Architectural Antiquities of Normandy Part 19

The palace, in its present state, is composed of three distinct buildings, erected at different times, and forming collectively three sides of a parallelogram, whose fourth side is merely a wall. The court thus enclosed is s.p.a.cious. One of these buildings, the front in the plate, goes by the name of the _Salle des Procureurs_. Its erection was six years anterior to that of the right-hand building, more properly called the _Palace of Justice_; and the object in raising it was, according to the edict of the bailiff upon the occasion, to serve as an exchange to the merchants, and put a stop to the impious practice of a.s.sembling, even upon feast-days, in the cathedral, for purposes of business. At a subsequent time, this hall was added to the Palace of Justice, and there was then built to it a chapel, now destroyed, in which ma.s.s was regularly celebrated twice a year,--upon the anniversary of the feast of St. Martin, the day of the meeting of parliament, and upon Ascension-Day. The service on the first of these days, went by the name of _la messe rouge_, because the members always attended in their scarlet robes: on the second, and more important occasion, it was called _la messe de la fierte_, being performed in commemoration of the deliverance of the prisoner, by virtue of the privilege of St.

Romain.[177]--The exterior of the _Salle des Procureurs_ is comparatively simple: the most highly decorated part of it is the gable, which is flanked by two octangular turrets, ornamented with crocketed pinnacles and flying b.u.t.tresses. Within, it consists of a n.o.ble hall, one hundred and sixty French feet in length, and fifty in width, with a coved roof of timber, plain and bold, and dest.i.tute either of the open tie-beams and arches, or the knot-work and cross-timber that usually adorn the old English roofs. Below the hall is a prison.

The southern building, erected exclusively for the sittings of the exchequer, is far more sumptuous in its decorations, both without and within. The lucarne windows may even vie with those in the house in the Place de la Pucelle.[178] Those below them find almost exact counterparts in the _chateau_ at Fontaine-le-Henri, also figured in this work.[179] To use the language of the French critics, this front, which is more than two hundred feet in width, "est decoree de tout ce que l'architecture de ce temps-la presente de plus delicat et de plus riche." The oriel or tower of enriched workmanship, which, by projecting into the court, breaks the uniformity of the elevation, is perhaps the part that more than any other merits such encomium. But it is only half the front that has been allowed to continue in its original state: the other half has been degraded by alterations, or stripped of its ornaments.--The room in which the parliament formerly met, and which is now employed for the trial of criminal causes, still remains comparatively uninjured. Its ceiling of oak, nearly as black as ebony, divided into numerous compartments, and covered with a profusion of carving and of gilt ornaments, not only affords a gorgeous example of the taste of the time, but immediately strikes the stranger as well suited to the dignity of the purpose to which the apartment was appropriated. But the open-work bosses of this ceiling are gone, as are the doors enriched with sculpture, and the ancient chimney, and the escutcheons charged with sacred devices, and the great painting, by which, before the revolution, witnesses were made to swear.[180]

The building that fronts the _Salle des Procureurs_, and forms the third side of the court, was not erected till after the year 1700. Its front is an imitation of the Ionic order, a style which harmonizes so ill with the rest of the quadrangle, as to produce an unfavorable effect An accident which happened to the wood-work of the upper part of this front, on the 1st of April, 1812, unfortunately involved the destruction of a painting held in the highest estimation; the representation of Jupiter hurling his thunderbolts at Vice, executed by Jouvenet, upon the ceiling of an apartment called _la seconde Chambre des Enquetes_.

Jouvenet, who commonly pa.s.ses under the name of the Michelagnolo of France, was born at Rouen, in 1664; and, in conjunction with Fontenelle and the great Corneille, forms the triumvirate, of which the city has most reason to feel proud. The painting in the Palace of Justice was regarded as one of the happiest efforts of his pencil, and was not the less remarkable for having been executed with his left hand, after a paralytic stroke had deprived him of the use of the other.

NOTES:

[177] See p. 51.

[178] See plate 64.

[179] Plate 63.

