St Germain en Laye Ile-de-France France
Years: 1020 - 1020
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The Founding of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1020)
In 1020, King Robert II of France ("the Pious") established a convent at the site of what would later become the Church of Saint-Germain, marking the foundation of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This act laid the groundwork for the town’s future religious, royal, and historical significance.
Origins and Religious Importance
- The convent, dedicated to Saint Germain of Paris, was part of Robert II’s broader patronage of religious institutions, reflecting his strong devotion to the Church.
- Situated on a strategic hilltop west of Paris, the site offered both spiritual isolation and proximity to the Capetian court.
- Over time, the convent developed into a more significant ecclesiastical and royal site, as later French monarchs expanded its importance.
Development into a Royal Residence
- While initially a religious foundation, the area of Saint-Germain-en-Laye gradually became a favored residence of French kings, particularly during the Capetian and Valois dynasties.
- In later centuries, the site would evolve into the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a royal palace used extensively by medieval and Renaissance monarchs, including Louis XIV before the construction of Versailles.
Legacy
- The foundation of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1020 established an important religious and royal center in France.
- The Church of Saint-Germain remained a significant landmark, preserving its early medieval heritage.
- Over time, the town grew into a seat of French power, playing key roles in diplomatic treaties, royal politics, and cultural history.
Robert II’s patronage of religious institutions was instrumental in shaping France’s medieval landscape, and the founding of Saint-Germain-en-Laye reflected his legacy as a pious and influential monarch.
As superintendent of buildings under King Henri II, Delorme builds the Chateau-Neuf de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
Called in its day la maison du théâtre (the theater house), a succession of terraces and stairs gives access to the baignerie (from French baigner, "to bathe") on the Seine.
The château is at the outset the dwelling of those who had it built: Henry II and, above all, Catherine de' Medici.
The Huguenots, along with a contingent of some fellow Protestant militias from Germany and Switzerland, have fought the Catholics to another standstill.
The French crown, its coffers drained by the cost of keeping its army in the field against the Huguenots, negotiates a third peace, signed on August 5, 1570.
The Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, more favorable to the Huguenots than the previous, names specific towns as secure strongholds, returns confiscated property to Huguenots, and, by guaranteeing some equality before the law, extends to Protestants many religious freedoms.
The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, signed on March 29, 1632, formally returns New France (Quebec) to French control three years after the English had seized it in 1629.
It also provides France with compensation for goods seized during the capture of New France. (David Kirke is rewarded when Charles I knights him and gives him a charter for Newfoundland.)
The parties involved meet in Saint-Germain in early April and negotiate a peace treaty by the thirteenth.
During these negotiations, the Triple Alliance manages to enforce their demands: France abandons the Franche-Comté, including the free imperial city of Besançon, but first destroys all fortifications of the cities of Gray and Dole.
French troops also have to withdraw from the Spanish Netherlands.
A total of twelve conquered cities are to remain in the hands of the French king: Lille, Tournai, Oudenarde, Courtrai, Furnes, Bergues, Douai with la Scarpe, Binche, Charleroi, Ath and Armentiers.
France has gained some territory in Flanders, but nearly all of the Spanish Netherlands, as well as the Franche-Comté, is returned to Spain.
Louis XIV, inwardly seething, had hoped to take the entirety of the Spanish Netherlands and feels betrayed by the Dutch, who, to French eyes, are only independent due to French assistance in the Eighty Years' War.
The War of Devolution will thus lead directly to the Franco-Dutch War of 1672–1678.
Alexis Simon Belle was born in Paris, the second child and only son of Jean-Baptiste Belle (born before 1642, died 1703), also a painter, and of Anne his wife (died 1705).
Belle's birth and baptism are recorded in the parish register of the church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, and quoted in Eugène Piot's Le Cabinet de l'amateur for the years 1861 and 1862.
Belle had studied first under his father, and had continued his training in the studio of François de Troy (1645/46-1730), a painter at the court of King James II in exile at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
He began to produce work at Saint-Germain in the year 1698.
This is a period of peace between France and Great Britain, and Jacobites can cross the English Channel carrying portraits of James Edward Stuart (who at his father's death in 1701 will become the Jacobite claimant to the British throne) and his sister Princess Louisa Maria.
Troy is at this James II's only court painter and needs the help of Belle, his best student, to produce all the portraits ordered from him.
One of his earliest works in this sphere is an allegorical portrait of Prince James Francis Edward Stuart and his sister Princess Louisa Maria Theresa, showing the prince as a guardian angel leading his sister under the gaze of cherubim (1699), now in the Royal Collection.
James VII and II dies on September 16, 1701, in exile.
His supporters, the Jacobites, turn to his son James Francis Edward Stuart, later called "The Old Pretender".
On his father's death in 1701, James declares himself King, as King James III of England and VIII of Scotland and was recognized as such by France, Spain, the Papal States and Modena.
These states refuse to recognize William III, Mary II or Queen Anne as legitimate sovereigns.
“History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.”
—Lord Acton, Lectures on Modern History (1906)