FrenchKate

May 6: Royal dynasties

The French royal house (unlike the English) followed Salic Law: Only men could rule France and only men of the royal line. This was a simple, orderly decision rule (which had the additional virtue of excluding English claimants to the French throne,) but occasionally male French royal lines petered out. Then what?

Fortunately, in some generations, kings sired more than one son ("heir and a spares.") When this happened, the elder would become King, and the younger sons would become cadet "just-in-case" branches. If--when--the royal male line died out, as it did from time to time, the French would go back to the cadet branch to select the next male heir (after a war of succession.)

In this manner, France had three great dynasties: the Capetians (987 - 1328), the Valois (1328-1589) and the Bourbon (1589 - 1830). I've tried to give you an idea in the attached screenshot of what these lines look like. They were all descendants of Hugh Capet, but Louis IX--"Saint Louis" (1214-1270)-- had two sons. The elder became King Philip III, born in 1245, and his descendents were both the last of the Capetians and the Valois dynasty. Louis IX's younger son, Robert, born in 1256, founded a cadet dynasty and his descendent, Henri IV, would emerge in 1589 to found the Bourbon dynasty.

Philip III also had two sons. The elder, Philip IV (1285-1314)--nicknamed "the Fair" was a notable king, but nearly the last in the sputtering Capetian line. Three of his sons and one grandson became kings after him--Louis X, "the quarrelsome"; Louis X's short-lived son, John I, "the Posthumous"; Philip V, "the Tall", and Charles IV, "the Handsome"--and then there were no more males. The Capetian line was done. Philip III's younger son, Charles, Count of Valois, and his cadet branch then came into their own. Charles's son, Philip VI, aptly nicknamed "the Fortunate," fought a bitter succession battle with the English (one of the causes of the Hundred Years War) to become the first Valois king in 1328. He. When the Valois line died out 260 years later, the next in line was Henri IV, the eleventh generation of the cadet branch sired by Louis IX. Given the several hundred years that had passed (and his Protestantism), it is easy to see why many challenged his claim and why he needed to establish his authority.

The turbulence and decadence that marked the last of the Capetians, by the way, was one of the inspirations for "Game of Thrones."

March 23: Arcachon

One of the travel posters was the lovely blue Atlantic at Arcachon, a place I have not yet visited. Unlike most towns in France, Arcachon is young, only 150 years old. Founded in 1857 (Napoleon III signed its charter), it was developed as a destination for rich Bordelais who wanted to take advantage of its sea air. Previously, the land on which Arcachon stands was uninhabited, part of the coastal forest of pine trees and oaks that formed Les Landes.

Les Landes itself is a huge tract of land--about 3500 square miles--in the southwestern corner of France. Until the 1850s, it was badly drained, heath-covered moorland on which grazed as many as a million sheep. The flocks were guarded by shepherds who wore stilts to keep their feet dry, to cover greater distances (15 to 20 km daily) and to see farther.

Then, in the 1850s, as part of his "invest in France" policies, Napoleon III planted the region with pine trees. Shepherding went away, and forestry-related industry developed in its place.

 1. The travel poster to lure you to Arcachon.

2. A painting of the shepherds of Les Landes on their stilts.

3. A google map of Les Landes. My outlining.

 

March 16: They built palaces for trains

   When President Louis-Napoleon became Emporer Napoleon III in 1850, his position was tenuous. His name and the ignorance of the electorate had given him the opportunity, but he lacked the authority that comes from "divine right." According to Cobban, Napoleon III, adventurer that he was, never forgot what he owed to the people of France. He found the political philosophy of Saint-Simon attractive, and the disciples of Saint-Simonian gave him an economic policy to "meet the material needs of the people."

Economically, France in 1848 was not that different from France in 1789. The economic policies favored by the landowning class established by the Revolution were reactionary. They liked France the way it was, so chose not to provide the capital needed to develop France's infrastructure--trains, roads, mining of resources. And while government might have picked up the slack, during the Bourbon restoration of 1815-1830, the government's economic policies were austere, striving for a balanced budget with the lowest possible expenditures. The financiers catered to the wealthy and conservative landowners. In contrast, industrialized Britain had left France in the dust.

