1.
Metz
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Metz is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Great East region, located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, the city forms a central place of the European Greater Region and the SaarLorLux euroregion. The city has been steeped in Romance culture, but has strongly influenced by Germanic culture due to its location. Because of its historical, cultural, and architectural background, Metz has been submitted on Frances UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, Metz is home to some world-class venues including the Arsenal Concert Hall and the Centre Pompidou-Metz museum. A basin of urban ecology, Metz gained its nickname of The Green City, as it has extensive open grounds, the historic city centre is one of the largest commercial pedestrian areas in France. A historic garrison town, Metz is the heart of the Lorraine region, specialising in information technology. In ancient times, the town was known as city of Mediomatrici, after its integration into the Roman Empire, the city was called Divodurum Mediomatricum, meaning Holy Village or Holy Fortress of the Mediomatrici, then it was known as Mediomatrix. During the 5th century AD, the name evolved to Mettis, Metz has a recorded history dating back over 3,000 years. Before the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, between the 6th and 8th centuries, the city was the residence of the Merovingian kings of Austrasia. After the Treaty of Verdun in 843, Metz became the capital of the Kingdom of Lotharingia and was integrated into the Holy Roman Empire. During the 12th century, Metz rose to the status of Republic, with the signature of the Treaty of Chambord in 1552, Metz passed to the hands of the Kings of France. Under French rule, Metz was selected as capital of the Three Bishoprics, with creation of the departments by the Estates-General of 1789, Metz was chosen as capital of the Department of Moselle. Metz remained German until the end of World War I, when it reverted to France, however, after the Battle of France during the Second World War, the city was annexed once more by the German Third Reich. In 1944, the attack on the city by the U. S, Third Army freed the city from German rule and Metz reverted one more time to France after World War II. During the 1950s, Metz was chosen to be the capital of the newly created Lorraine region, with the creation of the European Community and the later European Union, the city has become central to the Greater Region and the SaarLorLux Euroregion. Metz is located on the banks of the Moselle and the Seille rivers,43 km from the Schengen tripoint where the borders of France, Germany, and Luxembourg meet. The city was built in a place where branches of the Moselle river creates several islands. The terrain of Metz forms part of the Paris Basin and presents a plateau relief cut by river valleys presenting cuestas in the north-south direction
Metz
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The
Saint-Stephen Cathedral, view of the northern façade
Metz
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Henry II of France entering Metz in 1552, putting an end to the Republic of Metz.
Metz
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Dawn sky in Metz
Metz
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Paul Verlaine by
Edmond Aman-Jean, 1892, oil on canvas,
Golden Courtyard museums — Paul Verlaine, Ode to Metz, Invectives, 1896
2.
Decadent movement
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The Decadent Movement was a late 19th-century artistic and literary movement, centered in Western Europe, that followed an aesthetic ideology of excess and artificiality. Baudelaire referred to himself as decadent in his 1857 edition of Les Fleurs du Mal and he would later use the term decadence to include the subversion of traditional categories in pursuit of full, sensual expression. Though he was Belgian, Félicien Rops was instrumental in the development of early stage of the Decadent Movement. A friend of Baudelaire, he was also a frequent illustrator of Baudelaires writing, Rops delighted in breaking artistic convention and shocking the public with his combination of with gruesome, fantastical horror. He was explicitly interested in the Satanic, and he sought to portray the double-threat of Satan and Woman. At times, his goal was the portrayal of a woman hed observed debasing herself in the pursuit of her own pleasure. Their work was the worship of beauty disguised as the worship of evil, for both of them, mortality and all manner of corruptions were always on their mind. The ability of Rops to see and portray the world as they did. The concept of decadence lingered after that, but it wasnt until 1884 that Maurice Barrès referred to a group of writers as Decadents. He defined this group as those who had been influenced heavily by Baudelaire, though they were influenced by Gothic novels. Many were associated with Symbolism, others with Aestheticism, in his 1884 decadent novel À Rebours, Joris-Karl Huysmans overthrew the past, subordinated nature to the human creative will, and suggested the primacy of but inherent disillusion in pleasure. Not only did Against Nature define an ideology and a literature, the character of Des Esseintes explcitily heralded the work of Gustave Moreau, Jan Luyken, and Odilon Redon. None of these artists would have identified themselves as part of this movement and it has also been suggested that a dream vision that Des Esseintes describes is based the series of satanic encounters painted by Félicien Rops. Capitalizing on the momentum of Huysmans work, Anatole Baju founded the magazine Le Décadent in 1886, not everyone was comfortable with Baju and Le Décadent, even including some who had been published in its pages. Rival writer Jean Moréas published his Symbolist Manifesto, largely to escape association with the Decadent Movement, Moréas and Gustave Kahn, among others, formed rival publications to reinforce the distinction. Paul Verlaine embraced the label at first, applauding it as a brilliant marketing choice by Baju, far-fetched plots were acceptable if they helped generate the desired moments of salacious experience or glorification of the morbid and grotesque. Writers who embraced the sort of decadence featured in Le Décadent include Albert Aurier, Rachilde, Pierre Vareilles, Miguel Fernandez, Jean Lorrain, many of these authors did also publish symbolist works, however, and it unclear how strongly they would have identified with Baju as decadents. In France, the Decadent Movement is often said to have begun with either Joris-Karl Huysmans Against Nature or Baudelaires Les Fleur du Mal and this movement essentially gave way to Symbolism when Le Décadent closed down in 1889 and Anatole Baju turned toward politics and became associated with anarchy
Decadent movement
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Pornocrates by
Félicien Rops. Etching and
aquatint
Decadent movement
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Oscar Wilde
Decadent movement
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Gabriele d'Annunzio
Decadent movement
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Joris-Karl Huysmans
3.
