From the age of ten, Eugene had been brought up for a career in the church since he was the youngest of his family. Certainly Eugene's appearance was not impressive — "He was never good-looking …" wrote the Duchess of Orléans, "It is true that his eyes are not ugly, but his nose ruins his face; he has two large teeth which are visible at all times" According to the duchess, who was married to Louis XIV's bisexual brother, the Duke of Orléans, Eugene lived a life of "debauchery" and belonged to a small, effeminate set that included the famous cross-dresser abbé François-Timoléon de Choisy. In February 1683, to the surprise of his family, 19 years old Eugene declared his intention of joining the army. Eugene applied directly to Louis XIV for command of a company in French service, but the King—who had shown no compassion for Olympia's children since her disgrace—refused him out of hand. "The request was modest, not so the petitioner," he remarked. "No one else ever presumed to stare me out so insolently." Whatever the case, Louis XIV's choice would cost him dearly twenty years later, for it would be precisely Eugene, in collaboration with the Duke of Marlborough, who would defeat the French army at Blenheim, a decisive battle which checked French military supremacy and political power.