Pedophilia or epoch specificity? What the servants, governesses and royal mistresses did with this prince would be unthinkable these days. But in 17th century France, sexual jokes and games in the presence and even of children were the order of the day ...
The journal of Jean Héroard (1551 - 1628), a royal physician who carefully wrote down minor events in the life of the future ruler of France, Louis XIII, is an amazing research material. First of all, it shows how much the approach to child sexuality has changed since the 17th century. The freedom of raising a dolphin as well as jokes and games of that time will amaze you!
Little exhibitionist
Ludwik is not yet a year old, and is laughing until his maid tickles a bird . This joke must have appealed to the heir to the throne, because he calls the page: E! He tucks his dress up and shows him a bird .
Jean Héroard, vet and anatomist. It is thanks to him that we know how twisted childhood was the heir to the throne of France, Louis XIII. Although the interest of the whole court in the bird of the court medic of the dolphin did not surprise at all ... (source:public domain).
When the dolphin is one year old, is very happy and lively, he makes everyone kiss like a bird as Héroard reports. Since everyone was entertained by this, the little one decided to behave in a similar way in the presence of guests, Monsieur de Bonnières and his daughter.
The court doctor reports: he laughs out loud, tucks his dress up, shows the bird to him, then hers, squeezes the bird in his hand, giggles, shakes all over his body . Encouraged by the approval of his surroundings, he repeats the gesture in front of the "miss": He pushed up his tunic and showed her the bird with great enthusiasm ; he almost went out of his way. He lay down on his back to make her see better .
Gift for the Infanta
He was only one year old when he was engaged to the Spanish Infanta Anna. But the environment made sure that the heir to the throne knew what marriage was all about. And little Ludwiś seemed to understand perfectly well. To the question: Where is the Infanta Lover? He puts his hand on the bird .
Deeply disturbing, as reminiscent of words like "incest" and "pedophilia", is another account of the royal physician: Undressed, Madame [his sister] also, they both lie naked in bed with the king, they kiss, chat, make the king laugh. The King asks, "Son, where's the packet for the infanta?" Shows it to her father, saying, "He's got no bones at all, Dad" . Then, as he was a bit tense:"He's gonna have, sometimes he has."
Six-year-old Austrian Anna in a painting by Juan Pantoji de la Cruz. It was for her that little Ludwik Bourbon prepared his "packet" (source:public domain).
Stress-free education
During the first three years of his life, the heir to the throne is neither reprimanded nor reprimanded for touching the sexual organs as a joke. And the court of Maria de Medici, although apparently full of bigotry, is saturated with sexuality. The Queen puts up with numerous mistresses of Henry IV. Of these, the most important is the royal mistress, the Marquis de Verneuil, who put him on a lot [Ludwik] put my hand under the tunic ; he tells his nurse to go to bed, who plays with him and puts her hand under his shirt - reports Héroard.
Although you can see some friction and, perhaps ?, jealousy for the dolphin's favor: Madame de Verneuil wants to play with him, stroking his nipples; he pushes her away and says:"Take it, take it, leave it, go away", because the nurse instructed him:"Lord, do not let anyone touch your nipples or a bird, or they will cut him off." He remembered it.
King Henry IV's favorite, Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, also played with the genitals of his son Louis (source:public domain).
Such behavior of adults developed in little Ludwik very strange habits with which today's parent would rush into these rushes to the psychologist's office. But not the keepers of a 17th-century dolphin. Héroard describes: He got out of bed, refuses to put on his shirt, says: "no shirt, no, I want my bird's milk first" , puts out his hand and pretends to milk him, pisses pss, pss, offers everyone, finally lets himself put on his shirt.
His favorite joke is the reaction to Lord, you lost a bird to which d replies happily:"Oh, what's this!" and picks it up with his finger . Not only servants and women of light manners, like the royal mistress, make jokes of this type. The queen-mother puts her hand on the bird and says:"son, I hold your beak" . Was it a harbinger of a later regency and reluctance to hand over power to Ludwik, an adult?
"My bird is making a drawbridge"
The first erections of the future ruler also arouse amusement of the surroundings: He woke up at eight, called Miss Bethouzay and says:"Look, my bird is making a drawbridge, one up, one down!" Because he was picking it up and lowering it.