French literature
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This article is a general introduction to French literature. For detailed information on French literature in specific periods, see the separate historical articles in the template to the right. Literature written in French language, by citizens of nations such as Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Senegal, Algeria, Morocco. As of 2006, French writers have been awarded more Nobel Prizes in Literature than novelists, poets and essayists of any other country, France itself ranks first in the list of Nobel Prizes in literature by country. French literature has been for French people an object of pride for centuries. The French language is a dialect derived from Latin and heavily influenced principally by Celtic. Today, French schools emphasize the study of novels, theater, the literary arts are heavily sponsored by the state and literary prizes are major news. The Académie française and the Institut de France are important linguistic and artistic institutions in France, Literature matters deeply to the people of France and plays an important role in their sense of identity. As of 2006, French literary people have been awarded more Nobel Prizes in Literature than novelists, poets and essayists of any other country, a writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form. For most of the 20th century, French authors had more Literature Nobel Prizes than those of any other nation. M. G, le Clézio 2014 – Patrick Modiano Grand Prix de Littérature Policière – created in 1948, for crime and detective fiction. Grand Prix du roman de lAcadémie française – created 1918, Prix Décembre – created in 1989. Prix Femina – created 1904, decided each year by an exclusively female jury, Prix Goncourt – created 1903, given to the author of the best and most imaginative prose work of the year. Prix Goncourt des Lycéens – created in 1987, Prix Littéraire Valery Larbaud – created in 1957. Prix Médicis – created 1958, awarded to an author whose fame does not yet match their talent, Prix Renaudot – created in 1926. Prix Tour-Apollo Award – 1972–1990, given to the best science fiction published in French during the preceding year. Prix des Deux Magots – created in 1933, a short history of French literature Burgwinkle, William, Nicholas Hammond, and Emma Wilson, eds. The Cambridge history of French literature Cobb, Richard, Promenades, an appreciation of modern French literature Harvey, Paul. The Oxford companion to French literature Denis Hollier, ed, a New History of French Literature, Harvard University Press,1989,1150 pp. France, Peter
French literature
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Samuel Beckett Walk, Paris (France). Nobel Prize 1969.
French literature
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Seminar with Claude Simon, Cerisy (France). Nobel Prize 1985.
4.
Medieval French literature
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Medieval French literature is, for the purpose of this article, literature written in Oïl languages during the period from the eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth century. For historical background, see History of France, France in the Middle Ages or Middle Ages, for other national literary traditions, see Medieval literature. The language in southern France is known as langue doc or the Occitan language family, also known under the name of one of iys dialects, the Western peninsula of Brittany spoke Breton, a Celtic language. Catalan was spoken in the South, and Germanic languages and Franco-Provençal were spoken in the East, the various dialects of Old French developed into what are recognised as regional languages today. Languages which developed from dialects of Old French include Bourguignon, Champenois, Franc-Comtois, Francien, Gallo, Lorrain, Norman, Anglo-Norman, Picard, Poitevin, Saintongeais and Walloon. From 1340 to the beginning of the century, a generalized French language became clearly distinguished from the other competing Oïl languages. This is referred to as Middle French, the vast majority of literary production in Old French is in verse, the development of prose as a literary form was a late phenomenon. The French language does not have a significant stress accent or long and this means that the French metric line is not determined by the number of beats, but by the number of syllables. The most common lengths are the ten-syllable line, the eight-syllable line. Verses could be combined in a variety of ways, blocks of assonanced lines are called laisses, the choice of verse form was generally dictated by the genre. The Old French epics are written in ten-syllable assonanced laisses. The earliest extant French literary texts date from the ninth century, the first literary works written in Old French were saints lives. The Canticle of Saint Eulalie, written in the half of the ninth century, is generally accepted as the first such text. It is a poem that recounts the martyrdom of a young girl. The best known of the early Old French saints lives is the Vie de Saint Alexis, the life of Saint Alexis, a translation/rewriting of a Latin legend. Saint Alexis fled from his familys home in Rome on his wedding night and dwelled as a hermit in Syria until a mystical voice began telling people of his holiness. In order to avoid the earthly honor that came with such fame, he left Syria and was back to Rome. He was only identified later when the pope read his name in a letter held in the saints hand
Medieval French literature
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Miniature from a manuscript of the Roman de la Rose (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 195), folio 1r, portrait of Guillaume de Lorris.
5.
17th-century French literature
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In reality, 17th-century French literature encompasses far more than just the classicist masterpieces of Jean Racine and Madame de La Fayette. In Renaissance France, literature was largely the product of encyclopaedic humanism, a new conception of nobility, modelled on the Italian Renaissance courts and their concept of the perfect courtier, was beginning to evolve through French literature. In the mid-17th century, there were an estimated 2,200 authors in France, under Cardinal Richelieu, patronage of the arts and literary academies increasingly came under the control of the monarchy. Henry IVs court was considered by contemporaries a rude one, lacking the Italianate sophistication of the court of the Valois kings, the court also lacked a queen, who traditionally served as a focus of a nations authors and poets. Henrys literary tastes were largely limited to the chivalric novel Amadis of Gaul, in the 1620s, the most famous salon was held at the Hôtel de Rambouillet by Madame de Rambouillet, a rival gathering was organized by Madeleine de Scudéry. The word salon first appeared in French in 1664 from the Italian word sala, before 1664, literary gatherings were often called by the name of the room in which they occurred -- cabinet, réduit, alcôve, and ruelle. For instance, the term derives from literary gatherings held in the bedroom. Nobles, lying on their beds, would receive close friends, ruelle refers to the space between a bed and the wall in a bedroom, it became a name for these gatherings, often under the wing of educated women in the first half of the 17th century. In the context of French scholastica, academies were scholarly societies which monitored, fostered, academies first appeared in France during the Renaissance, when Jean-Antoine de Baïf created one devoted to poetry and music, inspired by the academy of Italian Marsilio Ficino. The first half of the 17th century was marked by a growth in private academies. Academies were generally more formal and more focused on criticism and analysis than salons, however, certain salons were closer to the academic spirit. In the mid-17th century, academies gradually came under government control and sponsorship, the first private academy to fall under governmental control was LAcadémie française, which remains the most prestigious governmental academy in France. Founded in 1634 by Cardinal Richelieu, LAcadémie française focuses on the French language, in certain instances, the values of 17th-century nobility played a major part in the literature of the era. Most notable of these values are the aristocratic obsession with glory, the spectacle of power, prestige and luxury found in 17th-century literature may be distasteful or even offensive. The château of Versailles, court ballets, noble portraits, triumphal arches – all of these were representations of glory, the notion of glory was not vanity or boastfulness or hubris, but rather a moral imperative for the aristocracy. Nobles were required to be generous, magnanimous and to great deeds disinterestedly. Ones status in the world demanded appropriate externalisation, nobles indebted themselves to build prestigious urban mansions and to buy clothes, paintings, silverware, dishes and other furnishings befitting their rank. They were also required to show generosity by hosting sumptuous parties, conversely, social parvenus who took on the external trappings of the noble classes were severely criticised, sometimes by legal action
17th-century French literature
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Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre by
Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701)
6.
