I liked this series very much and it was a waste that I only caught on the second half of the series 'cos i didn't know it was on air. But even seeing only half, it made me very interested to know more about Charles II and the events surrounding his reign. So what happened to his other brother, Henry? I totally missed that part. And how did Minette come to marry Monsieur?
The future lay sparkling ahead,... and we thought we would know each other forever
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It's not fully explained in the movie, unfortunately....
But Henry died of smallpox. His mother would not see him because she had basically disowned him some time before for not converting to Catholicism.
Minette had originally planned on marrying Louis XIV, but this was before the Restoration and it was considered not worth Louis's time to marry a Princess-in-name-only, so he married a Spanish infanta instead. Minette ended up marrying his brother, Philippe duc d'Orleans, making her the 2nd-most powerful woman in France behind the Queen (and known as Madame). Apparently, this movie did delve deeper into Minette and Philippe's relationship (i.e.: how he forced himself on her in order to get her pregnant so that she'd be unable to travel to England to see Charles, for he was insanely jealous of his more popular wife), but it was cut out.
"Facts leave no room for Possibilities."
I saw it when the BBC showed it 2 years ago and my memory is the Monsieur/Minette rape scene was in. It might be one of the scenes that got cut for US TV.
shareThat scene was definitely in the UK showing and is on the DVD. I've read that quite a lot got cut for US tv, which made a lot of the programme difficult to understand.
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ladylupinblack -- So the U.K. DVD of this film is DEFINITELY the uncut version then??
"To have an idea is noble; to execute it is servile." -Leonardo da Vinci
As far as I am aware, yes it is. I have seen the version that was shown on TV here and the version on the region 2 DVD, both are identical.
shareMinette was unable to bear a child for Monsieur and after her death he married again despite his homesexual habits; his second wife was Liselotte (Elizabeth Charlotte in full), the German Princess and relative. Interesting, that Liselotte was once almost engaged to...William of Orange, who later married James II's elder daughter, Mary. When Mary died in 1694, Liselotte was eager to marry her daughter from Monsieur to the same William of Orange.
She was a true Princess of gossips and left a diary, where we may see a detailed picture of her times. She was probably the author of the strange theory that her predecessor, Minette, was poisoned. In fact Minette died of visceral infection, peritonitis or something like that.
Yeah, Minette died of a perforated ulcer. Gee, I wonder how she got that? ;-P
"To have an idea is noble; to execute it is servile." -Leonardo da Vinci