5.3.2. STRONGER KINGS DISPERSE WEALTH

 

WHEN TOWARD 1500 EXPLORATIONS  BRING UNPRECEDENTED REVENUES AND EMERGING CAPITALISTS...

LOUIS XII (1498-1515) begins the transformation of the royal court by inviting noblemen's daughters to civilize it. Francis I (1515-1547) expands their presence. 

The French court becomes Europe's most sophisticated.

        Scouts de France, gone from the web; source not named.

  Le concert après le repas, 1540-1550 by Ambrosius Benson / © Louvre / zoom

Bal au mariage du duc de Joyeuse, artiste inconnu, Louvre, vers 1570

 Bal au cour des Valois, vers 1580, artist unknown © Musée de Rennes, Adélaïde Beaudoin / zoom

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 The court at Fontainebleau, tapestry.

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The need to burn through the new resources leads to transforming the palace of Fontainebleau and remodeling or building those of the Loire Valley, lavishly promoting the arts, superb favorites, immense processions and huge royal households:

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Fontainebleau 

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Chenonceau, most spectacular of the chateaux de la Loire.

• Francis purchases major works now at the Louvre. 

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He invites Leonardo da Vinci and harbors him for the rest of his life. Leonardo designs the Château de Chambord and sells him the Mona Lisa.

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He receives Raphael's The Holy Family at Fontainebleau.

• The "School of Fontainebleau" becomes famous.

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• Diane de Poitiers, favorite of Henri II

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• Procession:

 Louis XV leaves a session of Parliament, September 12, 1715, by Pierre-Denis Martin toward 1715 / zoom with analysis (in French) © GrandPalaisRmn / Agence Bulloz

Catherine de Medici and 10-year-old Charles IX 

visit the entire kingdom,

to unite the population behind him (in 1564-66). 

Kings and court had always moved from palace to palace, to clean them, restore provisions and let game recuperate, or gone on politically-useful excursions, but the Queen Mother takes the prince to visit the whole kingdom. The royal family, their households, the Council, the court, ambassadors, ecclesiastics, craftspeople, cooks, dwarfs, minstrels — 15,000 people, plus thousands of horses and pack animals to carry clothing, tapestries, tents, wine, provisions, furniture, books — make up the cortege. 

Since the towns finance the honor of receiving the king, the expedition siphons off the new wealth of the provincial middle classes.

The extraordinary parade takes a full day to pass by. Spectators come from great distances, to break the routine and applaud the rulers.

Destruction of gain on a grand scale always reinforces authority.  

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Royal households:

Hundreds of people surround 

not only kings and queens, 

but siblings, cousins and children from birth. 

Louis XIV's brother has nine doctors, three medical consultants, an apothecary and his aide, seven other aides, a dentist, five barbers... 27 people in his medical service alone.

-- Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orleans by Jacqueline Duchêne, 1995

Reducing royal households was impossible when lavish spending was so deeply associated with the king. So Louis XV has his four youngest daughters raised in a convent.

*The multitude that surrounded a personnage also showed rank. The capital of Dahomey was not very populated and to give white visitors the impression of a crowd, a procession's participants mixed up and passed by them several times

The royal households have a similar purpose. 

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The civil wars bring ruin, but the far more powerful court that appears later continues the expenses until the Revolution.

They cover its cost by expedients and loans,
which they pay back perhaps, 

or substitute an honor...
or do not do so at all. 

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Next,
5.3.3.

Detour:

French monarchy's lasting éclat