18th-century French literature
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In common with a similar movement in England at the same time, the writers of 18th century France were critical, skeptical and innovative. Their lasting contributions were the ideas of liberty, toleration, humanitarianism, equality, and progress, the 18th century saw the gradual weakening of the absolute monarchy constructed by Louis XIV. France was forced to recognize the power of England and Prussia. The Monarchy finally ended with King Louis XVI, who was unable to understand or control the forces of the French Revolution. The new class began to challenge the cultural and social monopoly of the aristocracy, French cities began to have their own theaters, coffee houses and salons, the Rise of the Third Estate culminated in their political victory in the French Revolution. Faith in science and progress was the force behind the first French Encyclopedia of Denis Diderot. The Protestants achieved legal status in France in 1787, the exchange of ideas with other countries also increased. British ideas were important, particularly such ideas as constitutional monarchy and romanticism. Toward the end of the century, a sober style appeared, aimed at illustrating scenery, work. These writers, and others such as the Abbé Sieyès, one of the authors of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. They came from the upper class or Third Estate, sought a society founded upon talent and merit. Their ideas were influenced by those of John Locke in England. They introduced the values of liberty and equality which became the ideals of the French Republic founded at the end of the century and they defended the freedom of conscience and challenged the role of religious institutions in society. For them, tolerance was a value of society. When the Convention placed the ashes of Voltaire in the Pantheon in Paris, while the philosophes had widely different approaches, they all had as a common objective, both for mankind and for individuals, the ideal of happiness. Some, like Rousseau, dreamed of the happiness of the savage, rapidly disappearing, others, like Voltaire. The philosophes were optimists, and they saw their mission clearly, they did not simply observe, the comedies of Marivaux and of Beaumarchais also played a part in this debate about and diffusion of great ideas. The relaxing of morals under the French Regency brought the return in 1716 of the Comédie-Italienne and his major works include Les Fausses Confidences, le Jeu de lamour et du hasard, and lÎle des esclaves
18th-century French literature
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Voltaire
18th-century French literature
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Rousseau
18th-century French literature
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Louis XV
18th-century French literature
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Marie Antoinette
7.
19th-century French literature
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19th-century French literature concerns the developments in French literature during a dynamic period in French history that saw the rise of Democracy and the fitful end of Monarchy and Empire. French literature enjoyed enormous prestige and success in the 19th century. The first part of the century was dominated by Romanticism, until around the mid-century Realism emerged, in the last half of the century, naturalism, parnassian poetry, and symbolism, among other styles, were often competing tendencies at the same time. Some writers did form into literary groups defined by a name, in other cases, these expressions were merely pejorative terms given by critics to certain writers or have been used by modern literary historians to group writers of divergent projects or methods. Nevertheless, these labels can be useful in describing broad historical developments in the arts and their influence was felt in theatre, poetry, prose fiction. Foreign influences played a big part in this, especially those of Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, Byron, Goethe, Le mal du siècle, a sense of loss, disillusion, and aporia, typified by melancholy and lassitude. Romanticism in England and Germany largely predate French romanticism, although there was a kind of pre-romanticism in the works of Senancour and Jean-Jacques Rousseau at the end of the 18th century. French Romanticism took definite form in the works of François-René de Chateaubriand and Benjamin Constant and it found early expression also in the sentimental poetry of Alphonse de Lamartine. The major battles of romanticism in France was in the theater, the dramatic unities of time and place were abolished, tragic and comic elements appeared together and metrical freedom was won. Marked by the plays of Friedrich Schiller, the romantics often chose subjects from historic periods, victor Hugo was the outstanding genius of the Romantic School and its recognized leader. He was prolific alike in poetry, drama, and fiction, all three also wrote novels and short stories, and Musset won a belated success with his plays. Alexandre Dumas, père wrote The Three Musketeers and other novels in an historical setting. Prosper Mérimée and Charles Nodier were masters of shorter fiction, Romanticism is associated with a number of literary salons and groups, the Arsenal, the Cénacle, the salon of Louis Charles Delescluze, the salon of Antoine Deschamps, the salon of Madame de Staël. Romanticism in France defied political affiliation, one finds both liberal, conservative and socialist strains, the expression Realism, when applied to literature of the 19th century, implies the attempt to depict contemporary life and society. The growth of realism is linked to the development of science, history, honoré de Balzac is the most prominent representative of 19th century realism in fiction. His La Comédie humaine, a vast collection of nearly 100 novels, was the most ambitious scheme ever devised by a writer of fiction—nothing less than a contemporary history of his countrymen. Realism also appears in the works of Alexandre Dumas, fils, similar tendencies appeared in the theatrical melodramas of the period and, in an even more lurid and gruesome light, in the Grand Guignol at the end of the century. In addition to melodramas, popular and bourgeois theater in the mid-century turned to realism in the well-made bourgeois farces of Eugène Marin Labiche, from the 1860s on, critics increasingly speak of literary Naturalism
19th-century French literature
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This article needs additional citations for
verification. Please help improve this article by
adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2011)
8.
