Daily Life During the French Revolution (13 page)

Portrait of Marie-Antoinette of Austria, Queen of
France and Navarre, wife of Louis XVI.

COURTIERS

Daily life at court was often tedious. Courtiers had time
on their hands to gossip, gamble, drink, and plot. They lived in cramped
quarters with little light and fresh air; they jostled for space in the
crowded, noisy salons and gala events and could never relax in public or appear
uninterested. It was imperative to be alert, pleasant, tactful, and graceful
and to smile even when the lice under the wig were nibbling relentlessly and
the tight, pointed shoes incited rebellion among the toes.

The ambition of every courtier was to advance to higher
office, gain more privileges, and grow wealthy. It could be a laboriously long
road. Courtiers had to flatter superiors while keeping inferiors in their place.
One might stand for hours each morning in the chamber next to the royal
bedchambers waiting and hoping to be noticed and admitted into the king’s
presence to perform even the most insignificant task. Small recognition could
lead to better circumstances at court.

Not yet privileged to dine with the king and queen or other
notable personages, courtiers took their meals in the large communal dining
hall, or
Grand Commun.
Here they ate with their fellows and conversed
with writers, artists, scholars, lawyers, or judges who were visiting the
palace on business or who were living there while performing some task or duty.

One recurrent theme in conversation was how to get away
from palace life, even for a short time, and enjoy dining out and attending the
theater in Paris. Most courtiers were always short of money, however, and many
were in debt, especially to wigmakers, as theirs had to be the very best, made
of human hair. Inferior horsehair wigs would be frowned on. The high prices of
these and of hairdressers was a serious concern, as were the changing
fashions—both required a substantial outlay of money. Nevertheless, to owe
sizable amounts of money was expected of a person of taste and breeding. One
who was known to economize was left in danger of gossip and lack of advancement
on the palace merry-go-round.

The mythos of Versailles attracted many to its royal halls,
but the substance was not for everyone. Taking part in special spectacles was
always tiresome; for example, the courtiers had to learn and rehearse over and
over intricate dances, such as one that formed the letters of the queen’s name.
In the struggle for advancement, little mattered except the positive attention
of one’s superior. Some—those who were ambitious, well connected, and sharp witted
and who loved the game— could reach high office and become wealthy and famous;
others would fall by the wayside and drop out of sight. But, in contrast to the
squalid misery of the rural peasants and the urban poor, life at Versailles was
paradise itself.

The queen chose her favorites to lavish money, offices, and
gifts on; and they, along with their relatives and cronies, “clung to the ship
of state with the tenacity of barnacles.” The queen’s lavish display at the
Paris theaters she frequented, in spite of her husband’s objections, made for
much prattle, but she cared not. Obedience and humility were not part of her
vocabulary unless applied to others.

ARISTOCRATS AT COURT

The court aristocrats numbered about 4,000, and, although
they were not particularly endowed with morality or political astuteness, they
nevertheless monopolized the lofty positions in the church (archbishops,
bishops, and abbots), high judicial positions (judges), and the military
(generals and admirals). Some were ministers of the crown or ambassadors to
foreign countries. Many supplemented their income or inheritance with ventures
into commerce and industry, using their prestige and influence at court. Some
owned mining operations, some were grain speculators, and others were moneylenders
or wholesale traders. The duke of Orléans, cousin of the king, owned vast
properties in Paris and in the provinces and invested heavily in commercial and
building enterprises in the 1780s. Retail activities, looked down upon by the
aristocracy, would have meant loss of status.

There seems to have been no less hostility toward nobles at
court than to the impecunious ones of the countryside. The latter were always
too eager to collect their feudal dues and present their titles to the common
people and felt no shame living in genteel idleness. They saw themselves as the
true Nobility of the Sword and considered it their duty to serve the king as
officers in his army; but the problem was that the army was run by plutocrats
and all military commissions were subject to purchase with prices well beyond
their means. At the royal court of Louis XVI, money opened every door.

FOREIGN VISITORS

When Horace Walpole, fourth earl of Orford and writer, was
first presented to the court at Versailles in 1765, he noticed that the duc de
Berry, the future Louis XVI, then about 11 years old, looked frail and
weak-eyed. Walpole was again at the court in 1771 and at this time observed
that the country was in a sorry state, declaring, “Their next prospect is not
better: it rests on an imbecile, both in mind and body.”

The Spencer family visited Versailles in 1772, and Lady
Harriet reported, among other things, that the dauphin looked stupid but was
good natured and would be handsome if he were not so heavy.

In spite of hostilities between France and England during
the American Revolution, some English visitors still came to France. The
duchess of Northumberland was present at the wedding of the dauphin and
Marie-Antoinette (the former 15 years of age and the latter 14). Of the future
queen she wrote:

The
dauphine was very fine in diamonds. She is very little & slender. I should
not have taken her to be 12 Years Old. She is fair & a little mark’d with
the Smallpox, the Corps of her Robe was too small & left quite a broad stripe
of lacing & Shift quite visible, which had a bad effect between 2 broader
stripes of Diamonds, She really had quite a Load of Jewells.

