Charlemagne Returns

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Charlemagne Returns Monarch Prophecies: Charlemagne Returns 1beSecret Societyof Jacohites CHARLEMAGNE RETURNS ! ! ! ! ! "#$%&#$'! ! ! ! '! CHARLEMAGNE RETURNS Why should I care about Charlemagne? Unlike many countries, France generally agrees that one person founded its nation. That person was Charlemagne. Why do we need a King? Most French people today do not think that a king is needed. Much of this negative way of thinking about the Founding fathers of many European countries stems from the American way of thinking. The Americans revolted against British royalty and helped to influence the ideology that resulted in the French acts of patricide that capitulated power in the French Revolution. Why did the French Revolution happen? Most people believe it was a class war between the proletariats, bourgeoisie, and aristocracy. However, it may have been something altogether different from the story that most historians pieced together and accepted as truth. In fact, there may be certain key events that happened in secret on the world stage that most historians either do not know about or felt uncomfortable revealing to the world. The secret society of Jacobites asserts that a descendant of Charlemagne returned to France around 9 SECRET SOCIETY OF JACOBITES 1747, and claimed his rightful Throne as the Heir of the Founding Father of France. A blood feud for the divine right of Kings ensued and a Capetian and Carolingian blow for blow, life for a life exchange took place leaving France headless. In other words, the French Revolution that ensued not only insulted the Patriarch of France, Charlemagne, it rendered the French less powerful in the World Theatre. Furthermore, not only was it a coup against Charlemagne, but, in the name of liberty, equality, and brotherhood, the French decapitated God as well. So, then why does this bit of history matter? This should matter deeply as a French citizen whether we respect and honor our Founding Father Charlemagne. For cultural reasons alone, every French person should care about our own country. Charlemagne fought hard to form France out of barbaric times of Medieval warfare. He brought peace, started the French language, and started the traditions of France and formed the heritage, or cultural history, of France. Why would the ordinary French person disrespect the possibility that a descendant or Scion of Charlemagne possibly exists? If a descendant of George Washington were still alive in America, would that person not be honored in American culture? 10 CHARLEMAGNE RETURNS Likewise, why not honor the heritage of the Founding Father in a possible descendant of Charlemagne. It is only right to honor such a family in France, which still exists. It is a miracle, is it not, that Vichy France failed because of some Free French resistance fighters carried MontJoie into battle? (MontJoie is explained by the end of the book.) Why should we care about such a possible king, since Christendom in France is an outdated concept? It is not about submitting to a king, who wil then tel us what to do. The mere possibility that a descendant of Charlemagne could be alive after 1200 years is a wonderful miracle! If such a king or family exists, why would the French not honor that man or family as if Charlemagne had returned himself? Why won’t France look back at its own history? Modern France thinks it is too smart for a feudal ideology. Royalists are viewed as old fashioned dreamers for a return to an Old Regime that the modern academicians, scholars, and politicians assert would not work today. No one wants to adore a king, especially the Americans, but, celebrities are worshipped in Hollywood for acting and singing! Why succumb to the dominant American thought 11 SECRET SOCIETY OF JACOBITES that kings should be left dead? Just because America disrespects royalty does not mean the French should disrespect itself too! French history differs from that of America. Both France and America historically get along as allies and share a strong history of revolution for equality and such, but France has lost much by following in the steps of a different nation in America, who had no king in their history. French history uniquely glorifies God. French Saints abundantly worshipped God, who is good. Saints Therese, Joan, Margaret, and so many others graced the holy ground that supports France, and yet, look around today? There is no glory! The divinity and the aspirations to attain theosis have died with the murders of Capetian Louis XVI and Carolingian Louis Philippe Joseph! America does not share the mandate of heaven that many European countries do. America should not dictate how European nations lead their own people with their own history and culture, or heritage. Charlemagne, a man, founded France. If we are French, we should respect our unique history and take care of ourselves as a family, a nation. What is a royal family? A Carolingian French Royal Family should serve as the role model for all French families. The French royal family from Orleans, who descended from Charlemagne, should strive for virtue, wealth, goodness, and power to best exemplify what France believes in as a nation, and who the French are as a family. France should not be the home to all immigrants. No, France has its own individual 12 CHARLEMAGNE RETURNS culture and heritage, its own persona and past. We cannot cut ourselves off from our own history. We must connect all the relevant and important events in history back to 800AD when France was founded by Charlemagne. This has to do with our identity. This is an important matter to all the proper French peoples. This is about who we are as a French family, as the nation of France. What did Joan of Arc want? We venerate Saint Joan for fighting for the return of the King to France, but we have forgotten why she fought and won. She asked France to live. “Vive la France!” The Scion of Charlemagne seems to have returned as prophesied by the Roman Catholic Church. Does France live, or does France remain beheaded. Is there no king resting in peace in the Pyramid in the Louvre? Does the world mock France subtly for killing her own King? “Paris” supposedly means the “city of lights.” Do we become enlightened again? Or do we dare to continue to live in the dark without God, uncharacteristic of the past and out of sorts with French history? Why should I care? Are you French?…..Think about this. What makes you French? 13 SECRET SOCIETY OF JACOBITES What is France today? Does it not build upon the heritage, the history and the culture of France from 800AD to modern times? If you are French, and you understand Saint Joan of Arc, then you should join her in her fight to save the King of France. Understand? Every French person is important, even possibly her King. Even if I am not French, why should I care? If you are Christian with an interest in Christendom or Zion, this book should interest you. It pertains to European history, but the phenomenon of persecuting the Saints and the religious people is a worldwide phenomenon. Perhaps it lends credence to the concept of a devil, although most people would question your sanity? After all, people in the middle ages were different. They had mystical experiences, they saw ghosts, demons and, some, angels. In the times of the Crusaders, superstition was common. Witchcraft abounded in esoteric places in the woods late at night in the light of the moon. Vampires turned into bats and drank blood to remain immortal. Werewolves were real, live people who could kill violently. Priests walked around with crucifixes to exorcise demons. 14 CHARLEMAGNE RETURNS It was a different world. Latin was spoken in the Holy Roman Empire. Perhaps you knew a saint in a nearby village and she could bless your family to stay safe from Satan. Perhaps a nearby monk saw a vision of Mary, and he knew certain sacred things…. Maybe there are gifts that come from our past, our history. Maybe Roman Catholic prophecies must come true? Maybe it is all folklore, very little real? Or, maybe, you can come along for the ride, for the entertainment of it all, maybe, for the fun of it? Maybe we can all learn something? So, onward, Christian soldiers, march? Maybe, we all can join the Royal Family worldwide too? Who are the Jacobites? Jacobites are followers of Jacob, also known as “Israel,” and adhere to his spiritual, yet secular mission to help establish Zion around the world. What is Zion? Zion is "any place where earth meets heaven." We believe it is known by many names depending on the religion and worship of God. Some have described comparably what we call "Zion" in the following: Bethel, Peniel, Kyoto, Jerusalem, Paradise, Shambhalla, and Shangri La among others. Maybe the work was begun in France, namely in Paris meaning the "City of Lights," or perhaps in Rome, 15 SECRET SOCIETY OF JACOBITES Italy, now the Vatican City, in the Middle Ages? Mecca? Beijing (Forbidden city?). Culloden? We are not conspiracy theorists, although we are a secret society divulging some of our secrets. We technically are not adversaries of Catholicism despite the non-mutual wariness the Church understandably has for secret societies; in fact, we believe in a Supreme God. In reaching out to the world, however, we try to appeal to all the different nations of the world. Humbly, we acknowledge that we are Judeo-Christian in spirit foremost, and yet, God is Omniscient and Supreme over all the world. We understand Pope Benedict XVI's concern about Freemasons: some go too far.
