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- Philippe de Vitry was born on 31 October 1291 in Paris, France. Philippe was a composer, known for Aranymadár (1999). Philippe died on 9 June 1361 in Paris, France.
- The girl history would come to know as Joan of Arc was the youngest of 5 children born in Domrémy, Duchy of Bar (which Louis XV annexed in 1766 per the Treaty of Vienna after the passing of his father-in-law Stanislaus Leszczynski, the deposed king of Poland and the last Duc de Bar). She was 13 years when she began to hear voices and saw visions of Saints Catherine, Margaret, and Michael directing her to seek out the Dauphin. Around this time, her father was having a reoccurring dream of Joan leaving home with a group of soldiers -- which at the time meant only one thing. The dream was so vivid, he instructed his sons to kill her if she ever tried to leave home; and if they didn't, he would.
Ironically, it was her father contracting a marriage for Joan with a neighbor's boy which made her decide to accept her mission. When the boy sued for breach of contract, she traveled alone to Toul, the nearest diocese, to defend herself. Fortunately, the law was on her side: a woman could not be forced to marry against her will. In ruling in her favor, the judge called Joan "an extraordinary child". She returned to Toul a year later as Commander of the French Army.
In February 1429, the now-17-year-old used the pretense of traveling to Burey-le-Petit to care for her aunt into persuading her aunt's husband to take her to Vaucouleurs to attempt for a second time to gain an audience with the captain of the garrison, Robert de Baudricourt, whom, after increasing pressure from the townsfolk, agreed to provide her an escort to the Dauphin. The men Baudricourt provided, Jéan de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy, would become two of her generals.
What happened when she arrived at Chinon on March 6, 1429, became the stuff of legend. The Dauphin disguised himself as a courtier and had another courtier dressed as the Dauphin, however, she identified the real Dauphin immediately. After an examination by his clerics, the Dauphin furnished Joan with a small force and sent her to Orléans to assist in lifting the Siege, which his army had been contending with since October 1428.
Arriving on April 29th, she proceeded to whip the troops into shape: no more pillaging, profanity, or "camp followers", and each man was to attend Mass at least once a week. Since their humiliating loss at Agincourt (1415), the French had fought from a defensive posture; Joan went on the offensive. In what came to be known as The Audacious Attack, Joan snuck a small group into the town, then ordered them to regroup for an assault on the Siege Post, saving Orléans from capitulation. The commanders regarded her at first as little more than a glorified cheerleader, yet the rank-and-file loved her: she belonged to the same class as they and was willing to take the same risks she asked them to take. Her brothers Jéan and Pierre, sent by their father to bring her home, instead found themselves fighting under her banner.
The lifting of the Siege in just 9 days brought new recruits from all over France, eager to fight for The Maid. She scored victories at Jargeau (June 11-12), Meung-sur-Loire (June 15), Beaugency (June 16-17), and Patay (June 18), the most disastrous English defeat since Baugé (1421). In stark contrast to Agincourt, where the victorious Henry V had French POWs executed, Joan spared the lives of English POWs. At Patay, she came across a wounded English soldier who asked her if she would hear his confession. Comrades fearing her among the dead found Joan cradling the now-dead young man in her arms, weeping uncontrollably. The English did not win another major engagement for the rest of the Hundred Years' War.
Accepting the peaceful surrender of every town along her path, Joan, her army, and their Scottish allies escorted the Dauphin deep into English territory. On July 17th, he was crowned Charles VII at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims. This marked the height of her career, as she was stymied repeatedly by an apathetic Charles, who preferred to negotiate with the English and the Burgundians than capitalize on the momentum she had given him. He gave her just one day to take Paris, an impossible task made worse by his order that the pontoons her general Jéan de Alençon had built be destroyed. The fighting at Porte Saint-Honoré, main entry to Paris from the West, was brutal, even by medieval standards: Joan was wounded twice, and her standard bearer was killed. Alençon had to literally drag her away from the battle as she continued to direct action. Her "failure" to take Paris pummeled her standing at court, as Charles's scheming courtiers hoped. She was forced to abandon the Siege of La Charité (November 24-December 25) after her pleas for supplies and artillery fell on deaf ears. Joan and her family were ennobled on December 29th, officially, in acknowledgment for her service, but, in reality, to get her to go home.
On May 23, 1430, Joan and Pierre were captured by the Burgundians during the Siege of Compiègne, with Joan commanding 400 volunteers. Having ordered a retreat, she ushered her group through Compiègne's city gates, but the gates were closed before she, Pierre, and the rest of the rear guard could enter. Historians are divided as to if the gate were closed to prevent the Burgundians from entering, or if it was an act of treachery by Compiègne's governor. Pierre was released after his ransom was paid, ultimately marrying the daughter of the man who raised it.
Sold to the English after Charles did not pay her ransom, Joan was put on trial, paid for by the Duke of Bedford (regent for his and Charles's nephew, Henry VI). The judges were pro-English French clerics from the University of Paris, led by Bishop Pierre Cauchon (who was forced to flee his seat at Beauvais when Joan took the town). At the time of her capture, Joan was the most-famous person in all Christendom, so Cauchon (hoping to prove that Joan was a fraud) had the proceedings meticulously recorded. In something of an irony, Bedford's wife confirmed Joan's virtue, preventing Cauchon from trying her as a witch. After 15 interrogations in less than a month, followed by a "trial" which rubber-stamped the foregone conclusion, she was convicted of heresy and turned over to secular authorities. Bedford signed her death warrant, and she was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431, at the Vieux-Marché in Rouen before a crowd of 10,000, including 800 English soldiers who escorted her to the venue. One soldier gave her a cross fashioned from twigs and twine as his comrades wept, despite orders from their superiors to show no emotion.
