CLAUDE-LOUIS-HECTOR, DUC DE VILLARS, was born; The sharp-tongued Charlotte Elizabeth, the second wife of the ever-so homosexual Phillipe d’Orleans, left behind a collection of letters, many of which reveal her passion for sniffing out the private affairs of the court homos. Of her favorite subject she wrote, “Our heroes take as their models Hercules, Theseus, Alexander, and Caesar, who all had their male favorites. Those who give themselves up to this vice, which believing in Holy Scripture, imagine that it was only a sin when there were few people in the world, and that now the earth is so populated it may be regarded as a divertissement.

“Among the common people, indeed, accusations of this kind are, so far as possible, avoided; but among persons of quality, it is publicly spoken of; it is considered a fine saying that since Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord has punished no one for such offenses.”

One of the Gay “persons of quality” who flit through the duchess’s letters is the above-referenced duc de Villars, one of the greatest generals in French history and marshal of France under Louis XIV.