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Micheline's Blog

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Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: Catherine de Médicis

La Princesse de Clèves, 1

15 Tuesday Dec 2020

Posted by michelinewalker in 17th-century France, French Literature, Huguenots, Love

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Catherine de Médicis, Catherine's three sons, Henri II, Historical Novel, La Princesse de Clèves, Madame de La Fayette, Psychological Novel

Madame de La Fayette (Wikipedia)

Madame de La Fayette, born Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, is the author of La Princesse de Clèves, published anonymously in 1678. Madame de La Fayette married an older gentleman, François Motier, Comte de La Fayette and bore him two sons. The Comte de La Fayette preferred to live at one of his country estates in Auvergne and the Bourbonnais, but Madame de La Fayette was born in Paris and remained her native city.

La Princesse de Clèves is Madame de La Fayette’s third novel. In 1662, she published La Princesse de Montpensier, anonymously, and is also believed to be the author of Zaïde which appeared under the name of Academician Jean Regnault de Segrais. Writing was not considered an appropriate occupation for a woman “of quality.” Yet, in Salons of the first half of the 17th century, love was forever discussed and writing was a favourite pastime.  

As we know, Mlle de Scudéry wrote lengthy novels, one of which, Clélie, histoire romaine, features the Carte de Tendre, a map of love engraved by François Chauveau. Tendre was Préciosité’s country of love. So, women wrote, but rank may have been problematical. Honnêteté was not necessarily aristocratic. At any rate, Madame de La Fayette’s teacher was Gilles Ménage, a grammarian.

Henry II of France, d’après François Clouet (Wikipedia)

Diane de Poitiers

A Historical Novel

  • the French Wars of Religion
  • the end of the House of Valois
  • the House of Bourbon will reign

The action of La Princesse de Clèves is set in 16th-century France, during the French Wars of Religion. It is considered a historical novel, a form of ailleurs (elsewhere), hence more fictional. We are at the court of Henri II, the second son of François 1er of France. François is married to Catherine de Médicis, but his mistress is Diane de Poitiers. Henri II died accidentally, jousting in 1559. His three sons would reign. Francis II reigned very briefly. He was King of France for a year and five months. He developed and ear abcess that killed him. He was sixteen and had reigned for about 17 months. Charles IX died of tuberculosis in 1574, and Henri III, King of Poland and King of France, who was assassinated, and had not produced a heir to the throne. The death of Henri II’s male children ended the House of Valois. Henri IV, King of Navarre and a Bourbon king, converted to Catholicism and became Henri IV, King of France and Navarre. He took an interest in New France and inspired Voltaire‘s Henriade. Henri IV is the father of Louis XIII.

Catherine de Médicis, her three sons, and Marguerite de Valois

A Psychological Novel

Madame de La Fayette’s Princesse de Clèves is also, and mainly, a psychological novel. There may have been a co-author, François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld. He and Madame de La Fayette met daily when she was writing her Princesse de Clèves. But François was writing his Maximes denouncing human behaviour which, in his opinion, was steeped in self-interest, including virtue. One suspects the influence of Jansenism, which suggests that if one cannot atone for the original sin during one’s life, one may expect a pitiless and eternal afterlife.  

Frontispice de La Princesse de Clèves de Mme de La Fayette, coll. Les Chefs-d’Œuvres illustrés, Éditions de la pléiade, J. Jiffrin 1929

La Princesse de Clèves was Madame de La Fayette’s third novel and it is about love, but love impossible. The main notion underlying Madame de La Fayette’s portrayal of love is that love is in no way possible if it is reciprocated. Madame de Clèves’ husband dies of jealousy. He loves her, but she does not love him. One therefore indulges in petits plaisirs.

Once Dom Juan has seduced a woman, he no longer loves her. If a father is killed avenging his daughter, God strikes.