It wasn't until 1450 that Charles ordered an inquiry into the "faults and abuses" committed by the judges whom "brought about her death iniquitously and against right reason, very cruelly". He knew that he owed Joan his throne, and if she was indeed a heretic, that made him a heretic as well. Hence, the inquiry had nothing to do with clearing her name and everything to do with legitimating his rule. Meanwhile, Joan's mother petitioned Pope Nicholas V for redress. Jéan Bréhal, inquisitor-general of France, was charged by the papal legate, Guillaume d'Estouteville, with reviewing the case. Bréhal urged the new pope, Callixtus III, to take up Joan's cause. On July 7, 1456, after a "retrial" at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Joan was declared a martyr, the victim of a political vendetta which violated canon law and cleared of all charges, however, her claims of divinity were not addressed. Callixtus excommunicated the now-deceased Cauchon in 1457.
Her popularity grew over the centuries, yet not everyone was a fan. Shakespeare depicted her as a witch in "Henry VI, Part I". Voltaire mocked her in "The Maid of Oranges". The Revolutionaries who overthrew Louis XVI banned the yearly celebration of the lifting the Siege of Orléans, destroyed her relics, and turned her statues into cannons. It was only after Napoléon declared her a national symbol of France that she was on her way to becoming universally revered. On May 16, 1920, Joan was canonized by Pope Benedict XV. A gold halo was placed over the head of her statue at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris as Parisians, whose ancestors fought Joan at Porte Saint-Honoré, crammed the streets in celebration.
In the years immediately following her death, several women came forward claiming to be Joan; in 1434, Jéan and Pierre recognized one named Claude. For the next 6 years, the brothers and their "sister" traveled from town to town, receiving lavish gifts from Joan's many admirers, all of whom were desperate to believe she had escaped her fate. Then the trio made the mistake of visiting court. Unable to tell Charles the "secret" Joan told him, proving to him she that had been sent by God, Claude confessed to the subterfuge, and begged forgiveness. Jéan's fate is unknown. Pierre continued to serve in the Army. Claude married and had two children.
Clotilde Forgeot d'Arc, who played Joan in the 2022 celebration of the lifting of the Siege of Orléans, claims to be Pierre's descendant. However, this is disputed. Genealogist Michel de Sachy de Fourdrinoy wrote in "Bulletin de L'alliance Française" (October 1973) "there is no longer any known descendants of the brothers of the Maid", confirming scholar François de Bouteiller's findings published in "Revue des Questions Historiques" (1878) that Joan's great-great nephew Charles du Lys (d. 1632) was the "last remaining male of the line". Clotilde's great-great-grandfather, Henri Gaultier, renamed his children "d'Arc" after being granted an Ordonnance Royale by Charles X in 1827.
Joan's birthplace Domrémy was renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle ("The Maid") in 1578. - Louis XI of France was born on 3 July 1423 in Bourges, Berry [now Cher], France. He was married to Charlotte of Savoy and Margaret of Scotland. He died on 30 August 1483 in La Riche, Touraine [now Indre-et-Loire], France.
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Josquin Desprez was born in 1440 in France. He was a composer, known for When Will I Be Loved (2004), Vaya con Dios (2002) and Vai~E~Vem (2003). He died on 27 August 1521 in Condé-sur-l'Escaut, Nord, France.- Marguerite de Navarre was born on 11 April 1492 in Angoulême, Charente, France. Marguerite was a writer, known for Hry lásky sálivé (1971), L'Heptaméron (Joyeux compères) (1973) and Gli altri racconti di Canterbury (1972). Marguerite died on 21 December 1549 in Odos, Hautes-Pyrénées, France.
- François Rabelais was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He is primarily known as a writer of satire, of the grotesque, and of bawdy jokes and songs.
Ecclesiastical and anticlerical, Christian and considered by some as a free thinker, a doctor and having the image of a "Bon Vivant", the multiple facets of his personality sometimes seem contradictory. Caught up in the religious and political turmoil of the Reformation, Rabelais showed himself to be both sensitive and critical towards the great questions of his time. Subsequently, the views of his life and work have evolved according to the times and currents of thought. - Louise Labé was born in 1524 in Lyon, Rhône, France. Louise was a writer, known for Plain-chant (1970) and Symphonie de printemps (1963). Louise died on 25 April 1566 in Parcieux-en-Dombes, Ain, France.
- An apothecary before he began to practice the occult, Michel de Nostredame spent the early part of his career battling outbreaks of the bubonic plague in southern France, and northern Italy. Historians attribute his higher-than-average survival rates to his then-radical practice of personal hygiene, his insistence that patients be bathed and their homes cleaned, his refusal to enter a town until the bodies of plague victims were properly interred (it was routine for bodies to be stacked in the streets like cord-wood), and his refusal to bleed patients. In a cruel irony, he lost his wife and two children to the plague while he was in Italy. After several years, he eventually settled in Salon-de-Provence, married a wealthy widow, and had six children. He and his wife were investors in a canal project to use the Durance River to irrigate Salon-de-Provence and the Désert de la Crau, which de Nostredame hoped would further his efforts to promote sanitation.