Poet
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POET LLC is a U. S. biofuel company that specializes in the creation of bioethanol. The privately held corporation, which was originally called Broin Companies, is headquartered in Sioux Falls, in 2007, the Renewable Fuels Association named POET the largest U. S. ethanol producer, creating 1.1 billion US gallons of fuel per year. Currently, POET produces 1.7 billion gallons of ethanol per year, POET operates 27 ethanol plants spread across Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Minnesota, and South Dakota. In 2007, the received a US$80 million grant from the U. S. Department of Energy for the creation of a cellulosic ethanol production facility in Emmetsburg. A grand opening was held for the facility on September 3rd,2014 and it is expected to produce 25 million gallons of ethanol per year from corncobs, leaves and husks provided by farmers in and around the area. POET has also collaborated with companies, including Deere & Co. and Vermeer Company. Among its products in the process are distillers grains branded Dakota Gold, Inviz, the company traces its history to the family farm in Wanamingo, Minnesota where the Broins began producing ethanol in 1983. In 1986 it became commercial launching its flagship plant in Scotland, in 2007, it was renamed POET. Then company president Jeff Broin said the new name is not an acronym, bush in Wentworth, South Dakota in April 2002 and by Barack Obama in Macon, Missouri in April 2010. POET has constructed an $8 million pilot plant to produce cellulosic ethanol made from corn cobs, a commercial scale project, based on the pilot plant, was undertaken as a joint venture with Royal DSM under the name POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels, LLC. A federal loan guarantee was obtained in July,2011 for a plant to be built in Emmetsburg. This loan guarantee was later declined when the joint venture with Royal DSM was announced. Originally scheduled to open in 2013, the facility opened a year late in September,2014
Poet
9.
Civil service
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A civil servant or public servant is a person so employed in the public sector employed for a government department or agency. The extent of civil servants of a state as part of the service varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom, for instance, only Crown employees are referred to as civil servants whereas county or city employees are not, many consider the study of service to be a part of the field of public administration. Workers in non-departmental public bodies may also be classed as servants for the purpose of statistics and possibly for their terms. Collectively a states civil servants form its service or public service. An international civil servant or international staff member is an employee who is employed by an intergovernmental organization. These international civil servants do not resort under any national legislation but are governed by internal staff regulations, All disputes related to international civil service are brought before special tribunals created by these international organizations such as, for instance, the Administrative Tribunal of the ILO. Specific referral can be made to the International Civil Service Commission of the United Nations and its mandate is to regulate and coordinate the conditions of service of staff in the United Nations common system, while promoting and maintaining high standards in the international civil service. The origin of the modern civil service can be traced back to Imperial examination founded in Imperial China. The Imperial exam based on merit was designed to select the best administrative officials for the states bureaucracy and this system had a huge influence on both society and culture in Imperial China and was directly responsible for the creation of a class of scholar-bureaucrats irrespective of their family pedigree. In the areas of administration, especially the military, appointments were based solely on merit, after the fall of the Han Dynasty, the Chinese bureaucracy regressed into a semi-merit system known as the Nine-rank system. This system was reversed during the short-lived Sui Dynasty, which initiated a civil service bureaucracy recruited through written examinations, the first civil service examination system was established by Emperor Wen of Sui. The examination tested the candidates memorization of the Nine Classics of Confucianism and his ability to compose poetry using fixed and traditional forms, the system was finally abolished by the Qing government in 1905 as part of the New Policies reform package. The Chinese system was admired by European commentators from the 16th century onward. In the 18th century, in response to changes and the growth of the British Empire, the bureaucracy of institutions such as the Office of Works. Each had its own system, but in general, staff were appointed through patronage or outright purchase, by the 19th century, it became increasingly clear that these arrangements were falling short. The origins of the British civil service are better known, during the eighteenth century a number of Englishmen wrote in praise of the Chinese examination system, some of them going so far as to urge the adoption for England of something similar. The first concrete step in this direction was taken by the British East India Company in 1806, in that year, the Honourable East India Company established a college, the East India Company College, near London to train and examine administrators of the Companys territories in India
Civil service
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Imperial Civil Service Examination hall with 7500 cells in
Guangdong, 1873.
Civil service
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Emperor Wen of Sui (r. 581–604), who established the first
civil service examination system in China; a painting by the
chancellor and artist
Yan Liben (600–673).
Civil service
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Charles Trevelyan, an architect of
Her Majesty's Civil Service, established in 1855 on his recommendations.
10.
Leconte de Lisle
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Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle was a French poet of the Parnassian movement. He is traditionally known by his only, Leconte de Lisle. Leconte de Lisle was born on the French overseas island of La Réunion and he spent his childhood there and later in Brittany. Among his friends in years was the musician Charles Bénézit. His father, a surgeon, who brought him up with great severity. However, after returning from this journey, the man preferred to complete his education in Rennes, Britanny, specializing in Greek, Italian. In 1845 he settled definitively in Paris, as a writer he is most famous for his three collections of poetry, Poèmes antiques, Poèmes barbares, Poèmes tragiques. He is also known for his translations of Ancient Greek tragedians and poets, such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Horace. Leconte de Lisle played a role in the Parnassian poetic movement and shared many of the values of other poets of this generation, bridging the Romantic. Although Leconte de Lisle was a fervent Republican, during the reign of Napoleon III he accepted the pensions and decorations offered to him by the Emperor and this was held against him after the fall of the Second Empire and its replacement by the Third Republic, in 1871. These works earned him a post as Assistant Librarian at the Luxembourg Palace in 1873, in 1886 he was elected to the French Academy, Leconte de Lisle died at Voisins in the township of Louveciennes, to the west of Paris, on July 17,1894. As well as poetry, Leconte de Lisle produced a number of plays, lyrical works, translations. His works are shown below, in chronological order, Works by Leconte de Lisle at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Leconte de Lisle at Internet Archive Works by Leconte de Lisle at LibriVox
Leconte de Lisle
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Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle
11.
