Sophia Beale - The Churches of Paris, from Clovis to Charles X

One of the most beautiful tombs is that of Philippe, the brother of S. Louis, which was formerly at Royaumont. The prince lies upon a sarcophagus, round which are niches filled with little figures of monks, bishops, and angels, full of character and expression. One of these represents a king: "On y voyait le cercueil de Louis porté par les barons de France et par le roi d'Angleterre. 47 47 Millin, Antiquités Nationales . Une figure couronnée porte sur l'épaule un des bâtons; c'est le roi anglais" 48 48 Le corps de Saint-Louis fut porté une partie du chemin depuis Saint-Denis par Henri III., roi d'Angleterre, et par les barons de France et d'Angleterre sur leurs épaules, cérémonie qui est représentée sur le tombeau, où le prince est couvert d'un drap d'or bordé d'une bande d'étoffe bleue, semée de fleurs de lis d'or, la tête soutenue par le roi saint Louis, et les pieds par le roi d Angleterre. – P. Anselme, Histoire de la Maison de France . – proving the sovereignty of France over England. There is a curious engraving by Boulogne representing this procession. The church is in the distance; a string of monks are zigzagging across the plain, and in the foreground we see this crowned head and others bearing the reliquary; behind are bishops; the whole in the grandiose style of the 17th and 18th centuries – drapery flying in the wind, bishops and monks prancing, and all the faces turned to the spectator. S. Louis had always held the abbey in most respectful esteem. He visited it before he started upon his various expeditions; and in 1267, when he had conferred the order of chivalry upon his son Philippe and sixty other young noblemen, he rode to S. Denis on horseback to implore the blessing of God, accompanied by a large concourse of courtiers and princes.

The monuments of the battle of Bouvines came from the church of S. Catherine-du-Val-des-Écoliers. They are incised stones, coloured and gilt, bearing the following inscriptions: —

Another epitaph to Blanche de France came from the Cordeliers:

When Isabelle d'Aragon died at Cosenza, in Calabria, her husband, Philippe le Hardi, wrote to the abbot and religious of S. Denis to commend her soul to their prayers, for her life était aimable à Dieu et aux hommes . Her epitaph begins:

Louis XI. was not buried at S. Denis; he desired to be laid in the church of Our Lady of Cléry, "for which the Heretics (meaning the Huguenots and Calvinists) had not the same respect which they inviolably entertained for the holy and royal tombs of S. Denis. 49 49 This does not quite agree with Dom Millet's account of the Huguenot depredations already given upon page 33. But inspired by the Devil, with an abominable and hellish spirit of rage and profanation, they tore the king's remains from the tomb, and, together with the queen's, burnt them and scattered their ashes to the winds. Thus he who would not let his body rest under the protection of the Holy Martyers found no rest in the grave." 50 50 He could not have found much more rest at S. Denis, for which he had a great respect, although he desired to be buried at Cléry. Many a time this king perambulated from Paris to S. Denis barefooted, for he held the Saint to be the "Holy Protector of his dominions, the Guide of his councils, and the Guardian of his soul."

This monument was of bronze, but another was erected in 1622 by an Orléans sculptor, Michel Bourdin. La Fontaine described the latter as follows, in a letter to his wife, dated 1633: "Nous nous arrêtâmes à Cléry. J'allai aussitôt visiter l'église; c'est une collégiale assez bien rentée pour un bourg. Louis XI. y est enterré. On le voit à genoux sur son tombeau, quatre enfants aux coins; ce seraient quatre anges, si on ne leur avait pas arraché les ailes. Le bon apôtre du roi fait là le saint homme, et il est bien mieux pris que lorsque le Bourguignon le mena à Liége.

"À ses genoux sont ses heures et son chapelet, la main de justice, son sceptre, son chapeau et sa Notre-Dame. Je ne sais comment le statuaire n'y a pas mis le prévôt Tristan; le tout est en marbre blanc et m'a paru d'assez bonne main."

This monument suffered some mutilations during the Revolution, the head being chopped into three pieces 51 51 This was a sort of posthumous decapitation. Cardinal Richelieu's statue at the Sorbonne was treated in the same way. ; but in 1817 it was repaired. It is, in style, very similar to the descriptions of the bronze monument of Charles VIII.

The tomb of the house of Orléans was erected by Louis XII. in the centre of the magnificent chapel of the family, in the church of the Célestins. It contained besides, the statue of Philippe de Chabot, by Jean Cousin; Germain Pilon's Three Graces; the columns of Anne de Montmorency, of François II., and of Timoléon de Brissac; the obelisk of the Longuevilles; the tombs of Rénée d'Orléans, and of the duc de Rohan, by Michel Anguier. The destruction of this chapel and the dispersal of its contents was one of the greatest acts of vandalism of modern times; although a good deal has been preserved, the loss of the rest cannot but be bewailed.

Charles, duc d'Orléans, was a lettered man and given to verse writing; he was made prisoner at the battle of Agincourt, and passed more than twenty years of his life in England. The little porcupine at the king's feet (upon the tomb) symbolized the order of chivalry which he founded, and which adopted that animal as its emblem.

The beautiful marble monument of Rénée d'Orléans recalls those of Santa Croce, and other Italian churches, and it is a magnificent example of French Renaissance sculpture.

The epitaph to Marguerite de Valois, first wife of Henri IV., attributed to the queen's authorship, is taken from a manuscript in the Bibliothèque:

The epitaph upon Henri's second wife, Marie de' Medici, is in a very different style. Marie, after having built the splendid Luxembourg palace, and filled it with Rubens' sparkling magnificences of colour, died in exile at Köln: