CRSO Working Paper /I272 HOW the FRONDE MADE a DIFFERENCE in SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ANJOU Charles Tilly University of Michigan July
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...................................... HOW THE FRONDE MADE A DIFFERENCE IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ANJOU Charles Tilly University of Michigan July 1982 ...................................... CRSO Working Paper /I272 Copies available through: Center for Research on .-. Social Organization University of Michigan 330 Packard Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 The Frolic of Ponts-de-C& The tow11 of Ponts-de-cC arclles across the stlifting islantls and shores of the Loire just south of Angers, halfway froni Saumur to the border of Brittany. These days the road from Angers to the Ponts-de-CC passes through r~earlyunbroken ranks of drab shops and apartments. Although the willows of the river offer a relreslling break frorn the roadway's stone, slate, and carbon monoxide, the town itself now seems no more than a commercial suburb of Angers. At tlie start of the seventeen111 HOW TliE FRONDE MADE A DIFFERENCE - century, however, four kilometers of open country separated the ~.allsof t11e old city IN SEVENTEENTH-CEN I'URY ANJOU of Angers from tlic north bank parish of St. Aubin-des-Ponts-dc-Cf. St. Maurillc, tlie twin of St. Aubin, occupied an island in mid-river. At high water, the meandering Loire often flooded tlle nearby islarltls, tile adjacent plains, and part of St. Maurille's islarid as well. But tlle Ponts-dc-C6, as their narne implies, stood on high enough ground to llold the series of wooden drawbridges that crossed tlie Loire to corinect Angers with southcrn Anjou. A seventeenth-century journalist put it this way: the city is a long street on an islarld in the Loire River, wit11 two big bridges s-liic11 span a halfquarter league. lhc one on the side toward Brissac is longer by a third than the one on the Angers side. Within the bridges there arc drawbridges, so that when they arc up you can only enter the city by boat. I he city has for its defense a good castle on tlie high part of tlic island, wl~icll Charles Tilly commands all the roads across the bridges; the lower part contains a few University of Michigan houses. Except for the castle the whole place without walls. At tllc crlds of July 1982 tlie two bridges there are also a good many houses whicl: serve the city as suburbs (Mercure, VI, 1620: 331). The twin tows were Angers' chief port for goods moving up or down the river: hcr "nurse in grain, wheat and bread," according to another seventeenth-century observer (Louvet 1854-1856: IV,36). l'liat was no doubt u41y Angers' custorns area (octroi) bulged out to include the Ponts-de-C& By water, the river town was Angers' cllicf contiectioti with the rest of the world. By land, the road across the I'onts-de-~e' was Angers' principal link with Poitou arid wit11 the regions farther south. In 1620, that link was vital to Marie tle Metlici. Marie (widow of Henry IV arid Tilly, SEVENTCENTI-1-CENTURY ANJOU: 1 mother of the nineteen-year-old king Louis XIII) had become Governor of Angers in 24th of July, 1620: ligl~tingliis candle, opening liis notebook, sliarpening a goose q~~ill, 1619. Her appointment was part of the settlement of a three-ycar war against her dipping it into his inkwell, and scratching these words into tlie journal: son, the King. She had marked her entry into Anjou by spending tlie night of 15 Le vendredy, vingt-quatrieme jour dudict rnois de juillct, audict an 1620, M. Ic duc de Vendosrne est arrive Angers de La Flesche, ou il estoit avec la royne . October 1619 in tlie castle of ~onts-dc-c;. On tlie 16th, she had ridden her litter . Comme aussy cedict jour, M. Le Grand, M. Ic president Janin ct aultres depputez, qui cstoient venuz de la part du roy Angers vcrs la roync, Inere de Sa past six thousand arrned burgl~ersin regular ranks, passed through four triumphal Majeste, pour conferer avec elle sur le traittd tle la paix, s'en sont allcz ct sortiz d'Angcrs, ou ilz estoient venuz le douzie~nede ce present mois, sans avoir arches erected in her lionor, and endured incessantflowery speeches from Angers' faict aulcune conference, faict ny arrestc aulcune chose, dont les habitants de la ville d'Angers ont este grandement faschez et ~narriz, prevoyalit que c'cstoit officials (Mercure VI, 1619: 313-332). signe de grande guerre, maulx et afflictions quc Dieu preparoit e~ivoycrauldicts habitants, M. Lasnier, rnaire de la ville dlAngers, n'a voullu bailler les clefs des Nov!, nine months later, Marie was settled in Angers, and at the center of portes de Boisnet pour les ouvrir . (Louvct 