THE Present State OF FRANCE Containing A General Description OF THAT KINGDOM Corrected and purged from the many Gross Mistakes in the French Copy enriched with Additional Observations and Remarks of the New Compiler and digested into a Method Conformable to that of The State of ENGLAND By R. W. M. A. LONDON Printed for Gilbert Cownly at the Popes-Head in the Lower-Walk of the New-Exchange in the Strand 1687. TO THE Right Honourable RICHARD Lord Vicount Preston IN THE Kingdom of SCOTLAND And One of his Majesties Most Honourable Privy-Council MY LORD THis being my first Essay in Print I thought I could not but in duty present it to your Lordship as being a Description of that Renowned Court and Kingdom wherein your Lordship as upon a Most Illustrious Theater Signaliz'd your Self with so much Reputation to your Self and Country and Mutual Satisfaction to those great Princes between whom you were so successful an Instrument of that good Correspondence that has not a little Contributed to the Happiness of Both Monarchies the most Flourishing at present of Europe And indeed France my Lord being the Place too wherein I was honoured and made happy by so many of your Lordship's Favours what more Congruous Mark could I give you of the Lasting and deeply Impressed Sense I have of them than the Present I humbly make you of France it Self or at least of this small Prospect of so vast a Monarchy A Present which though perhaps inconsiderable on the account of the Imperfections it may have contracted from it's Author will I hope be grateful in respect of its noble Subject and by your accustomed Goodness be accepted as a Cordial Testimony of the real Gratitude and Profound Respect I have and shall ever preserve for your Honour of whom I am My Lord The most humble and most devoted Servant R. Wolley THE PREFACE TO THE READER Courteous Reader YOV have in this Treatise the Portraicture of a great and Flourishing Monarchy viz. The Present State of France as it now is under the Government of the Potent and Victorious Prince Lewis the Fourteenth Sirnamed the Great It is very different from that which formerly appeared under the same Title and though a great deal of the matter be taken out of the latest and best Edition of the French Author on that subject yet it is not altogether a Translation and for your better and clearer understanding of what is remarkable in a Country of the particularities of which our Nation above all others is most curious I have Explained all Passages needing Explication added many Observations of my own made during ten Years Travel and Converse in that Magnificent and splendid Court and digested the Whole into a Method as conformable as the matter would suffer to that observed by the Worthy and Ingenious Author of The Present State of England and consequently if I be not mistaken rendred both the Book and the Country much more intelligible to an English Reader than it was before when it was so far from being Illustrated that it was hardly half Translated and left in many of the most material Places almost as much French as in the Original and done in a very perplexed Method which allay'd much the Pleasure of the Reader who I hope will peruse this with more satisfaction and delight Farewel ☞ Note That l. after the several Summs signifies Livers which is something more in value than eighteen pence English and that d. signifies Deniers or Sols which is in value somewhat loss than a Penny English THE Present State OF FRANCE Of France in general CHAP. I. Of its Name Climate Dimensions Divisions Air Soil Commodities Riches Trade Moneys Weight Measures and Buildings THIS Famous Country has its present Name as by most Authors is agreed from the Franci or Franks a People of Germany who seized upon those parts of it nearest the Rhine in the time of Valentinian the Third and having afterward subdued Paris and made it the Seat-Royal of their growing Empire caused the Country thereabouts to be called FRANCE Which Name as they enlarged their Borders they communicated to the rest of the Country and those parts of Germany also that were Conquered by them The Ancient Name was Gallia or Gaul and the people were called Galli or Gauls and with those that write in Latin the ancient name is still in use It is scituated between the degrees of 15 and 29 of Longitude and between 42 and 51 of Latitude in the Northern Temperate Zone between the middle Parallel of the fifth Clime where the longest day is 15 hours and 12 Minutes and the middle Parallel of the Eighth Clime where the longest day is 16 hours and a half It is bounded on the North with the Brittish Ocean and some parts of the Netherlands on the South with part of the Pyrenean Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea on the East with a branch of the Alps and the Countries of Savoy Switzerland and some parts of Germany and the Rhine and on the West by the Aquitanian Sea and the rest of the Pyrenean Mountains The figure of it is according to most squarish and to others roundish or tending to an Oval but all agree that it is almost of equal extent every way and much about 200 Leagues or 600 Miles according to the common account of 3 Miles to a League which is an account by which most Geographers mightily inlarge the extent of other Countries and make England much less than it is for I have observed they reckon all by 3 Miles to a common League whereas I never could find that a common French League was more than 2 common Miles and if it be said that in some places they have much longer Leagues that is balanced by answering that in some parts of England there are likewise very long Miles An eminent Geographer reckons it 660 Italian Miles in length 570 in breadth and 2040 in compass and makes it contain 200 Millions of Arpens of Land which is a measure something more than an Acre The Ancient Gallia or Gaul was distinguisht by several Divisions but as not intending a History but only a short Description I shall take notice of but only two made by the Romans after they became Masters of this Country from the time of Julius Caesar by whom it was divided into these four parts viz. 1. Narbonensis is called so from the City of Narbon then a Roman Colony containing Languedoc Provence Dauphiny and some part of Savoy called also Braccata from the wild habit worn by the people 2. Aquitanica so called from the City of Aquae Augustae now D' Acqu's in Guienne lying upon the Pyrenees and the wide Ocean comprehending the Provinces of Gascoyn Guienne Xiantoygne Limosin Quercy Perigort Berry Bourbonnois and Auvergne extending from the Pyrenees to the River Loyre 3. Celtica so named from the valiant Nation of the Celtae also Lugdunensis from the City of Lyons and Comata from the long hair
the Houshold When the King has at any time received the Communion he presents to the Priest a Cup of Wine for his Majesty and at the same time a Napkin to the King to wipe his Mouth But if a Prince of the Blood or any Prince Legitimated be present then that Prince presents the Napkin The first Master of the Houshold or the Master of the Houshold then in Waiting goes along with the Broth that is carried to the King when he takes any He receives the Kings Orders concerning his Majesties Diet and the hours he prescribes for his Repasts and gives notice of them to the Officers of the Goblet and of the Mouth The next Officer is the Master of the Houshold in Ordinary who has yearly 1200 l. ordinary Wages 1420 l. Liveries and 60 l. for the Counters In the absence of the first Master of the Houshold he doth the same Functions as he both in the Kings-Office or Counting-House and in his Household It was Order'd in 1669. that whenever the King being at a Ball a Comedy a Balet or an Opera or the like should take a Collation without sitting down at Table that the Master of the Houshold in Ordinary should serve his Majesty In the absence of the Captain of the Guards he renders for him the same Honours at the Great Masters Table There are twelve more Masters of the Houshold that wait three and three by quarters who formerly had 900 l. a piece yearly of the Treasurers of the Houshold but now they have but 450 l. besides which they have at the Chamber of Deniers each Man 300 l. at the end of their quarters waiting and 64 l. for Counters besides several other profits and he that serves the Dauphin in the same quality has 225 l. Wages at the Treasure-Royal and 150 l. more at the end of his quarters waiting out of the Chamber of Deniers His Majesty by a Declaration in April 1654. reduced the number of the Masters of the Houshold to twelve and that of the Gentlemen-Walters or Servitors to thirty six By another Declaration of the 17th of October The Masters of the Houshold are stiled Counsellers and Masters in Ordinary of the Houshold Knights and Squires They may bear their Coats of Arms timbred and enjoy as do their Widows after them an exemption from all manner of Taxes and Impositions whatever They have a Command over all the Offices called the seven Offices and in the Kings House when they Conduct the Meat to his Table they carry Staves garnished with silver and gilt Vermilion having on the tops a Crown set with Flower-deluces They present to the King the first wet Napkin with which his Majesty washes his hands before he eats and they yield this honour to none but the Princes of the Blood the Legitimated Children of France and the Great Master They are present at all business that passes in the Kings Office or Counting-House as we shall show afterward In the absence of the first Master or Master in Ordinary they go every Night to ask his Majesty what hours he will please to eat at next day and especially when the Court is upon a Journey they ask the King the time and place he would please to dine at that they may give Order to the Officers of the Goblet and of the Mouth to provide accordingly The Officers of the seven Offices and several others that are accustomed to take the Oath of Fidelity in the presence of the Great Master may take it in an Assembly of this Office and then those who preside there which are the Master of the Houshold in Ordinary or the Masters of the Houshold then in Waiting may in the absence of the Great Master or the first Master receive the said Oaths of Fidelity On Fish-Dayes a Master of the Houshold is to be present at the taking in of the Fish When the King is to give any Holy or Blessed Bread in any Parish or Society the Master of the Houshold in Waiting that day holding his Staff in his hand is to accompany the Holy Loaves to the Church which are commonly six in number The Almoner that goes to present them from