Bertrade, Queen of the Franks

Best known as Charlemagne's mother.  We don't know her birthdate but she died in 783.

She is quite different from the previous two ladies I've discussed.  Firstly, much less is actually known about her, and secondly, she's not a saintly sort of character.

Bertrade, or Bertha, was the daughter of a Frankish (northern French) count, and her nickname is rather mean: Broadfoot [like Bigfoot], or Goosefoot.  She met Pepin the Short, an influential Frankish noble when she was somewhere between 14 and 21.  He was married and had five children but she became his mistress, and a year or so later he repudiated his first wife and sent their children elsewhere.  He married Bertrade and they had a pack of kids, including Charlemagne and his brother, confusingly called Carloman. 

A few years later her husband Pepin successfully overthrew the Merovingian dynasty (see the entry on Clotilde, who helped found that dynasty) and seized the Frankish throne.  He proceeded to expand the Frankish kingdom, taking parts of the south of modern France into the empire and founding the Carolingian dynasty. 

Bertrade seems to have been rather passive during her husband's reign, but was much more politically active after he died.  Their two sons split the empire between them, and she mediated when they squabbled over territory and power.  She lived with her son Charlemagne - who is extremely important to European history as the first Holy Roman Emperor - and was one of his trusted advisers.  It would have been extremely unusual for someone as powerful as Charlemagne to take any woman's advice seriously, but he even made some political alliances based on her recommendations. 

Bertrade was obviously someone who was not afraid to voice her opinion, and was ambitious and willing to use her power.  It's impressive that a woman of her time was somewhat able to influence the politics of a kingdom and play a part in her own destiny.

Productivity!

Although I woke up late I've managed to: take care of the trash (seems like nothing but it's a pain in the butt when it's 7 floors down!), go to the market, do laundry, make a new playlist (very important!), go running for the first time in years, shower, and make food. 

I'm quite pleased with myself being that it's Saturday.  Yay!

In other news, I'll be going back to Lorraine in a couple of weeks but other than that I don't think I'll be doing any traveling until I leave for NY.  So although the traveling posts are always the most interesting, there won't be any for a little while. 

I'll be back in less than three weeks, so prepare yourselves!

Saint Bathild, Queen of Burgundy

Another sainted queen of "France," Bathild lived c. 626-680.

I want to note here that many of the ladies in this series were not born French at all, and Bathild is one of them.  When my father visited and we walked around the park I told him about some of the queens, and he was surprised to find out that a lot of them either were non-French queens of France or French queens of some country that was not France.  Most of these women started out princesses or duchesses, and the main use for such a woman was to marry her to the powerful ruler of another land.  So, many queens of France were from England or Spain or German countries.  The French still consider them French - as they would have considered themselves French once they became a French queen or princess.  Conversely, French princesses who married and ruled elsewhere also would still be considered French due to their birth.

Anyway, that wasn't the case with our Bathild here.

We don't know a lot of hard facts about her life, as most of it is legend or comes from the writings put forward to help her cause for sainthood (obviously biased in her favor).

She was born English - or more accurately, at the time it would have been Anglo-Saxon - and probably a relative of a regional king.  When she was young the king she was affiliated with was ousted and she was sold into slavery in court in northwestern France.  The man who owned her was an important adviser to the king of that area (Burgundy plus Neustria), and took a fancy to her.  Balthild did not want to marry him so hid away until he married.  Somehow during this time the king also decided he liked her quite a bit and she later married him.

We don't know much about how all that went down, but we do know that her husband the king died when their eldest son was just five years old, and Bathild ruled as regent (extremely unusual for the time) for a few years in his stead.  During that time there was an uprising that she had to put down, and she also worked to end Christian slavery, especially of children who were captured in war.  One historian has accused her of arranging assassinations of bishops who did not support her agendas, but another historian's interpretation seems more likely: she used her money and influence to appoint and maintain bishops and other figures who supported her and her family.  Since she had some rebellions to deal with it was probably the most effective way of neutralizing their political enemies.  We know she did found at least two monasteries as their patroness.

The people rallying for her canonization predictably maintained that she was very beautiful, modest, pious, and charitable.  Some of these seem true (she was obviously charitable, and she seems to have joined a convent after her son became king in his own right) but there is no real way of knowing her personality.

What we do know about her though, is amusingly enough more than we know about her husband Clovis II.  Although he did die young it's clear that she had more political and religious influence than he ever did - and this from a woman who had been a slave at his court!

Her story seems a bit like a fairy tale to me: a highborn girl suffers a bunch of misfortunes but ends up marrying a prince/king and thanks to her goodness is remembered as a just and generous [co]ruler.  The truth must be more complicated than that, and I do wish we knew more about her.  She was one of the women I didn't know at all before looking them all up; I'm glad she's included here. 

Milan part 2

Finally going on a bit in my Milan adventure to more modern times!  Here are two statues of remarkable 19th century Italian men: they both played huge roles in establishing an Italian national identity (as I mentioned before, Italy did not exist as a country or an idea until around their time) and Italians love them. 

The first here is Garibaldi, a general and nationalist, is probably one of the most admired figures in Italian history.  His charisma and ability to rally the Italian people around a common cause made unification possible in the minds of Italians.  The Milanese like to dress up his statue for fun.

And here is Victor Emmanuel, the only ever "king of Italy" to rule the whole of the modern country.  Although he successfully united the peninsula, he never really had the power of a king.  His reign saw Mussolini rise to power and he couldn't really do anything to stop it.  I'm not that clear on why he's so fondly remembered by the Italian people, but they really like him.

Now back to ancient history.  This is La Scala, Milan's famed opera house!  It was much smaller than I expected (as someone who has studied opera La Scala looms large as second only to the Paris Opera on the list of places to go when you've hit the big time) but it and the little square around it are really lovely.  The statue in the middle is da Vinci.

Here is the church of Maria della Grazie, whose main claim to fame is that da Vinci's Last Supper is inside.  It's still a functioning convent and it's small but really pretty and light inside.  I loved this church.

 

This is the refectory of the church, where the Last Supper is painted on one of the walls.  A refectory is like a cafeteria for monks - get it, the Last Supper in a cafeteria?  Unfortunately I didn't know until I got to Milan that you have to book a spot like, months in advance to see the painting, so I couldn't go in.  I guess the place is pretty small and they have to control visitors.

The Sforza coat of arms on the side of the church:

Finally we come to the main church I had wanted to visit in Milan, the ancient basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, or St Ambrose who I mentioned before.  St Ambrose is one of the "Church Fathers" who were extremely intelligent, learned, influential men in the early days of the Catholic Church.  They are the ones who established most of the still current Christian theology, and Ambrose is probably the most significant of them.  To me they're most important as philosophers of their time - they actually worked with the ideas of Plato and Aristotle and put them into their religious worldview.  They weren't opposed to science and religion together as so many medieval (and to tell the truth, modern) church men and theologians were.

Anyway, some parts of this church date back to the 4th century but most of it is from the 12th.

One of my big missions in Italy was to see some of the phenomenal Byzantine mosaics in the old churches, having been really impressed by them on my visit to Istanbul in 2006.   Here is the main one in this church, an extraordinary example of art of the time.  I can't begin to describe how these mosaics are in person: they're delicate and intricate, with amazing detail and symbolism, and lines of gold are woven throughout.  They're much closer to the icons of Eastern and Greek Orthodox traditions - but remember, when these were created there had no yet been a schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox branches.  There was only one Christian church.  Once I get the pictures of Ravenna I'll put up the most amazing ones I've ever seen.

This mosaic is a Christ Pantokrator, which is usually translated as Christ the Sustainer of the World.  Just basically an idea of all-powerful-ness.

Finally, a trip through the treasury of this basilica was really interesting.  It still has tons of priceless art and artifacts belonging to the Church. 

And below the church, in the vaults, still lies the body of St Ambrose, who died in 397.  More than 1600 years later he looks rather mummified, but you can still make out a lot of the features.  He's dressed like a bishop of the time, with grand, intricately decorated robes, and is shown in a glass case. 

I do have a picture of him on my old computer, but since it is rather gross I don't think I'll post it. 

So now I've put up all the important pictures I have access to for Milan, and you'll have to wait until next month for stuff from the rest of the trip and from Bordeaux.  Again I apologize for the not-great-quality pictures, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway!

Saint Clotilde, Queen of the Franks

(Disclaimer: this is the only picture from the set that isn't mine.  It's from Wikipedia.)

Clotilde of Burgundy, who married Clovis, king of the Franks, lived 474-575.

We know an extraordinary amount about this queen considering she was an early medieval woman. Even queens normally got just a passing reference, usually not even firm birth or death years, but Clotilde was important and powerful enough to make her way into the historical record.

After the fall of the Roman Empire modern day France (then roughly Gaul) was split into a whole bunch of warring kingdoms - often with internal power struggles as well.  Burgundy covered much of the modern southwest of France, and was one of the most powerful.  Clotilde was the daughter of Burgundy's king, but when she was 18 her uncle overthrew her father, had her mother killed, and exiled her.  That year she also married Clovis, the king of the Franks, the most powerful kingdom in Gaul, covering most of the north of modern France and into Belgium.

She was an extremely religious Catholic, but at the time most of Gaul - including her husband the king - still practiced a mix of Celtic and Roman paganism.  She tried very hard to convert her husband (and therefore the kingdom) and even had their children baptized secretly.  Just the fact that people recorded her efforts to convert him means she must have been super persistent about it.

Legend has it that he refused to convert until faced with an extremely tough battle, in which he only won when he had invoked the Christian god to help him.  Consequently, his victory there allowed him to conquer most of modern France and found the Merovingian dynasty, which would rule for another 200 years.  He's considered the first modern king of France because he was able to unite the area.

He converted at Reims (see my entry on the cathedral there for more info) and subsequently nearly all the French kings were crowned there.

So in popular memory King Clovis' victories were thanks to his conversion to Christianty.  But possibly more bizarrely, his conversion is largely remembered as Clotilde's doing.  Even men of her time acknowledged her role in helping her husband become the most powerful king in Western Europe.  I say this is bizarre because it's the only instance I can think of where a queen is given much credit for anything significant, especially anything having to do with war or politics.

Furthermore, she's also credited by men of her time as being the main impetus for her sons, the Frankish princes, to go to war with Burgundy.  Although it was her home region she wanted to take revenge for the murder of her parents.  The king of Burgundy was overthrown and her own descendents went on to rule the area.

She and her husband resided in the Paris area later in life and both became devout followers of Saint Genevieve.  They were buried together in her abbey, right near where I live now.

It's hard for me to emphasize how unique this situation is in early medieval times.  Women are hardly even noticed in the historical record, no matter how high born they were.  Usually they're only noted if they're troublemakers or had scandalous or otherwise significant marriages.  They basically never play an active role in politics - it would have been expected that a king or prince would ignore the political wishes or opinions of his wife, mother, or sisters.  So Clotilde's success in influencing her husband and sons is really remarkable, definitely earning her a place in the collection of Luxembourg garden statues.

Blast from the past - Milan part 1

I recently realized that when I did this a few years ago I was scandalously remiss in posting pictures from my trip to Italy, and also some of my French adventures.  Unfortunately I have gotten a new computer since then and nearly all of my pictures from those trips are on my old computer, which is in NY.  All I have on hand are the pictures I posted on Facebook from Milan.  However when I go back to NY in July I will transfer my older albums to this computer so I can finally show them off.

Just note: the camera I used for these pictures was not very good, so the quality isn't great.  Also I couldn't figure out how to turn off the stupid date stamp.  Keep in mind that one of the primary goals on this trip was to check out lots of church art and architecture so there will be an overwhelming amount of that here.

Okay!  Onward.  Milan was my first stop in a tour of five Italian towns and cities that I visited for my spring break in 2008.  I believe I ended hitting all my main stops here in the three days I had.

