Of Statues, Kings, and Other Things

Equestrian statue of Henry IV on the Pont Neuf
Paris, France
(Source)

I arrived at the topic for today's post after following a rather twisting and torturous route. It all started with me watching a brief documentary on the death of Louis VIV, also known as Le Roi Soleil, or (for you Anglophones) The Sun King.

I cannot, for the life of me, remember where I found the reference to the video, nor can I remember if it was on YouTube or one of the many other places where one can peruse videos. I looked and came up short. But in my travels I read other things, things which made me think, things which made me wonder. (Wondering is not the same as thinking, at least not to my way of, pardon me, thinking.) (Ah, this just in - I found it, or rather I found the actual documentary of which I apparently only saw clips from. It is indeed on YouTube and you can watch it here. Be forewarned, it's about 52 minutes long. But well worth your time if you are interested in French history or attractive curator attachés of Versailles. Video has both. Don't ask ...)

Anyhoo. After watching that, I was struck by the similarities between an event which occurred during the French Revolution and certain things happening in our own time, in our own country. (US of A for our non-US correspondents of whom we have a few.)

In a suburb of Paris, Saint-Denis to be precise, there is a basilica, the Basilica of Saint-Denis to be precise (again). Said place once (and does again, I think) house the mortal remains of the Kings of France, from the 10th Century to Louis XVIII. The latter being the King who had to flee Paris upon the return of the Corsican Ogre, one Napoléon Bonaparte. He also returned to Paris after the second abdication of the aforementioned Bonaparte. Certain wags liked to say (at the time) that Louis returned to his throne in the baggage train of Wellington's army.

The Pedia of Wiki has this to say of the basilica -

The basilica became a place of pilgrimage and a necropolis containing the tombs of the Kings of France, including nearly every king from the 10th century to Louis XVIII in the 19th century. Henry IV of France came to Saint-Denis to formally renounce his Protestant faith and become a Catholic. The Queens of France were crowned at Saint-Denis, and the royal regalia, including the sword used for crowning the kings and the royal sceptre, were kept at Saint-Denis between coronations. (Source)

Now if you will recall, the French Revolution overthrew the monarchy (for a number of years, the permanent dumping of the monarchy took place later on in French history, some years after the revolution), so at some point somebody remembered that there were a bunch of kings interred at Saint-Denis.

"Hey, let's go dig those guys up!"

"Oui, certainement, let us go and despoil this monument to the hated monarchy!"

So they did, which I only learned of after watching the aforementioned documentary (or parts thereof). One of the kings disinterred, then apparently dumped with his predecessors in a mass grave, was Louis XIV. After that was mentioned, I learned that when a French king died his heart and intestines were removed. Apparently the heart of Louis XIV was spirited away from the revolutionaries and was eventually returned to Saint-Denis, where it remains to this day. (Why the separation of body parts occurred I am, as yet, unclear on.)

Whilst chasing the thread of French kings I came across that fellow whose statue graces the Pont Neuf, in Paris. Henry IV, or Henri le Grand as some Frenchmen remember him (Henry the Great, en anglais). A picture of that statue gracing the opening of this post.

Now that's not the original statue, it's a replacement statue as the original was torn down and destroyed during ...

Yep, the French Revolution.

The current statue was put up in 1818 (no doubt after the King was assured that that meanie Bonaparte was exiled to an island so far away that not even the great Napoléon could return to France from there). The statue was made using the original cast. Ironically, a statue of Napoléon was melted down to contribute bronze to the replacement statue.

Now France is kind of famous for being a Catholic country, well, perhaps was famous would be more accurate. But I digress.

Henry IV was the first French king to come from the House of Bourbon, no, not the stuff one drinks, it's actually a family name. The Bourbons were also the last monarchs of France, only interrupted in their long reign by the upstart House of Bonaparte. Napoléon I (the Napoléon), Napoléon II ("reigned" briefly in 1815 after his father abdicated for the second time, never sat on the throne), and Napoléon III, a nephew of the Napoléon.

Apparently Henry was also a closet Protestant. His mother was fiercely Protestant and, as my own experience says, that makes the son a Protestant as well. France had been wracked by civil war via the conflict between Catholics and Protestants during Henry's reign. He ended that via the Edict of Nantes, which granted a certain amount of tolerance to the French Protestants, the Huguenots. Which apparently didn't stick, as a number of famous German soldiers were Huguenots, including Adolf Galland, the last commander of the German fighter arm in WWII. If that edict had actually worked, who knows, Dolfo Galland might have been flying for France in 1940 and not the Germans!

The Pedia of Wiki on Henry ending those pesky religious civil wars - 

Henry IV successfully ended the civil wars. He and his ministers pacified Catholic leaders using bribes of about 7 million écus, which was more than France's revenue per annum. Huguenot leaders were placated by the Edict of Nantes, which had four separate documents. The articles laid down the tolerance which would be accorded to the Huguenots including the exact places where worship may or may not take place, three Protestant universities were recognized, and synods of the church would be allowed. The king also issued two personal documents (called brevets) which recognized the Protestant establishment. The Edict of Nantes signed religious tolerance into law, and the brevets were an act of benevolence that created a Protestant state within France. (Source)

Bribing church leaders? That works?

Plus ça change, plus ç'est le même chose. We evolve, but we don't really change ...

So tearing down statues, desecrating things held sacred, sound familiar?

I despise fanatics of any stripe.

But the bottom line on all this? History does indeed rhyme.

Today is a day of travel for me, I do not intend to write anything for Saturday, nor Sunday in all likelihood. For I shall be snug in the bosom of my family and will be content to play with grandkids and sleep most of the day. It is, after all, a long drive from Little Rhody to Maryland and I'm not getting any younger.

So Beans, Tuna, have at it.

As for Monday, you have juvat. As for the rest of next week? I don't know yet.

À la prochaine mes amis.¹

¹ Until next time my friends.