Recommended publications
  • Nationalism in the French Revolution of 1789
    The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Honors College 5-2014 Nationalism in the French Revolution of 1789 Kiley Bickford University of Maine - Main Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors Part of the Cultural History Commons Recommended Citation Bickford, Kiley, "Nationalism in the French Revolution of 1789" (2014). Honors College. 147. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/147 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors College by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NATIONALISM IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1789 by Kiley Bickford A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for a Degree with Honors (History) The Honors College University of Maine May 2014 Advisory Committee: Richard Blanke, Professor of History Alexander Grab, Adelaide & Alan Bird Professor of History Angela Haas, Visiting Assistant Professor of History Raymond Pelletier, Associate Professor of French, Emeritus Chris Mares, Director of the Intensive English Institute, Honors College Copyright 2014 by Kiley Bickford All rights reserved. Abstract The French Revolution of 1789 was instrumental in the emergence and growth of modern nationalism, the idea that a state should represent, and serve the interests of, a people, or "nation," that shares a common culture and history and feels as one. But national ideas, often with their source in the otherwise cosmopolitan world of the Enlightenment, were also an important cause of the Revolution itself. The rhetoric and documents of the Revolution demonstrate the importance of national ideas.
    [Show full text]
  • By Uta Goerlitz — München the Emperor Charlemagne
    Amsterdamer Beiträge zur alteren Germanistik 70 (2013), 195-208 Special Issue Section: Saints and Sovereigns KARL WAS AIN WÂRER GOTES WÎGANT 1 PROBLEMS OF INTERPRETING THE FIGURE OF CHARLEMAGNE IN THE EARLY MIDDLE HIGH GERMAN KAISERCHRONIK 2 by Uta Goerlitz — München Abstract The Kaiserchronik is the first German rhymed chronicle of the Roman Empire from Caesar to around 1150, fifteen years before Charlemagne’s canonization in 1165. A strand of scholarship that goes back to the middle of C19 sees the chronicle’s Charlemagne as an Emperor figure who is decidedly depicted as “German”. This cor- relates with the assumption, widespread in C19 and most of C20, based upon the erroneous equation of “Germanic” to “German”, that the historic Charlemagne was the first medieval “German” Emperor, an assumption debunked by historians in the last few decades. Readings of critics based on these faulty premises have neglected essential characteristics of this Early Middle High German text. One of these characteristics is Charlemagne’s saintly features, which implicitly contradict interpretations of the Emperor figure as a national hero. First, I question traditional interpretive patterns of Charlemagne in the Kaiserchronik. Then I re-examine the chronicle’s Charlemagne account, focusing, on the one hand, on the interferences between the descriptions of Charlemagne as a worldly ruler and, on the other, as a Christian Emperor with saintly characteristics. The Emperor Charlemagne (AD 800–814) was canonized in the year 1165, instigated by Emperor Frederic I Barbarossa and approved by the Antipope Paschal III. This event took place roughly a decade after the composition of the Early Middle High German Kaiserchronik, the central text of the following contribution.
    [Show full text]
  • The Faces of History. the Imagined Portraits of the Merovingian Kings at Versailles (1837-1842)
    The faces of history. The imagined portraits of the Merovingian kings at Versailles (1837-1842) Margot Renard, University of Grenoble ‘One would expect people to remember the past and imagine the future. But in fact, when discoursing or writing about history, they imagine it in terms of their own experience, and when trying to gauge the future they cite supposed analogies from the past; till, by a double process of repeti- tion, they imagine the past and remember the future’. (Namier 1942, 70) The historian Christian Amalvi observes that during the first half of the nine- teenth century, most of the time history books presented a ‘succession of dyn- asties (Merovingians, Carolingians, Capetians), an endless row of reigns put end to end (those of the ‘rois fainéants’1 and of the last Carolingians especially), without any hierarchy, as a succession of fanciful portraits of monarchs, almost interchangeable’ (Amalvi 2006, 57). The Merovingian kings’ portraits, exhib- ited in the Museum of French History at the palace of Versailles, could be de- scribed similarly: they represent a succession of kings ‘put end to end’, with imagined ‘fanciful’ appearances, according to Amalvi. However, this vision dis- regards their significance for early nineteenth-century French society. Replac- ing these portraits in the broader context of contemporary history painting, they appear characteristic of a shift in historical apprehension. The French history painting had slowly drifted away from the great tradition established by Jacques-Louis David’s moralistic and heroic vision of ancient history. The 1820s saw a new formation of the historical genre led by Paul De- laroche's sentimental vision and attention to a realistic vision of history, restored to picturesqueness.
