"You think it's hard to be a king? Try being a king's brother for  a day."​

Philippe d'Orleans had lived in the shadow of his eldest brother for as long as he could remember.
Suddenly elevated as the brother of the king at two years old, Philippe was taught and raised to always be second best to Louis, a king only two years his senior.

If it was hard to be the Sun King in seventeenth century France, it was even harder to be the boy behind the king, the child whose education was purposefully neglected in order to lessen the chances of him becoming rebellious, whose chances of any income were thwarted when he was made to pay the price for his uncle's rebelliousness, forcing him to rely upon the crown and the generosity of his brother for the remainder of his life. Forced to take second best to his brother, Philippe was the man who was not permitted to complain when the king bedded his wife, when the king exiled his lovers and when the king exiled him completely from government and politics.

If it was hard to be the Sun King, it was a thousand times harder to be his brother.