Writing under the Latinized version of his surname "Nostradamus", he began publishing farmers almanacs containing his prophecies in 1550. In "The Prophecies" (1555-1558), a collection of quatrains in three volumes, believers claim he predicted the Great London Fire of 1666; the French Revolution; the rise of Napoléon Bonaparte, and Adolf Hitler; the atom bomb; the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy; the first Gulf War; the death of Princess Diana; the 9/11 attacks; and Hurricane Katrina. He also supposedly predicted that the United States and Russia would go to war against China. Among his supporters was Catherine de Médicis, consort of King Henri II, whose death in a jousting match he had predicted. She made de Nostredame Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to her son, King Charles IX.
After having his lawyer draft a last will, he told his secretary: "You will not find me alive at sunrise." The next morning, July 2, 1566, he was dead. De Nostredame was buried in the local Franciscan chapel, but was re-interred during the French Revolution in the Collégiale Saint-Laurent, where he remains.
In the 20th and 21st Centuries, he has been used as a touchstone in books, films, television shows, comic books, and video games. - Michel Eyquem, Sieur DE Montaigne (28 February 1533 - 13 September 1592), also known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with intellectual insight. Montaigne had a direct influence on numerous Western writers; his massive volume Essais contains some of the most influential essays ever written.
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Thoinot Arbeau was born on 17 March 1520 in Dijon, France. Thoinot died on 23 July 1595 in Langres, France.- Honoré d'Urfé was born on 11 February 1568 in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. Honoré was a writer, known for The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2007). Honoré was married to Diane de Châteaumorand. Honoré died on 1 June 1625 in Villafranca d'Asti, Piedmont, Italy.
- Samuel de Champlain was born in 1567 in Brouage, France. He was a writer, known for Dreams of a Land (1987). He was married to Hélène Boullé. He died on 25 December 1635 in Quebec, New France [now Canada].
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Louis XIII roi de France was born on 27 September 1601 in Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, France. Louis XIII was married to Anne of Austria. Louis XIII died on 14 May 1643 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Yvelines, France.- Additional Crew
- Writer
René Descartes (Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 - 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, scientist and lay Catholic who invented analytic geometry, linking the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra. He spent a large portion of his working life in the Dutch Republic, initially serving the Dutch States Army of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange and the Stadtholder of the United Provinces. One of the most notable intellectual figures of the Dutch Golden Age, Descartes is also widely regarded as one of the founders of modern philosophy.- Cyrano de Bergerac was born on 6 March 1619 in Paris, France. Cyrano was a writer, known for La cometa naranja (1974). Cyrano died on 28 July 1655 in Sannois, France.
- Tristan L'Hermite was born in 1601 in Janaillat, Creuse, France. Tristan was a writer, known for Catalogue of Ships (2008). Tristan died on 7 September 1655 in Paris, France.
- Blaise Pascal was born on 19 June 1623 in Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dôme, France. Blaise was a writer, known for Portrait souvenir (1960), Kaléidoscopes (2012) and Pensées de Blaise Pascal (2016). Blaise died on 19 August 1662 in Paris, France.
- Jacob Balde was born on 4 January 1604 in Ensisheim, Haut-Rhin, France. He was a writer, known for Melancholia (2014). He died on 9 August 1668 in Neuburg an der Donau, Bavaria, Germany.
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Born between January 13 and January 15 of the year 1622, from a 25yo tapestry-maker, Jean Poguelin (who worked for the King of France from 1631), and a 20yo woman, Marie Cresé, in Paris, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin lost his mother when he was 10. From 1638 to 1640, he studied in the Jesuit college of Clermont, then started a brief lawyer career and pursued his father's work under Louis XIII, especially in Narbonne, until the King's death in 1643, when Jean-Baptiste co-founded L'Illustre Théâtre, installed at the jeu de paume des Métayers (faubourg Saint-Germain, Paris). He chose his nom-de-plume Molière in 1644 but his company had some financial difficulties due to a lack of success: Molière was imprisoned twice in 1645 for debts. The troupe moved several times in different parts of France (Lyon, Grenoble, Dijon, Narbonne...) and they became the troupe of the Prince de Conti in 1653 (in Pézenas, Languedoc).
In 1654, Molière presented his first play, "L'Etourdi", in Lyon, then "Le Dépit amoureux" in Béziers in 1656. But the same year the troupe lost its grants from de Conti, who was becoming extremely unfavorable to theater creation. Back to Paris in 1658, under the protection of the King's brother, they played "Nicomède" and "Le Docteur amoureux" at the Vieux-Louvre in front of the King (Louis XIV) and his court. Louis XIV offered Molière to play at the Petit-Bourbon where his first 2 plays eventually had great success. In 1659, Molière presented his third play, "Les Précieuses Ridicules". After his younger brother's death, Molière re-took in charge the familial tapestry-making business and kept it until his death. The same year, he presented "Sganarelle ou le Cocu imaginaire" and the troupe was moved to the Palais-Royal. Rival comedians tried to divide Molière's troupe but failed. Molière successively presented "L'Ecole des maris" in 1661 and "L'Ecole des femmes" in 1662.