This changed under Napoleon III. New banks were founded --Crédit Agricole and Crédit Lyonnais still exist--that were willing to finance industrial development, and the result was a boom in railway construction. Between 1851 and 1859 France tripled its rail lines and by 1870, she had caught up to Great Britain and Germany. The railways not only stimulated other industries--coal mining, steel production and iron works--they broke down the isolation of provincial France.

Later, when all the investment enriched France, they built palaces for the "chemin du fer."

1. Gare du Nord, in Paris.1864

2. What is now the Musée D'Orsay was built in 1900 as the terminus for trains from Southwestern France--from Bordeaux and Toulouse.

3. Interior of what is now the Musée D'Orsay

4. The train station in Bordeaux, 1898. The rail lines reached Bordeaux in 1855.

5. Gare Matabiau in Toulouse, built 1904.The train line reached Toulouse in 1856.

6. a map of the development of train lines in France

May 29: The remains of St Edmund arrive in Toulouse

Although they are not mentioned in the records of Saint-Sernin until 1425, according to the French tradition, the bones of St Edmund came to Toulouse with Prince Louis in 1219 when he beseiged Toulouse in the closing stages of the Albigensian crusade. By this time, Simon de Montfort was dead--his skull crushed by a stone lobbed by women from the walls of Toulouse--and Raymond VI of Toulouse had regained many of the lands that he had lost. 

Louis came reluctantly, however. His first stop was Marmande, a village north of Toulouse. Marmande had been under seige for six months,  but when Louis surrounded it with his army--twenty bishops, Cistericians and Benedictine monks, three-three Counts with their knights and footsoldiers, German and Flemish mercenaries and French volunteers--the town quickly fell. The inhabitants , every man, woman and child, were slaughtered and the town was left in flames.

Fully aware of the fate of the citizens of Marmande, Toulousains made desparate preparations as Louis's army marched south. They packed in food supplies and fortified the walls, the garrison was readied. When Louis and his army arrived, there was an initial attack, which the Toulousains were able to resist, and then Louis's army, large enough to encircle the city, made camp before the walls of the city. For six weeks Louis's army  encamped there, and then, on August 1, forty-five days after his arrival, Louis broke camp, burned his siege engines, released his prisoners and left. The Toulousains were flabbergasted. According to the French source, they raided Louis's abandoned camp and there found the remains of St Edmund.

The first image is from the Siege of Orléans which occurred in 1429, several hundred years after the siege of Toulouse. But I imagine that it felt very much the same to the citizens of Toulouse.

The second image of St Edmund is a rare 14th century wall painting from a St Mary's church in Lakenheath, Suffolk.

 

 

 

April 25: The north side of Saint Sernin

This is the north side of Saint Sernin--where the cloister stood until its demolition between 1803-1808.At the far end you can just make out what was once the door to the cloister and conventual buildings.

A few of the capitals from the columns of that surrounded the cloister were preserved in the Musée des Augustins. Some are intricately carved lions (first photo). Others are carved with foliage with birds, familiar animals, and other subjects.

Dec 15: the Chevaliers of Saint-Jean de Jeursalem ( a start)

It may be impossible to appreciate old Toulouse without an understanding of the deep complexities of Catholicism. Toulouse was not just a Catholic city, but possibly the most fervently Catholic city in France. At the time of the revolution, about 30% of the land within the city walls and 6% of the inhabitants belonged to one of the religious institutions: two chapters, an abbey, 23 male convents and 28 female convents, ten parish churches, and the Grand Priory of Malta. The first Prefect, in 1806, compliained that he couldn't work because the sound of the church bells  was so distracting.

This building, for example, was the hôtel des Chevaliers de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem. Built in 1668 in lovely classical style by local architect, Jean-Pierre Rivals, the monastic building were part of the grounds of the church of the Dalbade.

Coincidence

I was struck when I came across the first photo, of the beach at Biarritz which was taken around 1900 by Toulousain photographer, George Ancely.

It reminded me of photos that I took in 2007 of le miroir d'eau, a shallow pool of water designed to reflect the surrounding landscape, in this case, the beautiful 18th century buildings of the Bordeaux bourse.