-----
The woman
in the portrait in last Friday’s post is indeed Agnes Sorel. Agnes was the
mistress of King Charles VII, and the first woman to be recognized as such. She
was brought to court as a lady in waiting to the Queen. Because of her
extraordinary beauty she caught the eye of the King who installed her as his
official mistress.
If we are
to believe the history books, Agnes was truly in love with Charles, and
followed him where ever he went, even in battle. She died an untimely and
suspicious death before even reaching the age of thirty. It is believed that
she was poisoned by the ‘dauphin’, the king’s legitimate son; because he felt
that she had gained too much (political) influence over the sovereign.
A bronze
bust of Charles VII. Charles VIII
By the look of it, people rub his nose for good luck.
By the look of it, people rub his nose for good luck.
Ever since
my first visit to Loches I have been intrigued by Agnes’ story. Why would a
young and extremely beautiful woman fall in love with an ugly man like Charles?
The first things that spring to mind of course are money and wealth. Or was it
power? Was Agnes an intelligent, yet scheming woman, who wanted a say in ruling
France
During my
recent visit of the Logis with my friends Vera and Mats, I found Vera extremely
engulfed in the leaflet that we had been given at the entrance. When we stood
in front of the famous painting by Fouquet of Agnes Sorel depicted as the
Virgin Mary with child, with one of her breasts uncovered, I explained to Vera
that Agnes had set a new trend in court, encouraging women to bare their
breasts. Vera listened to my story and then in a most cunningly way said: “Of
course she would go bare-breasted. With the king constantly keeping her
pregnant, she was breast-feeding all the time!”
And then
she explained to me her point of view on the whole matter. It wasn’t love,
power of wealth that had brought and kept Charles and Agnes together. It was
sheer lust. Agnes had been the victim of her beauty with the king claiming her
as his mistress. Agnes had had no say in it. He saw her, he wanted her and he
took her. It’s as simple as that. Maybe Vera is right. Maybe the historians
tend to embellish the story by portraying this young girl as the first woman
who wasn’t a queen to have political power and influence – as a true feminist
‘avant la lettre’.
Maybe the
same can be said about that other woman, who visited the Logis and saved France castle
of Jaulny
5 comments:
last time we visited the Logis there was a detailed exhibition about the research done on Agnes and her remains from mitochondrial DNA. It was fascinating.
Just read your older post on Jehanne; .... talk about settig the cat amongst the pidgeons ;-)
Bit like the 'Shakespeare couldn't have written the plays and who knows who he is as we don't have an image of him from life' discussion.
May I make a couple of corrections?
The bust is of Charles VIII.
Agnes did not start a fashion for going about bare breasted, and Vera is closer to the truth than you might think. Agnes is portrayed as the Madonna, and as such she is portrayed with a bare, but carefully desexualised breast. We are deliberately reminded that Agnes, like her role model the Madonna, is a good mother. Breastfeeding was important because personal character was believed to have been transferred from one to the other via the milk. Later on, in the 17thC, because of this famous painting, the bare breast developed a different meaning, and came to indicate that the woman portrayed was an aristocratic mistress.
I'm glad that Susan explained that it was Charles the VIII and not Charles the VIII bust. Because I thought that the bust wasn't so ugly. But then I googled Charles VII and, yikes!
Thanks for the history lesson!
m.
I am looking forward to enjoying the history myself...thank you for putting me on the path to discovery Martine...
N&A, I've seen that exhibition in 2007 or 2008. It was fascinating indeed. Pity it's no longer there. Learning about the 'Other Joan of Arc' surprised me, but when you examine the arguments and the actual facts it's very plausible.
Susan, Ooops - my mistake. I'm fascinated by history, but tend to go over the facts too quickly. Maybe I have seen too many movies :) Thank you for your input. I really appreciate it and I'm sure my readers do too.
Mark, I wonder why the artist who did the paintings of the women of Loches didn't try his hand at making a contemporary portrait of Charles VII. Maybe because he was an hopeless case ;)?
Louise, There are so many stories that are being taken for granted. But every now and then somebody comes up with a different theory or interpretation. I think we should be open-minded about these things. Even today, with all the means of communication and technology we don't even know half of what is going on in the world or in political 'backstage'.
Post a Comment