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Abstract
Focusing on the court of Louis XIV between 1680 and 1715, this article considers how the royal hunts gradually became a crucial site for the establishment of a thriving female horseback riding culture. At first gracious ornaments to the King’s retinue, courtly Amazons went on to develop independent habits by the turn of the eighteenth century. Embracing current approaches to sport history, this paper traces the evolution and changing significance of early modern athletic practices, acknowledging their ritualistic and antagonistic elements. Information from contemporary accounts, most importantly the Journal of the Marquis de Dangeau, is complemented by close reading of letters and memoirs that illuminate the diarist’s entries with glimpses into the physical sensations and emotional experiences of these pioneering sportswomen.
Notes
1 Louis XIV acquired a passion for Versailles at the start of his personal reign in 1661; from that point the château was gradually enlarged and embellished until it became the official court residence in 1682.
2 Vincent Maroteaux and Jacques de Givry (eds), Versailles: Le Grand Parc (Les Loges-en-Josas, 2004).
3 Philippe Salvadori, La chasse sous l’Ancien Regime (Paris, 1996), pp. 194-243; Fréderique Leferme-Falguières, Les courtisans: une société de spectacle sous l’Ancien Régime (Paris, 2007), pp. 245-7.
4 Elisabeth-Charlotte (1652–1722) daughter of the Elector Palatine married the King’s brother, Philippe, Duke of Orléans in 1671. Quote from her letter of 13 October 1701, in G. Brunet (ed. and trans.), Correspondance complète de madame duchesse d’Orléans née Princesse Palatine (Paris, 1855) [hereafter, Correspondance], vol. I, p. 56. All translations from French are my own.
5 Salvadori, La chasse sous l’Ancien Regime, pp. 199-200.
6 Vincent Maroteaux, Marly: L’autre palais du Soleil (Geneva, 2002).
7 Claude d’Anthenaise, ‘La chasse courtoise’, in Chasse à courre, chasse de cour: Fastes de la vénerie princière à Chantilly au temps des Condés et des Orléans, 1659–1910 (Tournai, 2004), pp. 13-19.
8 D’Anthenaise, ‘La chasse courtoise’, p. 19; Salvadori, La chasse sous l’Ancien Regime, p. 200.
9 Salvadori, La chasse sous l’Ancien Regime, pp. 200-01.
10 Daniel Roche, La culture équestre occidentale, XVIe-XIXe siècle: l’ombre du cheval (Paris, 2008–2015), vol. II, pp. 15-50.
11 Salvadori, La chasse sous l’Ancien Regime, pp. 15-35.
12 Jonathan Dewald, Aristocratic Experience and the Origins of Modern Culture: France, 1570-1715 (Berkeley, 1993), pp. 46-68.
13 Lynda E. Boose, ‘Scolding Bridles and Bridling Scolds: Taming the Woman’s Unruly Member’, Shakespeare Quarterly 2 (1992), p. 199.
14 Arlette Lebigre, La Princesse Palatine (Paris, 1986); Claude Pasteur, La Princesse Palatine (Paris, 2001); Daniel Des Brosses, La Palatine: l’incorrigible épistolière aux 60.000 lettres (Paris, 2004); Christian Bouyer, La princesse Palatine (Paris, 2005).
15 Daniel Roche, La culture équestre occidentale, vol. II, pp. 205-15.
16 A notable exception is the 1669 equestrian manual by Gabriel de Hollande, Sieur du Breuil Pompée, which claims to be addressed to women as well as men. For a more substantial discussion of women’s riding in France, one has to wait until 1741, when François-Alexandre de Garsault published his treatise, Le Nouveau Parfait Maréchal ou la connaissance générale et universelle du cheval.
17 Richard Almond, Daughters of Artemis: The Huntress in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Cambridge, 2009) and Amanda Richardson, ‘“Riding like Alexander, Hunting like Diana”, Gendered aspects of the Medieval Hunt and its Landscape Settings’, Gender and History 24.2 (2012), pp. 253-70.