his Majesty marches between the Master of the Houshold and the Comptroller at whose left hand goes the Treasurer of the Offerings The Masters of the Houshold keep the Table called the Masters of the Housholds Table or else eat at the Table of the ancient Great Master and at the Dauphins they keep the Table of His Highnesses Ser-d'eau or Water-server that is his Deserver or Voider that takes away when Meals are done Of the Great Pantler Cup-Bearer and Carver These three Officers are always present at great Ceremonies where they have Rank as they had at the Kings Coronation c. They have 600 l. a year each as Wages paid them on the Book of the establishment of the Household in which they are only stiled First Pantler First Cup-bearer and First Vsher-Carver We shall tell you their Offices in speaking of the Gentlemen-Waiters or Servitors who daily their Functions The present Great Pantler is Timoleon Count de Cosse of which Office it is observable that there remains still an ancient Custom in the Kings House that upon every New-Years-Day and on the four principal Feasts in the Year as soon as the King is gone out of his Chamber to go to Mass the Serdeau or Voider cries aloud three times either out of a Balcony or from the Stairs head M. such a one Great Pantler of France lay the Cloth for the King The Great Cup-bearer is an Office set up instead of the Great Bottler or Butler which was antiently one of the Principal Officers of the Crown from the time of Charles the Great to a considerable time after the rise of the Kings of the third Race he used to Sign all Charters and Letters Patents and to be present at all Assemblies as other great Officers are The Great Vsher-Carver is the last of the three The Great Pantler has a Jurisdiction at the Palace which is at Paris what Westminster-Hall has here as we shall shew further when we come to speak of that All the Bakers of Paris are obliged on every next Sunday after the Epiphany to go and do homage to the Great Pantler between the hands of his Lieutenant-General and to pay him as they call it the good Denier Besides all Master-Bakers newly made free are bound likewise to come and present the Rosemary-Pot to the Lieutenant-General for the Great Pantler Of the Gentlemen-Waiters The Gentlemen-Waiters perform by turns the Functions of the three next abovenamed Officers They are always called Gentlemen-Waiters to the King because they serve none but Crowned Heads Princes of the Blood and Soveraign Princes when the King is pleased to entertain them In the Letters Patents for their places they are stiled Esquires and by a Declaration of the King of the 17th of October 1656. they may take the Titles of Knights and Esquires
on the Boards betake themselves presently to their Arms and make a Lane towards the Entry into the said Guard Chamber to do honour to those Great Persons as they pass and as for their Captains they Conduct them also all along the Guard-Chamber as far as the Door of the Anti-Chamber The Sentinel is not to suffer any Souldier of the Regiment of Foot-Guards to come into the Guard Chamber with his Bandoleer nor any of the Great Provosts Guards with their Jackets or Hoquetons nor any Lackeys or Livery-men If a Guard keep a Door through which one has a mind to pass one ought not to open it ones self though the Guard be at a distance from it but to call civilly to the Guard to open it The Life-Guards go every Morning at six a Clock and take the Keys of the Gates of the principal Court of the Royal Palace where the King lies which they keep from that time till six at Night when the Guards of the Scotch Company take it of them as we have already shewed At six a Clock at Night the Exempt leads up the Company to the Gate that is to keep Guard there all night with a Tierce of the Scotch Company and then all the other Guards retire as well those of the Gate as those belonging to the Provost of the Houshold They lie all in the Court of Guard and from six a Clock at Night that the Guards of the Gate are relieved there is but one Scotch Sentinel at the Gate till the King be in Bed after which the Brigadeer adds another Sentinel out of a French Company and this double Sentinel that is to watch all Night is to be relieved every hour by the Brigadeer There is also a Sentinel placed every night at the Door of the Guard-Chamber which should be relieved every hour but commonly by agreement among themselves he that is first placed there having watched half the night wakes another Guard who is to do Duty the remaining part of the night and so goes to Bed Always both day and night there are Sentinels drawn out of the Foot-Guards placed without the outward Gates of the Kings House as we shall show in due place If in the night time when all the Gates and Doors are shut there happens to come a Courier or any other person charged with business of consequence to the King that is not to be delayed the Guard that stands Sentinel is to tell it the Exempt who is to go and tell the Captain and then the Brigadeer with a Torch in his hand and the Exempt and the Captain with two other Torches carried before them go all together to the Kings Lodgings and calling upon the Chief Gentleman of the Bed Chamber desire of him to know of his Majesty whether he be pleased to admit the said Courier or other Person