Louis-Xavier de Ricard
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Louis-Xavier de Ricard was a French poet, author and journalist of the 19th century. He was founder and editor of La Revue du progrès which was the first to publish a poem by Paul Verlaine in August 1863 and he and Catulle Mendès edited the first volume of Le Parnasse contemporain, published by Alphonse Lemerre in 1866. He was a member of the Commune de Paris and Félibrige, a group founded by Frédéric Mistral to promote and defend Provençal literature and his father was general and marquis Joseph-Barthélemy de Ricard. Ricards first collection of poetry, Les chants de laube was published in 1862 by Poulet-Malassis, in March 1863, after receiving an inheritance from an aunt, he founded La Revue du progrès. Among the contributors to the Revue were Charles Longuet and a young Paul Verlaine. Ricard was defended by a young attorney, Léon Gambetta. Ricard was happy to entertain these boisterous republican and anti-clerical youths, Ricard also contributed 8 poems to that first collection. In 1867 Verlaine, a friend of Ricard, dedicated his Les Vaincus to Ricard, histoire mondaine du Second Empire, en attendant lImpératrice, 1852-1853, Paris, Librairie Universelle,1904. OCLC10515481 Madame de la Valette, Paris, Société déditions littéraires et artistiques,1901, OCLC10610896 Les Sept péchés capitaux, la colère, Paris, E. Bernard,1901. Aventures de Marie-Armand de Guerry de Maubreuil, Paris, Montgredien,1899, OCLC77622550 Lesprit politique de la Réforme. OCLC47194338 Un poète national, Auguste Fourès, Paris,1888, OCLC66947569 Le fédéralisme, Paris, Sandoz & Fischbacher,1877. OCLC11707407 Ciel, rue et foyer, Paris, Lemerre,1866, OCLC44540708 La résurrection de la Pologne, Paris, Marpon,1863. OCLC47114061 Petits mémoires dun Parnassien, coll, avant-siècle, Paris, Lettres modernes - Minard,1967. Ce livre contient également Les Parnassiens, dAdolphe Racot, introductions et commentaires de Michael Pakenham OCLC1409870
Louis-Xavier de Ricard
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Signature of Louis-Xavier de Ricard
Louis-Xavier de Ricard
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Louis-Xavier de Ricard
12.
Anatole France
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Anatole France was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers, ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. Anatole France was also documented to have a brain size just three-quarters the normal weight, France is also widely believed to be the model for narrator Marcels literary idol Bergotte in Marcel Prousts In Search of Lost Time. The son of a bookseller, France spent most of his life around books and was a bibliophile and his fathers bookstore, called the Librairie France, specialized in books and papers on the French Revolution and was frequented by many notable writers and scholars of the day. France studied at the Collège Stanislas, a private Catholic school, after several years he secured the position of cataloguer at Bacheline-Deflorenne and at Lemerre. In 1876 he was appointed librarian for the French Senate, Anatole France began his literary career as a poet and a journalist. In 1869, Le Parnasse Contemporain published one of his poems, in 1875, he sat on the committee which was in charge of the third Parnasse Contemporain compilation. As a journalist, from 1867, he wrote articles and notices. He became famous with the novel Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard and its protagonist, skeptical old scholar Sylvester Bonnard, embodied Frances own personality. The novel was praised for its elegant prose and won him a prize from the Académie française, in La Rotisserie de la Reine Pedauque Anatole France ridiculed belief in the occult, and in Les Opinions de Jérôme Coignard, France captured the atmosphere of the fin de siècle. France was elected to the Académie française in 1896, France took an important part in the Dreyfus affair. He signed Émile Zolas manifesto supporting Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer who had been convicted of espionage. France wrote about the affair in his 1901 novel Monsieur Bergeret and it is a satirical history of France, starting in Medieval times, going on to the writers own time with special attention to the Dreyfus Affair and concluding with a dystopian future. Les dieux ont soif is a novel, set in Paris during the French Revolution, about a true-believing follower of Robespierre and it is a wake-up call against political and ideological fanaticism and explores various other philosophical approaches to the events of the time. La Revolte des Anges is often considered Frances most profound novel, loosley based on the Christian myth of the War in Heaven, it tells the story of Arcade, the guardian angel of Maurice dEsparvieu. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921 and he died in 1924 and is buried in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery near Paris. On 31 May 1922, Frances entire works were put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum of the Roman Catholic Church and he regarded this as a distinction. This Index was abolished in 1966, in 1877, Anatole France married Valérie Guérin de Sauville, a granddaughter of Jean-Urbain Guérin a miniaturist who painted Louis XVI, with whom he had a daughter, Suzanne, in 1881
Anatole France
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Anatole France
Anatole France
–
France's home, 5 Villa Said, 1894–1924
Anatole France
–
France caricatured by Guth for
Vanity Fair, 1909
Anatole France
–
Anatole France c. 1921
13.
Emmanuel Chabrier
–
Alexis Emmanuel Chabrier was a French Romantic composer and pianist. Although known primarily for two of his works, España and Joyeuse marche, he left an important corpus of operas, songs. He was admired by composers as diverse as Debussy, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Satie, Schmitt, Stravinsky, Chabrier was also associated with some of the leading writers and painters of his time. He was especially friendly with the painters Claude Monet and Édouard Manet, a number of such paintings from his personal collection are now housed in some of the worlds leading art museums. Alexis-Emmanuel Chabrier was born in Ambert, a town in the Auvergne region of central France and his father was an attorney, his childhood nanny Anne Delayre remained close to him throughout her life. He began his music lessons at the age of six, the earliest of his compositions to survive in manuscript are piano works from 1849, a piano piece from this period, Le Scalp. was later modified into the Marche des Cipayes. In 1856 the family made Paris their home, and the young Chabrier continued serious studies in both of his chosen fields, despite this, his passion was music, during the 1860s he composed a number of minor piano works. His enthusiasm for Wagners music began at this time, and he copied out the score of Tannhäuser. From 1862 he entered the circle of the Parnassians in Paris and his passion for poetry led to a long friendship with Paul Verlaine, who contributed librettos to two early operettas that Chabrier did not complete. The wife of Renoir, a friend of Chabrier, wrote, one day Chabrier came and it sounded as if a hurricane had been let loose. He pounded and pounded the keyboard, the street was full of people, and they were listening, fascinated. When Chabrier reached the last crashing chords, I swore to myself I would never touch the piano again Besides, Chabrier had broken several strings and put the piano out of action. Alfred Bruneau recalled that he played the piano as no one has played it before. During the Franco-Prussian War and Commune, Chabrier continued with his job as the ministry moved from Tours to Bordeaux to Versailles. In 1873, he married Marie Alice Dejean, with whom he had three sons, one of whom died in early childhood and he began several stage works during the 1870s. His first one to be completed was Létoile, which achieved 48 successful performances at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens in 1877, on a trip to Munich with Henri Duparc in 1879, he discovered Wagners opera Tristan und Isolde. This event led him to realize his passion for composition. That year he composed his piano cycle Pièces pittoresques, of which the Idylle greatly influenced Francis Poulenc, Chabrier plunged himself into the scores of Wagner, and became an assistant to Charles Lamoureux in preparing concert performances of the German composers works in Paris
Emmanuel Chabrier
–
Emmanuel Chabrier in 1882
Emmanuel Chabrier
–
Plaque recording Chabrier's period at the French Interior Ministry
Emmanuel Chabrier
–
Emmanuel Chabrier, 1880, painting by
Édouard Manet, Ordrupgaard Museum,
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Emmanuel Chabrier
–
Tomb of Emmanuel Chabrier, Montparnasse cemetery (division 9), Paris.
