“I was the seventh son and the youngest of the three who had lived to manhood.” – TVL (all the quotes going forward are from TVL, too)
^Yep, he’s the 7th son. We can assume that the other two de Lioncourt men had kids, so in some combination they had fathered at least four kids, (hence the plural “nieces and nephews”) and whether that was bc one of them had all four or they had two each, etc., Lestat doesn’t specify, so we don’t know.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
I don’t think the de Lioncourts had access to any young and wealthy women, if they couldn’t find one for the eldest son, they probably wouldn’t be able to find one for the youngest, either :-
The short answer:
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Attitude issues :[ – Lestat’s dad (and alot of others) thought Lestat was bonkers (
didn’t seem to connect that beating him up practically every other Thursday had anything to do with that!) - Lestat was broke af.
- And the family relied on Lestat for hunting their dinner. They couldn’t afford to lose him or let him burden himself w/ more mouths to feed
bc u know he would have had like 17 kids let’s be real.
As for Lestat’s marriageability:
1. Attitude issues :[
Lestat also had something of a major attitude going on about his existential crisis, so he wasn’t really on the best of terms w/ his father, who probably would have been the one to set in motion any plans to marry Lestat off.
“And in this unbearable state of agitation I commenced to do something I’d never done before. I turned to those around me and questioned them relentlessly.
‘But do you believe in God?” I asked my brother Augustin. “How can you live if you don’t!’ ”
… “You’re mad, you’ve always been mad!” [the Marquis] shouted. “Get out of this house! You’ll drive us all crazy.”
The village families probably thought Lestat was something of a bad egg, too, what w/ his trying to enter the priesthood at 12, and then doing a complete 180° by running off with the actor troupe at 17, and the crazy way he was acting, and harassing ppl. It probably didn’t go unnoticed in such a little town.
For more, hit the jump.
2. He’s broke af:
“I had no claim to the title or the land, and no prospects. Even in a rich family, it might have been that way for a younger boy, but our wealth had been used up long ago. My eldest brother, Augustin, who was the rightful heir to all we possessed, had spent his wife’s small dowry as soon as he married her.”
^Lestat is broke af. Augustin was the eldest and would be the one to get the title when the Marquis kicked the bucket.
Lestat has $0 to bring to a marriage, no title, no land, and no prospects (? I guess this is the word for assets of any kind). He doesn’t have much to sell himself ;n;
3. On the plus side… he was hot and he could hunt!
All Lestat really has are his Devastatingly Good Looks™
(he probably got the LION’S SHARE lol!), and his Particular Set of Skills™
(”I was the lord and the only lord anymore who could sit a horse and fire a gun,”).
Lestat was the family’s bread meat-winner:
“I had become the hunter. I brought in the pheasant, the venison, and the trout from the mountain streams – whatever was needed and could be got – to feed the family.”
^I forgot that he fished, too! I also remember him saying he talked w/ the villagers re: ideas he had for better crop productivity but I can’t find it.
…BUT REALLY, they all just wanted him shut up and kill stuff.
What his family needed him for was putting literal food on the table, which might have abruptly stopped if he was married off and moved out, or worse, moved his wife in. Another mouth to feed, and possibly more if they had had kids.
And the Marquis probably didn’t want any little crazy mini-Lestats running around, either!
(If Lestat had not run away to Paris, maybe shown that he could calm down in the next few years, we might have seen him married off by 25.)
[^ X] So Lestat spent most of his time out in the field, or eventually w/ Nicolas, seeking ppl who would really love him for him, and not just what he could do FOR them. He lived as much off the Marquis’ radar as possible.
And THAT’s why I think Lestat never even mentioned arranged marriage or forced courtship.
I-want-my-IWTV 