Louis XIV
Hello everyone, I am Lantai.
Today Lantai will introduce to you the French King Louis XIV and Versailles .
King Louis XIV of France was the king of France at about the same time as Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty . The experiences of the two were quite similar. Louis XIV also became king when he was young, and was driven out of Paris by rebels when he was young; the two of them had similar experiences. They have also made great achievements. France reached the peak of Bourbon Dynasty in the era of Louis XIV; similarly, Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty pacified the San Francisco, accepted Taiwan, and defeated Junggar, which also opened the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong. .
So it is no wonder that many domestic self-media juxtapose Louis XIV with Emperor Kangxi, and the Palace of Versailles with the Forbidden City .
However, Lantai wants to tell everyone here that the Palace of Versailles is not the Forbidden City, and Louis XIV is not the Emperor Kangxi.
To put it more bluntly, Louis XIV held far less power than Emperor Kangxi, and the Palace of Versailles was far from comparable to the Forbidden City.
Why do you say that?
Louis XIV never gained the power that Kangxi had, and Versailles was not a heavily guarded Forbidden City.
In fact, it may be beyond the imagination of 99% of Chinese netizens. The palace ban in Versailles is very loose. A French citizen can enter the Palace of Versailles as long as he wears a hat, sword and dress; only clergy and beggars are prohibited. Enter the Palace of Versailles.
It is definitely not possible for everyone to visit the Forbidden City.
Versailles Palace
If you forget to wear a hat, dress and sword, will you definitely not be allowed to enter the Palace of Versailles?
No, there is a place next to the Palace of Versailles that rents hats, dresses and swords. You only need to rent these three items to enter the Palace of Versailles.
So, what can you do when you enter the Palace of Versailles?
In fact, during the era of Louis XIV, ordinary French people entered the Palace of Versailles mainly to visit Louis XIV and his family for dinner.
As mentioned before, Louis XIV's real power was far less than that of Emperor Kangxi, so if he wanted to shape himself into a "god", he had to do it himself.
For this reason, Louis XIV developed a very complicated dining etiquette for himself and the royal family members. How complicated was it?
Louis XIV required eight steps to drink a glass of wine, involving four servants.
Palace of Versailles
At that time, 99.99% of the French people were still very simple, or relatively simple, so when they entered the magnificent Palace of Versailles and saw the king's complicated dining ceremony, these French people really felt that their king was really amazing. .
According to historical data at that time, a visitor can first see how Louis XIV ate, then rush to the queen's dining room to see how the queen drank soup, and finally go to the son and daughter dining room of Louis XIV to see the prince. and how the princesses ate bread, and finally, if you wish, you can buy the soup that the queen didn't finish and the bread that the prince and princess took a bite of in the market next to the Palace of Versailles.
Lantai believes that the Qing Dynasty at the same time would never allow ordinary people to go to the Forbidden City to see how Emperor Kangxi and his concubines ate.
But in France at the same time, anyone who wanted to could go to the Palace of Versailles to see how the king ate.
Not only that, if you are lucky enough to be a French noble, you can also appreciate how Louis XIV got up and how he slept.
Yes, you read that right, Louis XIV would really show his nobles how he got up and how he went to bed every day at the Palace of Versailles.
Louis XIV's bedroom in the Palace of Versailles, he never really slept here
Generally at 7:30 in the morning, the nobles gathered outside the king's bedroom, and the king would start the "getting up ceremony" on time. First, a special steward will be responsible for "waking up", and then a special attendant will be responsible for opening the curtain and inviting the royal doctor to do a routine check-up.
After that, nobles with different positions and ranks entered in order, said good morning to the king, and dressed the king in clothes and wigs.
The king's bedroom at this time is actually more like an exhibition hall. There is a fence around the bed. The nobles filing in are outside the fence, just like the audience watching an exhibition, paying attention to the "performance" on the bed. People of different status levels , all corresponding to different performance divisions and responsibilities, entering the enclosure in order to serve the king.
As for the bedtime ritual, it is just a reversal of the routine for getting up.
Do you think this is the end?
No, because in fact Louis XIV did not sleep and get up in this room. For safety reasons, Louis XIV would not sleep in the room where he performed his going to bed and getting up. He would perform the going to bed ceremony every day and wait for the nobles. After they all retreat, he will sleep in another room surrounded by guards.
Similarly, Louis XIV would get up at 7 a.m. every day, and then return to the room where he slept under the protection of guards. Wait until 7:30 a.m., and then perform how he got up in front of the nobles.
In fact, the Palace of Versailles during the Louis XIV period is completely incomparable to the Forbidden City during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. The Palace of Versailles is more like the palace built by Nurhaciin Hetuala. Anyone with similar age can enter.
Even in the era of Louis XIV, there was an incident where the cook of the Palace of Versailles borrowed a dress and sneaked into the banquet, and even danced with Louis XIV's queen. The queen found herself dancing with a stranger and asked him, who are you? The cook said honestly, I am the chef of the Palace of Versailles. I admire you so much that I sneaked in to dance with you.
When Louis XIV found out, not only did he not punish the cook, but he also rewarded the cook with several gold coins.
Serving Chef
Why should Louis XIV be so "approachable" and why "anyone can enter" the Palace of Versailles?
Mainly because Louis XIV’s power was far less than that of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty during the same period. His real power was more similar to the monarchs of the Spring and Autumn Period. Therefore, in order to gain more power, Louis XIV’s idea was to “create gods.” , in today’s words, what Louis XIV has to do is to first turn himself into the biggest internet celebrity in France.
He made everyone in France adopt his aesthetics as their aesthetics and his hobbies as their hobbies, thus quietly alienating the aristocracy. He did allow French nobles who owned fiefs to stay in the Palace of Versailles for a long time, but Louis XIV never deprived these nobles of their ownership of the territories.
Louis XIV only made these French nobles care more about the king's personal preferences and less about what happened in their own territories.
In other words, from Louis XIV to Louis XVI, even in the era when the French king had the greatest power, the power held by the French king was far from being comparable to that of the Qing emperor at the same time.
I don’t know what you think about the phenomenon of the Louis XIV era, when any Frenchman could go to the Palace of Versailles to watch how the king, queen and family ate? Everyone is welcome to leave a message in the comment area for discussion.
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