    [Show full text]
  • From Charlemagne to Hitler: the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire and Its Symbolism
    From Charlemagne to Hitler: The Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire and its Symbolism Dagmar Paulus (University College London) [email protected] 2 The fabled Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire is a striking visual image of political power whose symbolism influenced political discourse in the German-speaking lands over centuries. Together with other artefacts such as the Holy Lance or the Imperial Orb and Sword, the crown was part of the so-called Imperial Regalia, a collection of sacred objects that connotated royal authority and which were used at the coronations of kings and emperors during the Middle Ages and beyond. But even after the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the crown remained a powerful political symbol. In Germany, it was seen as the very embodiment of the Reichsidee, the concept or notion of the German Empire, which shaped the political landscape of Germany right up to National Socialism. In this paper, I will first present the crown itself as well as the political and religious connotations it carries. I will then move on to demonstrate how its symbolism was appropriated during the Second German Empire from 1871 onwards, and later by the Nazis in the so-called Third Reich, in order to legitimise political authority. I The crown, as part of the Regalia, had a symbolic and representational function that can be difficult for us to imagine today. On the one hand, it stood of course for royal authority. During coronations, the Regalia marked and established the transfer of authority from one ruler to his successor, ensuring continuity amidst the change that took place.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    Cambridge University Press 0521819458 - Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century: Charles the Fat and the End of the Carolingian Empire Simon Maclean Excerpt More information Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION the end of the carolingian empire in modern historiography The dregs of the Carlovingian race no longer exhibited any symptoms of virtue or power, and the ridiculous epithets of the Bald, the Stammerer, the Fat, and the Simple, distinguished the tame and uniform features of a crowd of kings alike deserving of oblivion. By the failure of the collateral branches, the whole inheritance devolved to Charles the Fat, the last emperor of his family: his insanity authorised the desertion of Germany, Italy, and France...Thegovernors,the bishops and the lords usurped the fragments of the falling empire.1 This was how, in the late eighteenth century, the great Enlightenment historianEdward Gibbonpassed verdict onthe endof the Carolingian empire almost exactly 900 years earlier. To twenty-first-century eyes, the terms of this assessment may seem jarring. Gibbon’s emphasis on the im- portance of virtue and his ideas about who or what was a deserving subject of historical study very much reflect the values of his age, the expectations of his audience and the intentions of his work.2 However, if the timbre of his analysis now feels dated, its constituent elements have nonetheless survived into modern historiography. The conventional narrative of the end of the empire in the year 888 is still a story about the emergence of recognisable medieval kingdoms which would become modern nations – France, Germany and Italy; about the personal inadequacies of late ninth- century kings as rulers; and about their powerlessness in the face of an increasingly independent, acquisitive and assertive aristocracy.
    [Show full text]
  • France Country Health Profile 2017
    State of Health in the EU France Country Health Profile 2017 European on Health Systems and Policies a partnership hosted by WHO The Country Health Profile series Contents The State of Health in the EU profiles provide a concise and 1 • HIGHLIGHTS 1 policy-relevant overview of health and health systems in the EU 2 • HEALTH IN FRANCE 2 Member States, emphasising the particular characteristics and 3 • RISK FACTORS 4 challenges in each country. They are designed to support the efforts of Member States in their evidence-based policy making. 4 • THE HEALTH SYSTEM 6 5 • PERFORMANCE OF THE HEALTH SYSTEM 8 The Country Health Profiles are the joint work of the OECD and 5.1 Effectiveness 8 the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, in 5.2 Accessibility 11 cooperation with the European Commission. The team is grateful for the valuable comments and suggestions provided by Member 5.3 Resilience 13 States and the Health Systems and Policy Monitor network. 6 • KEY FINDINGS 16 Data and information sources The data and information in these Country Health Profiles are The calculated EU averages are weighted averages of the based mainly on national official statistics provided to Eurostat 28 Member States unless otherwise noted. and the OECD, which were validated in June 2017 to ensure the highest standards of data comparability. The sources and To download the Excel spreadsheet matching all the methods underlying these data are available in the Eurostat tables and graphs in this profile, just type the following Database and the OECD health database. Some additional data StatLinks into your Internet browser: also come from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888933593532 (IHME), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) surveys and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as other national sources.
