CHAP. V. State of society and manners.—Picture of the court, under Litters. AFTER having considered the French people C H A P V. 1574 1589. society and under so many different aspects, it is still indispensable in order to complete the picture, that we should take a survey of the national manners. Man in a state of society, becomes State of more forcibly distinguished and characterized manners. by the modes, usages, and customs universally received, than by any civil, military, or political regulations. To the empire of the former, his submission may be termed in a great de, gree voluntary: to the latter, it is constrained and compulsory. The features of the nation during the period under our immediate review, were uncommonly bold and prominent. A long period of intestine dissention, approaching to anarchy, had liberated the subject from almost all restraint; while it let loose those destructive passions, which under a well-ordered government, are repressed by the vigilance of the civil magistrate, and the terror of punish, ment. The royal authority was become contemptible, 11 V. 1589. General CHAP. temptible, the laws were destitute of vigor, and the facility of committing crimes, was equalled 1574 by their impunity. All the majesty which surrounded the throne under Francis the First and under Henry the Second, had gradually dis of manners. appeared under the three succeeding princes; and while luxury diffused itself among the inferior orders, the splendor of the sovereign became diminished, or suffered a total eclipse. dissolution Court of the First, The French court, previous to the de ease of Louis the Twelfth in 1515, like the nation itself, remained rude and unpolished. It was his successor, the young Count of Angouleme, become King by the title of Francis the First, who introduced into it a magnificence antecedently unknown in Europe. Ladies, released from the dungeons or castles, in which their husbands and fathers had immured them from the world; Cardinals, bishops, and prelates, liberated from the superintendance of their dioceses; men of letters, magistrates, together with a vast train of nobility and gentry, sum. moned, or invited to the presence of the sovereign; crowded to pay their homage to a Prince, who was so well able to appreciate, and to cherish or recompence, every species of merit. Manners may be said to have gained as much, as morals became perverted and cor. rupted by the change. The King himself, while he protected letters, and introduced the arts into his dominions, gave by his licentious conduct, a mortal wound to the chastity, fidelity, a Brantome, vol. i. Cap. Fran. p. 281. and 273 CHAP. V. 1754 the 1589. and virtue of the female sex: his son Henry the Second, too closely imitated the example. But those monarchs, respected by their courtiers, obeyed by their subjects, and undisturbed in a great measure by civil commotions; maintained and Henry a becoming dignity even in their vices, and were Second. careful to veil from popular inspection, the pleasures or debaucheries of the palace. Their Change, successors, young, inexperienced, oppressed by under the misfortunes, plundered of their revenues, com- last Princes pelled to purchase the loyalty and obedience of their servants, or prodigal of their treasures; were no longer able to sustain the preceding splendor and grandeur of the crown. At the close of Henry the Third's reign, scarcely any traces of the magnificence of his grandfather's court, were to be discovered; the universal disorder of the times levelling in a considerable degree, the external distinction between the monarch and the subject. of Valois. We may judge how gross and indecorous were the manners of the fifteenth century, when we know that the kings of France admitted in their train, a certain number of women of pleasure, who followed the court wherever it moved in its progress from one royal castle to another, along the banks of the Loire. Quarters were regularly assigned to them, and justice was administered by an officer, exclusively appointed to that employment. Women of honor and quality were unknown about the persons or the tion of b Brantome, vol. i. Cap. Fran. p. 282 and 283. VOL. IV. T resi. Introduc ladies. 274 V. 15741589. cence. CHA P. residence of Charles the Seventh, and Louis the Eleventh, both of whom retained their queens in a species of imprisonment or of seclusion. Anne of Bretagne, herself a sovereign princess by birth, successively married to Charles the Eighth, and to Louis the Twelfth, first began to assemble a select band of ladies, whom she retained near her, and whose conduct she vigilantly superintended: but, that assembly of persons of both sexes, held in the presence of the sovereign, and denominated in modern language a drawing-room, originated with Francis Magnifi- the First. Every species of luxury in dress, tables, and furniture, soon followed this institution. It may excite some surprize to find, that on occasion of marriages, Francis was accustomed to present dresses to the favourite ladies of his court, the materials of which were of the most costly kind. But, in no article was so much expence incurred, and such magnificence displayed, as in the provision made for the royal household. Not only the table of the sovereign, but those of all the greater and lesser officers of state, who were extremely numerous, were served with the utmost profusion and delicacy. Nor was it merely confined to the residence of the court, when stationary in the capital. Whereever Francis moved, even in the midst of woods, or in the poorest villages, the same plenty was visible around him. The strongest testimony to the splendid hospitality of that monarch, was c Brantome, vol. i. Cap. Fran. p. 270. d Ibid. .p.271 and 272, borne V. 1574 borne by the Emperor Charles the Fifth himself, CHA P. during his visit in 1539, when on his way across France to Ghent. Having heard from the Duke of Alva, how admirably the Constable 1589. HospitaMontmorenci's table was covered, he deter- lity. mined to satisfy himself of the truth of the report. Disappearing therefore unexpectedly, at the hour of dinner, he placed himself, uninvited, as a private guest, at the Constable's side. His amazement was extreme, at finding the fact exceed the account which he had received from common fame.* court, un Besides the immediate officers of the house- Splendor hold, the court of Francis was crouded with of the prelates and dignified ecclesiastics, who ex- der Francis pended the revenues of their sees or benefices, the First. in regaling the more needy courtiers and gentlemen. Above twenty members of the sacred college, among whom were many foreigners, frequently resided at the same time, in the metropolis; and even the Roman pontiffs themselves could rarely boast of so numerous an assemblage of Cardinals'. Scarcely any diminution of the magnificence or hospitality of the French Kings, was visible before the accession of Charles the Ninth. Henry the Second maintained his father's institutions, and succeeded to his favorite propensities. Catherine of Medicis at every period of her life, emulating the praise of munificence, a quality hereditary in her family, rendered her palace ← Brantome, vol. i. Cap. Fran. p. 273 and 274. f Ibid. p. 286-288. |