Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 9,001
"Le Roi de Cotillon...!"
On April 24, 1814, a ship coming from England entered the port of Calais in France.
Once moored to the quay, a stout, misshapen but lavishly dressed man hobbles ashore, followed by a swarm of attendants, also sumptuously dressed.
A column at the port of Calais still commemorates this event today...
... as well as the first footprint left by the arrival on landfall, which can be seen cast in bronze at the base of the column...:
The fat man is Louis Stanislas Xavier de Bourbon, Comte de Provence, Duc d'Anjou, Duc de Maine, Perche et Senonches and Pair of France, Duc d'Alençon, Duc de Brunoy and soon also King of France and Navarre - and brother of the French King Louis XVI, who was executed during the Revolution!
He is gouty and so fat that he can only walk long distances with crutches...:
He can't stand for long either! He has to endure the - ordered and discreetly paid - ovations while sitting down...:
In British exile, where he comes from, he was only allowed to call himself "Comte de Lille" on British instructions, but he sees himself as a king since he begged a few followers to Louis XVIII in Verona in 1795. of France has had it proclaimed.
In general, the man fleeing the French Revolution has seen the world quite a bit!
The stations of his exile: Koblenz, Hamm, Turin, Blankenburg (Harz), Jelgava (Kurdland, Lithuania), Warsaw, Jelgava again and finally Aylesbury near Oxford...:
His exile was as long as it was humiliating: he had no means of his own and there were many greedy hands to grease and even more hungry mouths to feed - for what is a king without a court?
So he had to beg his way across Europe from royal relatives.
Now the big little Corsican is banished to Elba and the air in France is clear for the Bourbons.
He hurries to Paris by carriage to be known as "Louis XVIII." to take power.
Except for a few royalists, the French are not at all enthusiastic!
They may be thoroughly fed up with Emperor Napoleon's endless conquests and wars, but the majority of them would like to live in a republic again - with full political rights.
The return of the Bourbon, meanwhile, bodes well that the signs point to "Restoration", the re-establishment of the hated "Ancien Régime" before the Revolution.
And all this under a king who returned to the country with little glory, but instead "in women's skirts" ("cotillon") and "on the croup of a Cossack horse", as it is commonly called.
Even his allies poke fun at "Old Bumblehead" - note also the Jacobean-capped guillotine in the background...:
The French anyway...:
The rather liberal Bourbone will make one mistake after another in the coming weeks and months - but mainly that of surrounding himself with reactionary ministers and advisers who want to use violence to turn back the wheel of time.
Shortly after Louis XVIII came to power. An evil song begins to make the rounds in France, first quietly, then becoming louder and finally unmistakable...:
"Roulta bosse,
Roi de Cotillion!
Rends la couronne
to Napoleon!"
("Pack yourself, king of women! Give the crown to Napoleon!")
As Napoleon returns and the "Hundred Days" begin, the song's refrain will be hastily completed:
"Bon, bon!
Napoleon
especially renter
in the house."
("Good, good! Napoleon has returned to his house.")
After all, fat Ludwig has gone down in language history:
Louis XVIII coined the phrase "punctuality is the courtesy of kings."
On April 24, 1814, a ship coming from England entered the port of Calais in France.
Once moored to the quay, a stout, misshapen but lavishly dressed man hobbles ashore, followed by a swarm of attendants, also sumptuously dressed.
A column at the port of Calais still commemorates this event today...
... as well as the first footprint left by the arrival on landfall, which can be seen cast in bronze at the base of the column...:
The fat man is Louis Stanislas Xavier de Bourbon, Comte de Provence, Duc d'Anjou, Duc de Maine, Perche et Senonches and Pair of France, Duc d'Alençon, Duc de Brunoy and soon also King of France and Navarre - and brother of the French King Louis XVI, who was executed during the Revolution!
He is gouty and so fat that he can only walk long distances with crutches...:
He can't stand for long either! He has to endure the - ordered and discreetly paid - ovations while sitting down...:
In British exile, where he comes from, he was only allowed to call himself "Comte de Lille" on British instructions, but he sees himself as a king since he begged a few followers to Louis XVIII in Verona in 1795. of France has had it proclaimed.
In general, the man fleeing the French Revolution has seen the world quite a bit!
The stations of his exile: Koblenz, Hamm, Turin, Blankenburg (Harz), Jelgava (Kurdland, Lithuania), Warsaw, Jelgava again and finally Aylesbury near Oxford...:
His exile was as long as it was humiliating: he had no means of his own and there were many greedy hands to grease and even more hungry mouths to feed - for what is a king without a court?
So he had to beg his way across Europe from royal relatives.
Now the big little Corsican is banished to Elba and the air in France is clear for the Bourbons.
He hurries to Paris by carriage to be known as "Louis XVIII." to take power.
Except for a few royalists, the French are not at all enthusiastic!
They may be thoroughly fed up with Emperor Napoleon's endless conquests and wars, but the majority of them would like to live in a republic again - with full political rights.
The return of the Bourbon, meanwhile, bodes well that the signs point to "Restoration", the re-establishment of the hated "Ancien Régime" before the Revolution.
And all this under a king who returned to the country with little glory, but instead "in women's skirts" ("cotillon") and "on the croup of a Cossack horse", as it is commonly called.
Even his allies poke fun at "Old Bumblehead" - note also the Jacobean-capped guillotine in the background...:
The French anyway...:
The rather liberal Bourbone will make one mistake after another in the coming weeks and months - but mainly that of surrounding himself with reactionary ministers and advisers who want to use violence to turn back the wheel of time.
Shortly after Louis XVIII came to power. An evil song begins to make the rounds in France, first quietly, then becoming louder and finally unmistakable...:
"Roulta bosse,
Roi de Cotillion!
Rends la couronne
to Napoleon!"
("Pack yourself, king of women! Give the crown to Napoleon!")
As Napoleon returns and the "Hundred Days" begin, the song's refrain will be hastily completed:
"Bon, bon!
Napoleon
especially renter
in the house."
("Good, good! Napoleon has returned to his house.")
After all, fat Ludwig has gone down in language history:
Louis XVIII coined the phrase "punctuality is the courtesy of kings."
