The Ancient Regime Part 10

At Vienna, in 1772, the amba.s.sador, the Prince de Rohan, had two carriages costing together 40,000 livres, forty horses, seven n.o.ble pages, six gentlemen, five secretaries, ten musicians, twelve footmen, and four grooms whose gorgeous liveries each cost 4,000 livres, and the rest in proportion.[2163] We are familiar with the profusion, the good taste, the exquisite dinners, and the admirable ceremonial display of the Cardinal de Bernis in Rome. "He was called the king of Rome, and indeed he was such through his magnificence and in the consideration he enjoyed. . . . His table afforded an idea of what is possible. . .

In festivities, ceremonies and illuminations he was always beyond comparison." He himself remarked, smiling, "I keep a French inn on the cross-roads of Europe."[2164] Accordingly their salaries and indemnities are two or three times more ample than at the present day. "The king gives 50,000 crowns to the great emba.s.sies. The Duc de Duras received even 200,000 livres per annum for that of Madrid, also, besides this, 100,000 crowns gratuity, 50,000 livres for secret service; and he had the loan of furniture and effects valued at 400,000 and 500,000 livres, of which he kept one-half."[2165] The outlays and salaries of the ministers are similar. In 1789, the Chancellor gets 120,080 livres salary and the Keeper of the Seals 135,000. "M. de Villedeuil, as Secretary of State, was to have had 180,670 livres, but as he represented that this sum would not cover his expenses, his salary was raised to 226,000 livres, everything included."[2166] Moreover, the rule is, that on retiring from office the king awards them a pension of 20,000 livres and gives a dowry of 200,000 livres to their daughters.

This is not excessive considering the way they live. "They are obliged to maintain such state in their households, for they cannot enrich themselves by their places. All keep open table at Paris three days in the week, and at Fontainebleau every day."[2167] M. de Lamoignon being appointed Chancellor with a salary of 100,000 livres, people at once declare that he will be ruined;[2168] "for he has taken all the officials of M. d'Aguesseau's kitchen, whose table alone cost 80,000 livres. The banquet he gave at Versailles to the first council held by him cost 6,000 livres, and he must always have seats at table, at Versailles and at Paris, for twenty persons." At Chambord,[2169] Marshal de Saxe always has two tables, one for sixty, and the other for eighty persons; also four hundred horses in his stables, a civil list of more than 100,000 crowns, a regiment of Uhlans for his guard, and a theater costing over 600,000 livres, while the life he leads, or which is maintained around him, resembles one of Rubens's baccha.n.a.lian scenes. As to the special and general provincial governors we have seen that, when they reside on the spot, they fulfill no other duty than to entertain; alongside of them the intendant, who alone attends to business, likewise receives, and magnificently, especially for the country of a States-General. Commandants, lieutenants-general, the envoys of the central government throughout, are equally induced by habit and propriety, as well as by their own lack of occupation, to maintain a drawing-room; they bring along with them the elegance and hospitality of Versailles. If the wife follows them she becomes weary and "vegetates in the midst of about fifty companions, talking nothing but commonplace, knitting or playing lotto, and sitting three hours at the dinner table."

But "all the military men, all the neighboring gentry and all the ladies in the town," eagerly crowd to her b.a.l.l.s and delight in commending "her grace, her politeness, her equality."[2170] These sumptuous habits prevail even among people of secondary position. By virtue of established usage colonels and captains entertain their subordinates and thus expend "much beyond their salaries."[2171] This is one of the reasons why regiments are reserved for the sons of the best families, and companies in them for wealthy gentlemen. The vast royal tree, expanding so luxuriantly at Versailles, sends forth its offshoots to overrun France by thousands, and to bloom everywhere, as at Versailles, in bouquets of finery and of drawing room sociability.

VII. Provincial n.o.bility.

Prelates, seigniors and minor provincial n.o.bles.--The feudal aristocracy transformed into a drawing room group.