He married Armande Béjart in 1662 (the year Molière and his troupe were accepted at the King's court), they had a son Louis in 1664 (Louis XIV was his godfather) but the latter died before his first birthday. The same year, members of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement tried to ban Molière's play "Le Tartuffe" but it was shown in May. Molière's troupe also presented Jean Racine's first play "La Thebaïde" then "Alexandre" the following year, but the troupe learnt that Racine made his play been performed elsewhere too, which brought a tension between the two authors. Armande gave birth to their daughter Esprit-Madeleine in 1665. Molière premiered "Dom Juan" in 1665, "Le Misanthrope" and "Le Médecin malgré lui" in 1666. In 1667 the troupe plaid Pierre Corneille's "Attila" and Molière's "L'Imposteur", which was only presented once because immediately banned. Molière had his first health problems. The troupe presented "Amphitryon", "George Dandin" and "L'Avare" in 1668, "Tartuffe" again in 1669 (the year Molière's father died), "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme" in 1670, "Les Fourberies de Scapin" and "Psyché" in 1671, "Les Femmes savantes" in 1672.
Molière had a quarrel with Jean-Baptiste Lully in 1672 over the right of using music in plays since Lully ruled the music utilization with his "académie royale de musique". Molière's second son, Pierre-Jean-Baptiste-Armand, was born the same year but died a few days after his baptism. In February 1673, during the 4th performance of his last play, "Le Malade Imaginaire", Molière fell and died a few hours later in his house (rue de Richelieu, Paris). His wife obtained from the King the right to bury his corpse in a cemetery, which was normally unauthorized for a comedian. Her daughter was his only child to live long enough to have children but didn't, therefore Molière had no direct descendants.- Pierre Corneille was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine.
As a young man, he earned the valuable patrionate of Cardinal Richelieu, who was trying to promote classical tragedy along formal lines, but later quarrelled with him, especially over his best-known play, Le Cid, about a medieval Spanish warrior, which was denounced by the newly formed Académie française for breaching the unities. He continued to write well-received tragedies for nearly forty years. - Writer
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Philippe Quinault was born on 3 June 1635 in Paris, France. He was a writer, known for Aria (1987), Cadmus & Hermione (2008) and Atys (2011). He was married to Louise Bouvet Goujon. He died on 26 November 1688 in Paris, France.- Madame de La Fayette was born on 16 March 1634 in Paris, France. Madame de was a writer, known for The Beautiful Person (2008), The Princess of Montpensier (2010) and Princess of Cleves (1961). Madame de was married to Francois Comte de La Fayette. Madame de died on 25 May 1693 in Paris, France.
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Born in July 8, 1621, in Château-Thierry (Champagne, France), where his father was in charge of Water, Forests and Hunting, Jean de la Fontaine spent his whole childhood and adolescence in the countryside, where he mainly studied Latin language. In 1641, he moved to Paris to continue his study at the Oratoire, rue St Honoré. But he stayed there only for 18 months because he didn't like it. Then he studied law and became a lawyer at the Parliament of Paris in 1649. Before that his father married him to 14-years-old Marie Héricart in 1647. They later had a son, Charles, in 1653.
Then he decided to become a writer and first published l'Eunuque, in 1654, translated from Terentius's old version, then a heroic poem, Adonis, in 1658, inspired by Ovid. The latter work allowed him to have the admiration and protection of Nicolas Fouquet. But in 1661, while La Fontaine was writing Le Songe de Vaux, Fouquet was disgraced, arrested and put in jail by the king. Thus La Fontaine lost his protection and was pursued for royal disgrace because of his faithfulness with Fouquet, for who he wrote several poems including Élégie aux nymphes de Vaux. Thus he left Paris for the Limousin.
When he came back to Paris, his career restarted with the publication of his Contes (divided in 5 books) from 1664 to 1674, his 243 Fables from 1668 and his novel les amours de Psyché et Cupidon in 1669. He successively found the protection of the Duchesse de Bouillon, the Duchesse d'Orléans, Mme de La Sablière and finally Madame Hervart. Elected at the Académie française in 1683, his passion for ancient Greece and Rome brought him on the Ancients side during the century's quarrel between Ancients and Moderns. He had a quite brilliant social life and regularly saw the most famous writers of his time: Perrault, Mme de Sévigné, Boileau, Molière, Racine and La Rochefoucauld.
Nevertheless during the last two years of his life he gave up with social life, was obliged to deny some of his work and devoted himself to meditation. That's how he died in 1695. Nowadays some people still say that Jean de la Fontaine copied everything he wrote (especially the fables of Aesop and Phaedrus) but others defend him by saying that he generally improved them and he also made us know the ancient authors he liked and who would have been probably forgotten without him. .- Jean de La Bruyère was born in 1645 in Paris, France. Jean de La was a writer, known for Distracted (1970), Quelques pages de grands écrivains français (1962) and Les caractères de La Bruyère (1965). Jean de La died on 10 May 1696 in Versailles, France.
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Michel Lambert was born in 1610 in Champigny-sur-Veude, Touraine, France. He is known for Le roi danse (2000), Retour au baroque (1993) and Lully l'incommode (2009). He died on 29 June 1696 in Paris, France.- Jean-Baptiste Racine (22 December 1639 - 21 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western tradition and world literature. Racine was primarily a tragedian, producing such "examples of neoclassical perfection" as Phèdre, Andromaque, and Athalie. He did write one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther for the young.
