought to trial,

only the second time in European history that a king had faced judgment before Parliament. Louis XVIth arrived in court dishevelled in a dirty green silk coat and a scruffy beard, among the crowd of Jacobin was Louis Philippe. He knew he had no choice but to show up, but he was still anxious about it. Here would be the ultimate choice

between his revolutionary ideals and his commitment to the royal family. Worse, the Girondin, a Jacobin political faction, proposed a law that mandated the exile of anyone connected with the House of Orleans, suggesting that any connection to the royal family, could result in the accusation of treason. If Louis-Philippe voted to pardon the king, he thought he could be arrested for going too easy on his aristocratic family. As voting began on the

sentence for the king on January 15, 1793, Louis-Philippe weighed his options. On one hand, he wanted to prove his loyalty to the Jacobin to prevent them from exiling or worse executing him, especially given that law in the works that declared anyone who associated with the royal family a traitor. On the other hand, voting to convict the king would be considered the greatest possible betrayal. His youngest son begged him not to condemn the king, and Louis Philippe told him, I assure you, I am incapable of such an action. He repeated that line to many of his colleagues. But when he showed up for the initial sentencing,

he voted that his cousin was guilty, and that the king or the former king did not have the right to appeal against a possible death sentence. The next day was the final sentencing when the delegates would decide whether the king lived or died. Louis-Philippe's family and advisors staged an impromptu intervention, pleading with him not to go to the sentencing. But he refused saying that it was his...

his duty to the people to attend the convention at whatever personal cost. His mistress implored him, I hope that you will vote for the king's deliverance. He replied, certainly, and for my own death. After a moment of silence, he seemed to change his mind. He wouldn't vote, he told everyone, and if he was forced to, he would support the king. After all, they were family. They had known each other since childhood.

and in spite of their heated disagreements, Louis Philippe had been known to show some loyalty to the king in tough times, backing off from his revolutionary ideals, even when doing so was politically unpopular. At 8 o'clock the next day, Louis Philippe arrived at the National Convention to vote on the king's sentence. His mistress anxiously checked the voting lists that were sent out hourly from the convention, hoping that Louis Philippe would vote for the lightest possible sentence.

At 10 a.m., Louis-Philippe's name was called, and he approached the podium. He said, quote, motivated solely by duty and convinced that those who threatened or will threaten the sovereignty of the people deserve the ultimate punishment, I vote for death. Shouts, booze, and jeers echoed through the halls. when Louis-Philippe's mistress heard the news an hour later she was appalled. Quote, I never felt such horror for anybody in my life as I did that moment at the Duke's conduct, she wrote later. She gathered every gift the Duke had ever given her and dumped them in the trash. The king was especially shocked by the news of Louis-Philippe's betrayal, stating rather diplomatically,

quote, it really pains me to see that Monsieur d'Or Leone, my kinsman, voted for my death. Personally, I don't think I would have been quite as polite in his situation. Aristocrats around Europe turned on Louis-Philippe upon hearing the news. The Prince of Wales, once a close friend and fellow Libertine who partied with him in London, took his portrait of Louis-Philippe off the wall and smashed it in the fireplace. Even the Jacobin condemned Louis-Philippe for his betrayal, and considered the murder of a family member in unpartisan.

transgression. One of his former allies said, quote, after the crime of his vote, he was nothing, a totally debased non-enity. Louis-Philippe's vote had made him an enemy of the few remaining royalists in Paris. On January 20, 1793, one deputy was eating alone at a cafe before a man came up to him and shouted, you are deputy Sanfargeau and you voted for the death of the king before stabbing him. The murderer was an ex-member of the royal bodyguard and had planned to kill Louis Philippe instead, but couldn't find him,

and so he murdered the deputy as a substitute. Sentencing the king to death seemed to be a disastrous decision, earning him enemies on all sides. That said, to be fair to Louis-Philippe, it was a lose-lose situation. It's not clear that voting, to pardon the king would have let him off the hook, since it seems that the revolutionary government was looking for any reason to guillotine members of the royal family out of fear that

they would attempt to re-establish a monarchy. It was a dangerous lesson that Louis Egalite would have to learn. Live by the guillotine, die by the guillotine. Sure enough, a few months later on March 23rd, 1793, the convention called for Louis-Philippe's arrest under claims of treason. Earlier in the year, a decree had been passed that condemned anyone with, quote, strong presumptions of complicity with enemies of liberty. Even though Louis-Philippe had voted for that very law, he did not fully realize that it would be turned against him. The Revolutionary Tribunal arrested Louis-Philippe for convoluted reasons.

A French military officer had turned against the revolutionary government, hatching a scheme to take his troops to Paris, to try to disband the convention, create a constitutional monarchy, and free Marie Antoinette, who had yet to be beheaded. This military officer convinced one of Louis-Philippe's sons to join him. Because Louis-Philippe was related to his son, he was charged with treason by proxy,

despite having no involvement whatsoever in the plot to disband the revolutionary government. As the convention issued a warrant for his arrest, Louis Philippe was having dinner with his friend at the Palais Raal. During the fish course, a man rushed in to warn him that he was about to be arrested. Philippe put his hand to his head and demanded to know what he had done wrong. His friend was squeezing a lemon over his soul, and he shook his head sadly and said, quote, "'Frightful business, Monsignor, but what did you expect? They have taken everything they wanted from you, and now that you are of no more used to them, they will do with you what I am about to do with this lemon.'

And he threw the lemon into the fireplace. Then he said, quote, soul is best eaten hot, and the two of them went back to eating, enjoying their dinner while they could. In the early morning of April 23rd, Louis Philippe was taken to a prison in Marseille. In early May, he had his first trial, where the prosecution accused Louis Philippe of working with a rebellious general to overthrow the French government. He coolly defended himself,

insisting that there was no evidence of any specific instance that proved that he was working with that treasonous general. Moreover, he did not want to reestablish the monarchy, nor did he want to become the new king. You might remember that he had had plenty of opportunities to take more political power back in the early days of the revolution, but he had refused. Frustrated by his robust defense, the local prosecutor resorted to less logical tactics. If Louis Philippe was truly blameless, why did so many people suspect him of treason? With no ability to refute that, Louis Philippe was thrown back into prison where he remained, locked in a windowless dungeon for the next five months.

On October 15th, he was taken to Paris for his final sentencing. When three commissioners arrived to escort him to court, he was surprised to find that they treated him with respect, telling him that he wasn't being put on trial, but rather merely asked to, quote, explain certain matters. For a moment, he thought that he would be spared, especially given that the charges against him were vague and unsubstantiated by any specific incidents. But it seems as though the court had already made up its mind to execute him. After a brief perfunctory trial on November 6th,

he was charged guilty of treason and sentenced to death. He was asked if he had anything more than more to say to the court, and he said nothing, merely smiled. At 5 p.m., he was escorted to the guillotine, wearing a green frock and a carefully powdered wig, not unlike the get-up he wore when he was first made the Duke of Chartret when he was just a boy. He handed his coat to his valet and approached the guillotine, which was still fresh with blood from three others who were executed earlier that day. The executioner instructed him to take off his boots as well, and Louis Philippe said, You can do that later. Come on, let's not waste time. Get on with it. With that, he was killed. Family members and former political allies had few kind words for Louis Philippe toward the end of his life.

At best, some considered him an ignorant layabout with no real sense of political strategy and even less ambition. Others, like his mistress, considered him a coward and a traitor. Historians also haven't looked upon him too kindly. George Armstrong Kelly wrote that he has, quote, been more or less buried in histories of the French Revolution. Robert Weinrich in the Smithsonian puts it more pointedly, writing that Louis Philippe was just going along with the, quote, radical chic intellectual trends of the day,

never letting his ideas get in the way of his private life and eventually, quote, bungling his way to death. It's true that Louis Philippe was not a great thinker or a skilled politician. It's also probably true that his revolutionary positions almost all arose more out of self-interest than idealism, whether he was squabbling with the king at the beginning of his life, or trying to avoid the guillotine at all costs towards the end. There were moments when his failure to politically strategize may have prevented crucial reforms, like when he refused to lead the National Assembly in 1789

or when he declined to make any demands on the king after the Women's March on Versailles. But there is something refreshing about his humility. He was willing, perhaps too willing, to take a backseat and let the true revolutionaries steer the ship. Unlike many aristocrats who think their pedigree imbues them with the divine right to rule, Louis Philippe recognized that he wasn't really anyone special. He was only in a position of power because he happened to be born into a royal family

with unfathomable wealth. And then he sort of accidentally became a figurehead. While he never gave up his lavish lifestyle, he did put his money where his mouth was, winnowing away his vast fortune by funding radical intellectuals, distributing money and provisions to the poor, and democratizing his estate, making the Palais Real a bustling public square full of shops, cafes, and theaters. Even now, the Palais Real still serves its function as an intersection of art and politics. posing the Constitutional Council, the Comedy Francaise, the oldest national theater, and a public park.

I think Louis Philippe probably would have liked it. That's the story of Louis Philippe and his stint as a revolutionary, but stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear about how Louis Philippe saved the career of one of the most controversial novelists in Paris. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo.

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And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that.

There's a lot of luck. Yeah. Listen to Thanks Dad on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo.

Woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day. And I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah.

He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar. of, you know, the cat just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be... Right, it wouldn't be that.

There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1782, a literary bombshell dropped on Paris. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Cholaud de LeClo. A novel in letters between two aristocratic rivals conspiring to seduce the unwitting bourgeoisie, it was an instant bestseller, with an initial printing of 2,000 copies, followed by another printing just two weeks after it came out. Even Marie Antoinette had a copy with a blank cover to avoid suspicion.

But when pirated copies hit the stands, LeClo was frustrated to see that his profits were being snatched away from him. He also published a pamphlet attacking a military officer, which had gotten him in trouble with the French army, which was where he worked before he wrote his novel. His bad luck all turned around when he was introduced to Louis Philippe II. Louis Philippe was impressed with the author and brought him on as his private secretary in 1788. He set the author up at his palace, paying him 6,000 livres a year and giving him an apartment to stay at.

Pierre was tasked with educating Louisville. Philippe's young son, much to the consternation of the rest of court. Pierre also got involved with Louis-Philippe's burgeoning political activities, accompanying him when he went to London, helping him pen his manifesto, and encouraging him to hire spies at Versailles to report to him about the latest developments. One writer recalled, quote, to have such a clever man as LeClo in his camp with his ruthless ambition and bad reputation would have greatly appealed to the Duke of Orleans.

The admiration between the two men was mutual. Pierre imagined that Louis Philippe would become regent, leading France into a constitutional democracy. Unfortunately, Louis-Philippe had no interest in the regency, and in 1792, frustrated with Louis-Philippe's lack of political ambition, Pierre abandoned his position as the Duke's president. Secretary. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston,

Hannah Zwick, Courtney Sender, Julia Melani, and Armand Kasam. The show is edited and produced by Noammy Griffin and Rima Il K. Ali, with supervising producer Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeart Radio, visit the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHeart Podcasts presents soccer moms. So I'm Leanne.

Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school. Absolutely. A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips. This is a podcast.

We're recording it as we tailgaged. are you soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey with all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Oh, they hit a bogo. Well, then you got them. Listen to soccer moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.