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Episode Summary

In this episode of the La Garde Ecossaise Historical Fiction Podcast we will introduce France at the beginning of Louis XIVs reign, looking at France’s geography and borders, society and the role of the monarch.  It will also briefly examine the place of the seventeenth century Auberge or inn in the community during the early modern period.

Geography and Borders

The country we know today as France was shaped considerably during the French Revolution in 1789.  The author L.P. Hartley once declared that ‘The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there’[1] and this can be applied to pre-revolutionary France, known in French as the Ancien Regime or Old Regime in English. If you looked at a map of France at the beginning of Louis XIVs reign around 1643 the first thing that you would notice is that it is not quite the ‘hexagon’ shape we are all familiar with today.

[1] Tosh, The Pursuit of History 9.

The French State and Provincial France

Today France is a very centralised state compared to France under the old regime. The current French state is divided into Departments, Communes and Arrondisments and all are overseen and governed by national institutions in Paris.  The current French government is very much a product of the French Revolution of 1789.

Old Regime France was divided into provinces each with their own regional capitals and some with their own parliaments or Estates which gathered the local political ruling classes to discuss the issues of the day. Historian E.N. Williams has called old regime France a ‘federation of provinces’.[1]

[1] Williams, The Ancien Regime in Europe 162.

The King and the Three Estates

Before the French Revolution in 1789 French society was structured into three estates, or three social classes, with the King at the top of the social hierarchy. The King was the divinely anointed head of the Kingdom of France and its people. In this society everyone had their divinely ordained place and this was deeply understood.  Anyone who dared to step out of place was severely reprimanded. Below the monarchy there was the first estate, the clergy, the second estate, the nobility and by far the most numerous, the third estate which comprised of everyone else, from the wealthy Bourgeoise to urban dwellers such as shopkeepers and publicans to the dirt poor and rural peasantry.

The Auberge: the melting pot of society

As Meldrum travels through rural France he eats and stays in inns or auberges.  Indeed, throughout the novel there is a recurrence of inns as a meeting place for the characters.  Later in the novel John Hamilton stays in an inn in Madrid and in another chapter travels to London where he meets the Scottish Highlander, Alasdair MacDonald, at an inn in Southwark. Finally, Robert Meldrum’s first encounter with John Hamilton takes place in an Auberge in Marly on the outskirts of Paris.[1]  But what was it like to be a visitor to an inn in France in the 1670s?  What sights and smells would have greeted you?

[1] MacKenzie, La Garde Ecossaise 37-42, 358-363, 439-446.

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Further Resources and Reading

If any of the topics in this podcast have interested you today and you would like to know more, further resources, including recommended reading, websites, digital resources, and social media can be found at  www.lagardeecossaise.net These resources have been organised by podcast and by reading order in the novels with corresponding page numbers.

I look forward to joining you again next week for the next episode of the La Garde Ecossaise podcast where we will explore the origins of the novel series and the inspiration behind the main character Lieutenant-General John Hamilton.

Until then, au revoir, A bientôt.