- Charles Perrault was a French writer from Paris, and an early member of the Académie Française (French Academy). He was a pioneer in the then-new literary genre of the fairy tale, publishing "Stories or Tales from Past Times" (Histoires ou contes du temps passé, 1697). He combined elements from older folk tales with fantasy depictions of contemporary French society. His most popular fairy tales were "Bluebeard" (Barbe Bleue), "Cinderella" (Cendrillon), "Little Red Riding Hood" (Le Petit Chaperon Rouge), "Puss in Boots" (Le Maître chat ou le Chat botté), and "Sleeping Beauty" (La Belle au bois dormant). Perrault was a main influence on the Brothers Grimm, who published German variations of some of his tales. Several of his tales have received multiple adaptations in film, television, and theatre.
In 1628, Perrault was born to an affluent bourgeois family. He was the seventh child of Pierre Perrault and Paquette Le Clerc. His most notable brothers were the pioneering hydrologist Pierre Perrault (c. 1608-1680) and the architect, physician and anatomist Claude Perrault (1613-1688).
Perrault was trained in law, but chose to follow a career in government service. In 1663, Perrault was appointed as the first secretary of the "Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres", a learned society whose initial task was to compose or obtain Latin inscriptions to be copied on public monuments and medals. The society was founded by the influential minister of state Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), and Perrault served as Colbert's administrative aide.
In 1669, Perrault proposed to Louis XIV of France (1638 -1715, reigned 1643-1715) the construction of a group of 39 fountains in the labyrinth of Versailles. Each fountain would represent one of Aesop's fables. The fountains were constructed between 1672 and 1677. Once the work was completed, Perrault published guidebook for the labyrinth.
In 1674, Perrault wrote a book in defense of the opera "Alceste" (1674) by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 - 1687). The opera was an adaptation of the Greek play "Alcestis" (438 BC) by Euripides. Traditionalists denounced Lully for deviating too much from the story of the original work, while Perrault defended the merits of Lully's work. The controversy over the opera led to the so-called "Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns". Traditionalist and modernist scholars of the French court were arguing over whether ancient literature was superior to modern works, or whether modern literature had far surpassed its predecessor. Perrault became a leader of the modernist faction.
In 1682, Perrault faced mandatory retirement from his government posts at the age of 56. Colbert wanted to replace Perrault with one of his own sons, and was no longer interested in advancing Perrault's career. Following Colbert's death, Perrault found himself targeted by Colbert's surviving political rivals.
In 1686, Perrault made his first attempt to write "serious" epic poetry. He wrote an epic about the life of the Roman writer and bishop Paulinus of Nola (c. 354-431). The poem was poorly received, and Perrault was ridiculed by the satirist Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux (1636-1711).
In 1691, Perrault experimented with the fairy tale genre by writing the novella "La Marquise de Salusses ou la Patience de Griselidis". In 1693, he wrote the fairy tale "The Ridiculous Wishes". In the story, an impoverished couple are granted three wishes by an ancient god, but waste the opportunity to improve their life through poorly-thought wishes. In 1694, Perrault wrote the fairy tale "Donkeyskin". In the story, a widowed king wants to marry his own daughter (who resembles her mother), but the unwilling girl is protected by her fairy godmother. These stories were more warmly received by Perrault's associates.
In 1695, Perrault compiled the first edition of "Stories or Tales from Past Times". He collected his imaginative fairy tales, concluding each of them with a "rhymed, well-defined and cynical moral". In 1697, the work received its first printed edition. It became widely popular, with eight reprints in Perrault's lifetime.
In 1699, Perrault published his translation of the fables compiled by the Italian writer Gabriele Faerno (1510-1561). This translation was popular in England during the 18th century, and was used as a school textbook. It was Perrault's last significant work. Perrault died in 1703, at the age of 75. Most of his works fell out of fashion during the decades following his death, but his fairy tales remained in print. They have remained popular for centuries, ensuring an enduring fame for Perrault. - Music Department
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Marc-Antoine Charpentier was born in 1643 in Paris, France. He is known for Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020), Richard III (1995) and Love & Friendship (2016). He died on 24 February 1704 in Paris, France.- Michiel de Swaen was born on 20 January 1654 in Dunkerque, Nord, France. Michiel was a writer, known for Fragment uit 'De gecroonde leersse' (1959), De menschwordingh (1965) and De gecroonde leersse (1963). Michiel died on 3 May 1707 in Dunkerque, Nord, France.
- Antoine Galland was born on 6 April 1646 in : Rollot, Somme, France. Antoine was a writer, known for World Fairy Tale (1994), Aladdin (1992) and Sinbad (1992). Antoine died on 17 February 1715 in Paris, France.
- Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 1638 - 1 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great (Louis Le Grand) or the Sun King (Le Roi Soleil), was King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country in history. Although Louis XIV's France was emblematic of the age of absolutism in Europe, the King surrounded himself with a variety of significant political, military and cultural figures, such as Mazarin, Colbert, Louvois, the Grand Condé, Turenne, Vauban, Boulle, Molière, Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, Lully, Charpentier, Marais, DE Lalande, Le Brun, Rigaud, Bossuet, Le Vau, Mansart, Charles Perrault, Claude Perrault and Le Nôtre.