to his Speech and Presence When an Exempt goes to relieve the Watch he is allowed half a Pistol a day for his Diet. The King ordinarily allows the Queen twelve of his French Guards with an Exempt and six Suissers There are several Boys and Servants belonging to the Life-Guards to make their Beds go on Errands and fetch necessaries c. After having spoken of the Life-Guards it will not be improper to insert in this place The Order observed in the Kings March when he goes abroad either a Foot in a Coach or on Horseback and the rank and place then observed by the several Officers about his Majesty When the King goes forth of his Palace in a Coach with two Horses and Accompanied with his Officers this is the Order observed by them 1. First The Guards of the Gate with their Officers at the head of them betake themselves to their Arms and draw themselves up towards the Gate within the nearest Court to the Palace making there a Lane for his Majesty to pass through 2. Secondly The Souldiers of the Foot Companies then upon Duty both of the French and Suisse-Guards with their Officers at the head of them and their Colonels with their Pikes in their hands make a Lane for the King to pass in the middle of them from the going out of the nearest Court to the Palace on the out-side as far as ever they can reach the French Guards placing themselves on the right hand and the Suissers on the left 3. Thirdly The hundred Suissers march in two Banks at the head of the Coach-Horses and before them march the Guards of the Provost of the Houshold And the Porte-Manteau or Cloak-Bearer marches alone at the head of the Horses between the two Suissers that close the two Ranks of the hundred Suissers The Footmen march on both sides the forepart of the Coach from the Horses heads to the forepart of each Boot or Door of the Coach and two of them hold up only the two Fore-Buttons of the said Boots or Doors unless it be when the Life-Guards are on Horseback and then four of them hold up all the four Buttons And when the Queen is in the Coach with the King the Kings Footmen keep at the right Boot or Door and the Queens at the left and when the King sends the Footman that holds one of the Buttons any where his next Companion takes it up The Life-Guards march behind and on each side the Coach from the hinder-part of each Boot or Door backwards and if they be on foot the two foremost of them hold up the hinder Buttons or Tassels of each Boot or Door The Officer in chief of the Life-Guards marches behind the Coach on the right hand having the Querry in Waiting for that day on his left At Entries made into Cities the Trumpeters of the Chamber march likewise at the head of the Kings Coach-Horses The Pages of the Chamber get up behind the Coach or if it be night the Pages of the little Stable ride on Horseback before the Coach-Horses with each of them a Flambo in his hand because the King commonly marches something fast he is pleased to permit some of his own and of the Queens Footmen to get up behind his Coach When the King makes any solemn Cavalcade and rides in State as at his Majority and at his publick Entries into any great Towns or Cities his Footmen run on each side of him from his Stirrup to his Horses head and the Life-Guards march likewise on each side from his Stirrup backwards When the King walks on Foot through the Courts of his Palace or in the Streets he is Accompanied by a good number of his French and Suisse Life-Guards and of the Great Provosts Guards but when he is going into any of his Gardens to walk there all the said Guards withdraw and let him go save only some few French Life-Guards and some Officers that follow him But when the King goes out in his Coach or on Horseback as he most commonly does the Life-Guards both French and Suissers come out of their Guard-Chambers in the Palace and make a
and the Dukes and Peers of France At the Funeral Obsequies of Kings he marches side by side in an equal Rank with the Archbishop of Paris Whilst he injoys this Dignity he wears a Violet-Coloured Girdle the trimming of his Gloves is also of Violet-Colour His solemn Habit is a Violet-Coloured Gown with a silk Girdle of the same Colour with golden Tassels at the end of which hangs a Purse of Violet-Coloured Velvet called an Escarcelle trimmed with gold Buttons and Galoon He wears over his Gown a little Mantle of white Ermine which reaches down round about half way his Arms. This Dignity is Elective and lasts but three Months unless it be thought convenient as sometimes it happens to continue it to one Person two or three times together The Faculty of Arts is divided into four Nations which are 1. The Nation of France 2. The Nation of Picardie 3. The Nation of Normandy And 4. The Nation of Germany The Titles or Epithetes assumed by these several Nations when their Proctor speaks for them in publick Assemblies are 1. Honoranda Gallorum Natio the Honourable Nation of the French 2. Fidelissima Picardorum Natio the most Loyal or Faithful Nation of the Picards 3. Veneranda Normannorum Natio the Venerable Nation of the Normans And 4. Constantissima Germanorum Natio the most constant Nation of the Germans The three superiour Faculties likewise when they speak have their peculiar Titles for the Faculty of Divinity stiles it self Sacra Theologiae Facultas the