1.
Claude Vignon
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Claude Vignon was a French painter, printmaker and illustrator who worked in a wide range of genres. During a period of study in Italy, he exposed to many new artistic currents, in particular through the works of Caravaggio and his followers, Guercino, Guido Reni. A prolific artist, his work has remained enigmatic, contradictory and his mature works are vibrantly coloured, splendidly lit and often extremely expressive. Vignon worked in a fluent technique, resulting in an almost electric brushwork and he particularly excelled in the rendering of textiles, gold and precious stones. Claude Vignon was born into a family in Tours. He received his artistic training in Paris from the Mannerist painter Jacob Bunel. Although Vignon is not actually documented in Rome until 1618-19 he was based there throughout that decade. He likely travelled to Rome as early as 1609-10, Vignon returned to his home country in 1616 where he became member of the Painter’s Guild of Paris in that year. He travelled a second time to Rome the next year and he also visited Spain, where he was reportedly attacked by 8 bandits in Barcelona, one of whom wounded him in the face. Back in France in 1623, he married in 1624 Charlotte de Leu, following his return to Paris he became one of the citys most respected, productive and successful artists. His patrons included king Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu and he also worked for ecclesiastical patrons as well as for private clients. He became an associate of the print publisher and art dealer François Langlois. Anne, Duchesse de Longueville commissioned him to decorate the gallery at the Château du Thorigny between 1651 and 1653, after the death of his first wife he married Geneviève Ballard in 1644. He is said to have fathered 35 children,24 of whom are documented, some of his children became painters in their fathers workshop, amongst them his sons Claude the Younger and Philippe and his daughter Charlotte. Vignon was admitted to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1651 and his last dated work is dated 1656. Vignon painted portraits, genre scenes and religious works, Claude Vignon was a very versatile artist who assimilated elements of various styles from Mannerism to Venetian, Dutch and German art. Important influences on his style were the works of the Venetian Caravaggesque painter Domenico Fetti, the German Adam Elsheimer, and his style likely owes most to the eccentric style of Leonaert Bramer except that Vignon worked on a much grander scale than typically found in Bramers paintings. Another important influence was Caravaggios most direct follower Bartolomeo Manfredi, the multiple influences have made his work enigmatic, contradictory, complex and hard to define within a single term or style
2.
Neptune (mythology)
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Neptune was the god of freshwater and the sea in Roman religion. He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon, in the Greek-influenced tradition, Neptune was the brother of Jupiter and Pluto, the brothers presided over the realms of Heaven, the earthly world, and the Underworld. Depictions of Neptune in Roman mosaics, especially those of North Africa, are influenced by Hellenistic conventions, Neptune was likely associated with fresh water springs before the sea. Like Poseidon, Neptune was worshipped by the Romans also as a god of horses, under the name Neptunus Equester, Neptune is the creator of horses and is the god of the sea as well as the owner of a powerful weapon, the Trident. Poseidon is the greek Neptune and is one of the big three gods Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon and he accidentally created horses when he had an affair with Medusa, and also created a boy who roams the seas as a pirate past the pillar of Hercules. The etymology of Latin Neptunus is unclear and disputed, the ancient grammarian Varro derived the name from nuptus i. e. covering, with a more or less explicit allusion to the nuptiae, marriage of Heaven and Earth. Among modern scholars Paul Kretschmer proposed a derivation from IE *neptu- moist substance, similarly Raymond Bloch supposed it might be an adjectival form in -no from *nuptu-, meaning he who is moist. Georges Dumézil though remarked words deriving root *nep- are not attested in IE languages other than Vedic and he proposed an etymology that brings together Neptunus with Vedic and Avestan theonyms Apam Napat, Apam Napá and Old Irish theonym Nechtan, all meaning descendant of the waters. By using the approach the Indo-Iranian, Avestan and Irish figures would show common features with the Roman historicised legends about Neptune. Dumézil thence proposed to derive the nouns from IE root *nepot-, descendant, IE root *nebh-, having the original meaning of damp, wet, has given Sanskrit nábhah, Hittite nepis, Latin nubs, nebula, German Nebel, Slavic nebo etc. The concept would be close to that expressed in the name of Greek god Όυράνος, derived from IE root *h2wórso-, to water, irrigate and *h2worsó- and this etymology would be more in accord with Varros. The district was connected to the cult of the god, Messapus and Halesus. Messapus led the Falisci and others to war in the Aeneid, nepi and Falerii have been famed since antiquity for the excellent quality of the water of their springs, scattered in meadows. Nepet is considered a hydronymic toponym of preIndoeuropean origin widespread in Europe and from an appellative meaning damp wide valley, plain, cognate with pre-Greek νάπη, such an identification may well be grounded in the strict relationship between the Latin and Greek theologies of the two deities. Servius the grammarian also explicitly states Neptune is in charge of all the rivers, springs and he also is the lord of horses because he worked with Minerva to make the chariot. He may find a parallel in Irish god Nechtan, master of the well from all the rivers of the world flow out. Poseidon on the other hand underwent the process of becoming the main god of the sea at an earlier time. For a time he was paired with Salacia, the goddess of the salt water, Neptune was also considered the legendary progenitor god of a Latin stock, the Faliscans, who called themselves Neptunia proles
3.
