Author Topic: Die letzten Valois  (Read 2132 times)

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Hannibal

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Re: Die letzten Valois
« Reply #14 on: July 01, 2018, 01:23:39 AM »
One Watson book on sales with Amazon, edition 1934, if I remember, 29 pounds... and aged... I love History, but wil not do it.
But indeed this period is fascinating and starts also with Francois 1st ! his father ... with Charles V, Henry VIII and Soleyman the Magnificient ....
Michel
_______
Men are a bit like God: everything they can do, they do it. Or they will do it.  (Jean d'Ormesson)

snagy

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Re: Die letzten Valois
« Reply #13 on: July 01, 2018, 12:40:33 AM »
Exquisite describing of the historical background - thank you again Michel!!! :D


By the  way: I am reading just now (and not the first time either) an interesting book about this era:
Life and time of Catherina de Medici, written by Francis Watson.
It is quite an old book, I have bought it some forty years ago and as second hand even that time.
I think the book gives quite a good and historicaly correct representation of the times of the "last Valois kings".
I can only propose to read it for those ones, who are interested in this subject.


And just one more book about this era:
Chronique du régne de Charles IX, written by Prosper Mérimée.
It is also quite an old book of my library. It describes a bit more fictional way of this time, included the night of St. Barthalomew.
I like it also very much.


Wish you all a very nice Sunday!
Sandor

Hannibal

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Re: Die letzten Valois
« Reply #12 on: June 30, 2018, 05:21:32 PM »
and the History section ...

Henry II,(1519-1559)was born as the Duc (Duke of) d'Orléans and became King of France in 1547 till his death in 1559.
During his reign, he was a competent administrator who was also a vigorous suppressor of Protestants within his kingdom.

The second son of François Ier and Claude of France, Henry was sent with his brother Francois, the dauphin, as a hostage to Spain in 1526 and did not return to France until 1530, after the conclusion of the Peace of Cambrai. When the dauphin died in 1536, Henry became heir to the throne. Strong differences between Henry and his father were accentuated by the rivalry between Henry’s mistress, Diane de Poitiers, and the king’s, Anne, Duchesse d’Étampes, as well as by Henry’s continuing support of the constable Anne de Montmorency, who had lost favour with the crown. Henry’s reputation has suffered by contrast with his father’s brilliance, and his melancholy made his character unsympathetic. Although he continued many of his father’s policies, he dismissed many of his father’s ministers and raised Montmorency and the house of Guise to favour.

Upon his accession, Henry undertook administrative reforms. The functions of the different sections of the king’s council became more specialized; the commissaries sent into the provinces “to exercise the king’s orders” were the forerunners of the intendants; and intermediary tribunals were established between the local justices and the parlements (high courts). In foreign affairs Henry continued his father’s warfare against the Holy Roman emperor Charles V.


He signed the Treaty of Chambord in 1552 with the German Protestant princes, promising them troops and subsidies; in return, they agreed to France’s taking the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun. Though Henry made a truce with Charles in 1556, war was soon resumed when a French expedition was sent into Italy under François, Duke de Guise (1557). The Spanish in the Netherlands, however, besieged the town of Saint-Quentin in Picardy, and Montmorency was defeated in an attempt to relieve it. After Guise had somewhat improved the situation by taking Calais, Guînes, and Thionville, the financial difficulties of both France and Spain and Henry’s desire to fight Protestantism in France led to the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559).

A bigoted Roman Catholic, Henry was rigorous in the repression of Protestantism, which was approaching the zenith of its power in France. In 1547 he created the Chambre Ardente in the Parlement of Paris for trying heretics. His Edict of Écouen (1559) laid the ground for systematic persecution of the Protestants.

The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis was to be cemented by the marriages of Henry’s daughter Elizabeth and his sister Margaret to Philip II of Spain and to Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, respectively.

In a tournament during the festivities, Henry was hit in the head by a lance of Gabriel, Count de Montgomery, captain of the Scottish guard, and died 10 days later. (** read below)

He left four sons by his marriage to Catherine de Médicis: the future kings Francois II, Charles IX, and Henry III and François, Duke d’Alençon and later Duke d’Anjou. In addition to Elizabeth, he had other daughters by Catherine—Margaret, who married Henry of Navarre (the future Henry IV), and Claude, who married Charles III the Great, Duke of Lorraine.
One of his natural children was Diane de France, who was legitimatized.


