It will run through the beginning of the Capetian dynasty to nowadays and will focus on everything related to France and its history.
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Statue de Marie Fouré - Péronne
Catherine de Poix (or Marie Fouré) is an hero from the town of Péronne who defended the city when it was besieged by Charles V in 1536.
The legend says that during the siege, Marie Fouré saw a Spanish soldier trying to walk inside the city. He was wearing the enemy flag, and meant to hammer it into the ground to symbolise the surrender of Péronne.
So she went on the rampart and pushed him into the void, keeping his flag. She then walked to the town center with the flag, where she was acclaimed by the population
Powder flask
- Place of origin:
France (made)
- Date:
1574 (dated)
This powder flask is of carved staghorn and is made by an unknown artist in France in 1574.
The flask is decorated with a scene depicting Samson killing the lion.
Powder flasks are portable containers of wood, horn, metal, leather or ceramic used to hold the priming powder or gunpowder for firearms. They normally terminated in a metal nozzle which also served as a powder measure, closed by a plug or spring cap, and are often highly decorated.
L’Edit de Nantes
The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France (also known as Huguenots) substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity. The Edict separated civil from religious unity, treated some Protestants for the first time as more than mere schismatics andheretics, and opened a path for secularism and tolerance. In offering general freedom of conscience to individuals, the Edict offered many specific concessions to the Protestants, such as amnesty and the reinstatement of their civil rights, including the right to work in any field or for the State and to bring grievances directly to the king. It marked the end of the religious wars that had afflicted France during the second half of the 16th century.
The Edict of St. Germain promulgated 36 years before by Catherine de Médici had granted limited tolerance to Huguenots, but was overtaken by events, as it was not formally registered until after the Massacre of Vassy on 1 March 1562, which triggered the first of the French Wars of Religion.
The later revocation of the Edict of Nantes in October 1685 by Louis XIV, the grandson of Henry IV, drove an exodus of Protestants, and increased the hostility of Protestant nations bordering France.
Draft of the 1536 Treaty or Capitulations negotiated between French ambassadorJean de La Forêt and Ibrahim Pasha
Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire were contracts between the Ottoman Empire and European powers.
France had already signed a first treaty or Capitulations with the Mamluk Sultanate in Cairo in 1500, during the rule of Louis XII, in which the Sultan of Egypt had made concessions to the French and the Catalans. This treaty was upheld by the Ottoman Empire when the later captured the Mamluk Sultanate in 1517, following the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517). Francis I was the first king of France who sought an alliance with the Ottoman Empire, leading to a Franco-Ottoman alliance. To this he was urged, not by the Crusading spirit but entirely by the desire to break in Europe the dominating power of the imperial Habsburg House of Austria. By compelling Austria to use its forces for defence against the Turks in the East, he hoped to weaken it and render it unable to increase or even maintain its power in the West.
Cloak - France - 1580/1600
Red satin, couched and embroidered with silver, silver-gilt and coloured silk threads, trimmed with silver-gilt and silk thread fringe and tassel, and lined with pink linen
Jean Nicot (1530— 1600/1604)
French diplomat and scholar who introduced tobacco to the French court in the 16th century, which gave rise to the culture of snuffing and to the plant’s eventual dissemination and popularization throughout Europe.At first, the plant was called Nicotina. But nicotine later came to refer specifically to the particular chemical in the plant.
Chinese porcelain lamp with later French gold mounts. The lamp was made in China in the 15-16th century, and the mounts were added in France in the mid 18th century (source).
La conjuration d’Amboise, 13-19 mars 1560Description :Les évènements majeurs de la conjuration : assassinat de Pardailhan, assaut desespéré des réformés, capture des troupes huguenotes ; d’après Tortorel et PerrissinAuteur :Hogenberg Frans (1535-1590)
The Amboise conspiracy, also called Tumult of Amboise, was a failed attempt by Huguenots in 1560 to gain power of France by abducting the young king Francis II and arresting Francis, Duke of Guise and his brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine. It was one of the events directly leading up to the Wars of Religion that divided France from 1562 to 1598.
Founding of the Jesuit order
On 15 August 1534, Ignatius of Loyola and six other students at the University of Paris met in Montmartre outside Paris, in a crypt beneath the church of Saint Denis, now Saint Pierre de Montmartre (image).
They called themselves the Company of Jesus, and also Amigos en El Señor or “Friends in the Lord”, because they felt “they were placed together by Christ”. The name had echoes of the military (as in an infantry “company”), as well as of discipleship (the “companions” of Jesus).
The word “company” comes ultimately from Latin, cum + pane = “with bread”, or a group that shares meals.
La “Mort Saint-Innocent”
Provenant du cimetière des Innocents à Paris
Albâtre
H. : 1,20 m. ; L. : 0,55 m. ; Pr. : 0,27 m.
The emaciated image of Death was standing in the middle of the cimetière des Innocents. On its shield, this poem:
“Il n’est vivant tant soit plein d’art
Ne de force pour resistance
Que je ne frappe de mon dard
Pour bailler aux vers leur pitance
Priez Dieu pour les trepasses.”
When the cemetery closed, the statue was transfered to Saint Gervais, then to Notre Dame where the artist Deseine restored the arm, and finally to the Louvre.