18 Isabelle Veauvy, Adélaïde de Savray and Isabelle de Ponton d’Amécourt (eds), Chevalières Amazones: Une histoire singulière (Paris, 2016), pp. 57-100.
19 Lida Fleitmann Bloodgood, The Saddle of Queens: The Story of the Side-Saddle (London, 1959), pp. 15-20; Gillian Newsum, Women and Horses (London, 1988), pp. 11-28.
20 Daniel O’Quinn and Alexis Tadié (eds), Sporting Cultures, 1650–1850 (Toronto, Buffalo and London, 2018).
21 Eudore Soulié, Louis Dussieux et al. (eds), Journal du marquis de Dangeau (19 vols; Paris, 1854-60) [hereafter referred to as Journal de Dangeau].
22 Le Passe-Temps Royal ou les Amours de Mademoiselle de Fontanges (ca. 1680), p. 99.
23 Ibid., p. 100.
24 Ibid., p. 102.
25 Letter dated 3 April 1699, in Correspondance, vol. I, p. 36.
26 Letter dated 5 February 1672, in Olivier Amiel (ed.), Lettres de Madame, duchesse d’Orléans, née princesse Palatine (Paris, 2012), p. 40.
27 Letter dated 5 August 1673, in Elborg Forster (ed. and trans.), A Woman’s Life in the Court of the Sun King: Letters of Liselotte von der Pfalz (Baltimore, 1997), p. 9.
28 Dirk Van de Cruysse, Madame Palatine, princesse européenne (Paris, 1988), p. 201.
29 Letter dated 10 October 1673, in Amiel (ed.), Lettres de Madame, p. 41.
30 Mercure Galant (June 1680), p. 252.
31 Lacking any mention of women in contemporary prescriptive literature (see note 16), the female practice of riding side-saddle at the French court is attested primarily by visual sources.
32 William Brooks, Artists’ Images and the Self-Descriptions of Elisabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans (1652–1722), The Second Madame (Lewiston, 2007), pp. 131-55; Mark de Vitis, ‘Sartorial Transgression as Socio-Political Collaboration: Madame and the Hunt’, Konsthistorisk tidskrift / Journal of Art History, 82:3 (2013), pp. 205-18.
33 Mareike Böth, Erzählweisen des Selbst: Körperpraktiken in den Briefen Liselottes von der Pfalz (1652–1722) (Köln, 2015), pp. 205-21.
34 Letter dated 3 April 1699, in Correspondance, vol. I, p. 36.
35 Marie-Anne de Bourbon (1666–1739), daughter of the King’s first official mistress, Louise de La Vallière, had married Louis-Armand, Prince of Conti, in 1680; Louise-Françoise de Bourbon (1673–1743), daughter of La Vallière’s successor, Madame de Montespan, would marry Louis III, Duke of Bourbon, in 1685.
36 Entry for 25 April 1684, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. I, pp. 8-9.
37 Entry for 19 August 1684, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. I, p. 49.
38 Entry for 25 October 1684, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. I, p. 63.
39 Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria (1660–1690) had married Louis the Grand Dauphin in 1680. She held the highest position at court after the death of the Queen Marie-Thérèse in July 1683.
40 Salvadori, La chasse sous l’Ancien Regime, p. 215.
41 Ibid., pp. 215-16.
42 Clare Haru Crowston, Credit, Fashion, Sex: Economies of Regard in Old Regime France (Durham, NC, and London, 2013), esp. pp. 21-32.
43 Jay Smith, The Culture of Merit: Nobility, Royal Service, and the Making of Absolute Monarchy in France, 1600–1789 (Ann Arbor, 1996).
44 Giora Sternberg, Status Interaction During the Reign of Louis XIV (Oxford, 2014).
45 Françoise d’Aubigné (1635–1719) initiated an amorous liaison with Louis XIV in the late 1670s. They were probably united in a morganatic marriage around 1683–84 and lived as husband and wife until the King’s death.
46 Letter dated 2 August 1688, in Amiel (ed.), Lettres de Madame, p. 117.
47 Letter dated 21 May 1716, in Correspondance, vol. I, p. 238. Louis stopped hunting with Madame in 1701, after the death of Monsieur; the Dauphin himself died in 1711.
