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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Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet (anonymous, 17th century)
Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet (1588 – 2 December 1665), known as Madame de Rambouillet, was a society hostess and a major figure in the literary history of 17th-century France.
Enthroned prince crowned by two Victories. Sardonyx cameo, France (?), 13th century. From a cameo cross Jean of Berry commissioned from Hermann Ruissel for the Sainte Chapelle in Bourges ca 1416.Prince trônant, couronné par deux Victoires. Camée, sardonyx à deux couches, France (?), XIIIe siècle. Autrefois monté sur une croix aux camées réalisée par Hermann Ruissel sur commande du duc Jean de Berry pour la Sainte-Chapelle de Bourges vers 1416.
Anne de Pisselieu
Anne de Pisseleu d’Heilly (1508 – 1580), Duchess of Étampes, was the mistress of Francis I of France.
She was a daughter of Adrien de Pisseleu, seigneur d’Heilly, a nobleman of Picardy, who, with the rise of his daughter at court, was made seigneur of Meudon, master of waters and forests of Île de France, of Champagne and of Brie.
Ans que vent ni gel ni plueva:
Ma dona m’assaya e-m prueva,
Quossi de qual guiza l’am;
E ja per plag que m’en mueva
No-m solvera de son liam.
Je n’adorerai qu’elle ! - Guillaume IX de Poitiers
William IX (Occitan: Guilhèm de Peitieus; French: Guillaume de Poitiers) (22 October 1071 – 10 February 1126), called the Troubador, was theDuke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as William VII) between 1086 and his death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101. Though his political and military achievements have a certain historical importance, he is best known as the earliest troubadour — avernacular lyric poet in the Occitan language — whose work survived.
Traité de Conflans, 1465
The Treaty of Conflans (or the Peace of Conflans) was signed on October 1465 between King Louis XI of France and Count Charles of Charolais. This treaty was signed months after the Battle of Montlhéry (July 13, 1465) where the dukes of Alençon, Burgundy, Berri, Bourbon, and Lorraine defeated King Louis’ forces. The dukes forced King Louis to sign the agreement, which officially ended the League of the Public Weal. Based on the terms of the treaty, Normandy was restored to the Duke of Berri and Burgundy reclaimed a number of towns on the Somme. However, King Louis attempted to avoid the treaty, as well as to split the League of the Public Weal by diplomatic means.
The League of the Public Weal was an alliance of feudal nobles organized in 1465 in defiance of the centralized authority of King Louis XI of France.
François-Désiré Froment-Meurice (1802-1855) with the collaboration of the architect Duban, the sculptors Feuchère and Geoffroy-Dechaume, the ornemanist Liénard, the enamellists Sollier, Grisée, Meyer-HeineThe Toilette of the Duchess of ParmaCirca 1847Partly gilded silver, gilded copper, enamel painted on copper, blue glass, emaralds and garnetsH. 210; W. 188 cmParis, Musée d’Orsay© RMN (Musée d’Orsay), René-Gabriel Ojéda
Portrait de Catherine de Parthenay (1554-1631)
Catherine was the heiress to the rich Huguenot Parthenay-Leveque family that originated from the Poitou region. Her tutor, Francois Viete, was the greatest mathematician of his time. At a very early age, she married Charles de Quelennec, the baron of Pont-l’Abbé, who died during the night of the Saint Bartholomew massacre while defending Coligny. A widow at eighteen years old, Catherine was a good match and was considered as one of the most intelligent women of her time. She was courted by René, the youngest son in the Rohan family but Catherine, beautiful as she was, did not accept to marry him until he became the viscount of Rohan and subsequently inherited the fortune of the Rohan family after the death of his eldest brother.
Having become the viscountess of Rohan, Catherine disposed of the main residences of the Rohan family in Brittany : Blain, Josselin and Pontivy and contributed to he extension of protestant churches in these places. Her new husband took up arms as soon as the wars resumed. Catherine and her children found a safe haven in La Rochelle. In 1586, she was widowed a second time ; from then on, she dedicated her life to the upbringing of her children and the support of the Protestant cause in Brittany. In her Parc Soubise and Blain residences, Catherine was the soul of a thriving political, religious and cultural life. She liked to write, and ventured into poetry and tragedy.
As a staunch Huguenot, she mesmerised the defenders of the city of La Rochelle against the armies of Cardinal Richelieu. La Rochelle surrendered in 1628. Catherine was sent to prison and the Blain and Josselin residences were pulled down. Catherine de Parthenay lived through all the wars of religion and died in 1631 in the Parc Soubise residence. She was an active defender of the protestant cause and courageously stood for her ideas and, as such, she set an example for her sons.
Her eldest son, Henri de Royan, became the leader of the Huguenot party after Condé, Coligny and Henri of Navarre. He married Sully’s daughter. He had only one daughter who, by order of the king, was married to a Catholic prince.
1- Vue cavalière de la ville et du château de Moulins vers 1460. On reconnaît à gauche la « Mal Coiffée » avec son hourdage sommital.
The town of Moulins appears in the text around 990, and a castle is mentionned the next century. In 1206 it became part of the Bourbons’ possession. After the Hundred Years War, the castle is repaired and extended in 1375. In 1497 the Duke Pierre II and his wife, Anne de Beaujeu, Charles VII’s sister constructed a new building. The first phase belonged the Flamboyant Gothic while the second phase, after 1500 announces the Renaissance.
Madame de Montespan.
Born into one of the oldest noble families of France, the House of Rochechouart, Madame de Montespan was called by some the true Queen of France during her romantic relationship with Louis XIV due to the pervasiveness of her influence at court during that time.
Her so-called “reign” lasted from around 1667, when she first danced with Louis XIV at a ball hosted by the king’s younger brother, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, at the Louvre Palace, until her alleged involvement in the notorious Affaire des Poisons in the late 1670s to 1680s.
Her immediate contemporary was Barbara Villiers, mistress of King Charles II of England. She is an ancestress of several royal houses in Europe, including those of Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and Portugal.
Tombe de Jean Sans Peur et de sa femme Marguerite de Bavière
John the Fearless expressed a wish for his own tomb, this time a double one with his Duchess Margaret of Bavaria, to resemble that of his father, but nothing was done, even after his death in 1419, until 1435, and in 1439 the artist de Werve died without having managed to find suitable alabaster to replace him. In 1443 a Spaniard, Jean de La Huerta, was contracted, and sent drawings for the effigies. He completed most elements, but not the effigies, before leaving Dijon in 1456. Yet another master was brought in, and the monument finally installed in 1470, by which time Philip the Good was himself dead