[180] Upon this subject Mr. Turner is in error: it appears, from his _Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 193, that he was informed that the painting, now actually over the judges' bench, is the same by which it was originally customary to take the oath; but M. Jolimont, who is, unquestionably, better authority, states the contrary in the following note:--"Le tableau, sur lequel on faisait jurer les temoins, et qui avait pres de douze pieds d'elevation, consistait en trois portions ou bandes horizontales reunies dans un grand cadre sculpte a la maniere du temps. La premiere, et la plus elevee, presentait quatre ecussons aux armes de France, pa.r.s.emes de fleurs de lis d'or; celle du milieu offrait, sous cinq arcades en ogives avec fleurons, un Christ entre la Vierge et saint Jean, et les quatre Evangelistes; au-dessous, un Moyse, et les tables de la loi: il existait encore au moment de la revolution; on l'a remplace, au mois de janvier 1816, par un autre, d'environ quatre pieds de hauteur, donne (dit l'inscription moderne mise au bas) par Louis XII a l'Echiquier, lorsqu'il l'etablit au palais. Ce second tableau, recueilli pendant la revolution par les soins de M. Gouel, graveur, et dont il a bien voulu faire hommage a la Cour royale (voir, a ce sujet, le Journal de Rouen, du 30 janvier 1816), est compose de deux parties: l'une renferme un Christ entre saint Jean et la Vierge; l'autre, en forme de couronnement, presente deux figures a mi-corps, avec des legendes; mais ces deux parties heterogenes ne sont que deux fragmens ajustes ensemble. Le premier, qui represente le Christ, est evidemment la portion qui remplissait une des cinq arcades du grand tableau dont nous venons de parler, et l'autre est une partie seulement du tableau donne par Louis XII, et qui orna, pendant plus de deux siecles, le manteau de la belle cheminee de la chambre du Conseil que nous citons ci-apres. Les deux figures, aujourd'hui mutilees, etaient en pied, et representaient le Roi Louis XII et le Cardinal d'Amboise, avec ces mots ecrits sur des bandelettes, que les deux personnages semblent s'adresser: _Pontifices, agite: Magistrats, agissez;--et vos Reges, dicite justa: et vous Rois, soyez justes_. Ces fragmens de deux tableaux differens, reunis, avec a.s.sez d'art, et qui paraissent etre seuls echappes a la destruction, sont encore fort curieux, et l'on doit savoir gre a M. Gouel de leur conservation, et de la generosite avec laquelle il les a rendus a leur destination primitive."

PLATE LXXIX.

SOUTH PORCH OF THE CHURCH, AT LOUVIERS.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 79. CHURCH OF LOUVIERS.

_South Porch._]

Louviers is one of the most considerable of the numerous manufacturing towns which surround Rouen in every direction, depending altogether for their prosperity upon the state of commerce in the provincial capital.

Its population consists of about seven thousand inhabitants. Its position is beautiful, in a small island formed by the Eure, which divides, in the immediate vicinity of the town, into two streams, flowing through a valley of the most luxuriant fertility, enclosed by hills covered for the greater part with extensive forests.

The name of Louviers, in Latin _Locoveris_, occurs upon more than one occasion, in the early Norman chronicles; and the town, though never fortified, has obtained a considerable degree of historical celebrity.

When Richard Coeur-de-Lion, escaped from his captivity in the east, hastened to punish the perfidy with which he had been on all sides a.s.sailed during his absence, and Normandy became the theatre of a most b.l.o.o.d.y warfare, Louviers had the honor of being selected as the place in which these differences were composed. The treaty signed upon this occasion, in 1195, prescribed new bounds to the duchy; and the old historians, who always delight in consecrating the recital of any memorable event by a mixture of the marvellous, tell how, at the moment when the kings were engaged in the conference which led to this treaty, a serpent of enormous size darted from the foot of the tree beneath which they were standing, and approached them with marks of great fury, hissing violently at both, as if in the act to attack them. The monarchs, who were alone, instantly laid their hands upon their swords; and the armies, who stood at a short distance on either side arranged in battle array, alarmed at such hostile demonstrations, had well nigh joined in a fresh combat.--Only the following year, Louviers was one of the towns ceded by Richard to Walter, archbishop of Rouen, by way of compensation for the infringement of the rights of the see, of which he had been guilty in the erection of Chateau Gaillard. The possession of Louviers was peculiarly acceptable to the prelate, as being in the immediate vicinity of the village of Pinterville, where the archbishops of Rouen then had their country seat: they continued to occupy the same till the reign of St. Louis, when that monarch conferred upon them the castle of Gaillon, which they held till the revolution.

Louviers was taken in 1345, by the English army under King Edward III.

then on his march for Paris, after the battle of Caen; and Froissart, in relating the circ.u.mstance, takes occasion to mention the importance of the place, stating that the town was then a great one, and "the chief town of all Normandy for drapery and riches, and full of merchandize.

But, not being closed, the hostile army soon entered it." He goes on to add, not much to the credit of the invading host, that "they overran, and spoiled and robbed without mercy; and that they won there great riches."--In 1360, Louviers was once more chosen as the spot where peace was signed: the treaty that had been concluded at Bretigny, was confirmed at Paris by the Regent, and was finally ratified by the Black Prince in this town.--During the subsequent wars, under Henry V. and VI.

