Duel La Frette - Chalais

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 1663 , the duel between the Marquis de La Frette and the Prince de Chalais with six other combatants took place in Paris , in which one participant was killed and three others injured. The survivors fled into exile, their careers were over and, according to the sources, none of them got married or had children afterwards.

Involved

The following were involved in the duel :

On the one hand:

  • Gaston-Jean-Baptiste de Gruel, Marquis de La Frette, son of Pierre de Gruel, Seigneur de La Frette, and Barbe Servien
  • Nicolas de Gruel, Marquis de Warty et d'Amilly, his half-brother, illegitimate son of Pierre de Gruel
  • Pierre de Beauvilliers, dit le Chevalier de Saint-Aignan , son of François Honorat de Beauvilliers , Comte and in 1663 1st Duc de Saint-Aignan, and Antoinette Servien, a cousin of Gaston de Gruels
  • François de Grossolles, Marquis de Flamarens, son of Antoine Agésilas de Grossolles, Marquis de Flamarens, and Françoise Le Hardy de la Trousse

On the other hand:

  • Adrien Blaise de Talleyrand, since 1644 Prince de Chalais, Marquis d'Exciseuil, born April 26, 1638, son of Charles II. De Talleyrand, Prince de Chalais, and Charlotte de Pompadour; ⚭ 1659 Marie-Anne de La Trémoille , * 1642, daughter of Louis V. de La Trémoille, Duc de Noirmoutier, Pair de France , and Julie Renée Aubery
  • Louis Alexandre de la Trémoille, dit le Marquis de Noirmoutier , * 1642, son of Louis V. de La Trémoille, Duc de Noirmoutier, Pair de France , and Julie Renée Aubery, Talleyrand's brother-in-law
  • Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin, Marquis d'Antin, son of Roger Hector de Pardaillan de Gondrin , Marquis d'Antin, and Marie Christine Zamet
  • Tanneguy de Hangest, Viscount d'Argenlieu, attested in 1641 as a page in the Grande Écurie du Roi , son of Louis de Hangest, Viscount d'Argenlieu, and Marie Lallemant

background

When he was sworn in, Louis XIV was the first king to swear by the ban on duels that his father had enacted in 1626 and whose violation was threatened with execution. But it was only after Jules Mazarin's death in 1661 that Louis XIV really took over power. In September of the same year he had Nicolas Fouquet arrested, who had used the state treasury to build Vaux-le-Vicomte , and it became clear that he would react equally harshly to gross violations of other legal regulations. And especially the dueling popular with the nobility had become a provocation and thus a risk.

The duel

The oldest written account of the duel between the Marquis de La Frette and the Prince de Chalais comes from Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras , who in 1688 published the memories of an invented Monsieur le Comte de Rochefort in his Mémoires de MLCDR , in which there is a mixture is based on facts and fiction, which can often not be separated, but which have been and are in parts taken seriously. His key messages about the duel have always been used and the events themselves are deeply anchored in the collective memory of France.

At the beginning of his report there is a (fictional) encounter between the first-person narrator and the Marquis de La Frette two or three weeks before the four versus four duel, which begins with La Frette's provocations and leads to the intended duel, which is three versus three , goes out lightly and can also be kept under the covers; In this passage, the character of La Frette is described as that of an immature bully who only depends on the next duel, and who differs from his friends from the bored court nobility only in that he is the driving force.

The rest of the report is almost entirely that of an outsider: two or three weeks later there was a ball at the Palais Royal . While leaving the palace after the end of the ball, La Frette met Mr de Chalais, with whom he was angry because of a mistress. There was a jostle, a derogatory remark followed, and only the fact that you were unarmed at a ball prevented a fight from occurring here. Outside, a three-on-three duel was agreed for the next morning. Louis XIV found out about this appointment and sent the Chevalier de Saint-Aignan to forbid La Frette from the duel and to threaten to "cut his neck" if he violated it. La Frette replied that, out of loyalty to his friends, he could not cancel a duel that had been scheduled for which one would only wait for daybreak, adding that it was better for Chalais to "be himself", so join them. He will quickly find a duel partner for himself. Although Chalais was traveling on behalf of the king, he accepted La Frette's suggestion.

