Monarchy and Religion: The Transformation of Royal Culture in Eighteenth-Century Europe
2008; Oxford University Press; Volume: CXXIII; Issue: 502 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/ehr/cen141
ISSN1477-4534
Autores Tópico(s)European Political History Analysis
ResumoIn March 1766, just after delivering a famous chastisement to the rambunctious Parlement of Paris, Louis XV was crossing the Pont Neuf when he encountered a religious procession carrying the viaticum. As the King descended from his carriage and knelt down in the mud before the passing Eucharist, the crowd around him cried out exultantly ‘Vive le Roi!'. Louis' gesture may have been politically motivated, but the reaction was typical. Throughout Europe in the eighteenth century, people liked to see rulers on their knees before God. Monarchs were usually eager to oblige. That point is made repeatedly in these essays, which originated in a conference organised by the German Historical Institute in London. The kings of France were religiously observant: so were the kings and queens of England, the emperors and empresses of Russia, the electors of Bavaria, all the Habsburgs and all but one of the kings of Prussia. Frederick II, the sole agnostic in this pious crew, appears at the end of the last essay, refusing to have a clergyman by his side in his dying moments. Depending on one's point of view, this might be interpreted either as a modern breath of fresh air or as a dreadful portent of materialism. It was certainly not an eighteenth-century trend. No other ruler died, or lived, without religious solace.
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