II.1.5. PALACES: GLORY AND DEMISE

MENU: 2.1.5. Palaces: glory & demise

THE LOUVRE EMBODIES THE HEIGHT OF ROYAL POWER,

PALAIS-ROYAL ITS DEMISE

The statue of Louis XIV in front of the Louvre

Camille Desmoulins at the Palais-Royal by Félix Joseph Barrias, 19th century / zoom

The call to arms at Palais-Royal that led to taking the Bastille

Adapted from a Google map

About those extremely privileged sites

• Power takes off from the river

• Fatal passion at the Louvre

• Palais-Royal, a world apart

• "If your son marries my daughter, I'll give you Palais-Royal"

• Another way in which the past stepped in: the threat from other royals

• The libertarian gardens where modern times began

• Counter-power to Versailles

• Imagine a movie set in the gardens today... 

• Moving on

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Next,

Power takes off from the river

POWER TAKES OFF FROM THE RIVER

THE LOUVRE WAS A FORT GUARDING ACCESS TO THE SEINE 

(FROM ABOUT 1200 TO 1500)

Zoom

It grew out so far along the river that it takes an aerial view 

to show its full extent:

        As imagined from the archives by Theodor Josef Hubert Hoffbauer toward 1885 /zoom 

The palace toward 1630

The Louvre in 1860, seen from the Tuileries Gardens by Michel-Charles Fichot / zoom

# # #

Palais-Royal nestles behind it. Prime Minister Richelieu  — France's "strong man" from 1630 until his death in 1643 and the villain of The Three Musketeers — built it as his palace, and bequeathed it to the king.

Maurice Leloir in Richelieu by Theodore Cahu,1900 

     Adapted from a plan in Open Street Map / zoom

View of the Palais Cardinal by Israël Sylvestre, 1650 / zoom

Its gardens would become the center of Parisian life.

Palais-Royal in 1679, anonymous / zoom

But first,

 a story that takes place at the Louvre.

*     *     *

Next,

Fatal passion at the Louvre

FATAL PASSION AT THE LOUVRE

AN ASSINATION AND A COUP D'ÉTAT TOOK PLACE AT THIS LOUVRE ENTRY

(IN 1617)

Eastern entrance of the Louvre palace 

The drama starts with an orphan's loneliness.

The girl who became Queen Marie de Medici, daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, grew up in 1580's Florence with a father she revered, a stepmother she hated and no friends.                                                                                                                                                                                               

That isolation explains the influence of an older girl, whom she adored. A carpenter's daughter, Leonora Dori saw Marie as the way to a better life. 

Leonora's advice contributed to Marie's marrying Henri IV of France (in 1600). But her perspicacity failed when she fell in love with dashing Concino Concini, a low-ranking Florentine noble and hustler. He married her for her closeness to Marie. 

Concino Concini / zoom

# # #

The assassination of Henri IV left eight-year old Louis XIII as king and Marie as regent.

(In 1610)

• Elitist and misogynist history credits Concino as the power behind the throne, calling him "intelligent" despite his absurd behavior.*

*On leaving the queen he would adjust his clothing to suggest that they were lovers. He insulted teen-aged Louis by wearing his hat in his presence. It is he that valets copied when they beat up a baker. 

Concini, Leonora Galigai and Marie de Médicis, p. 148 / Internet, no source named

• But the real influencer was Leonora, precisely because she was a woman and a servant: She would subtly advise Marie as she had always done, when they were alone and she brushed her hair...

Leonora: Ugly, hysterical and brilliant, pretty-ing up diminishes her.

Alain Decaux, source not said

          Notice the gaze (1614) / zoom 

The work on the left shows a woman of disturbing but vigorous appearance, that on the right, a lovely young lady. Historians print the flattering image and in his play about her, the poet Alfred de Vigny calls her "beautiful."

 -- La Maréchal d'Ancre, 1831

• She demanded advantages for Concini and commissions for herself, acquiring jewels, works of art and this palatial residence:

                                                                                                                                                        10 rue de Tournon

Now the headquarters of the Republican guard (the police on horseback), a few minutes from Marie's Luxembourg palace (today the Senate)

• Historians call her "corrupt" because they view the court through modern eyes.*

She was a  favori, the person closest to the king, through whom courtiers passed to receive money, honors and positions. But favoris were nobles who shared that bounty with their clans, which in turn distributed them to their followers. The practice maintained the balance between rival families, gave temporary access to power without risking revolt and encouraged staying at the court to intrigue.