48 Entry for 12 September 1685, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. I, p. 220. The Prince of Conti and his brother François-Louis de Bourbon had both fallen in disgrace when their correspondence mocking the King and Madame de Maintenon was intercepted and read. Dangeau here mentions a letter written by the Princess herself during her husband’s absence.
49 Ibid.
50 Jean-François Solnon (ed.), Mémoires de Primi Visconti sur la cour de Louis XIV (Paris, 1988), p. 115.
51 Marie-Angélique de Scorailles was born in 1661 and died 28 June 1681. See Henri Pigaillem, La Duchesse de Fontanges (Paris, 2005).
52 Roger Duchêne, Etre femme au temps de Louis XIV (Paris, 2004), pp. 117-26.
53 Nicholas Hammond, Gossip, Sexuality and Scandal in France (1610–1715) (Oxford, 2011).
54 Solnon (ed.), Mémoires de Primi Visconti, p. 114.
55 Letter dated 19 September 1682, in Amiel (ed.), Lettres de Madame, p. 75.
56 Entry for 26 September 1686, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. I, p. 392.
57 Entry for 10 October 1686, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. I, p. 398.
58 Entries for 11, 13 and 14 October 1686, in Journal de Dangeau., vol. I, pp. 399-400.
59 Entry for 23 September 1686 in Journal de Dangeau., voI. 1, p. 390.
60 Entries for 24 and 26 September 1686, in Journal de Dangeau., vol. I, pp. 391-2.
61 For example entries for 5 October 1687, 9 October 1688 and 16 October 1689, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. II, pp. 51, 184; and vol. III, p. 8.
62 Entry for 14 January 1693, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. IV, p. 222. The second legitimised daughter of the Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan, Françoise-Marie de Bourbon (1677–1749) married the King’s brother’s only son, Philippe, Duke of Chartres. Marie-Elisabeth de La Tour d’Auvergne (1666–1725) was the eldest daughter of Godefroy-Maurice, Duke of Bouillon, and the King’s former mistress, Maria Anna Mancini.
63 Entry for 17 February 1690, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. III, p. 68.
64 Entry for 1 March 1693, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. IV, p. 241. The ladies mentioned are Louise-Antoinette de la Châtre, Duchess of Humières (1635–1723), former lady-in-waiting to the Queen, Marie-Thérèse of Austria, and Anne Catherine d’Estrées, Countess of Courtenvaux (1663–1741).
65 Entry for 26 April 1701, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. VIII, p. 88.
66 Letter dated 16 May 1702, in Amiel (ed.), Lettres de Madame, pp. 318-19.
67 Martial Debriffe, La Duchesse de Bourgogne: Mère de Louis XV (Paris, 2007).
68 Letters dated 3 and 25 November 1696 in Amiel (ed.), Lettres de Madame, pp. 201, 203.
69 Entries for 24 October and 4 November 1698, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. VI, pp. 448, 454.
70 Entry for 2 August 1700, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. VII, p. 350. Marie-Françoise de Bournonville, Duchess of Noailles (1656–1748).
71 Entry for 9 August 1700, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. VII, p. 353.
72 Lucie-Félicité de Noailles (1683–1745) married Count Victor-Marie d’Estrées in January 1698 and was made Dame du Palais soon afterwards. Adolphe Chéruel (ed.), Mémoires complets et authentiques du duc de Saint-Simon sur le siècle de Louis XIV et la Régence (Paris, 1856–58), vol. II, p. 10.
73 Letter dated 7 April 1701, in Théophile Lavallée (ed.), Correspondance générale de Madame de Maintenon (Paris, 1865–66), vol. IV, pp. 421-2.
74 Entry for 26 December 1700, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. VII, p. 465.
75 Entry for 30 December 1700, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. VII, p. 468.
76 Entry for 21 February 1701, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. VIII, p. 40.
77 Entry for 21 February 1701, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. VIII, p. 42.
78 Marie-Thérèse de Noailles (1684–1784) married Charles-François de La Baume Le Blanc, Duke of La Vallière, in 1698. Mémoires de Saint-Simon, vol. V, p. 333.