The duel was fatal for the Marquis d'Antin, the other three of his group were only injured, the victory was won by the men around La Frette unharmed. Because of the dead person, this duel could no longer be concealed. The strict law that Louis XIV had sworn by, and which provided for all those involved to be held accountable as murderers, came into effect. The king was furious, especially at the Chevalier de Saint-Aignan, who was on his behalf and had switched sides. "By removing their offices from the king, he demonstratively encouraged his judiciary to persecute them ..."

It was clear to the participants that they would have to leave the country for some time, undetected, because the king had given orders to guard the city gates and national borders and to arrest the fugitives. “A death sentence was quickly passed that was not carried out because all seven survivors had long since left abroad.” “Nobody pityed the Chevalier de Saint-Aignan, everyone thought he was better off than he was earned. Messrs. La Frette did not excite much pity either, since they had always shown themselves so quarrelsome that one could only compare them with vicious horses that others would not tolerate in the stable. ”The remaining five were ready to be forgiven in Paris, and wish the king would show less harshness.

The fate of the duelists

As men of the aristocracy, they had haughtily expected to survive a period of exile while the families at court would set the process of rehabilitation in motion. But Ludwig didn't want to play the game. So the banishment was final.

  • The Duke of Saint-Aignan renounced his son because “his son's guilt was of nature never to be forgiven: if he knew where he was, he would be the first to betray him to him to make the process ”. The Chevalier de Saint-Aignan died the following year in the 4th Austrian Turkish War .
  • Chalais-Talleyrand first hid on the family's estates in the Saintonge , but then fled to Spain and served the Habsburgs in the fight against Portugal. On June 17, 1665 he took part in the Battle of Montes Claros near Vila Viçosa , which was a crushing defeat for the Spaniards and ended their attempts to conquer Portugal. Chalais was seriously injured by two saber blows to the head and was taken prisoner. He died on August 16, 1670 penniless in Mestre near Venice after his liberation after the conclusion of peace and partial recovery from his wife from France .
  • Noirmoutier fought in the same battle on the Portuguese side under Friedrich von Schomberg ; it fell in March 1667, before the end of the Restoration War .
  • Flamarens fled to England, where he had previously enjoyed the protection of Charles II , then to Spain, where he lived on a meager pension from 2000 Écu and died in Burgos in 1706 .
  • The fate of Argenlieu is unknown, he did not appear again after his escape.

The half-brothers Gruel (La Frette and Warty) had fled to Rome. Her family did not dare to address the king in their favor either, but otherwise took advantage of all the opportunities they had at their disposal, one of which was particularly promising: Charles d'Albert d'Ailly , the Duke of Chaulnes, was with Elisabeth Le Féron married, who was not only the half-sister of La Frettes - both had the same mother with Barbe Servien - but also his stepmother - Elisabeth Le Féron had had a short marriage to the widower and father La Frettes after the death of her mother. When the Duke of Chaulnes was the extraordinary envoy of France to the Holy See both at the conclave 1667 and at the conclave 1669-1670 , in which the Popes Clement IX. or Clemens X. were elected, and in whose election he played a major role, Elisabeth saw her chance come, albeit only in 1670 with Clemens X.

Courtilz writes: “The Duchess of Chaulnes forced her husband, who was ambassador in Rome, to speak to the Pope about it, and although the Holy Father had to agree to the relentlessness of the King in this regard, he could not help but help him Promise Matter "- especially since" the Pope had the power to free the King from his oath ", which he had taken in relation to duels. The diplomatic channels were used, the king refused without offending the pope, and he was satisfied with it, especially since the decision was in his favor.

The Duke of Saint-Simon remembers differently: according to him, the king promised the Pope to let her return to France. They should live freely in Paris and be able to dispose of their property, but under a different name. So they returned and were announced and called with their names everywhere, but they were not wearing livery or weapons and were not seen in any public place. One wrote to them everywhere at their address and under their name, even in Paris. They lived under the tacit protection of the king, who for form pretended not to know them.

Furthermore, Saint-Simon recalls: “Then there was an affair in which Flamarin, the premier Maître d'Hôtel of Monsieur , was required so that the entire Palais Royal was searched to find him. Monsieur complained to the king about this disrespect for him and happily added that this search offended him, when the La Frette (i.e. La Frette and his half-brother), who had been in Paris for several years, had never been asked about it, and the perverted everywhere with open faces. The King replied seriously that this could not be the case and when Monsieur insisted he assured him that he would be informed and that they would be arrested within 24 hours if they were in Paris. At the same time he warned them to go out for two or three days, after which they could go back to their daily routine, and ordered them to be looked for all over Paris. It was up to Monsieur to see that the King had made fun of him a little and gave him this obvious satisfaction. "

Carrol writes that when Louis XIV heard in 1683 that the two La Frettes had returned from exile, he ordered the governor and intendant of Guyenne to pursue the criminals and threatened to take action against him if he failed to do so.

These three statements outline the return of the two, but leave questions unanswered in detail, including the length of the period between 1670 and 1683.

The older La Frette died long before the younger. Both were unmarried, the younger one reached old age. Here, too, dates are not known.

literature

  • Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras , Mémoires de M. le comte de Rochefort , 3rd edition, 1689, p. 206ff ( online )
  • Charles-Jean-François Hénault , Abrégé chronologique de l'histoire de France ... , Paris, 1840, p. 272, original edition 1744
  • Voltaire , Le siècle de Louis XIV , 1751, Chapter VII.
  • Saint-Simon , Mémoires complets et authentiques du duc de Saint-Simon sur le siècle de Louis XIV et la Régence , ed. by Alfred Chéruel, Volume 6, Chapter 12, 1856, p 252f ( Wikisource )
  • Théodore Fougeroux de Campigneulles, Histoire des duels anciens et modern contenant le tableau de l'origine, des progrès et de l'esprit du duel en France et dans toutes les parties du monde , Volume 1, 1835, pp. 233ff
  • John Gideon Millingen, The History of Duelling , Volume 1, 1841, p. 165
  • Stuart Carroll, Blood and violence in Early Modern France , Oxford, 2006, pp. 326f
  • Leonhard Horowski , The Europe of Kings: Power and Play at the Courts of the 17th and 18th Centuries , Rowohlt, 2017

Remarks

  1. ↑ Hénault (1744), Voltaire (1751), Fougeroux (1835), Millingen (1841), Carroll (2006); Horowski gives the year 1662
  2. ^ A b Père Anselme , Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la Maison royale de France ... , 3rd edition, Volume 9, 1733, p. 216
  3. ↑ Louis Moréri , Le grand dictionnaire historique ... , Volume 5, 1759, p. 402
  4. ↑ Detlev Schwennicke , European Family Tables , Volume XXVIII, 2011, Plate 39
  5. ^ A b François-Alexandre Aubert de La Chenaye-Desbois , Dictionnaire de la noblesse, contenant les généalogies, l'histoire et la chronologie des familles nobles de France , 3rd edition, Volume 15, Paris, 1869, column 429ff
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h Horowski
  7. ^ "Ce fameux combat, qui eut lieu en 1663" (Voltaire) and "Fameux duel des deux La Frette" (Hénault to the year 1663)
  8. ↑ in a Jeu de Paume in the Rue de Vaugirard
  9. ↑ This fictitious duel at the Discalced Carmelites in the Rue de Vaugirard monastery held
  10. ↑ Horowski: a ball in the Palais des Tuileries of Monsieur , the brother of the king
  11. ↑ Horowski names a "Carthusian monastery in Faubourg Saint-Germain " (between the Hôtel des Invalides and the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés ) as the place of the duel ; the Carthusian monastery in Paris was in the southern part of the Jardin du Luxembourg
  12. ↑ a b c Courtilz
  13. ↑ a b c d Carroll
  14. ^ Carroll, Schwennicke
  15. ↑ Schwennicke
  16. ↑ a b Fougeroux
  17. ↑ Millingen
  18. ↑ a b c Saint-Simon