14.
Charles Cros
–
Charles Cros or Émile-Hortensius-Charles Cros was a French poet and inventor. He was born in Fabrezan, Aude, France,35 km to the East of Carcassonne, Cros was a well-regarded poet and humorous writer. Charles Cros died in Paris at the age of 45, in 1860 Cros began studies in medicine, but he soon abandoned them for a life of literary and scientific pursuits. In 1869 he published a theory of photography in which he proposed that a single scene could be photographed through glass filters colored green, violet. The three negatives obtained through those filters could be developed to produce positive impressions that contained varying amounts of red, yellow, the three positive impressions, when superimposed on one another would recompose the original colors of the photographed scene. Cross proposals, which anticipated the subtractive method of photography, were similar to more influential ideas advanced about the same time by Louis Ducos du Hauron. The same day, May 7,1869, Charles Cros and they had not been in communication beforehand and each knew nothing about the others research. Cros ended up conceding the invention to Ducos Du Hauron, despite having deposited a sealed paper at the French Academy of Sciences on December 2,1867. Ducos du Hauron had patented his ideas on November 28,1868, almost a year later. Cros is perhaps most famous as the man who almost, but not quite, as far as is known, no one before him had thought of a practical way to reproduce sound from a recording of airborne sound waves. He gave the Greek name Paleophone to his invention, on April 30,1877 he submitted a sealed envelope containing a letter to the Academy of Sciences in Paris explaining his proposed method. The letter stated in French, Un index léger est solidaire du centre de figure dune membrane vibrante, il se termine par une pointe qui repose sur une surface noircie à la flamme. The English translation is one close to this, A lightweight armature is fixed to the center of the face of a vibrating membrane and this surface is integral with a disc driven by a double movement of rotation and linear progression. The system is reversible, when the tip follows the furrow the membrane restores the original acoustic signal, the letter was read in public on December 3 following. An article on the Paleophone was published in la semaine du Clergé on October 10,1877, Cros proposed metal for both engraving tool attached to the diaphragm and receiving material for durability. Before Cros had a chance to follow up on this idea or attempt to construct a working model, Edison used a cylinder covered in tinfoil for his first phonograph, patenting this method for reproducing sound on January 15,1878. Edison and Cros apparently did not know of others work in advance. Cros was convinced that pinpoints of light observed on Mars and Venus and he spent years petitioning the French government to build a giant mirror that could be used to communicate with the Martians and Venusians by burning giant lines on the deserts of those planets
Charles Cros
–
Charles Cros
15.
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
–
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve was a literary critic of French literature. He was born in Boulogne, educated there, and studied medicine at the Collège Charlemagne in Paris, in 1828, he served in the St Louis Hospital. Sainte-Beuve became friendly with Hugo after publishing a review of the authors work but later had an affair with Hugos wife. His articles and essays were collected the volumes Port-Royal and Portraits littéraires, during the rebellions of 1848 in Europe, he lectured at Liège on Chateaubriand and his literary circle. He returned to Paris in 1849 and began his series of columns, Causeries du lundi in the newspaper. When Louis Napoleon became Emperor, he made Sainte-Beuve professor of Latin poetry at the Collège de France, but anti-Imperialist students hissed him, and he resigned. After several books of poetry and a couple of failed novels, Sainte-Beuve began to do literary research and he continued to contribute to La Revue contemporaine. Port-Royal, probably Sainte-Beuves masterpiece, is an history of the Jansenist abbey of Port-Royal-des-Champs. It not only influenced the historiography of religious belief, i. e. the method of research, but also the philosophy of history. He was made Senator in 1865, in which capacity he distinguished himself by his pleas for freedom of speech, according to Jules Amédée Barbey dAurevilly, Sainte-Beuve was a clever man with the temper of a turkey. In his last years, he was a sufferer and lived much in retirement. One of Sainte-Beuves critical contentions was that, in order to understand an artist and his work, marcel Proust took issue with this notion and refuted it in a set of essays, Contre Sainte-Beuve. Proust developed the ideas first voiced in those essays in À la recherche du temps perdu, friedrich Nietzsche, actually an avowed opponent of Sainte-Beuve, prompted in 1880 the wife of his friend Franz Overbeck, Ida Overbeck, to translate the Causeries du lundi into German. Until then, Sainte-Beuve was never published in German despite his great importance in France, since it was considered representative of a French way of thinking detested in Germany, Ida Overbecks translation appeared in 1880 under the title Die Menschen des XVIII. Nietzsche wrote to Ida Overbeck on August 18,1880, An hour ago I received the Die Menschen des XVIII, jahrhunderts, It is just a marvellous book. Ida Overbecks translation is an important document of the transfer between Germany and France in a period of strong tension, but it was largely ignored. It was not until 2014 that a critical and annotated edition of this appeared in print. Non-fiction Tableau Historique et Critique de la Poésie Française et du Théâtre Français au XVIe Siècle, poetry Vie, Poésies et Pensées de Joseph Delorme
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
–
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
–
Commemorative plaque, 11 Rue du Montparnasse, Paris.
