The Deer Park (Parc aux cerfs) was a modest townhouse immersed in a green park at 4 Rue Saint Médéric in the Saint-Louis district of Versailles – a single kilometer from the palace. This insignificant building, which may have been one of a complex of several nearby buildings, became over the years the source of sensational rumors, gossip, and a variety of versions about the nature of the place and what really happened there.
King Louis XV married a pious woman named Marie Leszczyńska in September 15 when he was only 1725 years old. Marie was the daughter of the deposed King of Poland and was six years older than the king. After more than ten pregnancies, the queen decided To close her bedroom door in his face And so began a chain of royal mistresses, the most famous of which was Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, aka Madame de PompadourThey met at a masquerade ball and she quickly became the maître-en-titre (the king's official mistress) and was given an apartment above the king's private chambers in the Palace of Versailles.
Madame de Pompadour turns from mistress to pimp
After about six years, their relationship became one of close friendship and the king stopped visiting Pompadour's bed. Some claim that this was due to a medical problem the Marquise suffered from following a miscarriage, while others claim that they had already distanced themselves from each other. From one mistress to another, in order to maintain her status and to please the depressed king, Pompadour decided to regularly provide him with young girls (sometimes only 14 years old) to serve as his mistresses. The claim is that the king requested young and virgin girls for fear of venereal diseases, so the girls were not only very young, but also came from respectable families, usually from the lower bourgeoisie.
To collect and select the girls, the Marquise de Pompadour uses Dominique Guillaume Le Belle – the king’s chief valet. After choosing a potential mistress, Le Belle invites the girl to dinner at Versailles. Meanwhile, the king uses a crack in the wall to examine her without being seen. If he likes her, he summons her to his room and if he is interested in her, she will become one of his mistresses. Pompadour shared the king’s concerns, but venereal diseases were not her only fear. The fear that one of the girls would become pregnant also worried her, and to deal with this problem, she promised the girls that if they became pregnant, they would receive a dowry and marry distant relatives of the king.
Marie Louise O'Murphy – the mistress who almost deposed Madame de Pompadour
But Madame de Pompadour's greatest fear was that someone younger and more beautiful than her would win the heart of the king and take her position. This fear almost became a reality when in 1753 the king fell in love with one of his young mistresses, Mary Louise O'Murphy, the daughter of an Irish shoemaker. She was called Morphy by the court and was even used as a model for several famous paintings by François Boucher. But Pompadour's troubles did not end there, as O'Murphy tried to take her place and dethrone her as the king's official mistress.
This was already too much for Pompadour and when O'Murphy gave birth to an illegitimate daughter for the king on 20 June 1754, Pompadour took advantage of this opportune moment to banish her from Versailles permanently and overnight without her daughter. Pompadour's famous saying was 'Sympathy is wasted on those who are not dying or starving' so O'Murphy realised too late that despite Pompadour's pleasant and graceful appearance she was in fact a woman of great power and influence who would stop at nothing to maintain her high position.
The harem of the deer park
To prevent further rivalries and similar situations, Madame de Pompadour decided to take action. She organized a constant stream of young beauties for the king's bedroom. But there was no room for these girls in the palace, neither physically nor in terms of class. Therefore, the king needed another place to house them nearby, and so in 1755 the king purchased the building at 4 Rue Saint-Médric where the hunting grounds of Louis XIV And turned it into a place for the girls to live. Life was comfortable in the Deer Park, the place was meticulously furnished and decorated, and a team of servants took care of all the girls' needs. The king did not visit his concubines in the Deer Park, but made sure that they were secretly brought to the palace and back, at least at first no one knew what was happening.
Stories and gossip began to circulate about Deer Park and naturally became a source of sensational rumours. Some claimed that thousands of girls had passed through the little house and that wild orgies had taken place there, one of them even going so far as to write: “Several elegant houses … were used as a reception house for women … they were brought young girls, sold by their parents, and sometimes forced upon them. They left the place laden with gifts, but almost certainly never looked back at the king who had angered them…” One Victorian writer claimed that the stories about Deer Park were far from the truth and another witness claimed that there was sometimes no tenant there for six months at a time. In any case, it is estimated that between 30 and 50 girls passed through there over the years.
The end of the deer park
Like all good things, the Deer Park also had an end. It did not happen because of the king's aging, rumors that damaged his good name, or the king's desire to live a more decent life. It was because of what Madame de Pompadour feared, which was that one of the girls would steal the king's heart. Luckily for her, this happened after her death. After Pompadour's death, the king's loneliness grew until one of the girls in the park captured his heart. In 1768, the king took Jeanne du Barry to be his mistress. The beautiful girl took so much attention from the king that he lost interest in the Deer Park, which remained deserted. So in 1771, after about 16 years of ownership, he decided to sell it.
Louis XV: Between Savior and Exploiter
The Deer Park remains a controversial place. There is no doubt that in today's terms, Louis XV would have been considered a serial sex offender who exploited innocent girls to satisfy his dark desires. However, at that time, this was not only an accepted practice, but also the aspiration of many girls and even their families, who saw it as a way to manage their social and economic situation. After the girls became pregnant or were granted a pardon by the king, they would receive a handsome dowry and would marry men of high standing and reputation but without money. Thus, both parties benefited, the husband would bring his status and the girl (who had lost her virginity and good name) her money.
The king's supporters claim that he was a conversationalist who enjoyed the company of young women and that they were not just objects of his desires for him. The mistress Marguerite-Catherine of Hainaut, for example, thrilled the king with her talent and even painted a portrait of him. It is estimated that King Louis XV had between 15 and 15 bastard children from his young mistresses, all of whom he provided financially. What really happened there will never be known, but there is no doubt that a place whose role was to house mistresses would be a place for rumors and sensations. Louis XV was an avid womanizer, but all his exploits did not damage his good name. On the other hand, his grandson Louis Auguste, who succeeded him and became king as Louis XVI, was the opposite of his grandfather and did not keep a single mistress. In his case, it was his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette, who worried about the sensational rumors and whose mistresses were no longer so forgiving.
Today, the building that housed the Deer Park serves as a residential building in a run-down neighborhood, and its appearance does not at all betray what happened there during the merry days of Louis XV.
Wonderful. Interesting. Thank you.