Baron d'Andlau decided to pay court to the future Mme de Genlis. Being a man of courtesy, and very attentive, before his visit he sent his best compliments and a little gift: his genealogy. When Monsieur de la Bedoyère married Agathe Sticoti, a showgirl, he was sued by his own family. Mlle de Comminges refused to marry the comte d'Effiat; she thought his family name of Coiffier (hairdresser) too comical. Nor would her sister consider the marquis de Porcelet; the arms of this old-established family showed three wild boars, and made people think of pigs. The marquise de l'Hospital refused the comte de Choiseul, even though he was an eldest son. Of course, she had a sound reason: the count's arms were on a blue field like her own, and red would have gone with them so much better! Maréchal de Richelieu was worried that some might question the length of his ancestry, and so married Mlle de Guise. What he loved were her crosses of Lorraine and her golden eaglets.

Concern for armorial bearings, the search for ennobling wombs, astonishing misalliances. But beyond the anecdotes we can see the outlines of marriage policies. Not all were so eccentric. In the last analysis, those were the exceptions. In a society organised into clans, marriage was as much a matter for families as for the two individuals themselves. Matches were arranged like alliances between two kingdoms.