Louviers is repeatedly mentioned; but princ.i.p.ally for opposing a resistance of twenty-six days to the English in 1418.--In the time of the league, it distinguished itself most unfortunately by its devoted attachment to the Catholic cause; in consequence of which, it was pillaged by the royalists shortly after the battle of Ivry.[181]

The church of Louviers is an imposing structure: though materially injured, and reduced to no more than a nave with its four aisles, it is still a s.p.a.cious and handsome building. The great western door is closed, and the front defaced: the eastern end is likewise altogether modern. The central tower is handsome, though square and short. Two windows, very similar to those of the tower of St. Romain, in Rouen cathedral, light it on either side; and saints, placed under canopies, ornament the angles behind the b.u.t.tresses. A second tower, to the west, is surmounted with a truncated cone. The south porch,[182] here figured, is the great feature of the exterior; and, for beauty and elegance in the formation or disposition of its parts, it may safely be put in compet.i.tion with any similar portion of an ecclesiastical building, either in Normandy or in England. Yet, even here, the saints have been torn from their pedestals by the wanton violence of Calvinists or of democrats.

Internally, the church is a fine specimen of the pointed architecture of the thirteenth century;[183] but, to use the words of Mr. Turner, from whose Tour[184] a great part of the preceding description has been borrowed, "the whole is so concealed and degraded by ornaments in the worst of taste, and by painted saints in the most tawdry dresses, that the effect is disgusting." In the windows of the church there still remains a considerable quant.i.ty of painted gla.s.s; and a bas-relief on the right of the choir is well deserving of attention. It is placed under a niche, which in all probability was originally filled with a statue of St. Hubert; as the sculpture pourtrays a well-known legend, recorded in his history--the miraculous stag with a cross between his antlers, seen by the hunter-knight.--The foliage at the base of the niche is executed with particular elegance and skill.

In the town of Louviers is an old house, said to have belonged to the Knights Templars. Its gable, pierced with numerous windows, generally in the form of flatly pointed arches, each of them containing a couple of arches with trefoil-heads, has given currency to the tale of its original destination. It was figured some time since by M. Langlois, in a work commenced to ill.u.s.trate the Antiquities of Normandy, but of which the first number only appeared; and it has recently been lithographized by M. Nodier. But, from the style of its architecture, it does not appear to have been erected anterior to the fourteenth century, however confidently it is referred by M. Langlois to the twelfth or thirteenth.

NOTES:

[181] Sully, in his _Memoirs_, I. p. 254, (_English translation_) gives the following account of its capture:--"The King succeeded better at Louviers: this town kept a priest in its pay; who, from the top of a belfry, which he never left, played the part of a spy with great exactness. If he saw but a single person in the field, he rung a certain bell, and hung out at the same side a great flag. We did not despair of being able to corrupt his fidelity, which two hundred crowns, and a promise of a benefice worth three thousand livres a year, effected.

There remained only to gain some of the garrison; the Sieur du Rollet took this upon himself, and succeeded. He addressed himself to a corporal and two soldiers, who easily prevailed upon the rest of the garrison to trust the guard of one of the gates to them only. Every thing being thus arranged, the King presented himself before Louviers, at twelve o'clock in the night. No one rung the bell, nor was there the least motion in the garrison. Du Rollet entered, and opened the gate, through which the King pa.s.sed, without the smallest resistance, into the centre of the town. Fontaine Martel made some ineffectual efforts to draw the garrison together: as for the citizens, they were employed in concealing their wives and daughters. The town, whose chief riches consisted in its magazines of linen and leather, was wholly pillaged: I had a gentleman with me, called Beaugrard, a native of Louviers, who was of great use to us in discovering where these sort of goods were concealed, and a prodigious quant.i.ty of them was ama.s.sed together. The produce of my share amounted to three thousand livres. The King consigned to Du Rollet the government of Louviers."

[182] Mr. Cotman very much regrets that it was not in his power to do this porch the justice it deserved, in consequence of the continual interruptions to which he was exposed from the lower cla.s.s of the inhabitants.

[183] M. Nodier, in his _Voyages Pittoresques et Romantiques_, has figured the interior of this church, the erection of which he refers (p.

18) to the time of the first crusades; but a comparison of the building with others of that aera, would scarcely warrant such a conclusion.

[184] Vol. II. p. 287.

PLATE Lx.x.x. AND Lx.x.xI.

CHaTEAU GAILLARD.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 80. CHaTEAU GAILLARD.

