18. Marie Antoinette’s “Beloved”
There is no proof of a love affair in the correspondence between count and queen, but that is because von Fersen had censored and altered much of it before he died. Scientists recently subjected some letters between the count and queen to X-ray fluorescence, which revealed what had been originally written. Words such as “adore”, “madly”, and “beloved” jumped out of the pages to indicate that the relationship was not platonic. Even in worldly France and the decadent eighteenth century French court, women did not lightly use words like “beloved” to men who were not their husbands. That is how duels started, and in the case of a queen, could amount to treason and result in prosecution and execution for adultery.