- Jean-Antoine Watteau was born on 10 October 1684 in Valenciennes, Flanders, Kingdom of France [now Nord, France]. Jean-Antoine is known for Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum (2002). Jean-Antoine died on 18 July 1721 in Nogent, Île-de-France, Kingdom of France [now Nogent-sur-Marne, Val-de-Marne, France].
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Philippe d'Orléans was born on 2 August 1674 in Saint-Cloud, Île-de-France, Kingdom of France [now Hauts-de-Seine, France]. Philippe was a composer, known for Let Joy Reign Supreme (1975). Philippe was married to Françoise Marie de Bourbon. Philippe died on 2 December 1723 in Versailles, Île-de-France, Kingdom of France [now Yvelines, France].- Music Department
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Michel-Richard De Lalande was born on 15 December 1657 in Paris, France. Michel-Richard was a composer, known for La Marseillaise (1938), Le tartuffe (1984) and Bach et Bottine (1986). Michel-Richard died on 18 June 1726 in Versailles, Yvelines, France.- Composer
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Marin Marais was born on 31 May 1656 in Paris, France. Marin was a composer, known for Sången om den eldröda blomman (1919), Liquid Sky (1982) and Miffo (2003). Marin died on 15 August 1728 in Paris, France.- Music Department
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Francois Couperin (Couperin le Grand) was born on November 10, 1668, in Paris, France. His father, named Charles Couperin, was the organist at the church of St. Gervais in Paris. In 1679, when Couperin's father died, he was already deputizing him as an organist, and on his 18th birthday Couperin officially inherited his father's previous position as the organist at St. Gervais.
Couperin composed a collection of 'Pieces d'orgue' (1690). That composition was acclaimed by his teacher Jacques Thomelin, who played for the King at the Chapelle Royale. Thomelin recommended Couperin to the Court and helped him to become established as a Royal Court organist in 1693, with the title 'Organiste du Roi'. From 1700-1717 Couperin was also the Royal Harpsichordist at Versailles. Couperin was composing music and directing the orchestra at Sunday concerts for the King. In 1724 he wrote a collection of exquisite trio sonatas 'La Parnasse ou L'apotheose de Corelli', acknowledging his debt to Arcangelo Corelli.
Couperin played mainly keyboard instruments, organ, harpsichord, and early pianoforte, of which he was the unrivaled virtuoso of his time. His compositions were published in elegantly engraved editions in 1713 and later, with careful annotations for players. His most important publication was 'L'art de touché le clavecin' (The art of touching the keyboard, 1716), where Couperin standardized notation for the use of ornaments and dotted rhythms, and elucidated the fingering system, including the use of thumbs in virtuoso passages. This book was thoroughly studied by Johann Sebastian Bach, who adopted the fingering system.
Francois Couperin composed and published over 230 pieces for keyboard. Johannes Brahms was influenced by and performed Couperin's keyboard music in public. Later Richard Strauss orchestrated several of Couperin's keyboard pieces in a form of tone poems. He was highly regarded by Claude Debussy and also by Maurice Ravel, who memorialized his favorite composer in the suite for solo piano 'Le Tombeau de Couperin' (1914-1917).
Couperin family was enjoying the dominant position in the French musical life of the Baroque era. Francois Couperin was the most important musician in the family and was distinguished with the title of 'Le Grad', or Couperin the Great. He died on September 12, 1733, in Paris, an was laid to rest in the Curch of Saint Joseph.- Music Department
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Jean-Joseph Mouret was born on 11 April 1682 in Avignon, France. Jean-Joseph is known for Supernatural (2005), Robinson Crusoe: The Great Blitzkrieg (2008) and Atop the Fourth Wall (2008). Jean-Joseph died on 22 December 1738 in Charenton-le-Pont, France.- Louis-Nicolas Clérambault was born on 19 December 1676 in Paris, Île-de-France, Kingdom of France [now France]. Louis-Nicolas died on 26 October 1749 in Paris, Île-de-France, Kingdom of France [now France].
- Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve was a French author, best known for writing the original version of the fairy tale "La Belle et la Bête", or "Beauty and the Beast" in English. Born to Jean Barbot, squire, lord of Romagné and Mothais, councilor of the King at the Presidial of La Rochelle, and of Dame Suzanne Allaire, her original name was Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot, lady of Romagné and Mothais. Barbot was born and died in Paris, France, but belonged to a powerful Protestant family from La Rochelle. In 1706, Barbot married Jean-Baptiste Gaalon de Barzay, knight, lord of Villeneuve, a member of an aristocratic family from Poitou and lieutenant-colonel of infantry at the Berville Regiment. Gabrielle-Suzanne became a widow at the age of 26 and progressively lost her family fortune and was forced to seek a means of employment to support herself.
Eventually, she made her way to Paris where she embarked on her literary career. There, she met Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, or Crébillon, père, whom she lived with until her death.
Her tale, Beauty and the Beast was published in La Jeune Américaine, et les Contes marins in 1740. Barbot de Villeneuve may have heard this tale from a maid while she was traveling to America. After her death, Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont re-wrote the tale in an abridged form and published it in 1756 in her Magasin des enfants to teach young English girls a moral lesson. Beaumont's edition is more well-known than this original version. In fact, Barbot de Villeneuve was not credited in Leprince de Beaumont's publication. - Abbé Prévost was born on 1 April 1697 in Hesdin, Artois, France. He was a writer, known for Manon Lescaut (1914), The Metropolitan Opera HD Live (2006) and Manon Lescaut (1918). He died on 25 November 1763 in Paris, France.