16.
French Third Republic
–
It came to an end on 10 July 1940. Harsh reparations exacted by the Prussians after the war resulted in the loss of the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine, social upheaval, and the establishment of the Paris Commune. The early governments of the Third Republic considered re-establishing the monarchy, but confusion as to the nature of that monarchy, thus, the Third Republic, which was originally intended as a provisional government, instead became the permanent government of France. The French Constitutional Laws of 1875 defined the composition of the Third Republic and it consisted of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate to form the legislative branch of government and a president to serve as head of state. The period from the start of World War I to the late 1930s featured sharply polarized politics, Adolphe Thiers called republicanism in the 1870s the form of government that divides France least, however, politics under the Third Republic were sharply polarized. On the left stood Reformist France, heir to the French Revolution, on the right stood conservative France, rooted in the peasantry, the Roman Catholic Church and the army. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 resulted in the defeat of France, after Napoleons capture by the Prussians at the Battle of Sedan, Parisian deputies led by Léon Gambetta established the Government of National Defence as a provisional government on 4 September 1870. The deputies then selected General Louis-Jules Trochu to serve as its president and this first government of the Third Republic ruled during the Siege of Paris. After the French surrender in January 1871, the provisional Government of National Defence disbanded, French territories occupied by Prussia at this time did not participate. The resulting conservative National Assembly elected Adolphe Thiers as head of a provisional government, due to the revolutionary and left-wing political climate that prevailed in the Parisian population, the right-wing government chose the royal palace of Versailles as its headquarters. The new government negotiated a settlement with the newly proclaimed German Empire. To prompt the Prussians to leave France, the government passed a variety of laws, such as the controversial Law of Maturities. The following repression of the communards would have consequences for the labor movement. The Orléanists supported a descendant of King Louis Philippe I, the cousin of Charles X who replaced him as the French monarch in 1830, his grandson Louis-Philippe, Comte de Paris. The Bonapartists were marginalized due to the defeat of Napoléon III and were unable to advance the candidacy of any member of his family, the Bonaparte family. Legitimists and Orléanists came to a compromise, eventually, whereby the childless Comte de Chambord would be recognised as king, consequently, in 1871 the throne was offered to the Comte de Chambord. Chambord believed the monarchy had to eliminate all traces of the Revolution in order to restore the unity between the monarchy and the nation, which the revolution had sundered apart. Compromise on this was if the nation were to be made whole again
French Third Republic
–
A French propaganda poster from 1917 is captioned with an 18th century quote: "Even in 1788, Mirabeau was saying that War is the National Industry of Prussia."
French Third Republic
–
Flag
French Third Republic
–
The
Sacré-Cœur Basilica was built as a symbol of the Ordre Moral.
French Third Republic
–
In France, children were taught in school not to forget the lost provinces of
Alsace-Lorraine, which were coloured in black on maps.
17.
National Guard (France)
–
The National Guard was originally a French militia which existed from 1789 until 1872, including a period of official disbandment from 1827 to 1830. It was separate from the French Army and existed both for policing and as a military reserve, for most of its history the National Guard, particularly its officers, were widely viewed as loyal to middle-class interests. This had rapidly spread anger and violence throughout Paris, the National Assembly declared the formation of a Bourgeois Militia on 13 July. In the early morning of the day, the search for weapons for this new militia led to the storming of the Hotel des Invalides. Lafayette was elected to the post of commander in chief of the Bourgeois Militia on 15 July, similar bodies were spontaneously created in the towns and rural districts of France in response to widespread fears of chaos or counter-revolution. When the French Guards mutinied and were disbanded during the same month, the officers of the National Guard were elected. Under the law of 14 October 1791, all active citizens and their role was the maintenance of law and order and, if necessary, the defence of the territory. Following a nationwide scheme decided on in September 1791, the National Guard was organised on the basis of district or canton companies, five of these neighbourhood units made up a battalion. Eight to ten battalions comprised a legion, districts might also provide companies of veterans and young citizens, respectively drawn from volunteers of over 60 or under 18. Where possible, there was provision for mounted detachments and artillerymen, the citizens kept their weapons and their uniforms at home, and set forth with them when required. This combination of colours matched those of the revolutionary tricolour, the former Guet royal had held responsibility for the maintenance of law and order in Paris from 1254 to 1791, when the National Guard took over this role. In fact, the last commander of the Guet royal, de La Rothière, was elected to head the National Guard in 1791, in the summer of 1792, the fundamental character of the guard changed. After 9 Thermidor, year II, the new government of the Thermidorian Reaction placed the National Guard under the control of conservative leadership. The Paris National Guard thereafter ceased to play a significant political role, napoleon did not believe that the middle-class National Guard would be able to maintain order and suppress riots. Therefore, he created a Municipal Guard of Paris, a full-time gendarmerie which was strongly militarised, however, he did not abolish the National Guard, but was content to partially disarm it. He kept the force in reserve and mobilised it for the defence of French territory in 1809 and 1814, between 1811 and 1812 the National Guard, was organized in cohorts to distinguish it from the regular army, and for home defence only. By a skilful appeal to patriotism, and judicious pressure applied through the prefects, with the invasion of France by allied Austrian, Prussian, Russian and British armies in 1814, the National Guard was suddenly called on to provide support for regular Imperial forces. Existing National Guard units, such as those of Paris, were deployed as defence corps in their areas of recruitment, mass conscription was extended to age groups previously exempt from military service, to provide more manpower for the expanded National Guard
National Guard (France)
–
Philippe Lenoir, (1785–1867), French painter, in his National Guard uniform. By
Horace Vernet (1789–1863)
National Guard (France)
–
Mssr. Hepp, commander of the National Guard of Strasbourg in 1790
National Guard (France)
–
Soldiers of the Garde nationale of
Quimper escorting royalist rebels in
Brittany (1792). Painting by
Jules Girardet.
National Guard (France)
–
The national Guard of Paris at the
Battle of Paris, 1814
18.
