LOUIS XIV'S MOST FAMOUS FAVORITE, MADAME DE MONTESPAN, WOULD INSULT HIM AS AN UPSTART BECAUSE HIS GREAT-GRANDFATHER WAS A MEDICI BANKER, WHEREAS HER ANCESTORS HAD BEEN FEUDAL LORDS SINCE THE 9TH CENTURY
He would feel humble before her.
Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan, workshop of Pierre Mignard, undated, zoom
An insult among commoners: "Your father was a valet!"
# # #
So ingrained was the belief in nobles' superiority that many rising commoners used their funds to buy land, acquire titles or have their descendants enter the aristocracy by marrying their daughters to impoverished lords seeking important dowries.
The next pages show how emphasis on Romans, mythology and Old Testament figures set nobles apart. As well, they...
- Held the main positions in the State, the Church and especially the army.
- Were exempt from most taxes.
- Controlled sales taxes and tolls.
- Monopolized most hunting, fought duels only between themselves, might alone buy the most luxurious wares (for how that explains the current location of the garment center, please click).
- Were ceremoniously decapitated and buried if condemned of crime. Commoners were ignominiously hanged. Their body remained on the gallows until they decomposed.
- Owned gibbets. The gibbets themselves showed the nobles' rank by the number of beams, from two to eight, the king having nine, from which to hang the condemned. The highest-born (commoner) victim hung from the top.
- Had identifying liveries for the servants, a coat of arms, often a name whose prefix "de" indicated nobility, a reserved pew at church.
- The belief in a God-willed hierarchy exists in modern language: The French word for "bad" — villain — originally meant "peasant," and we still say "noble" and "ignoble."
The valet Figaro's famous question to his noble master,
"What have you done for all that wealth?
You took the trouble to be born!"
shows that at the end of the 18th century
that belief was changing.
So was the economy.
# # #
The idea that all elements of a society strengthen the ruling class is not original with me.
Alexis de Toqueville used it to explain commoners' belief in nobles' intrinsic superiority. Anthropologists and sociologists have shown it for primal communities and cults. An American cartoonist notes the tie between gun violence, the healthcare system, billionaire control and media silence:
 |
Daily Kos, a progressive publication, December 24, 2024 |
The omissions and billboards mentioned at the start are part of such interconnection.
* * *
Now,
how nobles used antiquity in the arts.
Next,
No comments:
Post a Comment