Sacred Faculty of Divinity the Faculty of Law Consultissima Decretorum Facultas the most wise Faculty of the Decrees and the Faculty of Physick Saluberrima Medicorum Facultas the most wholsome Faculty of the Physicians There are in this University many Colledges in which are maintain'd several Regents and Lecturers and Professours that teach the Humanities or Learning of the lesser Schools which they do by Classes and the Sciences Tongues and Philosophy So that in this University is taught all in one House whatever is taught both in the inferiour Schools and Universities of England So that there is no need of fitting youth before-hand in inferiour Schools for Universities in France as in England they running through the whole Circle of Learning in one Colledge where for better help to youth there is a different Regent in every Classis which are all in distinct Rooms and they have Preceptors or Tutors besides to help them in their Exercises There are maintain'd in these Colledges too some few Foundation Scholars called Boursiers or Bursers but the Colledges subsist most by Pensioners or Borders and it is free for any of what Nation soever to lie any where in the Town and yet go and learn in the Classes and hear Lectures upon doing which they have as much priviledge to take their Degrees as those that reside in Colledges so that the number of Students lying in the Town dost vastly exceed that of those that reside in Colledges And the number of them is indeed prodigiously great the Youth not only of all Provinces of France but of all other Europaean Nations flocking hither to study Besides what is performed in the Colledges that depend of the University There are likewise Lecturers and Professors of Royal Foundation for teaching of the Oriental Tongues viz. The Greek Hebrew Arabian Syriack Caldean Samaritan and other Tongues as also the Mathematicks and Physick as also Philosophy Rhetorick and the Latin Tongue all which are performed in the Royal Colledge by Professors paid by the King Philosophy is also taught there in French by some Persons as of late by the deceased M. de L' Eclache with success enough There are also Academies for Natural Philosophy Some parts of the Mathematicks are also taught there by private Men as Geography by Mr. Sanson and others c. There are also many Masters of the Modern and living Tongues It is also worth our remark that at certain times in the year there are several particular and extraordinary Exercises performed in Paris As in the Nave of the Church of St. Germains Abby there is every Sunday a Flemish Sermon Preached at half an hour past two in the Afternoon a Latin Sermon at the Great Cordeliers Church on St. Bonaventures Day as likewise at the Augustins Bernardins and Jacobins on the Days of St. Austin St. Bernard and St. Dominick and on the Day of Quasimodo there is a High Mass sung in Greek in the Cordeliers Church for the Confraternity of the Pilgrims of Jerusalem and of the Holy Sepulcher in the middle of which there is a Greek Sermon Likewise Note that in the Colledge of Beauvais and in that only there are every Year publick Acts and Disputations in Greek CHAP. LIV. Of the Historiographers of France THE Office of Historiographer of France is possest or pretended to by three sorts of persons viz. 1. Those that actually write as such and are Entred upon the Kings Books for such 2. Such as though they be enterd as such upon the Kings Books have as yet written nothing and thirdly Such as have only taken out Patents but are not enterd in the Book or such as only assume the title I shall mention only those of the first sort which are 1. The two Brothers de St. Marthe who have given to the publick a general History of the Prelates of France in four Volumns under the Title of Gallia Christiana and continue the Genealogicat History of the House or Royal Family of France containing and including all the Sovereign Families of Europe as likewise the Genealogical History of the House of Tremoille and several other Works 2. M. de Chêne Son of the Famous Andrew du Chêne who has published the Continuation of the Historians of France begun by his Father and the History of the Cardinals and Chancellours of France Other Writers that though they have not the Title of Historiographers yet write Histories and other commendable Curiosities are M. Blenchard M. Justel the two Valois M. de la Roque M. Doujat M. de Varillas and several others The Journal des Sçavans or Philosophical Transactions is done by the Abbot de la Roque The Journal of the Palace by M. Blondeau and M Gueret The Mercury Gallant by M. Vizè CHAP. LV. Of the Academy of France or Society of the Virtuosi THis Famous Company or Society of Learned Men which is in France what the Royal Society is in England and is called the French Academy was Instituted by Letters Patents granted by the late King Lewis the Thirteenth Verified in Parliament in the Month of July 1637. The King has been pleased in the said Patents to grant them the same Priviledges as his own Domestick Officers enjoy Their Causes are committed to the Masters of Requests of the Houshold or else of the Palace at Paris by vertue of a Committimus under the Great Seal they are exempt from being Administratours or Guardians and from doing service at the Guards of the Gates of the Towns