Original release 28 février 2022
Previous episode S16E03 - Marie de Roumanie, l'étonnante reine des Carpates
Number S16E04
Episode runtime 120 minutes
Country France
Original language French
Genres Documentary, History
External links TheTVDB page
IMDB page
TheMovieDB page
Last update 23 octobre 2026 - 05:37
on 11 databases

Le Grand Condé, le rival de Louis XIV

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À la découverte du flamboyant Louis II de Bourbon, dit « le Grand Condé », et de son magnifique château de Chantilly, où la vie de cour est aussi brillante qu’à Versailles. Ce prince rebelle, fier de son rang et conscient de sa valeur, fut un guerrier exemplaire dont on dit qu’il passa plus de temps à cheval que dans un lit. Un homme complexe que sa haine démesurée du cardinal Mazarin pousse à trahir son roi. Condamné à mort, déchu de tous ses titres et biens, c’est en exil qu’il va préparer son retour en grâce. Apaisé et changé, il revient en France pour servir à nouveau la couronne et retrouver son statut de premier prince du sang. Côté cœur, le Grand Condé reste aussi un mystère. Mariage arrangé, infidélités et relations ambiguës avec son lieutenant le duc de Châtillon qui le plongent dans une profonde tourmente. C’est au château de Chantilly que le célèbre maître d’hôtel Vatel se suicide après un dîner en l’honneur du roi au cours duquel rien ne se passe comme prévu.

BetaSeries' opinion

Secrets d'histoire Season 20 Finale: Stéphane Bern's Messalina Episode Ends a Season About Reputations on Trial

Twenty seasons in, "Secrets d'histoire" can still surprise its audience. The Season 20 finale aired on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, at 9:10 p.m. on France 3, and Stéphane Bern closed the season with one of the most notorious women of antiquity: Messalina, the third wife of Emperor Claudius. If you watched it, you already know it was more than a parade of Roman scandal. It was a careful re-examination of a woman whose name has been shorthand for depravity for almost two thousand years. If you haven't caught up yet, this debrief shows why the episode, and the whole season, deserves a place in your watchlist.

A finale that puts history's verdict on trial

The question at the centre of the finale was simple: does Messalina deserve the brutal nickname history gave her? Roman writers handed down a woman driven by insatiable desire and a hunger for power. Bern's team took that portrait apart piece by piece. They asked who wrote the story, why they wrote it, and what they gained from it. This is the series at its best. It doesn't simply retell a legend. It looks into how the legend was made. Messalina's world gave the episode plenty of drama: Caligula, Nero, Agrippina and the freedman Narcissus all appear, each with their own agenda in the deadly politics of the Julio-Claudian court. Without spoiling anything for latecomers, the finale's real emotional pull comes from the gap between the caricature and the young woman caught up in a machine much bigger than she was.

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