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![Fort Saint-Jean à Marseille
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Fort Saint-Jean is a fortification in Marseille, built in 1660 by Louis XIV at the entrance to the Old Port. Since 2013 it is linked by two thin bridges to the historical district Le Panier and to the first French national museum outside Paris called Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée.
Fort Saint-Jean was built on a site earlier occupied by the Military Order of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John, from which the new building deprived its name. Fort Saint-Nicolas was constructed at the same time on the opposite side of the harbour. Commenting on their construction, Louis XIV said, “We noticed that the inhabitants of Marseille were extremely fond of nice fortresses. We wanted to have our own at the entrance to this great port.” [1] In fact, the two new forts were built in response to a local uprising against the governor, rather than for the defence of the city: their cannons pointed inwards towards the town, not outwards towards the sea.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/6fcbd2c6784d561e1b4fa4400d20adea/tumblr_mm4lbh1qnL1r4iw2yo1_500.jpg)
Fort Saint-Jean à Marseille
Fort Saint-Jean is a fortification in Marseille, built in 1660 by Louis XIV at the entrance to the Old Port. Since 2013 it is linked by two thin bridges to the historical district Le Panier and to the first French national museum outside Paris called Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée.
Fort Saint-Jean was built on a site earlier occupied by the Military Order of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John, from which the new building deprived its name. Fort Saint-Nicolas was constructed at the same time on the opposite side of the harbour. Commenting on their construction, Louis XIV said, “We noticed that the inhabitants of Marseille were extremely fond of nice fortresses. We wanted to have our own at the entrance to this great port.” [1] In fact, the two new forts were built in response to a local uprising against the governor, rather than for the defence of the city: their cannons pointed inwards towards the town, not outwards towards the sea.
Small artillery model given to the King by the Parliament of Franche-Comté © Paris - Army Museum, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Pierre Mérat
This small artillery model was given to Louis XIV by the Parliament of Franche-Comté in 1676. This remarkably well-executed piece depicts an important step in the formation of the territory of France. The attachment to France of Franche-Comté, which until then had been owned by the King of Spain, only became effective in 1678, with the signing of the Nimègue peace treaty, which put an end to the Dutch War (1672-1678). For the dignitaries of Franche-Comté, this gift was a way of showing their attachment to the King.
The cannon is the work of the engraver Laurent Ballard. Made of gilded bronze, it is richly adorned from the breech to the mouth. All the iconography glorifies the Sun King. On the barrel, Louis XIV is depicted dressed as a Roman Emperor, surrounded by laurels (visual 2). At the end of the barrel is a decoration of trophies (drums, armour, weapons) above the coat of arms of the kingdom of France, topped by the royal crown and decorated with the necklaces of the orders of Saint Michael and the Holy Spirit.
On the first support, we see depictions of the sieges of Besançon (visual 3) and Dôle, the two main cities of Franche-Comté. On each one, Louis XIV appears as head of the armies, on horseback, with his commanding baton.
A lion issant holding a ball is depicted on the breech (visual 4). The carriage, made of fruit tree wood and gilded brass, is decorated with fleurs de lys and royal suns. It fits in with the technical and iconographic richness of this small decorative cannon, a celebration of the King.
ECU FIGURANT « LE ROI ENFANT À LA MÈCHE LONGUE »
Atelier monétaire d’Angers
1647
Achat du musée en vente publique, 2008
Provenant du trésor de Montrichard (Indre-et-Loire)
In 1647, Louis XIV is only four years old. He’s depicted from profile, wearing a laurel crown, a Saint Esprit insigna and an armor. The letter F on one of the side attests the coin was created in Angers.
Found in a treasure that was buried around 1661, the coin didn’t travel much. The existence of that treasure can’t be explain yet.
LUDOVICUS XIIII. REX CHRISTIANISSIMUS - REGIA ARCHITECTONICES ACADEMIA INSTITUTA..
The Académie royale d’architecture (Royal Academy of Architecture) was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Its first director was the mathematician and engineer François Blondel (1618–1686).
Suppressed in 1793, this Académie was later merged in 1816 into the Académie des beaux-arts, together with the Académie de peinture et de sculpture (Academy of Painting and Sculpture, founded 1648) and the Académie de musique (Academy of Music, founded in 1669).
The Académie des beaux-arts is now one of the five Académies of the Institut de France.
“L’Homme au Masque de Fer” (“The Man in the Iron Mask”). Anonymous print (etching and mezzotint, hand-colored) from 1789.
The Man in the Iron Mask (French: L’Homme au Masque de Fer) is a name given to a prisoner arrested as Eustache Dauger in 1669 or 1670, and held in a number of jails, including the Bastille and the Fortress of Pignerol (today Pinerolo). He was held in the custody of the same jailer, Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, for a period of 34 years. He died on 19 November 1703 under the name of Marchioly, during the reign of Louis XIV of France (1643–1715). The possible identity of this man has been thoroughly discussed and has been the subject of many books, because no one ever saw his face, which was hidden by a mask of black velvet cloth.