_North East View._]

On the building of Chateau Gaillard, the following account is given by Ma.s.seville, in his _History of Normandy_:[185]--"In the year 1196, a few months after the treaty of Louviers had been concluded between Philip-Augustus and Richard Coeur-de-Lion, the Norman Duke, considering how frequently inroads had been made into his territories, by the way of Andelys, resolved to strengthen himself by means of a formidable barrier in that quarter. With this view, he built a fortress upon an island in the Seine, opposite the village of Lesser Andelys; and, at the same time, erected upon the brow of the rock that overhung the river, a castle of the greatest possible strength, without, however, reflecting how far these works were likely to affect the rights, or to diminish the revenues, of the see of Rouen, to whom the ground belonged. But Walter, who then wore the archiepiscopal mitre, was by no means of a character patiently to submit to an invasion of his privileges. He complained loudly during the progress of the works, menaced the artificers, and even the prince himself, with the vengeance of the church; and, finally, finding his threats and his remonstrances equally disregarded, had recourse to the bold measure of laying the whole of Normandy under a spiritual interdict. The king, alarmed at so decisive a step, appealed to the papal see, and sent the bishops of Durham and of Lisieux, as his amba.s.sadors to Rome. The archbishop also repaired thither to plead his own cause; and the affair was finally compromised by an exchange, in virtue of which, the castles were allowed to stand, and the secular seigniory of Andelys was ceded to the duke, who, in return for this acquisition, and to obtain his reconciliation to the church, gave up to the primate the towns and lordships of Dieppe and Louviers, the land and forest of Alihermont, the land and lordship of Bouteilles, and the mills of Rouen."--The contract was considered of so much importance, that the archbishop of Canterbury, together with several other English prelates, as well as almost all those of Normandy, and many of the princ.i.p.al abbots and n.o.blemen of the province, were summoned to sanction the execution of it by their presence. Such were the benefits it was supposed to bestow upon the church, that it has pa.s.sed in ecclesiastical history, under the significant appellation of the _celebris permutatio_.

But the king also congratulated himself, and not without reason, upon having opposed an impregnable barrier to the inroads of his more powerful, and scarcely less active, neighbor. He delighted in Chateau Gaillard, the very name of which is said to have had its origin in proud mockery and defiance; and he himself, in his public acts, designated it his "_beautiful castle of the rock_." Many of his charters bear date from this fortress; so that, though only begun three years before the death of the monarch, it is plain that it was already habitable in his life-time. It may likewise safely be inferred, that it was then quite finished; for his dastardly successor, engaged either in distant wars, or in intrigues at home, from the moment of his mounting the throne, had bestowed no thought upon the strengthening of his hereditary continental dominions, till he found himself, in the year 1202, attacked by Philip-Augustus at the head of an overwhelming army, while his own subjects were but little disposed to a.s.sist a prince, whose hands were reeking with his nephew's blood.

It was at this time that Chateau Gaillard supported the siege which will render its name for ever memorable in history. Long, and curious, and interesting details of the occurrences connected with the capture of the castle, are given by Father Daniel: Du Moulin also briefly enumerates a few of the many stratagems to which the French king was obliged to have recourse. But those who delight in narratives of this kind, or who desire to obtain full information relative to the attacks and defence, combined with a lively picture of the strength of the fortress, must be referred to Brito, the poetical chronicler of the exploits of Philip-Augustus. The whole of the seventh book of the _Philippiad_ of that author, containing no fewer than eight hundred and forty-one lines, are devoted to this single subject; so eventful was the history of the siege, and so great the importance attached to the capture of the place.

The fall of Chateau Gaillard was almost immediately followed by the total subversion of the power of the Norman Dukes; but, as to the fortress itself, though its situation was no longer such as to give it importance, Brito expressly states, that Philip bestowed great pains upon the restoring of its damaged works, and upon augmenting its strength by the addition of new ones:--

"Rex ita Gaillardo per praelia multa pot.i.tus, Cuncta reaedificat vel ab ipso diruta, vel quae Improbus appositis destruxerat ignibus hostis, In triplo melius et fortius intus et extra, Antea quam fuerint muros et caetera firmans."

Fortunately for France, the subsequent state of the kingdom rendered precautions of this description unnecessary; Chateau Gaillard appears no more in history as a formidable fortress, except upon the occasion of the occupation of the Gallic throne by Henry V. and of the expulsion of his successor. In the former case, the castle did not surrender to the English army, till after a vigorous resistance of sixteen months;[186]

and even then its garrison, though composed of only one hundred and twenty men, would not have yielded, had not the ropes of their water-buckets been worn out and destroyed: in the latter instance, it was one of the last of the strong holds of Normandy that held out for the successors of its ancient dukes; and the siege of six weeks, sustained by a dispirited army, was scarcely less honorable to its defenders, than the far longer resistance opposed on former occasions.