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Jean-Philippe Rameau was born on 25 September 1683 in Dijon, France. He was a composer, known for Casanova (2005), Babylon A.D. (2008) and The Handmaiden (2016). He died on 12 September 1764 in Paris, France.- Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville was born on 24 December 1711 in Narbonne, Occitanie, France. Jean-Joseph Cassanéa is known for Mondonville: Titon et l'Aurore (2021). Jean-Joseph Cassanéa died on 8 October 1772 in Belleville, France.
- François-Hubert Drouais was born on 14 December 1727 in Paris, France. François-Hubert is known for Night Descends on Treasure Island (1940). François-Hubert died on 21 October 1775 in Paris, France.
- Future proponent for victims of injustice and tyranny during the years prior to the French Revolution, Voltaire (born François Marie Arouet on November 21, 1694 in Paris) was educated in Paris by the Jesuits. For a time he studied law, then decided to become a writer. Witty, thought-provoking and socially critical, his unique writings inspired France's common people but angered the royalty. In 1717 he was imprisoned in the Bastille for 11 months for ridiculing Duc d'Orléans. While in prison he rewrote his tragedy "Oedipe", which upon its publication brought the young author and philosopher enormous fame and ominous notoriety; in 1726 he was forced to go into exile in England. There he became fascinated with the plays of William Shakespeare, and while shocked by their "barbaric" nature (calling Shakespeare "a drunken savage"), he was deeply affected by their genius, energy and human drama. He felt that France had much to learn from England's literature. Three years later he returned to France, writing plays and poetry as well as historical and scientific treatises, his brilliant 1734 "Lettres philosophiques" was published. Scandal followed this work, which harshly criticized the religious and political institutions. A warrant for his arrest was issued in 1734, and he fled, taking refuge at Cirey in Champagne in the home of Gabrielle Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil Marquise du Châtelet, the 28-year-old wife of the Marquis Florent du Châtelet. Here he began his professional liaison with the young, intelligent woman. Gabrielle worked with him on many philosophical and scientific topics. Her one major work was a translation of Isaac Newton's "Principia." Voltaire lived with her in the château he had renovated at his own expense. After 15 years as his guide and supporter, tragedy struck when Gabrielle died in childbirth on September 10, 1749. The baby was the presumed child of her lover, poet Jean-François de Saint-Lambert. Her husband, Voltaire, and Saint-Lambert were present at her death bed. Voltaire was overwhelmed with grief, often waking in the middle of the night calling her name. He eventually regained favor at the French court and was appointed its royal historiographer.
In 1755 he was living near Geneva, Switzerland, and wrote his most famous work, the satirical "Candide," in 1759. He later produced many anti-religious writings and his 1764 "Dictionnaire philosophique." His fame became worldwide. He was called "Innkeeper of Europe," and he entertained chic philosophers of the day and such literary figures as James Boswell, Giovanni Casanova and Edward Gibbon. Always impassioned about injustice, he took a keen interest in the case of Jean Calas, whose innocence he helped to establish. In 1761 Calas was accused, on trivial evidence, of murdering his eldest son to prevent him becoming a Roman Catholic. Calas was found guilty and executed by being broken on the wheel. Voltaire, in his late 60s by this time, spearheaded a fervent campaign, resulting in a revision of the trial. It was determined that the son had committed suicide, and the Parisian parliament declared Calas innocent in 1765. Voltaire finally returned to Paris in 1778, 28 years after leaving. He had become a beloved national celebrity, and it's believed that the frenzied excitement of such adoration from the French people aggravated his precarious health, reportedly, more than 300 people called on him the day after his arrival. He died a painful death on May 30 of uremia, only a few months after his celebrated arrival, at age 83. His nephew, the Abbé Mignot, had his body, clothed as it was the day he died, quickly transported to the Abbey of Scellières, where Voltaire was given a Christian burial; the prohibition of such a burial came after the ceremony. Because of his lifelong criticism of the church, Voltaire was denied burial in church ground. He was finally buried at an abbey in Champagne. His heart was removed from his body, and now lays in the Bibliotheque nationale in Paris. His brain was also removed, but after a series of moves during the next hundred years, it disappeared following an auction. Voltaire's remains were moved to the Panthéon in Paris during the Revolution in July 1791. In 1814, a group of right-wing religious "ultras" stole Voltaire's remains from his enormous sarcophagus and dumped them in a garbage heap. The theft went undetected for about 50 years. - Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont was born on 26 April 1711 in Rouen, France. Jeanne-Marie Leprince was a writer, known for Beauty and the Beast (1946), Shirley Temple's Storybook (1958) and Beauty and the Beast (2014). Jeanne-Marie Leprince died on 8 September 1780 in Chavanod, Haute-Savoie, France.
- One of the most prominent French philosophes and the author of "L'Encyclopédie", Diderot was born in 1713, the son of a cutler. An ardent student of classical literature, he attended the University of Paris, from which he received a master of the arts degree in 1732. A radical freethinker, Diderot rejected conventional dogma and associated himself with some of the most enlightened philosophers of his age. His books were burned and Diderot himself served three months in Vincennes prison in retaliation for his attacks on the conventional morality of the day. Some of his books were considered so radical that they were banned until after his death.
