Royal House of Saint-Louis

The Royal Maison of Saint-Louis was created in 1684 by the king Louis XIV at the request of M {{me}} of Maintenon which wished a school intended for the young girls of the poor Aristocratie. The establishment will perdura during the first years of the French revolution, but closed in March 1793 definitively.

Wishes of Madam de Maintenon

In 1682, concerned about the education of the noble young girls, and to support an education more complete and freer than that of the convents to which it high society entrusted the majority of his/her daughters, Mrs. de Maintenon noticed two nuns, Mrs. de Brinon and Mrs. of Saint-Pierre, who were the préceptrices of some young girls. She establishes them with Rueil, then in Noisy in February 1684 to accommodate more than 180 boarders, before asking for to the king the creation of an establishment more adapted.

In 1684, in the Great Council, Louis XIV issued the foundation “of a house and community where a considerable number young girls, resulting noble families and particularly from the fathers died in the service (…) are maintained free (…) and receive all the instructions which can be appropriate for their birth and their sex. ”

Buildings of Saint-Cyr military school were allotted in 1685, and the king ordered great work on the field in edge of Versailles. Work was directed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart. In June 1686, after fifteen months of work, Louis XIV made gift of the field at the Royal House of Saint-Louis, the letters patent of the June 18th and 26th 1686 confirming the foundation of the establishment.

July 1st, 1686, the boarders, who will be called the “Young ladies of Saint-Cyr military school”, made their entry in the establishment. Mrs. de Brinon was named higher than life, and Mrs. de Maintenon accepted the title of “Teacher of the Royal House of Saint-Louis” which granted any authority to him on the House.

As of the foundation of the Royal House, personalities were interested in it: with the beginning of the year 1687, Fontenelle, convergent for the price of eloquence of the Academy, sang the Young ladies of Saint-Cyr military school and “the famous model of the beauty linked with innocence”.

Establishment

The Royal House of Saint-Louis was opened “to the girls of the killed gentilhommes or having ruined their health and their fortune for the service of the State”. They were to be able to justify at least four districts of nobility on the side of their father.

The house could accommodate approximately 250 “Young ladies of Saint-Cyr military school”, under the responsibility of 36 ladies and 24 sisters converse, to which priests and of the laic personnel were added.

The pupils, old from 7 to 20 years, were divided into four “classes” according to their age. They wore as a uniform a brown cheesecloth dress pointing out the dresses of court, tied ribbons whose color indicated the class of the pupil: “red” from 7 to 10 years, “green” from 11 to 14 years, “yellow” from 15 to 16 years, “blue” from 17 to 20 years. Each age bracket had its own entirely furnished classroom.

Certain pupils, among oldest, assisted the educational ladies and carried black ribbons.

The pupils who left the establishment at the end of their studies received a dowry of 3000 pounds intended to ensure a suitable marriage to them; however, some of them did not leave the establishment and became teachers.

The incomes of the establishment came from the revenues and exploitations from its fields, of subsidies of the Généralité of Paris and the incomes of the Abbaye of Saint-Denis to which it was attached.

Teaching

The payment, or the Constitutions , specified in its article 54 “what it is necessary to learn to the young ladies”: “Firstly with connoistre God and the religion It is necessary for them to inspire a great horror of the defect and a great love for the virtue. It is necessary to teach them the duties from a virtuous woman in her household, with regard to her husband, of his children and its servants. One will learn how to them to be held willingly one will learn how to them perfectly to read, to write the orthography, the arithmetic one One must learn how to them to comb, with coëffer, when they are intended to serve…”

The program included the reading, the orthography, calculation, the work and the embroidery, like, contrary to what was practiced in the convents, the theater, the music and the dance.

According to the desires of Mrs. de Maintenon, the education given to Saint-Cyr military school was dissociated what was practiced traditionally in the convents, where education minimal and was mainly centered on the religion. The pupils of the Royal House were educated as future women of the nobility, receiving a severe education but which showed modernity for the time, in particular by not neglecting knowledge with the profit of religious education. Arts were also taught in Saint-Cyr military school — in particular the theater, that Mrs. de Maintenon appreciated — whereas the convents generally did not teach them, disapproving the trade of actor. The teachers of the Royal House were laymen and not nuns, which was very rare.

