The politics of seventeenth century France revolved around the efforts and success of Louis XIV (1638-1715) to unify the kingdom of France around his person to the detriment of the provincial nobility, who had mini kingdoms of their own in the Middle Ages. Under Louis XIV, the warrior knights of the Middle Ages became concerned with fashion and free food. Louis XIV paid Swiss mercenaries to wage war, so he could control his pesky French noblemen and their wives.
In particular, Louis XIV weakened the nobility by allowing a portion of the bourgeoisie (i.e. lawyers, financiers, and doctors) to assume positions of prestige and limited power. He granted nobility to some, who brought great amounts of income to the kingdom. Charles Perrault (1628-1703), the author of Les Contes de ma mere l’Oye (Mother Goose Tales), was a member of the bourgeoisie called upon to serve the king.
Perrault supported the political objectives of Louis XIV in his fairy tales, especially his Cinderella and Donkey Skin tales, whose models of feminine beauty played into the unification strategy of Louis XIV by demising the number of people who could compete for the throne against his family.
The tale of Cinderella is one of a step daughter from a previous marriage, who becomes a servant to the children of her father's second marriage. Cinderella dreams of becoming a princess despite her being a servant.
Cinderella’s fairy godmother gives her fashionable clothing to wear to the palace and other accoutrements of aristocratic position such as a carriage with fine horses. Cinderella meets her prince, who later identifies her by placing a thin glass slipper on her foot; only a feather light woman could wear such a shoe.
In Perrault’s version of Cinderella, Cinderella forgives her jealous step-sisters and finds them rich husbands, so they would leave her alone it appears.
The heroine of Donkey Skin, unlike Cinderella, is already a princess and not a member of the bourgeoisie when the story begins. Her father, the king, wants to marry her. With the assistance of her godmother, the princess uses several ruses to avoid the incestuous desires of her father.
When the princess could no longer avoid her father’s advances, she leaves the country to protect her virtue. The princess must wear a donkey skin to hide herself, but her godmother assures her that her clothes and jewels will accompany her everywhere.
The ending of Donkey Skin resembles that of Perrault’s Cinderella. A prince finds his princess by placing a ring on her very little finger. The prince’s family is thrilled to find out that Donkey Skin is a princess, who does not really wear a donkey skin everyday like a peasant.
In the last scene, Donkey Skin forgives her father the king for wanting to marry her. However, in an absolute monarchy, everyone must obey the king despite what the church says is moral; the king assures food, clothing, and shelter in greater amounts than cloistered nuns.
The moral of these two fairy tales is that women who conform to the king’s ideal of beauty get to be part of palace life, especially if they forgive the king for any trespass. including incest.
Perrault subtly informs readers that well-clothed women of slight weight are ideals of beauty for their delicate physical size; thereby making many of them incapable of self-defense or of danger to the king or his family without a weapon.
Women had already lost their political rights by the time of
Louis XIV due to the rigid implementation of the Salic Law, which was
promulgated under Charlemagne (circa 742 -814). Salic Law prevented noblewomen in France from
inheriting dominions or ruling as sovereigns to reduce the division of property in the kingdom. Noblewomen were supposed to become part of their husband's "house" as far as property and land were concerned.
Despite Salic Law, the power of Catherine de Medici
(1519 – 1589) must have lingered in the mind of Louis XIV as to what women
could do just as queen mothers. The
menace of possible female leaders in the land with the example of Joan of Arc (1412 - 1431) must have also worried Louis XIV, but he effectively dealt with his problems by subtle
and not so subtle means of control.
Among his methods of control were dictating
models of clothing fashion, determining cultural program offerings in which he
starred at Versailles inside the palace and out in the gardens. The king wore ballet slippers while all his courtiers wore heels.
Louis XIV also encouraged competition among nobles as to whom could participate in the “Lever du Roi” or “Waking up of the King” to help him bathe, shave, dress, and eat. He would change favorites every two weeks or so for special food and drink treats during ballets, theatre, and puppet shows as well.
Finally, like the women in Cinderella and Donkey Skin, who need a godmother to arrange for their positions in society, Louis XIV made sure that even his most prestigious courtiers knew that they held their positions due to royal prerogative alone. Demeaning women leads to the demeaning of men as well.
By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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