What Did Versailles REALLY Think of the "Black Baby" Born at Court?

Описание: ⚠️ ACADEMIC CONTENT DISCLAIMER
This video is an educational analysis of racial attitudes and royal legitimacy in 17th-century France. All terms used are employed in their proper historical and legal context as they appear in primary sources from the period, including court memoirs, diplomatic correspondence, and official documents. This content is intended for mature audiences interested in serious historical scholarship. All discussion is analytical, contextual, and appropriate for academic study. Sources cited include the Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon, letters of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, the Code Noir (1685), and peer-reviewed historical scholarship on early modern France and colonial history. This video complies with YouTube's educational content guidelines.

In 1664, a baby was born at the French court with dark skin—and Versailles fell silent. For the next 68 years, Louise Marie-Thérèse lived in a convent, supported by royal pension, visited by queens, yet never publicly acknowledged. Was she the daughter of Queen Maria Theresa and her African dwarf servant? Or Louis XIV's child with an enslaved African woman?

🔴 The mysterious birth of Marie-Anne in 1664 and her official "death" 40 days later
🔴 Louise Marie-Thérèse's lifetime in strategic ambiguity—neither claimed nor eliminated
🔴 The epic confrontation with Madame de Maintenon and Louise's brilliant response
🔴 How royalist courtiers, gossips, and the Catholic Church each viewed the scandal
🔴 Nabo's disappearance and the theory he became the Man in the Iron Mask
🔴 The Code Noir (1685) and France's construction of racial hierarchies
🔴 Why the portrait by the royal portraitist and the empty folder matter
🔴 The genius of maintaining someone in "quantum uncertainty" for political purposes

What did Versailles really think? The answer reveals how 17th-century France handled a crisis of categories—when someone couldn't be easily defined as royal or common, Black or white, threat or charity case. The solution wasn't elimination. It was ambiguity.

Chapters:
0:00 The Death of Maria Theresa & The Secret of Moret
3:30 The Birth of 1664: What the Witnesses Saw
6:45 Layer 1: The Exotic Spectacle—Nabo & Racism of Fascination
9:15 Layer 2: The Legitimacy Crisis—A Threat to Royal Succession
11:45 Layer 3: Strategic Silence—Schrödinger's Princess
14:30 The Climax: Maintenon's Confrontation & Louise's Masterstroke
17:00 What Did They REALLY Think? Courtiers, Gossips & The Church
21:30 What Did They REALLY Think? Foreign Courts, Common People & Louise Herself
24:00 Aftermath: Voltaire's Visit, The Portrait & The Empty Folder
26:45 Conclusion: The Perfect System of Ambiguity

📚 ACADEMIC SOURCES & FURTHER READING:

Primary Sources:
• Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon (Louis de Rouvroy), Vol. 2, Ch. XII (written 1739-1749, events 1664-1732)
• Memoirs of Mademoiselle de Montpensier (Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans), describing the 1664 birth
• Royal pension patent issued by Louis XIV, October 15, 1695 (National Archives O1/29, f° 279 v°)
• Letter from Secretary of the King's Household to M. De Bezons, June 13, 1685
• Code Noir (1685) - Édit du Roi, Touchant la Police des Isles de l'Amérique Française

Secondary Sources:
• Cortequisse, Bruno. "Madame Louis XIV: Maria Theresa of Austria" (1992) - First modern scholarly biography of the Queen
• Société de l'histoire de Paris et d'Ile-de-France. Research on Louise Marie-Thérèse's portrait, published by Honoré Champion éditions (1924)
• Barbiche, Bernard. "The Regency of Maria Theresa (April 23–July 31, 1672)" (2005)
• Dauge-Roth, Katherine. Research on 17th-century French racial attitudes and the 1640 Renaudot conference (Bowdoin College, NEH grant)
• Stovall, Tyler. Analysis of the Code Noir as foundational document on race, slavery, and freedom in Europe

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