In the second edition of his Questions sur l’Encyclopédie (French for “Questions on the Encyclopedia”), published in 1771, the writer and philosopher Voltaire claimed that the prisoner wore an iron mask and was the older, illegitimate brother of Louis XIV. In the late 1840s, the writer Alexandre Dumas elaborated on the theme in the final installment of his Three Musketeers saga: here the prisoner is forced to wear an iron mask and is Louis XIV’s twin brother.
What facts are known about this prisoner are based mainly on correspondence between his jailer and his superiors in Paris.
Combat de deux cavaliers, faubourg Saint Antoine sous les murs de la contre-escarpe de la Bastille.
Even though the painting is anonymous, the fight it depicts was famous during the Fronde. Since 1648, Cardinal Mazarin, with the support of the Queen Anne d’Autriche, is facing the hostility of the Parlement de Paris which tries to extend its prerogatives and the Princes, who considered themseves fit to participate to the government of the Kingdom.
The Fronde in some aspects look like a civil war. In 1652, the Parlement de Paris is a decisive stake. The Prince of Condé tries to unify the different groups opposed to Mazarin. His army is getting close to Paris, but the Parlement, despite its dislike of Mazarin, refuses to open the city to him. Condé’s armies were nearby the city walls when the Royal army led by Turenne and La Ferté attacked him on the 2nd of July. A disproportionned fight arrised near the Porte Saint Antoine and Condé’s army found a way out thanks to the courage of its leader and the actions of the Grande Mademoiselle, cousin of the King, which managed to open the door of Paris and made the Bastille canon shoot the royal army.
That’s the fight the anonymous author decided to represent as a fight between two cavalries. We can suppose it was ordered by someone close to the Royal power celebrating the last important battle of the Fronde.
Indeed, on the 4th of July of the same year, the Princes tried a coup againt the Hôtel de Ville but only managed to arise the defiance of the Parisian population. As the ralliement to the King grew, Condé left Paris on the 14th of October, and Louis XIV entered the city on the 21st.
Entrevue de Louis XIV et de Philippe IV dans l’Ile des Faisans, le 7 juin 1660- Charles le Brun
The Treaty of the Pyrenees (Spanish: Tratado de los Pirineos, French: Traité des Pyrénées, Catalan: Tractat dels Pirineus) was signed to end the 1635 to 1659 war between France and Spain, a war that was initially a part of the wider Thirty Years’ War. It was signed on Pheasant Island, a river island on the border between the two countries. The kings Louis XIV of France and Philip IV of Spain were represented by their chief ministers, Cardinal Mazarin and Don Luis de Haro, respectively.
Covered dish (porringer)
Écuelle emblazoned with the arms of the Grand Dauphin, son of Louis XIV
© 1988 RMN / Daniel Arnaudet
Upon rising, members of the royal family would drink broth for breakfast from two-handled bowls such as these. This silver-gilt bowl is the work of the Parisian goldsmith Sébastien Leblond. It was made in 1690-2 for the Louis XIV’s son, the Grand Dauphin, and is decorated accordingly: the pairs of dolphins forming the handles are, of course, the symbols of the Grand Dauphin. The chased ornamentation on the lid also incorporates dolphins either side of the intertwined letters “L” for Louis. The foliated scrollwork covering the center of the lid is characteristic of designs used by goldsmiths in the reign of Louis XIV.
Porte Saint Denis - Paris
The Porte Saint-Denis is a Parisian monument located in the 10th arrondissement, at the site of one of the gates of the Wall of Charles V, one of the now-destroyed fortifications of Paris. It is located at the crossing of the Rue Saint-Denis continued by the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, with the Boulevard de Bonne-Nouvelle and the Boulevard Saint-Denis.
The Porte Saint-Denis was designed by architect François Blondel and the sculptor Michel Anguier at the order of Louis XIV in honor of his victories on the Rhine and in Franche-Comté. Built in 1672 and paid for by the city of Paris, it replaced a medieval gate in the city walls built by Charles V in the 14th century.
The edict of Fontainebleau, revocation of the edict of Nantes, 1685.
By the Edict of Fontainebleau, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and ordered the destruction of Huguenot churches, as well as the closing of Protestant schools. This policy made official the persecution already enforced since the dragonnades created in 1681 by the king in order to intimidate Huguenots into converting to Catholicism. As a result of the officially sanctioned persecution by the dragoons who were billeted upon prominent Huguenots, a large number of Protestants — estimates range from 210,000 to 900,000 — left France over the next two decades. They sought asylum in England, the United Provinces, Sweden, Switzerland, Brandenburg-Prussia, Denmark, the Habsburg’s Holy Roman Empire, South Africa and North America. They left without money, but took with them many skills. In the host nations they established small businesses and their new ideas revitalised indigenous industries.
