KIDS RELATE TO THE TROUBLES OF A TEEN-AGED KING...

AND HIS COUP D'ETAT INTRIGUES THEM*

*For how Louis XIII came to power, please click Fatal passion at the Louvre

 

Maurice Leloir in Richelieu by Théodore Cahu, 1901, a history of France for children

The court ignores him and he pretends to be retarded...

He threatens to shoot his toy cannon at ladies-in-waiting.

But a few allies know differently and when he is 15, help him put through a coup d'état:

   "At last I am king!" he cries from a palace window. 

Louis has left signs so that his followers 

can join him at the castle where he hides. 

The children look for them. 

*    *    *

Next,

Start at this market...

START AT THIS MARKET

ON TUESDAY, FRIDAY OR SUNDAY MORNINGS AT THE CORVISART MÉTRO STOP

Adapted from a Mappy plan

The street behind the flower stand is filled with pictures:

 Rue des Cinq Diamants

The enclave has no bank or post office, just a grocery at the crossroads:

At the grocery turn right (on "Main Street," rue de la Butte-aux Cailles) to come to a crossroad ("place de la Commune"):

More here.

*    *    *

Next,

Come to a "castle"

COME TO A "CASTLE"

WALK DOWN THE LANE WHERE THESE NEIGHBORS CHAT

(RUE BUOT)

Turn back...

Pass the grocery and take rue de la Butte-aux-Cailles in reverse, past cheerful cafés and restaurants... 

A crêperie

Descend the next small street to the right (passage Boiton)...

Saint-Anne's in the Butte-aux-Cailles: more later.

At the church, return to the restaurants and continue down the street:

At its end, the young king's hideaway... 

A swimming pool of the 1930's.

And rewards:

Continue at 

the magnificent parc de Choisy

and have dinner in "Chinatown."

End of this section.

*     *     *

Next section,

II.4.3.

 A mini-wood where children play

II.5. NOBLES, GODS AND HEROES

MENU: 2.5. NOBLES GODS AND HEROES 

TOWARD 1500, EXPLORERS' DISCOVERIES LEAD TO NEW SOURCES OF INCOME AND SO TO A BOOM THAT UNDERMINES THE SOCIAL SYSTEM 

Nascent capitalists gain the means to challenge the ruling class of nobles, hereditary landowners who draw their wealth from peasant labor and define themselves as warriors.

          Discoveries in 1502 / zoom 

The earliest known map of the Age of Discovery

There were ways of buttressing a social order that was challenged though believed to be set by God. One was to absorb dynamic commoners, by their purchase of land to which a title was attached. Another was to consider lawyers, administrators or financiers nobles. Yet another was to be ennobled by the king, as Louis XV ennobled two beautiful commoners (successively) so that they could be royal mistresses. In no way did such newcomers have an aura like those whose ancestors accompanied Saint Louis on the Crusades, but they had the same legal privileges.

Nobles also developed arts that associated those with the right pedigrees with the gods and goddesses of Antiquity or heroes of ancient Rome or figures of the Old Testament. That gave them a prestige with which the penny-pinching, vulgar but rising moneyed interests could not (yet) compete. 

# # #

In brief

• The primacy of hereditary rank 

• Everything aids the overclass 

• Heroes of glamorized war

• Allegory, a reaction of nobles to rising capitalists

• The Church omits pagan decor...

• Detour: History — anecdotes or the economy?

*    *    *

Next,

2.5.1.

The primacy of hereditary rank

II.5.1. THE PRIMACY OF HEREDITARY RANK

"UPSTART! YOUR ANCESTORS WERE MERE MEDICI BANKERS, WHILE MINE WERE NINTH-CENTURY FEUDAL LORDS!"

Cried Madame de Montespan,* Louis XIV's most famous favorite, in a quarrel with the king. He would feel humble before her.                                                                              

*She who was accused of poisonings and black masses. 

Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan, workshop of Pierre Mignard, undated, zoom

# # #

A century later, Louis XV's daughters were officially called "Madame Première, Madame Seconde, Madame Troisième and Madame Quatrième,*" terms that referred to their rank by birth.

*Madame First, Second, Third, Fourth.

When the king began the day with coffee in the apartment of the eldest, she would "ring the bell to avert Madame Victoire of the king's visit. Madame Victoire would ring Madame Sophie...

who, in turn, would ring Madame Louise. The princesses' apartments were vast. Madame Louise lodged in the most distant. That last daughter of the king was deformed and very small; to join the meeting the poor princess had to rush through a great number of rooms, and much as she would try, often she could do no more than embrace her father as he left for the hunt." 

--Memoirs of Madame Campan, First Chambermaid of Marie-Antoinette, 

original publication 1822, this edition 1988, pp. 22-23.

*    *    *

Next,

2.5.2. 

Everything aids the overclass

II.5.2. EVERYTHING AIDS THE OVERCLASS

AN INSULT AMONG THE HUMBLE: "YOUR FATHER WAS A VALET!

-- Voltaire, Le Siècle [Century] de Louis XIV

Psychologists and anthropologists say that every aspect of life reinforces primal societies and cults. The same is true generally: For us, please click.

For Old Regime France, Alexis de Toqueville's wrote that nobles' superiority was so rooted as to be "invisible."

-- L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution, 1856  

Add that they:

• Led a hierarchy thought willed by God. 

• Could alone claim valor in battle, the quintessential value.

• Held the main positions in the State, the Church and especially the army. 

• Were exempt from most taxes.

• Controlled sales taxes and tolls, by inheritance or royal grants. 

• Monopolized hunting big animals, fought duels only between themselves, might alone purchase the most luxurious wares (which explains the site of the garment center: Please click).

• Had identifying liveries for servants, a coat of arms, a reserved pew at church and often a name whose prefix "de" indicated nobility (it is still considered a joli nom, "pretty name").

• Were ceremoniously decapitated and buried if condemned of crime, while bodies of ignominiously hanged commoners remained on the gallows until they decomposed.

  Executions of a noble (zoom) and a commoner (zoom).

• Owned gibbets. The gibbets themselves showed rank by the number of beams from which to hang the condemned (two to eight, the king having nine). Corpse of the highest-born (commoner) victims hung from the top.

• Commanded galley rowers from luxurious platforms.

• Might lead popular revolts because of their prestige and because they were trained to fight. Royals legitimized rebellions by heading them.

• Were magnified in the arts by mythology and allegory, as the next page shows.  

The French word for "bad" — villain — originally meant "peasant," and we still say "noble" and "ignoble."

Enriched commoners might use their revenues to purchase a title, acquire land to which a title was attached or assured descendants' nobility by marrying their daughters to impoverished lords seeking dowries. Those practices slowed capitalism's rise.

# # #

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! Whereas I..."

 shows that at the end of the 18th century

 that belief was changing.

-- Le Marriage de Figaro by Pierre Beaumarchais, 1778

So was the economy.   

*    *    *

Next,

2.5.3.

Heroes of glamorized war

2.5.3. HEROES OF GLAMORIZED WAR

NOBLES' ELDEST SONS INHERIT THE LAND, TITLE AND FORTUNE, SECOND SONS ENTER THE CHURCH. DAUGHTERS REINFORCE THE CLAN BY USEFUL MARRIAGES OR JOIN A CONVENT.

The only honorable occupation for junior sons is war, where heroic deeds they can bring royal favor. 

• They wear armor in their portraits or are shown in a martial way to emphasize their stories:

Portrait of a Knight in Armor, 16th century (proposed for sale); Portrait of a Young General by Van Dyck, 1624 / zoom: Charles III, duke of Bourbon ( commissioned by Louis-Philippe from a copy, 1834) / zoom

Batons indicate command and curtains underscore grandeur.

 For the story of Marie-Louise de Montpensier, please click.

Mort [Death] du Connetable de Bourbon, print, 1527 / zoom

The Duke of Bourbon (portrait above) joins Spain and betrays the king. He is killed scaling a wall in the sack of Rome (in 1527).

        Design of the Funeral Monument to Henri II de Montmorency in Moulins by Michel Anguier, 17th century / zoom

He is beheaded for rebelling against Richelieu (in 1632).

Even in a painting that has nothing to do with fighting, the artist includes an idealized soldier in Roman military garb: please read on.

Saint Peter Preaches, Saint-Merri church in Paris, toward 1600 / zoom

# # #

Nobles' ethic of honor and loyalty are irrelevant to commerce, and they lose their privileges should they engage in it. In any case, with inflation reducing the value of peasant dues, most lack the capital to do so. At a time when inflation reduces the value of peasant dues, "holding one's rank" often means debt. Revenues from misalliances with wealthy brides from the middle class, from contacts at court or kickbacks for using their own for others, through straw men or from slave-based estates in the West Indies... 

But most can only fight.

They back aggressive foreign policies

and 3000 join the American rebels.

*    *    *

2.5.4.

Allegory, nobles' response to rising capitalists 

II.5.4. ALLEGORY, NOBLES' RESPONSE TO RISING CAPITALISTS

MENU: 2.5.3. Allegory: nobles vs. new captalists

ALLEGORIES LINK NOBLES TO FIGURES OF ANTIQUITY, FOR AN ESSENCE THAT UPSTARTS CANNOT MATCH

Diane de Poitiers, a member of the top nobility and royal favorite, shows her importance through nudity, clothing of the gods. 

(Toward 1550)

            Diane de Poitiers as Diana, Goddess of the Hunt, anonymous / zoom

Biblical figures are clothed, but have the bodies and faces of gods.

The Reconciliation of Jacob and Ésaü by Arnould De Vuez toward 1678, Baulme Fine Arts

Royals identify with those personnages: 

Philip of France in Costume of Antiquity by Jean Nocret, toward 1650 / zoom; Maurice Leloir in Le Roy-Soleil by T. Cahu, 1931

Using the gods for primacy and power

• Real-life stories and political messages

• Rubens's decor for a queen

• A plea for peace and a threat of revolt

*    *    *

Next,

Real-life stories and political messages