Cardinal Richelieu
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Cardinal Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu and Fronsac, commonly referred to as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman, nobleman, and statesman. He was consecrated as a bishop in 1607 and was appointed Foreign Secretary in 1616, Richelieu soon rose in both the Catholic Church and the French government, becoming a cardinal in 1622, and King Louis XIIIs chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642, he was succeeded by Cardinal Mazarin, Cardinal de Richelieu was often known by the title of the kings Chief Minister or First Minister. He sought to consolidate power and crush domestic factions. By restraining the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strong and his chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro-Spanish Habsburg dynasty, and to ensure French dominance in the Thirty Years War that engulfed Europe. Although he was a cardinal, he did not hesitate to make alliances with Protestant rulers in attempting to achieve his goals. While a powerful figure, events like the Day of the Dupes show that in fact he very much depended on the kings confidence to keep this power. As alumnus of the University of Paris and headmaster of the Collège de Sorbonne, Richelieu was also famous for his patronage of the arts, most notably, he founded the Académie Française, the learned society responsible for matters pertaining to the French language. Richelieu is also known by the sobriquet lÉminence rouge, from the red shade of a cardinals clerical dress and this in part allowed the colony to eventually develop into the heartland of Francophone culture in North America. He is also a character in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Born in Paris, Armand du Plessis was the fourth of five children, at the age of nine, young Richelieu was sent to the College of Navarre in Paris to study philosophy. Thereafter, he began to train for a military career and his private life seems to have been typical of a young officer of the era, in 1605, aged twenty, he was treated by Théodore de Mayerne for gonorrhea. King Henry III had rewarded Richelieus father for his participation in the Wars of Religion by granting his family the bishopric of Luçon. The family appropriated most of the revenues of the bishopric for private use, they were, however, challenged by clergymen, to protect the important source of revenue, Richelieus mother proposed to make her second son, Alphonse, the bishop of Luçon. Alphonse, who had no desire to become a bishop, became instead a Carthusian monk, thus, it became necessary that the younger Richelieu join the clergy. He had strong interests, and threw himself into studying for his new post. In 1606 King Henry IV nominated Richelieu to become Bishop of Luçon, as Richelieu had not yet reached the canonical minimum age, it was necessary that he journey to Rome for a special dispensation from the Pope. This secured, Richelieu was consecrated bishop in April 1607, soon after he returned to his diocese in 1608, Richelieu was heralded as a reformer
4.
Siege of La Rochelle
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The Siege of La Rochelle was a result of a war between the French royal forces of Louis XIII of France and the Huguenots of La Rochelle in 1627–28. The siege marked the apex of the tensions between the Catholics and the Protestants in France, and ended with a victory for King Louis XIII. In the Edict of Nantes, Henry IV of France had given the Huguenots extensive rights, La Rochelle had become the stronghold of the French Huguenots, under its own governance. It was the centre of Huguenot seapower, and the strongest centre of resistance against the central government, La Rochelle was, at this time, the second or third largest city in France, with over 30,000 inhabitants. The assassination of Henry IV in 1610, and the advent of Louis XIII under the regency of Marie de Medici, marked a return to pro-Catholic politics and a weakening of the position of the Protestants. The Duke Henri de Rohan and his brother Soubise started to organize Protestant resistance from that time, in 1621, Louis XIII besieged and captured Saint-Jean dAngély, and a Blockade of La Rochelle was attempted in 1621-1622, ending with a stalemate and the Treaty of Montpellier. Again, Rohan and Soubise would take arms in 1625, ending with the capture of the Île de Ré in 1625 by Louis XIII. After these events, Louis XIII wished to subdue the Huguenots, the Anglo-French conflict followed the failure of the Anglo-French alliance of 1624, in which England had tried to find an ally in France against the power of the Habsburgs. In 1626, France under Richelieu actually concluded a peace with Spain. Furthermore, France was building the power of its Navy, leading the English to be convinced that France must be opposed for reasons of state. In June 1626, Walter Montagu was sent to France to contact dissident noblemen, the plan was to send an English fleet to encourage rebellion, triggering a new Huguenot revolt by Duke Henri de Rohan and his brother Soubise. On the first expedition, the English king Charles I sent a fleet of 80 ships, under his favourite George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, to encourage a major rebellion in La Rochelle. The city of La Rochelle initially refused to declare itself an ally of Buckingham, in a state of war against the crown of France, an open alliance would only be declared in September at the time of the first fights between La Rochelle and Royal troops. Although a Protestant stronghold, Île de Ré had not directly joined the rebellion against the king, on Île de Ré, the English under Buckingham tried to take the fortified city of Saint-Martin in the Siege of Saint-Martin-de-Ré, but were repulsed after three months. Small French Royal boats managed to supply St Martin in spite of the English blockade, Buckingham ultimately ran out of money and support, and his army was weakened by diseases. After a last attack on Saint-Martin they were repulsed with heavy casualties, meanwhile, in August 1627 Royal forces started to surround La Rochelle, with an army of 7,000 soldiers,600 horses and 24 cannons, led by Charles of Angoulême. They started to reinforce fortifications at Bongraine, and at the Fort Louis, on September 10, the first cannon shots were fired by La Rochelle against Royal troops at Fort Louis, starting the third Huguenot rebellion. La Rochelle was the greatest stronghold among the Huguenot cities of France, Cardinal Richelieu acted as the commander of the besieging troops