Other visitors spoke of Marie-Antoinette’s liveliness,
grace, and dignity, and some found the king more handsome than they had
expected. Many were able to see the king and queen during the royal party’s
walks to and from Mass in the chapel. Sir Samuel Romilly, who, in 1781,
attended a royal Mass, described it in a letter:

The
service was very short, though it was on a Sunday; for kings are so highly
respected in that country that even Religion appoints for them less tedious
ceremonies than it imposes on the people. The moment his Majesty appeared, the
drums beat and shook the temple, as if it had been intended to announce the
approach of a conqueror. During the whole time of saying mass, the choristers
sang, sometimes single parts, sometimes in chorus. In the front seats of the
galleries were ranged the ladies of the court, glowing with rouge, and
gorgeously apparelled, to enjoy and form a part of the showy spectacle. The
King laughed and spied at the ladies; every eye was fixed on the personages of
the court, every ear was attentive to the notes of the singers, while the
priest, who in the mean time went on in the exercise of his office, was
unheeded by all present. Even when the Host was lifted up, none observed it;
and if the people knelt, it was because they were admonished by the ringing of
the bell; and even in that attitude, all were endeavoring to get a glimpse of
the King.

With the Treaty of Paris, signed September 3, 1783, at the
end of the American War of Independence and the Franco-British conflict, a
fresh wave of English travelers crossed the Channel. By this time, the king had
grown rather corpulent, and visitors remarked on it. When he saw the king at
Versailles, in 1784, in a procession through the Hall of Mirrors on Saint
Louis’ day, Adam Walker commented,

a
short thick dumplin of a Monarch, the very picture of peace and plenty. He
rolled along, with an air as perfectly disengaged from thought or care, and
bore this great kingdom with so much ease upon his shoulders, that I could not
but think him a jolly eating-and-drinking English ’Squire’, perfectly at his
ease, and without any other ideas coming across his thinking faculties than
what must be next for his dinner!

Since the king was most often viewed at Mass, many of the
comments about him were made there. Richard Garmston found it disconcerting to
see Louis and his brother sit talking and laughing throughout most of the
service. Not long before, Arthur Young had witnessed the investiture of the
cordon
bleu
on the duc de Berry, younger son of the compte d’Artois. His notes
were not flattering:

During
the service the King was seated between his two brothers, and seemed by his
carriage and inattention to wish himself a hunting. He would certainly have
been as well employed, as in hearing afterwards from his throne a feudal oath
of chivalry, I suppose, or some such nonsense, administered to a boy of ten years
old.

ROYAL ENTERTAINMENT

Louis XVI was neither a strong nor a gifted ruler; having
inherited a system that allowed ministers to pursue their own interests and
policies, he permitted this state of affairs to continue, preferring not to
involve himself too deeply in politics.

The royal hunting parties in which deer or boar were
flushed out by retainers and then shot by their majesties seemed to be the
king’s preferred activity, while matters of state took second place. The king
had a few other diversions, such as making locks or tinkering with them, for
which he kept an expert locksmith in residence at his beck and call. He was
also proud of his collection of clocks and the fact that he could make them all
chime in unison at the same hour. At other times he liked to play the part of a
construction laborer when some work was in progress on the palace. He often
helped the workmen move paving stones and girders and labored with the masons
and carpenters for hours on end before retiring exhausted but happy after the
physical exertion.

Then, too, there were picnics at the palace, boating on the
canal, coach rides around the grounds, gambling in the evenings (in which the
king took small part), royal balls, masquerades, and fetes, theatrical plays,
and sometimes a trip to the racetrack. In addition, there were always audiences
to be given and time to be spent with friends, relatives, visitors, and foreign
dignitaries.

An assortment of entertainers regularly came to Versailles
to perform, including musicians and actors from the Paris theaters and animal
acts, which generally appeared on the boulevards of the capital. Chain gangs, a
form of entertainment for some, were marched through the town of Versailles on
their way to the galleys at Brest. The route was changed, however, since Louis
XVI, seeing their poor condition, pardoned too many of them.

Of the banquets and parties that were held at the royal
palace at Versailles, one particularly struck home in the minds of the people
of Paris. On October 1, 1789, while the common people of France went hungry
under near-famine conditions, the royal bodyguard at Versailles gave a banquet
for the Flanders regiment, newly arrived in town. Such parties of welcome were
traditional, but this one, in a time of great want, was ill timed. The best
food was served in vast quantities, and the king and queen made an appearance.
The queen showed off the four-year-old dauphin for the soldiers to admire, and
a toast was drunk to the royal family, who then departed. More toasts followed,
and men became more and more inebriated. As the party grew louder, court women
handed out cockades—white for the king and black for the queen.

The following day the banquet was reported in the Paris
papers and newssheets, depicted as an orgy conjuring up scenes of debauchery,
gluttony, and treason against the revolutionary government. The patriotic
republican red-white-and-blue cockade was said to have been trampled by the
soldiers in their desire to show loyalty to the king. Disrespect for the revolutionary
cockade was more than the Parisians could take, however, particularly as the
papers reported that it happened with the queen’s approval. Riots would soon
begin again in the city.