No wonder that at the age of four little Ludwik was already to some extent aware: Taken to the queen; Mme. de Guise shows him the queen's bed and says:"Here you have been begotten, Lord." "With mum?" - the innocent child asks . The unprudent behavior of the educators stimulates the little one's curiosity and prompts the service to be drawn into indiscreet conversations:
Asks the nurse's husband:"What is this? - This is my silk stocking. - And this? - These are my pludry. - What are they made of? - Velvet. - And this? - It's a fly. - What's inside? - I don't know, Lord. - Hey there, bird! Who is it for? - I don't know, Lord. - For Mrs. Doundoun! [nurses] ”.
Ludwik's games become a bit monothematic. He squeezes between Mme de Montglat's legs [his governess, a very worthy, respectable woman who does not care - like Héroard - at jokes that are unthinkable for us]. The king says:"Here is Mme. de Montglat's son, she has just given birth to him!" She jumps up and hides between the queen's legs .
I wonder if sixteen-year-old Louis XIII remembered his childhood "games"? Painting by Frans Pourbus the Younger (source:public domain).
At the age of five or six, when the adults stop playing with his royal genitals, he begins to play with the genitals of others. The reliable Héroard describes such a scene:Miss Mercier, a peaceful, lies in the bed adjacent to the dolphin's bed. “He's playing with her,” he makes her move her toes, lift her legs up. However, the little boy is not satisfied, tells the nurse to bring the rods to whip her ... The nurse asks:"Did he see something at Mercier?" - She replies coolly:"I saw her ass."
The immodest woman asks :"Did he see anything else, Lord?" He responds coldly, not laughing that he has seen her cunt . Another time he plays with Miss Mercier, calls me [Héroarda] and says Mercier has such a big cunt (shows two fists) and that there is water inside . Did such childhood "games" and trauma contribute to the fact that, as an adult male, the king preferred the company of masters?
Was it Mercier's genitals that alienated little Ludwik from the fair sex so much that as an adult he preferred the company of men? In the painting Charles de Luynes, the main favorite of Louis XIII in the years 1617-1621 (source:public domain).
You are seven - leave the bird alone!
When Ludwik turns seven in 1608 and becomes a young man, it's time to teach him manners and decent language. When asked where the children go into the world, he replies, like Agnès' maid in Molière's comedy "School of the Wives," that by ear.
How different was the approach to child sexuality at that time, let the fact that even in a religious painting by Paolo Veronese from 1570, little Jesus touches his genitals (source:public domain).
Madame de Montglat scolds him when shows little Ventelet a bird . In the morning after waking up, they put him in the governess's bed between her and her husband, but the doctor is outraged by this:he notes insignis impudentia [great shamelessness]. A seven-year-old boy is expected to be restrained, which no one expected from a five-year-old boy.
Period specificity?
The example of Héroard's diary shows the epoch well. And there is no reason to believe that a different moral climate prevailed in noble and bourgeois families: sexual jokes and games with children did not shock anyone . François de Dainville, historian and Jesuit, states:
Respecting the child was then [in the 16th century] completely unknown. In the presence of children, literally everything was allowed:blunt words, scandalous gestures, irritable situations; the children heard everything and saw everything .
The gesture of Saint Anne from Baldung Grien's graphics may seem ambiguous to us. However, when the work was created, no one felt scandalized by it (source:public domain).
More than one contemporary psychoanalyst would certainly be indignant about this lack of inhibitions towards the youngest, spicy jokes and freedom of language. However, it should be remembered that the human attitude towards sex, as well as sex itself, change depending on the environment, and therefore also depending on the era and mentality. The sexual gestures of adults towards children described in the journal today seem to be an anomaly that no one would allow themselves to do in public.
But in the 16th and 17th centuries it was different. A print by Baldung Grien from 1511 shows the Holy Family. The gesture of Saint Anna seems peculiar to us:she opens the Child's thighs as if she wanted to take out and caress his member. It would be a mistake, however, to see this gesture as playful. Playing with a child's genitals has a long tradition and is still a widespread practice in Muslim societies today. But that's a story for a different story…