Sex with Kings – Eleanor Herman

Chapter 5
Unceasing Vigilance -- The Price of Success

They lay siege to the heart of a Prince as to a citadel.
- Louis XIV

Unlike the Queen, whose position was cast in stone, the mistress’s was made of far flimsier stuff. There would be no peace for her, no rest. Having obtained the great prize, the new mistress could not sit back and enjoy her rewards. She could not look around her magnificent rooms with satisfaction, or smile contentedly as she toyed with her glittering jewelry -- not if it meant letting her guard down for a moment.

“Every woman was born with the ambition to become the King’s Favorite,” wrote Primi Visconti, an Italian fortune-teller who lived at Louis XIV’s Court. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women hoping to attain the position, which meant toppling the current maîtresse-en-titre, even as she had unseated her predecessor. Retaining the position usually took more effort than winning it. In fact, the position of royal mistress was like a marathon where the finish line kept moving.

To defend her turf, the maîtresse-en-titre kept an unblinking eye on pretty women attempting to gain the King’s attention. Prostitutes, chambermaids and the like had no hope of rising to the lofty position of royal mistress and therefore posed no threat. Though these minor infidelities might hurt, the maîtresse-en-titre had to pretend that they were too insignificant for her to notice. Some royal mistresses even procured lower class women for the King to distract his attention from the real menace of beautiful noblewomen.

But when a smiling countess insinuated her way into the King’s company, the savvy royal mistress would call in her troops. She had a bevy of friendly courtiers and well-paid servants ready to whisper to the King that the woman in question had a venereal disease, a greedy family, or total lack of discretion. Such whispers usually shrank the size of the King’s interest.

Most of the mistress’s work to seek and destroy her enemies had to be conducted behind the King’s back. The mistress could not afford to degenerate into a nagging jealous wife. The monarch already had one of those whom he could not get rid of. But a nagging jealous mistress could be banished at a snap of the King’s fingers.