1854-18%: IV, 30). another vast conspiracy. It aligned Marie, her advisor Richelieu and a whole web of On Friday, the twenty-fourtll day of said montll of July of said year 1620, tlie Duke of Vendome arrived in Angers from La Fleclte, where he liad becn with great lords against Lollis Xlll and his minister de Luynes. Many of Marie's noble co- the queen . On the sarne day M. Le Grand, the President Janin and other deputies who had come to Angers on the king's behalf to see tlie queen, the conspirators had joined her in Angers. Some nine thousand soldiers wcre in tlie city king's mother, to confer with her about a peace treaty, left and departed from Angers, where they had arrived on the twelftli of this mo~itli,(vithout ~nakillg under tlicir comniand. Marie's allies held strong positions in a number of cities in any announcement, without any decree, because of wl~icli the residents of the city of Angers were greatly angered and Ilpset, foreseeing tliat it was the sign northwestern France, including Ilouen, Caen and Vcndorne. But several of Marie's of a great war, of evils and afflictions that God was preparing to send tlte said residents. And to increase the fright and fear of said inhahitants, M. Lasnicr, most important allies, including tlie dukes of Epernon and Mayenne, kept their troops mayor of the city of Angers, did not want to hand over the keys of tlie Ooisnct gates for them to be opened. in readiness south of the Loire. Ilie ~onts-de-~hprovided the sole practical line of The fears, negotiations and preparations for war continucd. colnmunication between the Queen Mother and her armed supporters outside of Within Angers, Marie de Medici drafted the inhabitants to work on the ramparts, Angers. as rumors of treason and destruction ran from door to door. Wl~cnthe king's forces Ihring much of July, the young king and his sometime ally the Prince of Cond6 came close, the Qucen Mother imposed a rigid curfcw, niadc tlic inliabitants surrender wcre marching their armies from strongliold to stronghold in Normandy, Perche and all their arms, and released the prisoners from Angers' jail to serve in her arrily. Maine. lhere tlicy chased away the quecn's allies and extracted guarantees of loyalty Meanwl~ile, Marie's troops fortified the Ponts-dc-~k and lived off the ncarby land. 111 from the local autl~orities. Ihen they hcadcd for Anjou. Dread seized the Angevins; an age-old routine, people from the defenseless countryside fled to the relative safety after all, many of them could still remember the sieges and saclting of the recent of Angers' city walls. According to Jehan Lollvet, the wars 01 religion. poor people of the fields and faubourgs left and abandoncd everything, carrying Jchan Louvet was there. The modest clerk at Angers' prbidial court kept a and dragging into Angers anything they could bring auSay. It uas a piteous and frightful thing to see tlle~n, and to hear tlic~ncry and Ianient, saying tl~attlie journal in wliich he recorded tllc city's everyday events -- especially its legal events Qucen Mother's companies and soldiers had greatly pillaged, beaten and ransomed them, leaving some of them nothing, and that they hat1 been forced to leave -- from 1560 to lb34. (Ilie journal, properly speaking, began in 1583; the carlier grain they had just begun to cut, and that where people liad already cut nnd stacked their grain, the soldiers -- led by the devil, spiteful and lull of anger -- entries were retrospective.) We can imagine Jehan Louvet on the evening of the lighted tl~estacks and btrrncd thern (Louvet 1850-1856: IV, 36-37). Tilly, SEVEN I'EENTH-(,EN I UKY ANJOU: 2 Tilly, SEVENTEENTH-CENT UKY ANJOU: 3 As the king's armies approached, fear and anger mounted. Loire ori the road to Poitiers. Thus ended the so called Second War of the hlother Passing through Le Mans and La FlGche, the royal forces feinted toward Angers, and the Son. All that remained was to bury the dead, nurse the wounded, pay off then rushed toward ~onts-de-~e/. The battle, sucli as it was, took place on Friday, 7 and dismiss the troops, make sure they left the region quickly witliout marauding, and August. Near the river the royal army confronted a rebel garrison reinforced by tlierl rebuild the city's burned, bombarded suburbs. several thousand troops dispatched from Angers. The front-line rebel troops stood No: lhere was one more thing to do. That usas to pay for the war. War lias along a trench which ran parallel to the river for about 500 meters. The remainder always been one of mankind's most expensive activities, and wars have usually of the force spread from there to the town of St. Aubin, across the bridge and to strained tlie finances of the states that have waged them.