Whereas from Charles VII’s time the kings of France had preferred to reside in Touraine, on the Loire river, Francois 1er returned the chief seat of royalty to Paris. With this in mind he had extensive alterations made to the Louvre from 1528 onward. The new splendour of the monarchy, which was well on its way toward absolute rule, was reflected in the way Paris developed as the capital of an increasingly centralized state. The population increased and the town expanded again. Rigorous measures were taken to stamp out Protestantism, which first appeared in Paris during Francis I’s reign.
 
The Renaissance in Paris culminated with Henry II, who made his solemn entry into the capital in 1549. The new impulse given to building mansions for the nobility and bourgeoisie began to transform Paris from a medieval to a modern city. In 1548 the Brothers of the Passion began performing secular plays at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, in the rue Française, thus inaugurating the first theatre in Paris.
 
The transfer of the royal residence from the Hôtel des Tournelles to the Louvre, signaling the development of the neglected western outskirts of Paris, was completed after Henry II’s death in 1559. Catherine de Médicis began to build the Tuileries Palace, the gardens of which became a meeting place for elegant society. Classical taste was brilliantly exemplified by the Pont-Neuf, begun in 1577.


(**)   In June 1559 a tournament lasting several days was held in Paris to celebrate a peace treaty between France and Spain. King Henry was to enter the lists before a glittering audience of lords and ladies, including Queen Catherine, Diane de Poitiers and Mary, Queen of Scots. Henry had started suffering giddiness after physical exertion and Catherine tried to persuade him not to joust. Yet he acquitted himself well, sporting Diane’s colours as usual, until the young Count of Montgomery, of his Scottish Guard, almost unseated him. Queen Catherine, the Duke of Savoy and other friends tried to persuade the king to leave the lists, as the day was virtually over. Henry, however, insisted on another contest with Montgomery, who did his best to refuse. Montgomery’s lance struck the king’s helmet and a long splinter pierced Henry’s eye and penetrated his brain.

The king reeled in his saddle and gentlemen close by rushed to help him off his horse and out of his armour. Bleeding profusely and almost unconscious, he was carried to his apartments in the Château des Tournelles. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, the English ambassador, who was watching, wrote: ‘I noted him to be very weak, and to have the sense of all his limbs almost benumbed, for being carried away, as he lay all along, he moved neither hand nor foot, but lay as one amazed.’

Montgomery hurried to kneel before the king and asked to have his head and hand cut off in punishment, but Henry magnanimously told him that it was not his fault and he had carried himself bravely and well. The royal doctors removed the splinter from the king’s eye and others that had pierced his head and throat and bled the patient who relapsed into unconsciousness. It was hoped that the loss of the eye was the worst that would happen, but even though the royal surgeon, Ambroise Paré, was joined by another celebrated medical man, Andreas Vesalius, sent from Brussels by King Philip of Spain, Henry’s condition grew worse. (***)

Catherine took command, kept watch by her husband’s bedside and refused to allow Diane de Poitiers into the room. On July 9th the last rites were administered and the king died early in the afternoon of the following day. He was 40 years old.

(***) Henri II was injured when a lance splintered, went into his eye and shot upwards into his brain, causing a subdural haemorrhage (a build-up of blood between the inner and outer membranes covering the brain). Although he was badly injured, the king managed to get to his chambers, where all of his physicians gathered in the hope of curing him.

Initially, his surgeons cleaned the splinters out his eye, purged him with rhubarb and other purgatives, and bled him - as was the practice of the day - of 12 ounces (34 centilitres) of blood. The king's injuries were so serious that many famous physicians were sent for, including Andreas Vesalius. While the courtiers waited for Vesalius to arrive, the physicians who were at the king's bedside made several experiments, including thrusting the lance through the eye sockets of four decapitated criminals in the hope of discovering the extent of the king's injuries. When Vesalius arrived five days later, he used the brain of a cadaver to view the same type of injury. Ambroise Paré, the famous French surgeon, was also consulted on the king's condition.
Despite the presence of the most famous surgeons in Europe, and their best efforts to save him, the king died nine days after receiving his injury.