    [Show full text]
  • World History Unit 1, Part Two, the Greeks and the Romans
    World History Unit 3 – Medieval Europe, Renaissance, Reformation SSWH7 The student will analyze European medieval society with regard to culture, c. Explain the main characteristics of humanism; include the ideas of Petrarch, Dante, and politics, society, and economics. Erasmus. a. Explain the manorial system and feudalism; include the status of peasants and feudal d. Analyze the impact of the Protestant Reformation; include the ideas of Martin Luther monarchies and the importance of Charlemagne. and John Calvin. b. Describe the political impact of Christianity; include Pope Gregory VII and King e. Describe the Counter Reformation at the Council of Trent and the role of the Jesuits. Henry IV of Germany (Holy Roman Emperor). f. Describe the English Reformation and the role of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. c. Explain the role of the church in medieval society. g. Explain the importance of Gutenberg and the invention of the printing press. d. Describe how increasing trade led to the growth of towns and cities. SSWH13 The student will examine the intellectual, political, social, and economic SSWH9 The student will analyze change and continuity in the Renaissance and factors that changed the world view of Europeans. Reformation. a. Explain the scientific contributions of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton and a. Explain the social, economic, and political changes that contributed to the rise of how these ideas changed the European world view. Florence and the ideas of Machiavelli. b. Identify the major ideas of the Enlightenment from the writings of Locke, Voltaire, and b. Identify artistic and scientific achievements of Leonardo da Vinci, the “Renaissance Rousseau and their relationship to politics and society.
    [Show full text]
  • The Artistic Patronage of Albrecht V and the Creation of Catholic Identity in Sixteenth
    The Artistic Patronage of Albrecht V and the Creation of Catholic Identity in Sixteenth- Century Bavaria A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Fine Arts of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Adam R. Gustafson June 2011 © 2011 Adam R. Gustafson All Rights Reserved 2 This dissertation titled The Artistic Patronage of Albrecht V and the Creation of Catholic Identity in Sixteenth- Century Bavaria by ADAM R. GUSTAFSON has been approved for the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and the College of Fine Arts _______________________________________________ Dora Wilson Professor of Music _______________________________________________ Charles A. McWeeny Dean, College of Fine Arts 3 ABSTRACT GUSTAFSON, ADAM R., Ph.D., June 2011, Interdisciplinary Arts The Artistic Patronage of Albrecht V and the Creation of Catholic Identity in Sixteenth- Century Bavaria Director of Dissertation: Dora Wilson Drawing from a number of artistic media, this dissertation is an interdisciplinary approach for understanding how artworks created under the patronage of Albrecht V were used to shape Catholic identity in Bavaria during the establishment of confessional boundaries in late sixteenth-century Europe. This study presents a methodological framework for understanding early modern patronage in which the arts are necessarily viewed as interconnected, and patronage is understood as a complex and often contradictory process that involved all elements of society. First, this study examines the legacy of arts patronage that Albrecht V inherited from his Wittelsbach predecessors and developed during his reign, from 1550-1579. Albrecht V‟s patronage is then divided into three areas: northern princely humanism, traditional religion and sociological propaganda.
    [Show full text]
  • THE TALISMAN of CHARLEMAGNE: NEW HISTORICAL and GEMOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES Gerard Panczer, Geoffray Riondet, Lauriane Forest, Michael S
    FEATURE ARTICLES THE TALISMAN OF CHARLEMAGNE: NEW HISTORICAL AND GEMOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES Gerard Panczer, Geoffray Riondet, Lauriane Forest, Michael S. Krzemnicki, Davy Carole, and Florian Faure The gem-bearing reliquary known as the Talisman of Charlemagne is closely associated with the history of Europe. Its legend follows such figures as Charlemagne, Napoleon I, Empress Josephine, Hortense de Beauharnais, Napoleon III, and Empress Eugénie. This study provides new historical information collected in France, Germany, and Switzer- land about the provenance of this exceptional jewel, which contains a large glass cabochon on the front, a large blue-gray sapphire on the back, and an assortment of colored stones and pearls. The first scientific gemological analysis of this historical piece, carried out on-site at the Palace of Tau Museum in Reims, France, has made it possible to identify the colored stones and offer insight into their possible geographic origins. Based on our data and com- parison with similar objects of the Carolingian period, we propose that the blue-gray sapphire is of Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) origin, that the garnets originate from India or Ceylon, and that most of the emeralds are from Egypt except for one from the Habachtal deposit of Austria. The estimated weight of the center sapphire is approximately 190 ct, making it one of the largest known sapphires as of the early seventeenth century. he Talisman of Charlemagne is a sumptuous Chapelle in French) on February 28, 814 CE. Since jewel that has passed through the centuries. At the emperor did not leave specific instructions, his Tvarious times it has been said to contain frag- entourage decided to bury him in Aachen Cathedral ments of the hair of the Virgin Mary and a remnant (Minois, 2010).
