100 Days of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers
June 1 - August 31, 2024
All for One and One for All: "The Three Musketeers" at 180
June 8
Historical post 9 of 10
Please please please catch up with the history posts - I just looked at the first 2 pages of the novel - we need to prepare!!!
Since some of you, impatient souls, rushed into the first chapters of the novel, here is the first page:
“On the first Monday of the month of April 1625, the village of Meung, where the author of the Romance of the Rose was born, seemed to be in as total an upheaval as if the Huguenots had come to make a second La Rochelle. Many of the towns-men, seeing women fleeing along the main street, hearing children crying on the doorsills, hastened to put on their breastplates and, backing up their somewhat uncertain countenances with a musket or a partisan, headed for the Jolly Miller Inn, before which jostled a compact group, noisy, full of curiosity, and growing every minute.
At that time panics were frequent, and few days passed without one town or another recording some such event in its archives. There were lords who fought among themselves; there was the king who made war on the cardinal; there was the Spaniard who made war on the king. Then, besides these hidden or public, secret or open wars, there were also the robbers, the beggars, the Huguenots, the wolves, and the lackeys, who made war on everybody. The townsfolk always took up arms against the robbers, against the wolves, against the lackeys— often against the lords and the Huguenots-and sometimes against the king—but never against the cardinal or the Spaniard.”
So much history - so little time!!!
Notes on Meung, La Rochelle, and the Huguenots tomorrow!!!
You already know why fighting against the Cardinal was not a good idea!!! Especially in 1625 - he became First Minister of France on August 12, 1624!!! But why not against the “Spaniard”?!?!?!
Take a look at the map accompanying today’s post!!! It presents ONLY the European dominions of the Habsburg family - the most powerful royal house in history!!! Yes, in the 16th century, just a few years before the start of the novel, the Habsburgs ruled the world!!! During the reign of the most powerful Habsburg ruler, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500-1558), who was also the Archduke of Austria, King of Spain, and Duke of Burgundy, the dynasty ruled all of Germany, Austria, Northern Italy, Italian kingdoms of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia, French Burgundy, Spanish Netherlands, Portugal, AND Spain!!! PLUS THE ENTIRETY of South America, Central America, and vast majority of North America - all the Spanish and Portuguese speaking Western Hemisphere countries!!! Yes, mind boggling does not even begin to conceptualize such a realm!!! Would YOU go to war with Spain if you were France?!?!?! Of course not!!!
The House of Habsburg originates from the 11th century and is named after the ancestral Habsburg Castle situated in today’s Switzerland. In addition to all the kingdoms, countries, and continents listed above, the Habsburgs also ruled, at various times, Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, Lombardy-Venetia, and Galicia-Lodomeria - and in the 19th century tried to reclaim their lost Mexican territories by placing the unfortunate Emperor Maximilian on the Mexican throne - but that’s a story for another day…
The dynasty lost all its power over the centuries… Do they rule Austria or Spain today? No - Austria is a republic - and Spain is ruled by the Bourbon!!! But how is this possible, Anna?! France has not had a Bourbon ruler since 1830 (see my earlier posts) and is a republic today - WHY do the Bourbon rule Spain?!?!?!
With the abdication of Charles V in 1556 - he retired to a monastery at the end of his glorious and furious reign - the dynasty splintered into the Spanish Habsburgs and Austrian Habsburgs - thus the references to Austrian and Spanish marriages for the French princes and princesses. Marie de’ Medici, ever the schemer, arranged marriages for her children with both branches of the splintered Habsburgs - our friend Louis XIII married Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip Ill of Spain and Margaret of Austria (yes, the two branches often intermarried - more on the subject in a moment). We already know about Marie de’ Medici’s daughter Henrietta - married to the Stuart Charles I of England. But another daughter, Elisabeth of France or Isabella of Bourbon, was married off to the Spanish King Philip IV!!! This French marrying into the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs was a necessity - take a look at the map again - the country was literally encircled from every direction by the Habsburg territories!!! War with Spain would also mean war with the Spanish Netherlands in the north AND the Holy Roman Empire in the east AND various parts of future Italy in the south!!!
No, we do NOT start wars with Spain - BUT we do try in every possible way to undermine the foundations of the rule of the two branches - which became easier and easier as the intermarriage of the two branches eventually brought about the end of the Spanish line… If you look at the portraits of the 16th and 17th century Habsburgs, you will start noticing certain hereditary features such as the famous “Habsburg jaw” - a protruding monstrosity that was a sure sign of the deterioration on the genetic pool… The son of Louis XIII, the glorious Sun King, the French Louis XIV (the longest reigning ruler in history - 72 years!!!) upon the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700, FINALLY went to war with Spain and won what is known as the War of the Spanish Succession - putting his grandson Philip V on the Spanish throne!!! The Spanish Habsburg line was dead - long live the Spanish Bourbon - who still rule Spain to this day!!!
And the Austrian Habsburgs?! They will be swept away in the conflagration of WWI in 1918 - this too is a story for another day…
And now we know why we don’t start wars with Spain in the 17th century!!!
Next - 3 SUPER LONG summaries of French history 1789-1870 - the century that birthed Dumas!!!
THEN 6 reports from The Three Musketeers locations tomorrow!!!
And FINALLY Chapter 1 on June 11!!!
