He has been openly gay throughout his public life, and he has written many novels ( The Duchess and the Commoner, La nuit des princes charmants, Le Coeur découvert, Le Coeur éclaté ) and plays ( Hosanna, La duchesse de Langeais, Fragments de mensonges inutiles ) centred on gay characters.

Most noted were the sensitive and " pure " widow, the princesse de Lamballe, whom she appointed as Superintendent of her Household, and the fun-loving, down-to-earth Yolande de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac, who eventually formed the cornerstone of the Queen's inner circle of friends ( Société Particulière de la Reine ).

Marie Antoinette appointed her favourite, the duchesse de Polignac, to the position.

This change in her political role signalled the beginning of the end of the influence of the duchesse de Polignac, as Marie Antoinette began to dislike the duchesse's huge expenditures and their impact on the finances of the Crown.

In the days and weeks that followed, many of the most conservative, reactionary royalists, including the comte d ' Artois and the duchesse de Polignac, fled France for fear of assassination.

An intimate friend of the Queen, Yolande de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac, was appointed Governess to the Royal Children, Madame Royale, Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France and the young Louis-Charles, Duke of Normandy, the future Louis XVII.

From left to right: Charles X | Charles, comte d ' Artois, Louis XVIII, Princess Caroline Ferdinande of Bourbon-Two Sicilies | Marie Caroline, duchesse de Berry, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France | Marie Thérèse, duchesse d ' Angoulême, Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême | Louis Antoine, duc d ' Angoulême and Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry | Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry.

The ultras found themselves back in power in favourable circumstances: Berry's wife, the duchesse de Berry, gave birth to " miracle child ", Henri, seven months after the duc's death ; Napoleon died on Saint Helena in 1821, and his son, the duc de Reichstadt, remained interned in Austrian hands.

In 1651 when Mazarin had been forced into exile, the Prince was for a time brought onto the conseil du roi, and an ( admittedly very hostile ) contemporary the duchesse de Nemours described him as a ' prime minister without being aware of it '; there were suggestions that Mazarin's opponents within the court had raised him up as a rival to the cardinal with the Queen, but this is unlikely, especially since Mazarin himself urged the Queen to follow Thomas ' advice, and it is more probable that Mazarin backed the Prince as someone who would keep other rivals from gaining control in his absence but who would never have the status within France to set himself up as a permanent replacement for the Cardinal.

In 1651 when Mazarin had been forced into exile, the Prince was for a time brought onto the conseil du roi, and an ( admittedly very hostile ) contemporary the duchesse de Nemours described him as a ' prime minister without being aware of it '; there were suggestions that Mazarin's opponents within the court had raised him up as a rival to the cardinal with the Queen, but this is unlikely, especially since Mazarin himself urged the Queen to follow Thomas ' advice, and it is more probable that Mazarin backed the Prince as someone who would keep other rivals from gaining control in his absence but who would never have the status within France to set himself up as a permanent replacement for the Cardinal.

Chartres was reared alongside Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, later famous for his memoirs and defense of the rights of the peerage of France ; Saint-Simon often accompanied the duke, and his wife was later a lady-in-waiting to Philippe's daughter, Louise Élisabeth d ' Orléans, duchesse de Berry.

* W. Schlésinger, Les femmes du XVIIIe siècle: La duchesse de Polignac et son temps ( Paris, 1889 )

Pierre de Polignac, member of a cadet branch of one of France's most renowned ducal families, noble at least since the 12th century, duke in 1780, peer in 1817, and a descendant of Marie Antoinette's favourite, Yolande de Polatron, duchesse de Polignac ), he changed his name and coat of arms to those borne by the House of Grimaldi by Monegasque ordinance issued on 18 March 1920, the day before his wedding.

* Gabrielle de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac

In 2006, Byrne portrayed Gabrielle de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac, a French aristocrat and friend of Marie Antoinette, in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, with Kirsten Dunst, and appeared in The Dead Girl, directed by Karen Moncrieff.

Madame Royale's household was headed by her governess, the princesse de Guéméné, who later had to resign due to her husband's bankruptcy and was replaced by one of the queen's closest friends, the duchesse de Polignac.

Another member of his household was his mother's great friend, Yolande de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac.

He later published the Plateau Mont-Royal Chronicles, a cycle of six novels including The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant ( La grosse femme d ' à côté est enceinte, 1978 ) and The Duchess and the Commoner ( La duchesse et le roturier, 1982 ).

Here later François-René de Chateaubriand worked on his Mémoires d ' Outre-Tombe as the guest of duchesse Claire de Duras.

The principal friendships of her later years were with the duchesse de Choiseul and with Horace Walpole, the latter becoming the strongest and longest-lasting of all her attachments.

** Upon her marriage, she assumed the title of duchesse de Bourbon and later princesse de Condé ;

In his later years Chaulieu spent much time at the little court of the duchesse du Maine at Sceaux.

He later returned from the safety of his exile in Holland to aid the duchesse de Chevreuse.

Under the influence of the duchesse de Chevreuse, the queen let herself be drawn into political opposition to Richelieu and became embroiled in several intrigues against his policies.

Through her descendants, Commines would become the ancestor of Jean, duc de Chevreuse, of the Gouffier ducs de Roannais, and of Louis XV, while Jeanne herself became the mother-in-law of Anne, duchesse d ' Étampes, maîtresse-en-titre to King Francis I of France.

He also became a harsh critic of the " bourgeois king " and the July Monarchy, and his planned volume on the arrest of the duchesse de Berry caused him to be unsuccessfully prosecuted.

his son, François Henri, marshal of France, became duke of Piney-Luxemburg by his marriage with Madeleine Charlotte Bonne Thérèse de Clermont, daughter of Marguerite Charlotte de Luxemburg, duchesse de Piney.

With Ludovise, duchesse du Maine, he became an especial favourite, and it was at her seat at Sceaux that he wrote the Mémoires that made him famous.

In 1830, Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, son of the duchesse d ' Orléans, embellished the chapel which was renamed Chapelle royale de Dreux, now the necropolis of the Orléans royal family.

Guests included the main members of the royal family like the Queen Mother, Anne of Austria ; the duchesse de Montpensier, the Princes de Condé and the de Conti.

Chalais, deeply embroiled, lost his head on 19 August 1626, while the duchesse de Chevreuse fled to Lorraine, where she soon carried on an affair with Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, who intervened on her behalf to have her allowed to return to France ; once she was reestablished at Dampierre, her subversion of royal power continued.

The duchesse left for England in May, leaving her children behind in Versailles.

* Charlène et ces drôles de dames de Monaco ( préface de Camilla de Bourbon des Deux-Siciles duchesse de Castro ), collection « Point de vue », Express Roularta, 2011.

In France, the first Christmas tree was introduced in 1840 by the duchesse d ' Orléans.

Immediately on his return to France, Charpentier probably began working as house composer to Marie de Lorraine, duchesse de Guise, who was known familiarly as " Mlle de Guise.

The only participants in the talks to begin with were King Louis XIV of France, King Charles II, and Charles's sister Henrietta, duchesse d ' Orléans.

He secured the patronage of the influential duchesse de Bouillon by dedicating Arminius to her, and in 1685 he scored his first success with Andronic, which disguised under other names the tragic story of Don Carlos and Elizabeth of France.

Marie Anne de Mailly-Nesle, duchesse de Châteauroux ( 5 October 1717 – 8 December 1744 ) was the youngest and prettiest of the five famous de Nesle sisters, four of whom would become the mistress of King Louis XV of France.

Hortense Mancini, duchesse Mazarin ( 6 June 1646, Rome – 9 November 1699, Chelsea ), was the favourite niece of Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister of France, and a mistress of Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

She was involved in the conspiracy of the comte de Soissons ( 1641 ) and at the death of the king, a clause in the testament of succession forbade the return to France of the duchesse ; a decision of the Parlement of Paris was required to break the will.

The éclair originated during the nineteenth century in France where it was called " pain à la duchesse " or " petite duchesse " until 1850.