- Louise de France was born on 15 July 1737 in Versailles, Île-de-France [now Yvelines], France. Louise was a writer, known for Movies for Louise (2005). Louise died on 23 December 1787 in Saint-Denis, Île-de-France [now Seine-Saint-Denis], France.
- Comte de Mirabeau was born on 17 March 1749 in Le Bignon-Mirabeau, Loiret, France. Comte was a writer, known for Softly from Paris (1986). Comte was married to Émilie de Marignane. Comte died on 2 April 1791 in Paris, France.
- She was one of the younger daughters of the couple Anne-Olympe and Pierre Gouze from a lower middle class background - her mother was the laundress Anne-Olympe Mouisset, who had been married to the butcher Pierre Gouze since 1756. Marie Gouze's biological father was probably Jean-Jacques Le Franc de Pompignan, a Catholic minor aristocrat who moved to Paris, became known there as a man of letters, was accepted into the Académie Française and never acknowledged his daughter. Marie Gouze spent her childhood and youth in her Occitan hometown of Montauban. According to the practices of the time, girls received little or no education. Therefore, the young girl will only have had elementary knowledge of reading and writing. At the age of 17, she was married against her will - to Louis-Yves Aubry, an innkeeper from Paris. He opened an inn there, thanks to her trousseau for this marriage. In 1766 she gave birth to her son Pierre. A short time later her husband is said to have died in the flooding of the River Tarn.
In 1768 the widow and her son moved to Paris, where her sister and brother-in-law were already living. For the rest of her life, Marie Aubry, who adopted the stage name Olympe de Gouges during her time in Paris, a combination of her mother's middle name and a spelling of her maiden name Gouze, remained unmarried. She entered into a free relationship that lasted over 15 years with Jacques Biétrix de Rozières, a noble transport operator in the service of the royal army. The period in her life between her settlement in Paris and her first appearance as a playwright is not known with certainty. During this period from 1768 to 1784 she will have further developed her language, cultural and political knowledge. It was also the time of her first literary attempts, in which she wrote dramas, comedies and other small socio-political pieces, including the socially critical title "Remarques patriotiques", in which she formulated a comprehensive social program.
In 1784, her first publication was the epistolary novel "Mémoire de Mme. de Valmont", which used a biographical background to address the contemporary problem of illegitimate children and the forced marriage of girls. She had previously written a drama that condemned the suffering situation of slaves in the French colonies, designed as a play entitled "Zamore et Mirza ou l'heureux naufrage". The femme de lettres was the first woman to publicly stand up against these grievances in her country. Economic interests in particular prevented a performance in the Paris National Theater "Comédie Française". The author ended up in the Bastille for some time at the behest of the Duke of Duras as the person in charge of the royal theater. It was not until 1789, the year of the French Revolution, that the public production took place, which was considered a scandal and quickly led to the piece being canceled. During this time she wrote and published a number of political brochures, leaflets and posters - despite numerous hostilities because of her Enlightenment ideals. Her play "Le Couvent" was performed at the Théâtre Français Comique & Lyrique in 1790.
In 1791, the pioneer wrote her most contemporary work, the "Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizens", in which she outlined equal - including political - rights and duties for women as well as their existential independence. The letter she sent to the National Assembly should be understood as a note of protest and an explicit counter-proposal to the first written French constitution following the revolution, which began with the motto "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité". Not only were its authors exclusively men, but the content of the Égalité excluded women because it was based on the "Declaration of Human and Civil Rights" (Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen). The following year, de Gouges' great utopian novel "The Philosophical Prince" was published, in which she radically addressed the equality of women in all rights. Olymp de Gouges' last play, the drama "L'entrée de Dumourier à Bruxelles ou les vivandiers" from 1793, was full of political explosiveness at the time, because Dumouriez, the protagonist of the piece, switched to the camp of the political opponent shortly after the premiere.
In addition, the critical author publicly warned against revolutionary radicalization or smear campaigns, and spoke out against the terror of revolutionary rule or the death penalty - including for the former royal couple. In her wall newspaper "Les trois urnes ou le salut de la patrie" she campaigned for a direct popular election and was arrested on July 20, 1793 when she tried to put up a poster. Olympe de Gouges was initially incorporated into the Commune de Paris for a short time locked and then housed in the Abbey de Saint-Germain des Pres and other revolutionary prisons. Lengthy interrogations and a house search followed. Even while under arrest, she remained active and wrote stubborn letters, including to the Revolutionary Tribunal. The catastrophic conditions in detention wear them down, exhaust them and make them sick. From October 28th she was imprisoned in the "Conciergerie" in Paris's Palais de la Cité, a prison with 1,200 inmates. On November 1st, she was tried before the special court as the highest judicial authority. Her verdict: death by guillotine. The court did not allow an appeal and the sentence was carried out in the Place de la Concorde that afternoon.
Olympe de Gouges died by beheading in Paris on November 3, 1793. - Composer
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Michel Corrette was born on 10 April 1707 in Rouen, Normandy, Kingdom of France [now Seine-Maritime, France]. Michel was a composer, known for The Society of the Spectacle (1974), Désormais (1963) and Le bourgeois gentilhomme (2009). Michel died on 21 January 1795 in Paris, France.