Milan is pretty well known I suppose, but I'll give a bit of background.  It's a very old city, with evidence of pre-Roman settlements.  It's had three main important historical periods: it was a place of religion and learning in the 4th century AD, under the influence of the renowned Church Father St Ambrose; it was a main center of the Italian Renaissance under the patronage of the Sforza family in the 15th and 16th centuries, and finally it was an area of political dispute and turmoil in the 19th century.   I'll touch on things from all these periods but it would be a bit ridiculous to try to get through everything.

An important thing to note is that Italy was not unified as a country until the late 1800's.  It was split into independent city states that were ruled by very wealthy dukes who rarely started out as royalty - they generally bought their way into power and consolidated it by a combination of power, intimidation, and patronage.  This political system is what paved the way for the Italian Renaissance, as the families tried to outdo each other culturally as well as politically, and tried to keep up with the royal houses of Europe.  In doing this they poured tons of money into supporting famous artists to make works for them.

One of my first stops was the Ambrosiana Library, one of the oldest and most renowned archives in the world.  My nerd excitement meter was through the roof here!  Not only does this place have sketches and paintings from tons of great Italian artists like da Vinci (it also has some of his notebooks and manuscripts), Raphael, Botticelli, and Caravaggio, it also has a ton of ancient texts, from Aristotle to some first copies of the gospels.  There is just such a wide range of things here I can't begin to list them all.  Many of the manuscripts and texts are not open to the public, but the windows into the library galleries are glass.  I spent a good few minutes just staring through these windows, wondering what rare and amazing books I was looking at.

Unfortunately pictures weren't allowed inside the museum part when I was there.

This is a bank I came across just walking around.  It looks like a Renaissance bank but the coat of arms isn't Medici so I'm not sure who this belonged to.  Banks, as well as political power, were generally tightly controlled by wealthy families who would display their coat of arms prominently on all the buildings they commissioned.

I had no clue what this building was but it's pretty typical of the Renaissance style mini-palaces around Italy.

The ruling family of Milan at the height of the Renaissance were the Sforzas.  Although the Medici and Borgias are probably the most well known of the Italian mafia-like ruling families, the Sforzas were similar in their power and influence; they patronized da Vinci and Michelangelo amongst others.  The notorious Lucrezia Borgia married a Sforza.

Their castle still exists in Milan and is now a pretty incredible Renaissance museum.  It was started in the mid 15th century and ended up being one of the biggest citadels in Europe.

Here are the grounds of the castle:

 Inside the museum is a mixture of artifacts gathered from elsewhere and things that are part of the castle itself.

Here is an arch taken from an old Medici bank:

A bunch of cool swords:

Michelangelo's unfinished Pieta Rondanini - the difference in styles between this and his earlier idealized neo-Classical works is striking.

 Here is a ceiling in the castle that was painted by da Vinci.  Although I wasn't able to get a great shot of it (the colors are pretty off and I have nothing of the trunks of the trees, more towards the side of the ceilings) this picture is not out of focus.  He had done a number of trees with their leaves meeting at the high center of the ceiling, with the Sforza coat of arms in the middle.

Moving on to what is probably the most well known landmark in Milan: the Duomo.  This is the fourth largest cathedral in the world, and largest in Italy (although I believe St Peter's in Vatican City is bigger).  It took an unusually long time to build - 600 years - and was started in the 1380's, in a flamboyant Gothic style.  It's certainly one of the most ornate churches I've seen, and the stone used is pretty distinctive.

The square in front has tons and tons of pigeons!

Inside the church is absolutely huge, and quite dark.  None of my pictures here came out very well, but it gives a decent impression of the gloomy, rather oppressive atmosphere.  It's much more cheerful from the outside.

The pattern on the floor - the colors, again, are off, but you can get the idea.

A side altar:

This cathedral felt extremely touristy and impersonal to me.  You can read my original entry on Milan, linked above, but I still remember the rather flat feeling it gives off - as opposed to somewhere like Notre Dame, which is also big, imposing, darkish, and very touristy.  It is really lovely, but there is a sense of intimidation rather than general awe or splendor.

There's also a pretty gruesome sculpture of St Bartholomew, who I guess was skinned alive, because it shows him walking, having been flayed, carrying his own skin over his shoulder.  My picture didn't come out very well at all.