Following this pattern, and as well through the effect of temperature, we see, even in remote provinces, all aristocratic branches having a flourishing social life. Lacking other employment, the n.o.bles exchange visits, and the chief function of a prominent seignior is to do the honors of his house creditably. This applies as well to ecclesiastics as to laymen. The one hundred and thirty-one bishops and archbishops, the seven hundred abbes-commendatory, are all men of the world; they behave well, are rich, and are not austere, while their episcopal palace or abbey is for them a country-house, which they repair or embellish with a view to the time they pa.s.s in it, and to the company they welcome to it.[2172] At Clairvaux, Dom Rocourt, very affable with men and still more gallant with the ladies, never drives out except with four horses, and with a mounted groom ahead; his monks do him the honors of a Monseigneur, and he maintains a veritable court. The chartreuse of Val Saint-Pierre is a sumptuous palace in the center of an immense domain, and the father-procurator, Dom Effinger, pa.s.ses his days in entertaining his guests.[2173] At the convent of Origny, near Saint-Quentin,[2174]

"the abbess has her domestics and her carriage and horses, and receives men on visits, who dine in her apartments." The princess Christine, abbess of Remiremont, with her lady canonesses, are almost always traveling; and yet "they enjoy themselves in the abbey," entertaining there a good many people "in the private apartments of the princess, and in the strangers' rooms."[2175] The twenty-five n.o.ble chapters of women, and the nineteen n.o.ble chapters of men, are as many permanent drawing-rooms and gathering places incessantly resorted to by the fine society which a slight ecclesiastical barrier scarcely divides from the great world from which it is recruited. At the chapter of Alix, near Lyons, the canonesses wear hoopskirts into the choir, "dressed as in the world outside," except that their black silk robes and their mantles are lined with ermine.[2176] At the chapter of Ottmarsheim in Alsace, "our week was pa.s.sed in promenading, in visiting the traces of Roman roads, in laughing a good deal, and even in dancing, for there were many people visiting the abbey, and especially talking over dresses." Near Sarrebuis, the canonesses of Loutre dine with the officers and are anything but prudish.[2177] Numbers of convents serve as agreeable and respectable asylums for widowed ladies, for young women whose husbands are in the army, and for young ladies of rank, while the superior, generally some n.o.ble damsel, wields, with ease and dexterity, the scepter of this pretty feminine world. But nowhere is the pomp of hospitality or the concourse greater, than in the episcopal palaces.

I have described the situation of the bishops; with their opulence, possessors of the like feudal rights, heirs and successors to the ancient sovereigns of the territory, and besides all this, men of the world and frequenters of Versailles, why should they not keep a court?

A Cice, archbishop of Bordeaux, a Dillon, archbishop of Narbonne, a Brienne, archbishop of Toulouse, a Castellane, bishop of Mende and seignior-suzerain of the whole of Gevaudan, an archbishop of Cambrai, duke of Cambray, seignior-suzerain of the whole of Cambresis, and president by birth of the provincial States-General, are nearly all princes; why not parade themselves like princes? Hence, they build, hunt and have their clients and guests, a lever, an antechamber, ushers, officers, a free table, a complete household, equipages, and, oftener still, debts, the finishing touch of a grand seignior. In the almost regal palace which the Rohans, hereditary bishops of Strasbourg and cardinals from uncle to nephew, erected for themselves at Saverne,[2178]

there are 700 beds, 180 horses, 14 butlers, and 25 valets. "The whole province a.s.sembles there;" the cardinal lodges as many as two hundred guests at a time, without counting the valets; at all times there are found under his roof "from twenty to thirty ladies the most agreeable of the province, and this number is often increased by those of the court and from Paris. . . . The entire company sup together at nine o'clock in the evening, which always looks like a fete," and the cardinal himself is its chief ornament. Splendidly dressed, fine-looking, gallant, exquisitely polite, the slightest smile is a grace. "His face, always beaming, inspired confidence; he had the true physiognomy of a man expressly designed for pompous display."