Michel
_______
Men are a bit like God: everything they can do, they do it. Or they will do it.  (Jean d'Ormesson)

Re: Die letzten Valois
« Reply #11 on: June 30, 2018, 02:02:57 PM »
Great job Sandor 8) You have a nice weekend and keep on painting  ;D ;D Willie

snagy

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Re: Die letzten Valois
« Reply #10 on: June 30, 2018, 10:59:18 AM »
Here is the next one (VA 067)
Henry II. of France:







Have a nice week-end!
Sandor

Hannibal

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Re: Die letzten Valois
« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2018, 09:58:51 AM »
Actually Sandor, I notice that you have been very successful in painting the effect of black/dark blue or grey velvet in the clothes !!! Not easy to do
Michel
_______
Men are a bit like God: everything they can do, they do it. Or they will do it.  (Jean d'Ormesson)

Re: Die letzten Valois
« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2018, 09:20:40 AM »
Sandor don't worry about it. Its a great job and I like it .  8) No more wimping out :-[ pull up your boots and grab your paint brush and go to your room start painting more figures ::) Don't make me release those Flying Monkeys  :P Willie

Hannibal

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Re: Die letzten Valois
« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2018, 02:59:12 AM »
It does not really matter Sandor, I don't think we violate his memory and indeed you are driven by the engraving, and drawing done from his picture.....

But the atmosfeer is given, and probably this Amboise you ainted is a bit older than on the original painting. 

Let's remember that he died at the age of 80, which is quiet exceptional at that time, and physical appearance changes a lot after 65 ... so your representation is credible.

Very good start, and we all will be looking at the next ones from now on.

Michel
_______
Men are a bit like God: everything they can do, they do it. Or they will do it.  (Jean d'Ormesson)

Re: Die letzten Valois
« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2018, 02:01:59 AM »
In his works he was the first to describe the scarificator, used in blood cupping. Only once used on me, prefeer modern surgical scalpel or the axe-shaped instrument by the traditional village smith


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZNVEfGjjNQ
« Last Edit: June 30, 2018, 10:49:23 AM by marko »

snagy

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Re: Die letzten Valois
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2018, 01:02:01 AM »
Thank you for the interesting historical addition, Michel!
Unfortunately the physique of the Gottstein's flat is quite different from the person was depicted in the E.B.
I do not know which is closer to the reality.
At least the mood of the attires are the same... ;)
Sandor

Re: Die letzten Valois
« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2018, 07:03:57 PM »
Very interesting history Hannibal. Willie

marko

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Re: Die letzten Valois
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2018, 05:21:50 PM »
Nice figure and interesting history!


mark  8)
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Hannibal

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Re: Die letzten Valois
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2018, 08:52:02 AM »
Aaahh! Snagy, I sit down; I like the series, a story board we can follow, and document ourselves on each character of the History, so increase our education and our knowledge of the world !!!


Ambroise Paré, (1510-1590) was a French physician, one of the most notable surgeons of the European Renaissance, regarded by some medical historians as the father of modern surgery.

About 1533 Paré went to Paris, where he soon became a barber-surgeon apprentice at the Hôtel-Dieu. He was taught anatomy and surgery and in 1537 was employed as an army surgeon. By 1552 he had gained such popularity that he became surgeon to the king; he served four French monarchs: Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III.

At the time Paré entered the army, surgeons treated gunshot wounds with boiling oil since such wounds were believed to be poisonous. On one occasion, when Paré’s supply of oil ran out, he treated the wounds with a mixture of egg yolk, rose oil, and turpentine. He found that the wounds he had treated with this mixture were healing better than those treated with the boiling oil. Sometime later he reported his findings in "La Méthod de traicter les playes faites par les arquebuses et aultres bastons à feu" (1545); “The Method of Treating Wounds Made by Harquebuses and Other Guns”), which was ridiculed because it was written in French rather than in Latin. Another of Paré’s innovations that did not win immediate medical acceptance was his reintroduction of the tying of large arteries to replace the method of sealing vessels with hot irons to check hemorrhaging during amputation.
Unlike many surgeons of his time, Paré resorted to surgery only when he found it absolutely necessary. He was one of the first surgeons to discard the practice of castrating patients who required surgery for a hernia. He introduced the implantation of teeth, artificial limbs, and artificial eyes made of gold and silver. He invented many scientific instruments, popularized the use of the truss for hernia, and was the first to suggest syphilis as a cause of aneurysm (swelling of blood vessels).

Source: Encycl. Britannica
« Last Edit: June 29, 2018, 07:10:17 PM by Hannibal »
Michel
_______
Men are a bit like God: everything they can do, they do it. Or they will do it.  (Jean d'Ormesson)

snagy

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Die letzten Valois
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2018, 03:45:48 AM »
I started a new series with the figures of "Die letzten Valois" of Gottstein/Krog.
Here is the first completed one: VA 030 - Ambrosius Paré: