Eating in public and letting people see you was a big thing in France, cahn.
In the first Angelique novel, after her husband got arrested and when she tries to find help, going to one of those public meals is one of the ways she tries to get access to the King. (Which predictably does not work: eating in public does not equate letting just anyone approach you.
On a less fictional front, Charles II. did the eating in public thing as well, not least because if your father has been beheaded for, among other things, being perceived as an arrogant tyrant only listening to Evil Catholics (tm) and not to the people, it was one of the ways to signal the opposite.
Brushing up on Louis has also reminded me of the following incident, for which, as a reminder, you need to keep in mind both the Kings of England and the Kings of France were supposed to have the ability to heal people with their touch, the laying of hands. cahn, you might recall that's what the title The King's Touch refers to - Charles II did this a lot, despite being a sceptic, again as a way to signal to the people his approachability, and one of the ways our hero Jemmy gets into trouble and seen as a rebel is when he does the laying of hands as well, because only true Kings of England are supposed to have that ability. The last English monarch to practice the laying of hands was Anne, I believe, as there's a famous anecdote of Dr. Samuel Johnson the dictionary guy and Boswell biography subject, who was suffering from the scrofula, being taken to be touched by Anne as a small child. (It didn't help.)
Now, as you know, when the Stuarts went into exile, Henrietta Maria the wife/widow of Charles I, as a daughter of France, sister of Louis XIII, together with toddler Minette went to Paris and basically stayed there until the Restoration. Whereas young Charles the only technical II ended up spending most of his time in the Netherlands but kept making the rounds at different courts, including the Spanish and the French one, always in need of money and support. On one particular occasion, he was in France with Mom, and cousin Louis, this is important, was of course already King (he became King when his father Louis XIII had died), but not yet a consecrated King, he hadn't been officially crowned yet. Meanwhile, Charles had been consecrated - in Scotland, not in England, as part of the deal he'd made with the Scots to get their support for the last battle of the English Civil War - but of course wasn't governing anything. Which according to Antonia Fraser put a sick noble lady who wanted the laying of hands in a bind as to which King she wanted to touch her. What counts more - being God's literally Annointed but without a kingdom, or being with a kingdom but not yet with the consecration?
Incidentally, depending on whether you read a French or an English historian, either the Brits or the French copied this royal ability. Meanwhile, bear in mind neither the Byzantine Emperors nor the HRE Emperors ever claimed they were able to do this.
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Detour about royals and public eating (and touching)
Date: 2023-02-25 06:54 am (UTC)In the first Angelique novel, after her husband got arrested and when she tries to find help, going to one of those public meals is one of the ways she tries to get access to the King. (Which predictably does not work: eating in public does not equate letting just anyone approach you.
On a less fictional front, Charles II. did the eating in public thing as well, not least because if your father has been beheaded for, among other things, being perceived as an arrogant tyrant only listening to Evil Catholics (tm) and not to the people, it was one of the ways to signal the opposite.
Brushing up on Louis has also reminded me of the following incident, for which, as a reminder, you need to keep in mind both the Kings of England and the Kings of France were supposed to have the ability to heal people with their touch, the laying of hands.
Now, as you know, when the Stuarts went into exile, Henrietta Maria the wife/widow of Charles I, as a daughter of France, sister of Louis XIII, together with toddler Minette went to Paris and basically stayed there until the Restoration. Whereas young Charles the only technical II ended up spending most of his time in the Netherlands but kept making the rounds at different courts, including the Spanish and the French one, always in need of money and support. On one particular occasion, he was in France with Mom, and cousin Louis, this is important, was of course already King (he became King when his father Louis XIII had died), but not yet a consecrated King, he hadn't been officially crowned yet. Meanwhile, Charles had been consecrated - in Scotland, not in England, as part of the deal he'd made with the Scots to get their support for the last battle of the English Civil War - but of course wasn't governing anything. Which according to Antonia Fraser put a sick noble lady who wanted the laying of hands in a bind as to which King she wanted to touch her. What counts more - being God's literally Annointed but without a kingdom, or being with a kingdom but not yet with the consecration?
Incidentally, depending on whether you read a French or an English historian, either the Brits or the French copied this royal ability. Meanwhile, bear in mind neither the Byzantine Emperors nor the HRE Emperors ever claimed they were able to do this.