79 Entry for 1 March 1701, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. VIII, p. 48. Louise-Bernarde de Durfort, daughter of the Marshal of Duras (born 1676); and Geneviève Larcher, Marquise of Villacerf (d. 1712).
80 Entry for 10 March 1701, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. VIII, p. 53. Marie-Anne de Bourbon, Mlle d’Enghien (1678–1718), daughter of the Prince of Condé.
81 Letter dated 18 January 1703, in Amiel (ed.), Lettres de Madame, p. 327.
82 Entry in Antoine Furetière, Dictionnaire universel (Rotterdam, 1690). This appears unchanged in the 1702 re-edition (vol. I, p. 331).
83 Louise-Bénédicte de Bourbon (1676–1753), daughter of the Prince of Condé, married the King’s illegitimate son Louis-Auguste, Duke of Maine, in 1692. Catherine Cessac, ‘La duchesse du Maine et la duchesse de Bourgogne: d’une cour à l’autre’, in Fabrice Preyat (ed.), Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie (1685–1712), Duchesse de Bourgogne, enfant terrible de Versailles, Etudes sur le XVIII Siecle XXXXI (Brussels, 2014), pp. 127-38.
84 Pierre-André Lablaude, Les Jardins de Versailles (Paris, 1995), p. 72.
85 Entry for 29 August 1707, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. VIII, p. 450.
86 Ibid.
87 Entry for Monday 5 September 1707, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. VIII, p. 454.
88 Albert Gagnière (ed.) Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie: Lettres et Correspondances (Paris, 1897), pp. 264-5.
89 Entry for 28 August 1707, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. VIII, pp. 449-50.
90 Janet W. Macdonald, Riding Side-Saddle (London, 1995), pp. 53-60.
91 Lida Fleitmann Bloodgood, The Saddle of Queens: The Story of the Side-Saddle (London, 1959), pp. 15-30.
92 Letter dated 9 November 1709, in Correspondance, vol. I, p. 122.
93 Letter dated 29 September 1683, in Amiel (ed.), Lettres de Madame, p. 95
94 Entry for 6 and 8 November 1687, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. II, pp. 61, 63.
95 Entry for 17 March 1689, in Journal de Dangeau, vol. II, pp. 353-4.
96 Letter dated 13 October 1693, in Amiel (ed.), Lettres de Madame, p. 160.
97 Letter dated 12 June 1706, in Correspondance, vol. I, p. 88.
98 Letter dated 14 November 1678, in Amiel (ed.), Lettres de Madame, p. 50.
99 Letter dated 19 July 1710, in Lettres de Madame de Maintenon à M. le Duc de Noailles (Amsterdam, 1756), p. 160.
100 Chéruel (ed.), Mémoires de Saint-Simon, vol. IX, p. 203.
101 Catherine Tourre-Malen, Femmes à cheval: La féminisation des sports et des loisirs équestres: Une avancée? (Paris, 2006).
102 Letter dated 28 October 1716, in Correspondance, vol. I, p. 275. Marie-Louise-Elisabeth (1695–1719), daughter of Philippe d’Orléans and Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, youngest legitimised daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. She had married the King’s third grandson, Charles, Duke of Berry, in 1710.
103 Letter dated 12 August 1716, in Correspondance, vol. I, p. 263. Louise-Adélaïde, Mlle de Chartres (1698–1743) indeed took the veil in 1717, and later became Abbess of Chelles.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Valerio Zanetti
Valerio Zanetti
Valerio Zanetti is a History PhD candidate at St John’s College, Cambridge, funded by the AHRC and Cambridge Trust. His current research investigates women’s sport in early modern Europe, tracing the evolution of athletic practices and changing conceptions of the female body. He is the editor of the forthcoming volume Fashioning the Early Modern Courtier: Sartorial Networks at the Courts of Europe, 1550-1750, to be published by Brepols in 2020.