Such likewise is the att.i.tude and occupation of the princ.i.p.al lay seigniors, at home, in summer, when a love of the charms of fine weather brings them back to their estates. For example, Harcourt in Normandy and Brienne in Champagne are two chateaux the best frequented. "Persons of distinction resort to it from Paris, eminent men of letters, while the n.o.bility of the canton pay there an a.s.siduous court."[2179] There is no residence where flocks of fashionable people do not light down permanently to dine, to dance, to hunt, to gossip, to unravel,[2180]

(parfiler) to play comedy. We can trace these birds from cage to cage; they remain a week, a month, three months, displaying their plumage and their prattle. From Paris to Ile-Adam, to Villers-Cotterets, to Fretoy, to Planchette, to Soissons, to Rheims, to Grisolles, to Sillery, to Braine, to Balincourt, to Vaudreuil, the Comte and Comtesse de Genlis thus bear about their leisure, their wit, their gaiety, at the domiciles of friends whom, in their turn, they entertain at Genlis. A glance at the exteriors of these mansions suffices to show that it was the chief duty in these days to be hospitable, as it was a prime necessity to be in society.[2181] Their luxury, indeed, differs from ours. With the exception of a few princely establishments it is not great in the matter of country furniture; a display of this description is left to the financiers. "But it is prodigious in all things which can minister to the enjoyment of others, in horses, carriages, and in an open table, in accommodations given even to people not belonging to the house, in boxes at the play which are lent to friends, and lastly, in servants, much more numerous than nowadays." Through this mutual and constant attention the most rustic n.o.bles lose the rust still encrusting their brethren in Germany or in England. We find in France few Squire Western and Barons de Thunder-ten-Troenck; an Alsatian lady, on seeing at Frankfort the grotesque country squires of Westphalia, is struck with the contrast.[2182] Those of France, even in distant provinces, have frequented the drawing-rooms of the commandant and intendant, and have encountered on their visits some of the ladies from Versailles; hence they always show some familiarity with superior manners and some knowledge of the changes of fashion and dress." The most barbarous will descend, with his hat in his hand, to the foot of his steps to escort his guests, thanking them for the honor they have done him. The greatest rustic, when in a woman's presence, dives down into the depths of his memory for some fragment of chivalric gallantry. The poorest and most secluded furbishes up his coat of royal blue and his cross of St.

Louis that he may, when the occasion offers, tender his respects to his neighbor, the grand seignior, or to the prince who is pa.s.sing by.

Thus is the feudal staff wholly transformed, from the lowest to the highest grades. Taking in at one glance its 30 or 40,000 palaces, mansions, manors and abbeys, what a brilliant and engaging scene France presents! She is one vast drawing-room, and I detect only drawing room company. Everywhere the rude chieftains once possessing authority have become the masters of households administering favors. Their society is that in which, before fully admiring a great general, the question is asked, "is he amiable?" Undoubtedly they still wear swords, and are brave through pride and tradition, and they know how to die, especially in duels and according to form. But worldly traits have hidden the ancient military groundwork; at the end of the eighteenth century their genius is to be wellbred and their employment consists in entertaining or in being entertained.

NOTES:

[Footnote 2101: "Memoires de Laporte" (1632). "M. d'Epernon came to Bordeaux, where he found His Eminence very ill. He visited him regularly every morning, having two hundred guards to accompany him to the door of his chamber."--"Memoires de Retz." "We came to the audience, M. de Beaufort and myself; with a corps of n.o.bles which might number three hundred gentlemen; MM. the princes had with them nearly a thousand gentlemen."--All the memoirs of the time show on every page that these escorts were necessary to make or repel sudden attacks.]

[Footnote 2102: Mercier, "Tableau de Paris." IX. 3.]

[Footnote 2103: Leroi, "Histoire de Versailles," Il. 21. (70,000 fixed population and 10,000 floating population according to the registers of the mayoralty.)]

[Footnote 2104: Warroquier, "Etat de la France" (1789). The list of persons presented at court between 1779 and 1789, contains 463 men and 414 women. Vol. II. p. 515.]

[Footnote 2105: People were run over almost every day in Paris by the fashionable vehicles, it being the habit of the great to ride very fast.]

[Footnote 2106: 153,222,827 livres, 10 sous, 3 deniers. ( "Souvenirs d'un page de la cour de Louis XVI.," by the Count d'Hezecques, p. 142.)--In 1690, before the chapel and the theater were constructed, it had already cost 100,000,000, (St. Simon, XII. 514. Memoirs of Marinier, clerk of the king's buildings.)]

[Footnote 2107: Museum of Engravings, National Library. "Histoire de France par estampes," pa.s.sim, and particularly the plans and views of Versailles, by Aveline; also, "the drawing of a collation given by M. le Prince in the Labyrinth of Chantilly," Aug. 29, 1687.]

[Footnote 2108: Memoirs, I. 221. He was presented at court February 19, 1787.]

[Footnote 2109: For these details cf. Warroquier, vol. I. pa.s.sim.--Archives imperiales, O1, 710 bis, the king's household, expenditure of 1771.--D'Argenson, February 25, 1752.--In 1772 three millions are expended on the installation of the Count d'Artois. A suite of rooms for Mme. Adelaide cost 800,000 livres.]

[Footnote 2110: Marie Antoinette, "Correspondance secrete," by d'Arneth and Geffroy, III.192. Letter of Mercy, January 25, 1779.--Warroquier, in 1789, mentions only fifteen places in the house-hold of Madame Royale.

This, along with other indications, shows the inadequacy of official statements.]

[Footnote 2111: The number ascertainable after the reductions of 1775 and 1776, and before those of 1787. See Warroquier, vol. I.--Necker, "Administration des Finances," II. 119.]

[Footnote 2112: "La Maison du Roi en 1786," colored engravings in the Museum of Engravings.]

[Footnote 2113: Archives nationales, O1, 738. Report by M. Tessier (1780), on the large and small stables. The queen's stables comprise 75 vehicles and 330 horses. These are the veritable figures taken from secret ma.n.u.script reports, showing the inadequacy of official statements. The Versailles Almanach of 1775, for instance, states that there were only 335 men in the stables while we see that in reality the number was four or five times as many.--"Previous to all the reforms, says a witness, I believe that the number of the king's horses amounted to 3,000." (D'Hezecques, "Souvenirs d'un page de Louis XVI.," p. 121.]

[Footnote 2114: La Maison du Roi justifiee par un soldat citoyen," (1786) according to Statements published by the government.--"La future maison du roi" (1790). "The two stables cost in 1786, the larger one 4,207,606 livres, and the smaller 3,509,402 livres, a total of 7,717,058 livres, of which 486,546 were for the purchase of horses.]

[Footnote 2115: On my arrival at Versailles (1786), there were 150 pages, not including those of the princes of the blood who lived at Paris. A page's coat cost 1,500 livres, (crimson velvet embroidered with gold on all the seams, and a hat with feather and Spanish point lace.)"

D'Hezecques, ibid., 112.]

[Footnote 2116: Archives nationales, O1, 778. Memorandum on the hunting-train between 1760 and 1792 and especially the report of 1786.]

[Footnote 2117: Mercier, "Tableau de Paris," vol. I. p. 11; vol. V. p.

62.--D'Hezecques, ibid. 253.--"Journal de Louis XVI," published by Nicolardot, pa.s.sim.]

[Footnote 2118: Warroquier, vol. I. pa.s.sim. Household of the Queen: for the chapel 22 persons, the faculty 6. That of Monsieur, the chapel 22, the faculty 21. That of Madame, the chapel 20, the faculty 9. That of the Comte d'Artois, the chapel 20, the faculty 28. That of the Comtesse d'Artois, the chapel 19, the faculty 17. That of the Duc d'Orleans, the chapel 6, the faculty 19.]

[Footnote 2119: Archives national, O1, Report by M. Mesnard de Choisy, (March, 1780).--They cause a reform (August 17, 1780).--"La Maison du roi justifiee" (1789), p. 24. In 1788 the expenses of the table are reduced to 2,870,999 livres, of which 600,000 livres are appropriated to Mesdames for their table.]

[Footnote 2120: D'Hezecques, ibid.. 212. Under Louis XVI. there were two chair-carriers to the king, who came every morning, in velvet coats and with swords by their sides, to inspect and empty the object of their functions; this post was worth to each one 20,000 livres per annum.]

[Footnote 2121: In 1787, Louis XVI. either demolishes or orders to be sold, Madrid, la Muette and Choisy; his acquisitions, however, Saint-Cloud, Ile-Adam and Rambouillet, greatly surpa.s.sing his reforms.]

[Footnote 2122: Necker; "Compte-rendu," II. 452.--Archives nationales, 01, 738. p.62 and 64, O1 2805, O1 736.--"La Maison du roi Justifiee" (1789).

Constructions in 1775, 3,924,400, in 1786, 4,000,000, in 1788, 3,077,000 livres.--Furniture in 1788, 1,700,000 livres.]

[Footnote 2123: Here are some of the casual expenses. (Archives nationales, O1, 2805). On the birth of the Duc de Bourgogne in 1751, 604,477 livres. For the Dauphin's marriage in 1770, 1,267,770 livres.

For the marriage of the Comte d'Artois in 1773, 2,016,221 livres. For the coronation in 1775, 835,862 livre,. For plays, concerts and b.a.l.l.s in 1778, 481,744 livres, and in 1779, 382,986 livres.]

[Footnote 2124: Warroquier, vol. I. ibid.,--"Marie Antoinette," by d'Arneth and Geffroy. Letter of Mercy, Sept. 16, 1773. "The mult.i.tude of people of various occupations following the king on his travels resembles the progress of an army."]

[Footnote 2125: The civil households of the king, queen, and Mme.

Elisabeth, of Mesdames, and Mme. Royale, 25,700,000.--To the king's brothers and sisters-in-law, 8,040,000.--The king's military household, 7,681,000, (Necker, "Compte-rendu," II. 119). From 1774 to 1788 the expenditure on the households of the king and his family varies from 32 to 36 millions, not including the military household, ("La Maison du roi justiftiee"). In 1789 the households of the king, queen, Dauphin, royal children and of Mesdames, cost 25 millions.--Those of Monsieur and Madame, 3,656,000; those of the Count and Countess d'Artois, 3,656,000; those of the Dukes de Berri and d'Angouleme, 700,000; salaries continued to persons formerly in the princes' service, 228,000. The total is 33,240,000.--To this must be added the king's military household and two millions in the princes' appanages. (A general account of fixed incomes and expenditure on the first of May, 1789, rendered by the minister of finances to the committee on finances of the National a.s.sembly.)]

[Footnote 2126: Warroquier, ibid,(1789) vol. I., pa.s.sim.]

[Footnote 2127: An expression of the Comte d'Artois on introducing the officers of his household to his wife.]

[Footnote 2128: The number of light-hors.e.m.e.n and of gendarmes was reduced in 1775 and in 1776; both bodies were suppressed in 1787.]

[Footnote 2129: The President of the 5th French Republic founded by General de Gaulle is even today the source of numerous appointments of great importance. (SR.)]

[Footnote 2130: Saint-Simon, "Memoires," XVI. 456. This need of being always surrounded continues up to the last moment; in 1791, the queen exclaimed bitterly, speaking of the n.o.bility, "when any proceeding of ours displeases them they are sulky; no one comes to my table; the king retires alone; we have to suffer for our misfortunes." (Mme. Campan, II.

177.)]

[Footnote 2131: Duc de Levis, "Souvenirs et Portraits," 29.--Mme. de Maintenon, "Correspondance."]

[Footnote 2132: M. de V--who was promised a king's lieutenancy or command, yields it to one of Mme. de Pompadour's proteges, obtaining in lieu of it the part of the exempt in "Tartuffe," played by the seigniors before the king in the small cabinet. (Mme. de Hausset, 168). "M. de V,--thanked Madame as if she had made him a duke."]