Leonora defied that institution.*

*Accounts (all in French) : The hysterical dwarf who ruled France by Alain Decaux, 1977, emphasizes her corruption ; La Galigaï by Eve de Castro, 1990, her friendship with Marie ; The queens of France under the Bourbons: the two regents by Simone Bertière comes closest to an analysis by noticing Concini's lack of the usual allies, but her account is mainly psychological.  

These studies do not address how power functioned.  

#  #  #

Concini's assassination

• Leonora felt the hate and implored Concini to retire with her to Florence. But "he wanted to see how far a man's fortune could go." 

-- Richelieu, Memoirs

And since she loved him...

• "I played the child," Louis said later...

Maurice Leloir in Richelieu by Théodore Cahu, 1901 (a history for children)

"At another time, he became very angry at the queen's ladies in waiting for taking a finch from him. he rolled one of his canons in front of their door and threatened to shoot..."

While no one bothered with a prince who seemed retarded, he surrounded himself with more perceptive thugs.

• When Concini advanced inattentively toward the drawbridge, his 60 guards behind him, a plotter cried, "In the name of the king, you are under arrest!" "Que, me?" he exclaimed, too surprised to speak French. 

He was shot. 

Same text

Louis had had a horse saddled should he have to flee, and pretended interest in billiards. When a clamor broke out in the courtyard he knew he had won, stepped out on a window sill and famously cried, "At last I am king!"

Same text

• The assassins left the corpse in the church facing the Louvre.

Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois was the royal church, with stained-glass windows of kings. Visit it: You are likely to have it all to yourself. 

• A mob seized it and hung it on pont Neuf bridge, where a Scottish soldier (it is said) tore out the heart — and ate it.

Anonymous print, 1618 / zoom

The third image in the print above

Concini himself had had the scaffold built, to intimidate the population after his valets were lynched.

                                                          

# # #

Leonora's execution:

• She was condemned as a witch* because only sorcery seemed to explain a servant's power over a queen... and because it was the only sentence by which the king might seize her wealth.

*Witches were burned, and the flames in the image below show how her body ended. But as a noble (she had purchased her title) she was decapitated. 

Seventeenth-century engraving, zoom

• Her last words: "So many people to see a poor woman die!"   

-- Cited by Richelieu, Memoirs

# # #

Marie's sad end

• She was exiled. Richelieu* accompanied her and never forgot the sight of Concini's mutilated body, a warning of how quickly power can become disaster.

*Then an ally of Concini, he was disgraced too.

Maurice Leloir

Her convoy is about to cross pont Neuf on the way to exile.

• Richelieu took Leonora's place as counsel, helped Marie regain a degree of power and betrayed her.

• She was exiled again and died almost penniless (in Cologne, 1642). 

An enigmatic detail

• At the time of her ephemeral return to power (in 1621-1630), Marie commissioned Rubens to paint her story (in 1624-1626). Every detail is political and as an important member of her suite, Leonora should appear prominently in this image of Marie's arrival in Marseilles...

     The Arrival of Marie de Medici at Marseilles (upper level) by Rubens / zoom

She arrives in France to marry Henri IV.

• But the women to Marie's left and right are family members. Is Leonora the person behind the queen and is the man whose profile is seen in the background Concini? 

Most figures in the series resemble their portraits: These don't.

Leonora's memory was too explosive to be openly evoked.

# # #

Rubens painted a happy king:

Louis XIII  toward 1524, exhibited at the Senate in 2019

Louis XIII was notoriously morose but this portrait, the only one of a royal that Rubens painted from life, suggests a cheerful early reign. 

# # #

The story's wider interest 

• Accounts may leave out the inconvenient.

• Assuming that other societies function like ours makes it impossible to correctly interpret their events.  

• Imposing an outsider as favori shows growing royal might.

*     *     *

Next,

Palais Royal, a world of its own

PALAIS ROYAL, A WORLD OF ITS OWN

PASS THROUGH THE GRANDIOSE COURTYARDS OF THE LOUVRE...

At this café turn right, cross the street...