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Profile Resource: France
    Cultural Profile Resource: France A resource for aged care professionals Birgit Heaney Dip. 19/06/2014 A resource for aged care professionals Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Location and Demographic ............................................................................................................................................... 4 Everyday Life ................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Family ............................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Personal Hygiene .............................................................................................................................................................. 8 Leisure and Recreation ..................................................................................................................................................... 9 Religion ........................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Food and Diet ................................................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Tyranny Plagued the French Revolution
    Coastal Carolina University CCU Digital Commons Honors College and Center for Interdisciplinary Honors Theses Studies Spring 5-7-2020 Tyranny Plagued the French Revolution Christy Leigh Salinari Coastal Carolina University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/honors-theses Part of the Other Political Science Commons, and the Political Theory Commons Recommended Citation Salinari, Christy Leigh, "Tyranny Plagued the French Revolution" (2020). Honors Theses. 369. https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/honors-theses/369 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College and Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at CCU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of CCU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Tyranny Plagued the French Revolution By Christy Leigh Salinari Political Science Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts In the HTC Honors College at Coastal Carolina University Spring 2020 Louis E. Keiner Kimberly Hurd Hale Director of Honors Assistant Professor HTC Honors College Political Science Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts ABSTRACT Liberty, equality, and fraternity were the three original pillars of the French Revolution at the start in 1789. The slogan became the rallying cry for the embittered French people in their initial pursuit for political and social transformation. The French Revolution is perhaps the most prominent contemporary illustration of a violent revolution which ultimately was successful, resulting in a model of democratic government. The French Revolution reached a decade in length wherein there were countless demonstrations, massacres, wars, civil unrest, and political enlightenment.
    [Show full text]
  • No. 168 Faith E. Beasley, Versailles Meets the Taj Mahal
    H-France Review Volume 19 (2019) Page 1 H-France Review Vol. 19 (August 2019), No. 168 Faith E. Beasley, Versailles Meets the Taj Mahal: François Bernier, Marguerite de la Sablière, and Enlightening Conversations in Seventeenth-Century France. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018. xiii + 349 pp. Figures, notes, bibliography, and index. $85.00 U.S. (cl). ISBN 978-1-4875- 0284-3. Review by Susan Mokhberi, Rutgers University at Camden. In recent years, scholars have strengthened our understanding of East/West relations in the early modern period. Studies by literary scholars, such as Kate Marsh’s India in the French Imagination, explored connections between France and India in the eighteenth century.[1] Faith Beasley’s Versailles and the Taj Mahal takes us further back to the seventeenth century to reveal the significant impact Mughal India played on French thought. Beasley engages her readers in a novel interpretation of an oft-cited European source on Mughal India, the works of Francois Bernier, the French physician and traveler. As a literary scholar, Beasley investigates Bernier’s texts and their relationship to the seventeenth-century French salon, a public largely overlooked by historians. Beasley shows that French salon culture produced discussions about India that challenge prior conceptions of the early modern French-Indian relationship and Louis XIV’s France. Her work is in tune with recent books, such as Sanjay Subrahmanyam’s Europe’s India, that show the diversity of European views of India but also speak to a larger body of work that has shown wide variations in relationships between European countries and the rest of the world through engaging with a variety of previously ignored sources such as diplomatic texts, literature, theater, travelogues, images, and material culture.[2] Versailles and the Taj Mahal further complicates standard notions of East versus West and early modern Orientalism by exploring the link between the French world of the salon and India.
    [Show full text]