The disorder caused by the Esther of Jean Root

Racine, which also was interested him in the Royal House, wrote for the boarders a religious part, Esther , which was represented on January 26th, 1689 with Saint-Cyr military school in the presence of Louis XIV, of Mrs. de Maintenon and many other courtiers. There were four other representations in February 1690, of which the last on February 19th. Marguerite of the Villette, 16 years old and married recently to the marquis de Caylus, held the role of Esther.

The representation of Esther gave place to a deep argument between Mrs. de Maintenon and Mrs. de Brinon, this one being opposed to the representation which she suspected of being used only for glory of Mrs. de Maintenon. Being higher than life, Mrs. de Brinon could not be replaced, but a lettre de cachet returned it on December 6th, 1688, allowing the representation of the part. In her place, Mrs. de Loubert, before secretary of Mrs. de Maintenon, became the higher on May 19th, 1689, at 22 years only.

Success was important near the king and of the courtiers, but the business displeased quickly with Mrs. de Maintenon, who feared that their success near the court does not make its pupils too proud. According to the Memories of the Ladies of Saint-Cyr military school:

It was not any more question between them that of spirit and “beautiful spirit” (...) most of blue had become ridiculous and unbearable by this height of opinion that they had themselves.

Extension of the controversies and the transformation into convent

After the representation of Esther , Mrs. de Maintenon thought of ceasing any stage performance with Saint-Cyr military school, but the king asked so that the new part of Root, Athalie , is played, it was it starting from January 5th, 1691 in greatest discretion, in presence only of the royal family.

The two spiritual advisers of Mrs. de Maintenon, Fénelon and the abbot Cup of the Marshes, asked him to give up glory and to make return to Saint-Cyr military school “humility and simplicity”. The discipline of the school became more strict, the coquettery and the books considered to be too profane, largely tolerated at the beginnings of the Royal House, were banished.

The Church and the Jansenists condemned the representation of Esther and lacks it discipline which seemed to reign in Saint-Cyr military school, adding that one did not have to entrust the education of young girls to laymen. Whereas in November 1692, the pope pronounced the extinction of the abbey title of Saint-Denis, the transformation of the Royal House into convent was decided in September 1692. Conversion was effective on December 1st. The teachers had the choice between pronouncing wishes and becoming nuns, or to leave the Royal House. From 1692 to 1694, the mother Priolo, convent of Chaillot, was in charge of their instruction during their noviciate.

With the beginning of the year 1694, Mrs. de Loubert was replaced by Mrs. de Fontaine, but Mrs. de Maintenon, increasingly present at Saint-Cyr military school, was recognized like higher fee in load of spiritual and the temporal one.

The Royal House of Saint-Louis was with the right in the middle of the business of the Quiétisme, when M {{me}} Guyon, which had bound of friendship to Mrs. de Maintenon, was accommodated by it in Saint-Cyr military school as from 1689. The example of its extases influenced the pupils very quickly, which worried Mrs. de Maintenon; moreover, this one was highly criticized by the Jansenists who showed it to let thoughts heretics spread itself. She ends up returning the mystic of Saint-Cyr military school, before separating into 1696 from Fénelon which supported Mrs. Guyon, and withdrawing her books of the Royal House.

In 1715, with died from Louis XIV, Mrs. de Maintenon withdrew itself definitively in Saint-Cyr military school, where it remained until her death. It was buried in the vault of the school.

Thereafter, the Royal House of Saint-Louis continued to function in greatest discretion, the death of Mrs. de Maintenon and the succession with Louis XIV by Louis XV having removed to him its statute of establishment to the mode.

End of the “Young ladies of Saint-Cyr military school”

The French revolution and particularly the abolition of the privileges of the Nobility and the Clergé called into question the raison d'être of the Royal House of Saint-Louis. Like palliative, a decree of Louis XVI in 1790 authorized the admission of the young girls nonresulting from the nobility in the establishment, but the legislative Parliament issued her closing on August 16th, 1792, this one was effective in March 1793 with the departure of the personnel and the boarders still present.

As of October 1793, the buildings were transformed into military hospital and remained it until 1798. Later, in 1808, Napoleon installed his military special École there. The emperor was also inspired by the Royal House of Saint-Louis to create the House of the young ladies of the Legion of honor, which exists still today under the name of Maison of education of the Legion of honor.

Former famous “Young ladies of Saint-Cyr military school”

Marthe-Marguerite Valois of the Villette de Mursay, marchioness of Caylus.
Élisa Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon i and future large-duchess of Tuscany.

Random links: