HOW THE ROYAL COURT PROMOTED A CULTURE THAT APPRECIATES WOMEN
Francois I (1525-1547) wanted his court to reflect his growing authority, but nobles stayed in their castles, drank and brawled.
François I by Jean Clouet, toward 1530 / zoom
So he extended a practice of the previous reign, inviting the nobles' daughters to the court. He lent the 300 young ladies sumptuous clothes and jewels and had them educated by the queen, hoping that they would attract and civilize the men.
They did. The court of most the 16th century is still known for its refinement...
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| Tapestry, publication of the Renaissance Museum |
"Ball at the court of the Valois, SOLD OUT:" event at the Musée des Armées
...until civil wars* shattered it:
* The "Wars of Religion," roughly 1560-1590: Please click and scroll down.
The Feast of the Generals, 1535 zoom
When Henri IV, founder of the Bourbon dynasty and of stronger monarchy, came to power in the late 16th century the crassness of the court shocked his Florentine wife, Marie de Medici. A historical novelist captures her disgust with this imagined response: "There was a brute in each of the men, a prostitute in each of the women. Certain expressions, certain jokes made me close my eyes in confusion, even sometimes cover my ears with both hands.
-- La Galigaï by Eva de Castro, 1987, p.198
- Henri as Rubens portrayed him:
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The Meeting at Lyon, Marie de Medici cycle, 1626, zoom
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"Henri IV holds himself badly!" cried my eight-year-old on seeing this work.
The best military leader of his day, he spent 40 years in army camps. He never took a bath, rarely shaved and thought stinking the mark of a viril gentleman accustomed to combat, far superior to the well-turned-out but tame bourgeois.
When dining with the queen, he would spatter soup on her ruff. "Sorry, darling," he'd say, and spatter her again. Yet his love letters to his girlfriends — he is said to have fathered 53 bastards — are masterpieces of style.
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Transformation came from salons where noblewomen met for refined conversation. There they invented the "Map of Love, which advised gentlemen that to reach the "Dangerous Sea" of passion they must advance from village to village, that is, step by step:
Civilized men proceed from the villages at the bottom to those at the top.
That code encouraged urbanity, self-control and hierarchy, attributes that an increasingly muscular monarchy would take to extremes.
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Queens' and favorites' complimentary roles:
- Queens' function was to give children to France. As well, by participating in ceremonies, visiting churches and giving alms, they seemed closer to the people than the king and humanized the monarchy.
The young women who surrounded them set the tone. But they themselves, as foreigners chosen for political reasons who might never learn French well or grasp the court's complicated ways, usually remained in the background.
From the 16th century only three queens emerge from insignificance, by acting as regents when kings died leaving sons to young to rule or by maintaining their influence over them.
Those anomalies:
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Catherine de Medici, queen mother 1559-1580's / zoom
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"Nobody likes their husband's whore," Catherine wrote, showing how queens were obliged to accept the favorites described below. Such servitude taught Catherine the observation and duplicity that served her later: "A great king," Henry IV would call her.
Stout, with globular eyes, dressed in widow's black, she was interested in power, not elegance. But the girls who encircled her to seduce and spy maintained the glamour of the court.
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Marie de Médici, regent 1600-1616 / zoom |
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| Anne of Austria, regent and queen mother, 1643-1666 / zoom. |
Marie de Medici was as power-hungry. For her story, please click here and here.
Charming, sociable Anne of Austria left politics to a brilliant Prime Minister while expertly running the court during Louis XIV's minority and young manhood.
- Favorites: Official royal mistresses. Most were beautiful, cultivated and elegant, pacesetters who gave the court its éclat.
Standing out:
Diane de Poitiers, the power behind Henry II, left Catherine de Medici in the shadows for 20 years.
The marquise de Montespan contributed to the court's prestige during Louis XIV's most glorious time (roughly 1670-1685). Her link with a serial-killing witch brought her fall.
The Marquise de Pompadour influenced culture brilliantly and foreign policy disastrously. The Countess du Barry is best known for crying, "Give my one more minute to live!" before she was guillotined.
Royal mistresses were necessary. Their presence encouraged nobles to remain at the extremely expensive, stifling court in hopes that their intrigues would lead to their candidate being chosen next, and distribute royal largesse to her clan. Plus, their extravagant spending made them lightning rods that drew popular fury away from the king.
Proof of approving them: During the Restauration the nobility welcomed the gift of a dwelling by the aged, gout-ridden ruler as showing the choice of favorite and a return to the Old Regime.
- Marie-Antoinette's spending, elegance and leadership of fashion meant acting more like a favorite than a queen, behavior that led to her fate:
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The 16th-century court, the salons
and the matching roles of favorites and queens
explain women's influence on French culture.
They encouraged the arts,
demanded a courteous relationship between the genders
and transformed luxury into taste.
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