26. A Cuckolded King – Who Was Cool With It
Whatever the details of the French royal couple’s love life, what is known is that before von Fersen showed up, Marie Antoinette had not conceived her first child until seven years after she had been married to Louis. There was then a three-year gap – which coincided perfectly with von Fersen’s absence in America – before she got pregnant again. Within a month of the count’s return to France in 1783, Marie Antoinette went from two pregnancies in ten years, to three pregnancies in three years. The first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, the second one produced a son, and the third a daughter, who did not live long. The son who survived – the future Louis XVII who died in captivity during the French Revolution – bore a strong resemblance not to Louis XVI, but to von Fersen.
We now know that the French king was autistic, and although quite intelligent, had trouble looking people in the eye, was obsessive-compulsive and needed to do things in accordance with a rigid schedule, and cried easily. He also did not seem to need sex. He liked his wife, but not for physical reasons: she was his emotional support. She realized that, supported Louis emotionally, and did all she could to protect him. But as to love, her heart belonged to von Fersen, who was back in France as the king of Sweden’s personal envoy to the French court when the French Revolution erupted.