Communards
–
The Communards were members and supporters of the short-lived 1871 Paris Commune formed in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War and Frances defeat. The working class of Paris were feeling ostracized after the decadence of the Second Empire, the Prussians besieged Paris in September 1870, causing suffering among Parisians. The poor ate cat or rat meat or went hungry, out of resentment from this situation grew radical and socialist political clubs and newspapers. While Paris was occupied, socialist groups tried twice to overthrow the provisional government, in January 1871, Otto von Bismarck and the French minister of foreign affairs, Jules Favre, decided that France would hold national elections. Adolphe Thiers, who had been loyal to the Second Empire, was elected head of the newly monarchist republic, during the war, the capital had moved from Paris to Bordeaux. When the war ended, the government declined to back to Paris. In the early morning of March 18, the government stationed in Versailles sent military forces into Paris to collect a reserve of cannons, the detachment was still gathering the munitions when the Parisians awoke, and soon the soldiers were surrounded. In the chaos that followed, the soldiers killed two of their own, and by the end of the day, they were mainly sided with the Parisians. Insurgents now controlled the city, and they declared a new government called the Paris Commune, Thiers refused to bargain with the Communards, despite their attempts to do so. He taught newly released French soldiers the evils of the Communards as the government prepared for a battle, starting on May 21 and continuing through May 28, soldiers chased the National Guard members who sided with the Communards through the streets. Around 18,000 Parisians were killed,25,000 were imprisoned, the violence of Bloody Week became a rallying cry for the working classes, politicians would later proudly brag about their participation with the Commune. After Bloody Week, the government asked for an inquest into the causes of the uprising, the inquest concluded that the main cause of the insurrection was a lack of belief in God, and that this problem had to be corrected immediately. It was decided that a revival was needed, and a key part of this was deporting 4,500 Communards to New Caledonia. There was a goal in this, as the government also hoped that the Communards would civilize the native Kanak people on the island. The government hoped that being exposed to the order of nature would return the Communards to the side of good, New Caledonia had become a French colony in 1853, but just ten years later it still only had 350 European colonists. After 1863, New Caledonia became the destination of convicts transported from France after French Guiana was deemed too unhealthy for people of European descent. Thereafter, convicts from France made up the largest number of arriving residents, during the busiest time of deportation, there were estimated to be about 50,000 total people on the island. There were four main sites on the island, one of which
Communards
–
Communards at the boulevard Voltaire
Communards
–
Communards at the rue de Castiglione
Communards
–
The Commune arrested by
Ignorance and
Reaction
Communards
–
Executed
National Guards
19.
Paris Commune
–
The Paris Commune was a radical socialist and revolutionary government that ruled Paris from 18 March to 28 May 1871. Following the defeat of Emperor Napoleon III in September 1870, the French Second Empire swiftly collapsed, in its stead rose a Third Republic at war with Prussia, which laid siege to Paris for four months. A hotbed of radicalism, Frances capital was primarily defended during this time by the often politicized. In February 1871 Adolphe Thiers, the new executive of the French national government, signed an armistice with Prussia that disarmed the Army. Soldiers of the Communes National Guard killed two French army generals, and the Commune refused to accept the authority of the French government, the regular French Army suppressed the Commune during La semaine sanglante beginning on 21 May 1871. Debates over the policies and outcome of the Commune had significant influence on the ideas of Karl Marx, on 2 September 1870, after Frances unexpected defeat at the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War, Emperor Napoleon III surrendered to the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. When the news reached Paris the next day, shocked and angry crowds came out into the streets, Empress Eugénie de Montijo, the Emperors regent, fled the city, and the Government of the Second Empire swiftly collapsed. Republican and radical deputies of the National Assembly went to the Hôtel de Ville, proclaimed the new French Republic, though the Emperor and the French Army had been defeated at Sedan, the war continued. The German army marched swiftly toward Paris, in Paris, however, the republican candidates dominated, winning 234,000 votes against 77,000 for the Bonapartists. Only about 40,000 were employed in factories and large enterprises, most were employed in industries in textiles, furniture. There were also 115,000 servants and 45,000 concierges, in addition to the native French population, there were about 100,000 immigrant workers and political refugees, the largest number being from Italy and Poland. The working class and immigrants suffered the most from the lack of activity due to the war. The Commune resulted in part from growing discontent among the Paris workers and this discontent can be traced to the first worker uprisings, the Canut Revolts, in Lyon and Paris in the 1830s. Many Parisians, especially workers and the classes, supported a democratic republic. They also wanted a more just way of managing the economy, if not necessarily socialist, socialist movements, such as the First International, had been growing in influence with hundreds of societies affiliated to it across France. In early 1867, Parisian employers of bronze-workers attempted to de-unionize their workers and this was defeated by a strike organized by the International. Later in 1867, a public demonstration in Paris was answered by the legal dissolution of its executive committee. The International had considerable influence even among unaffiliated French workers, particularly in Paris, the killing of journalist Victor Noir incensed Parisians, and the arrests of journalists critical of the Emperor did nothing to quiet the city
Paris Commune
–
A barricade on Rue Voltaire, after its capture by the regular army during the Bloody Week
Paris Commune
–
Louis Auguste Blanqui, leader of the Commune's far-left faction, was imprisoned for the entire time of the Commune.
Paris Commune
–
Eugène Varlin led several thousand National Guard soldiers to march to the Hotel de Ville chanting 'Long Live the Commune!".
Paris Commune
–
Revolutionary units of the National Guard briefly seized the Hotel de Ville on 31 October 1870, but the uprising failed.
20.
Brussels
–
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
Brussels
–
A
collage with several views of Brussels, Top: View of the
Northern Quarter business district, 2nd left: Floral carpet event in the
Grand Place, 2nd right:
Brussels City Hall and
Mont des Arts area, 3rd:
Cinquantenaire Park, 4th left:
Manneken Pis, 4th middle:
St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, 4th right:
Congress Column, Bottom:
Royal Palace of Brussels
Brussels
–
Charles of Lorraine founded what would become Brussels c. 979
Brussels
–
Grand Place after
the 1695 bombardment by the French army
Brussels
–
Episode of the
Belgian Revolution of 1830,
Wappers (1834)
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Data from Wikidata