I'll end with a few shots of San Lorenzo Basilica, which I did not get to enter.  It has a big and lovely park outside.  This is a particularly old church, having probably been founded around the time of St Ambrose in the 4th century.  It has changed over the centuries, but is still overwhelmingly Byzantine/Romanesque.  You can see it's not Gothic at all, with simpler, cleaner lines based on domes and rounded arches.  I believe it was renovated in the 1500's, but I think it has kept its original outlines.

More to come!

The Ladies of the Luxembourg Garden

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but the central path of the Luxembourg gardens, just a 5 minute walk or so from my apartment, is lined with statues of various women who were significant in French history.  The majority of them are queens or duchesses who wielded power in unusual ways.  They range from early medieval times to the 17th century.

I've always been fond of these statues, but I'm not sure why they're there.  All I really know about the statues is that they were commission in the mid 19th century by Louis Philippe, the king during the brief post-Napoleon restoration of the monarchy.  I suspect they are some kind of tribute or reference to Marie de Medici (who is one of the statue women), as she was the queen who commissioned and helped to design the Luxembourg palace and gardens.  She was a forceful and powerful queen and perhaps Louis Philippe wanted the statues to acknowledge her kindred women throughout French history. 

So I'm going to do some little posts on these women (some of the most interesting ones, maybe not so little!) because they include some of my very favorite historical figures.  It was unusual for women to even be noted in the historical record at all during the lives of some of them, so it's an achievement just to be remembered. 

I didn't recognize some of them so this will also be me doing a bit of my own research on these ladies.  Of course, since these statues were made centuries after most of their deaths they aren't actual representations of how they looked - just to note that from the start.

I want to do it chronologically, but I'll start with one out of order, because I've already discussed her: here is Saint Genevieve, the patroness of Paris, lived 423-512.

Concert in Bains-les-Bains

Firstly: the town we performed in is a tiny place even more in the countryside than Damelevieres, the exceptionally green place I showed pictures of here.  It's called Bains-les-Bains, which is a ridiculous name meaning "Baths the Baths."  Think a place like Bath, England, where historically people would go to "take water" from the springs there for their supposed healing powers.  It was an hour and a half bus ride from Damelevieres, which is a 15 minute train ride from Nancy, the biggest town in the area.

The small church where we actually performed was in fact just outside that town in an old industrial/tin manufacturing park/arboretum from the 18th century.  It was actually pretty cool, but I couldn't find out much about it despite wandering around and inquiring with people at random. 

It turned out that it was the people who now take care of the site who invited us to sing for part of a concert series at the church.  They live in the old "overseer's" place (I put that in quotes because I don't know what the actual title was), which was really interesting because it was a mix of old industrial stuff and modern house stuff.  They had two very fluffy, very sweet dogs. 

Some shots of the old factory area, which is now possibly a tour site but I'm not sure.

I'm guessing that the church on site was for the workers, which makes me in turn think it couldn't have been a very large industrial site.  The church was teeny, and even the people who came for the concert did not all have seats - some were even standing just outside the doors because there was no more room to come in.

Afterwards the hosts offered us a customary drink.  The room was down in the cellar (looked more like a dungeon) of the main house part, which looked and felt very old

So, back to Damelevieres quickly before I wrap up the Lorraine entries.   Due to some communication errors there was no one around to get me at the little train station in this little town when I arrived the day before the concert.  But since it is indeed little I was able to walk to my friend's house.  She directed me solely based on landmarks (the bridge, the church, the big field).

Here is my walk, in brief.

This graffiti on the bridge is in support of the French national soccer team (Les Bleu - the Blue[s], the team)

No clue what this is.  Maybe you can tell, but it might be too small: it's a couple pools of water, with a faucet at one end.  It reminds me of old Roman baths but it's too small and new and anyway, Romans weren't in this area.

Into the town!  It used to be a major railway stop, which is why it has those trains.

The only church in town is also the mossiest one I've come across.

And finally I got to the field, as shown in the last post on the town, which is right next to where they live.  It really is a charming place.