Sources and Resources

La Princesse de Clèves is a Librivox and Internet Archive Publication FR
The Princess of Cleves is a Wikisource publication EN
La Princesse de Clèves is a Wikisource publication FR
La Princesse de Clèves is Gutenberg’s [eBook # 18797]FR
La Princesse de Clèves is Gutenberg’s [eBook # 467] EN
La Princesse de Clèves is a Librivox and Internet Archive Publication

Henry IV, Musée des Augustins

© Micheline Walker
15 December 2020
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Catherine de Médicis & the Huguenots

20 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in History

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Catherine de Médicis, Charles IX., Henri IV of France, Huguenot, John Everett Millais, Paris, St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, WordPress

Huguenot Lovers on St. Bartholomew’s Day

In my last blog, I wrote that a daughter, Caterina (13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589), was born to Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici (September 12, 1492 – May 4, 1519) and Madeleine de la Tour d’Auvergne (c. 1501 – 28 April 1519).  Both died in 1519, shortly after the birth of Caterina who married Henri II of France and became Catherine de Médicis, Queen consort of France.

As Queen consort of France, Catherine incited her son, Charles IX (27 June 1550 – 30 May 1574), to massacre Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants). This massacre called the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre (Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy in French) took place during the night of the 23-24 August 1572.

In my blog on Machiavelli and Reynard the Fox, I pointed to the ruthlessness of the Medici family, but left aside Caterina deʼ Mediciʼs hatred of French Protestants and her Machiavellian behaviour.  The St. Bartholomewʼs Day massacre was Catherineʼs idea, but only her son, King Charles IX, could and did order it.  When he witnessed the bloodshed, his already fragile mental health suffered such a blow that he did not recover and died two years later, in 1574.  The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre claimed at least 5,000 lives in Paris.  But it also claimed lives outside Paris.

This is the kind of actions, though on a smaller scale, that Machiavelli was aware of, and saw, hence his praise of the zoomorphic, half human, half beast, Centaur.  The Centaurʼs beastial half could be useful to his prince as could the crafty Fox, born as Reinardus in Nivard de Gandʼs Ysengrimus a lenghty Latin beast epic (1149).

However, we will concentrate on Reynard in a future blog.  At the moment, it would suffice to focus on the Huguenots, or French Calvinist Protestants.  The French were beginning to consolidate their monarchy to make it an absolute monarchy.  Richelieu would be its main architect, but absolutism meant one king, one language, one religion, a concept embraced by Catherine de Médicis.

Henri IV, who sympathised with the Huguenots, had to convert to Catholicism to become the King of France.  He is remembered for saying that Paris (kingship) was well worth a mass:  “Paris vaut bien une messe.” Henri was an excellent king, but he was murdered in 1610, when his son, the future Louis XIII was still a child.

A few years earlier, in 1598, Henri IV had signed the Edict of Nantes, which gave the Huguenots a respite, but one that did not truly survive the assassination of Henri IV.  In theory, the Huguenots were safe and inhabited safe places, such as La Rochelle.  But we know about the Siege of La Rochelle.  It reaped the lives of approximately 24,000 Huguenots who were simply starved to death by Richelieu, a regent during the Louis XIII’s childhood but who remained a ruler during part of the reign of Louis XIII.

Mazarin, who was a ruler, also a regent, during the reign of Louis XIII, and Louis XIV were tolerant of Huguenots, but ended up revoking the Edict of Nantes, in 1685

The Révocation de l’Édit de Nantes led to an exodus.  Huguenots fled to the Low Countries, England, the future Germany and elsewhere.  However, as they fled, those who were caught were tortured in the cruellest of manners.

The Huguenots had constituted the cream of France’s middle-class, including Nouvelle-France’s middle-class.  Where Nouvelle-France is concerned, it was so weakened by the departure of the Huguenots that the Révocation may help explain the future vulnerability of the colony.

* * *

It was an important chapter in the history of my family.  However, my sister Diane, an excellent genealogist, tells me that three Bourbeaus left France, which means that Suzor-Côté’s* Bourbeau paintings depict the home and surroundings of a third Bourbeau, my maternal grandfather’s father whose ancestry Diane has sent me, but it remains unexplored, but who was a Huguenot who converted to Roman Catholicism in order to remain in Canada.

* This is a French-language Wikipedia site, surrounded by English-language sites.

* * *

Among Huguenots slaughtered on St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre was composer Claude Goudimel, an innocent man.  All were innocent persons.  Many Huguenots settled along the St. John’s River, in the United States.  I must find out a little more.

I have never understood cruelty, especially cruelty perpetrated in the name of a religion.

P.S.  Millais (Sir John Everett Millais)

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