Even after the final re-union of the duchy, Chateau Gaillard was neither purposely destroyed, nor suffered to fall through neglect into decay, like the greater number of the Norman fortresses. During the religious wars, it still continued to be a military post, as well as a royal palace; and it was honored with the residence of Henry IV. whose father, Anthony of Bourbon, died here in 1562. Its importance ceased in the following reign. The inhabitants of the adjacent country pet.i.tioned the King to give orders that the castle should be dismantled. They dreaded, lest its towers should serve as an asylum to some of the numerous bands of marauders, by whom France was then infested. It was consequently undermined, and reduced to its present state of ruin.

If the name of this castle is to be found at other times, in "the historian's ample page," it is only in the comparatively unimportant character of a place of safe confinement for state prisoners, or, on one occasion, as a temporary residence for a fugitive monarch. In the latter capacity, it opened its gates to David Bruce, in 1331, when the Scottish prince, received by Philip de Valois, with all the honours due to an exiled sovereign, had this palace a.s.signed him as a regal residence, and was permitted to maintain here, for a while, the pageantry of a court.

As a prison, Chateau Gaillard was frequently employed: it was in particular distinguished with an unenviable preference in one of the most disgraceful aeras of the history of France. Margaret of Burgundy, the Queen of Louis X. and Blanche, the consort of his brother, Charles le Bel, were both of them confined here, after having been tried and convicted of adultery; together with Jane, another princess of the house of Burgundy, the wife to Philip, brother to Louis and Charles. Margaret was shortly after murdered in this castle; when Louis, intent upon a fresh marriage with the princess Clementia of Hungary, found an obstacle to his wishes in the protracted existence of his former queen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 81. CHaTEAU GAILLARD.

_South West View._]

Of the extent, the magnificence, the commanding situation, or the imposing appearance of Chateau Gaillard, it is almost equally difficult to convey an adequate idea by the pencil or by the pen. "The faithful eye" can alone give satisfaction upon such subjects. Mr. Turner's account of the present state of the ruin, has the merit of being the most copious that has yet appeared; and the following extract from it shall therefore conclude this article:--"Our expectations respecting Chateau Gaillard were more than answered. Considered as to its dimensions and its situation, it is by far the finest castellated ruin I ever saw. Conway, indeed, has more beauty; but Chateau Gaillard is infinitely superior in dignity. Its ruins crown the summit of a lofty rock, abruptly rising from the very edge of the Seine, whose sinuous course here shapes the adjoining land into a narrow peninsula. The chalky cliffs on each side of the castle are broken into hills of romantic form, which add to the impressive wildness of the scene.

Towards the river, the steepness of the cliff renders the fortress una.s.sailable: a double fosse of great depth, defended by a strong wall, originally afforded almost equal protection on the opposite side.

"The circular keep is of extraordinary strength, and in its construction differs wholly from any of our English dungeon-towers. It may be described as a cylinder, placed upon a truncated cone. The ma.s.sy perpendicular b.u.t.tresses, which are ranged round the upper wall, whence they project considerably, lose themselves at their bases in the cone from which they arise. The building, therefore, appears to be divided into two stories. The wall of the second story is upwards of twelve feet in thickness. The base of the conical portion is perhaps twice as thick.

It seldom happens that the military buildings of the middle ages have such a _talus_ or slope, on the exterior face, agreeing with the principles of modern fortification; and it is difficult to guess why the architect of Chateau Gaillard thought fit to vary from the established model of his age. The masonry is regular and good. The pointed windows are evidently insertions of a period long subsequent to the original erection.

"The inner ballium is surrounded by a high circular wall, which consists of an uninterrupted line of bastions, some semi-circular and others square. The whole of this part of the castle remains nearly perfect.

There are also traces of extensive foundations in various directions, and of great out-works. Chateau Gaillard was, in fact, a citadel, supported by numerous smaller fortresses, all of them communicating with the strong central hold, and disposed so as to secure every defensible post in the neighborhood. The wall of the outer ballium, which was built of a compact white and grey stone, is in most places standing, though in ruins. The original facing only remains in those parts which are too elevated to admit of its being removed with ease.--Beneath the castle, the cliff is excavated into a series of subterraneous caverns, not intended for mere pa.s.sages or vaults, as at Arques and in most other places, but forming s.p.a.cious crypts supported by pillars roughly hewn out of the living rock, and still retaining every mark of the workman's chisel.