(The café Marly, the rue de Rivoli)

And follow the almost imperceptible passage next to the government building.

The Conseil d'État decides on whether the government follows the law.

Come upon another spectacular courtyard...

And one of the city's loveliest sites:

Standing Man by Chung Hyun, 2016

Hidden from the street,
"Palais-Royal" is a haven of tranquility...

 

Now.

*     *     *

Next,

"If your son marries my daughter, I'll give you Palais-Royal"

"IF YOUR SON MARRIES MY DAUGHTER I'LL GIVE YOU PALAIS-ROYAL"

LOUIS XIV* WANTED TO RAISE HIS BASTARD DAUGHTER'S RANK BY MARRIAGE TO THE PRINCE, BUT BORN OF A DOUBLE ADULTERY* SHE WAS A MISALLIANCE

*The "Sun King," active 1660-1715: The first 30 years of his reign are time when French classic culture took it definitive shape, and when (after 1672) France dominates Europe. 

*He and his favorite, Madame de Montespan, were both married. 

The prince's father, Philip Duke of Orleans,* refused the match...

*He was Louis's younger brother and founder of the Bourbon junior branch. The name "Philip" harks back to Philip I (11th century) and would be that of his descendants, just as those of the senior branch were "Louis," after Louis IX / Saint Louis (13th century).

Until Louis offered him Palais-Royal in exchange.

(In 1692)

Philip Duke of Orleans and Marie-Françoise de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Blois: from History and Secrets, an account of the king's legitimized children (in French)

The boy at 19 was in awe of the king and counted on his father to oppose the marriage. Their agreement took him by surprise and he accepted. His mother, who considered the match a frightful misalliance but whose opinion had not been asked, slapped him in front of the court. 

The bride said, "I don't care if he loves me so long as he marries me:" The marriage made her the second lady of the court at age 14, after her mother-in-law.

He called her "Madame Lucifer" and though they never got on, had eight children. 

Palace and gardens from then on belonged to the "Orleanists,"

a change that would contribute to guillotining Louis XVI and 

ultimately end monarchy itself.

Palais-Royal in 1739 / zoom

# # #

Philip's great-grandson, Louis-Philippe Duke of Orleans, inherited the site. 

(In 1785)

Louis-Philippe d'Orleans, Duke of Orleans by Antoine-François Callet, end 18th century /zoom

He divided the garden into rented lots, which for a noble was an extraordinary act:

• Honorable revenues came from peasant dues, administrative positions that were inherited or came from royal appointment, or gifts from the king.

• Nobles' education skipped the practical knowledge of many commoners: "By dint of clutching the handle of sword, the needle of a tapestry [...] one loses the sense of touch, does not know how to finger velvet, to separate the grain from the chaff." 

-- Attitude attributed to Leonora, Marie de Medici's servant and power behind the throne, 

in La Galigaï by Eve de Castro, 1990

• Nobles headed the State's commercial establishments, but that was due to proximity to the king* rather than business acumen.
  

*Example: The Marquis de la Faye was Louis XIV's private secretary before being appointed administrator of the Compagnie des Indes, which controlled colonial commerce. (The decor of his château shows his culture : please click and scroll down). 

  

• The ethics of their caste: personal honor, the self-control indispensable to life in the extremely codified court and service to the king (now the State) are attitudes irrelevant to business success. Generously distributing riches — faire le grand baron ("act the great lord") is a mocking reminder —  is contradictory to it.

Manners in modern France inherited from the nobility: L'appât du gain ("the lure of profit") is a negative term and money is mentioned only at the end of a business lunch. 

• Engaging in commerce meant losing privileges, such as access to the highest posts, the right to be judged by one's peers, being decapitated rather than hanged or burned, access to luxury wares forbidden to commoners... and exemption from taxes. 

• With inflation lessening the value of immutable peasant dues, most nobles lacked the capital to launch an enterprise even had they the capacity and wish to do so.

# # #

Incompatibility with the business society

 that the Revolution foreshadowed 

explains why most nobles ferociously opposed it. 

Exceptions:

Young nobles open to the new ideas and

whose inherited wealth let them adapt to capitalism,

such as the Marquis de Lafayette and the Duke of Orleans.

*    *    *

Next,

Another way in which the past stepped in:

The threat from other royals