#Battle of Montlhéry

[histoireettralala]

Red like the Oriflamme

At various times in their histories, the kings of the Iberian Peninsula, of Scotland, of Poland, and especially of England also had coronation mantles in the color red, a symbol of their power and prestigious inheritance of antique purple. Only the kings of France, who were always asserting their difference from other monarchs, never wore such a mantle. We do not know in exactly what attire the first Capetian kings were coronated, but beginning with Philip Augustus crowned in 1179 while his father, Louis VII, was still alive, and until Charles X, lavishly crowned in 1825 according to the ritual of the Ancien Régime, that mantle was always d'azur semé de lis d'or. The azure, moreover, which was a relatively light blue in the seventh and eigth centuries, tended to become darker over the course of time and sometimes to take on purplish or crimson shades.

If French kings never wore red copes or mantles like the emperor and most other sovereigns, they did, on the other hand, make use of a red ensign for more than three centuries: the oriflamme. The legend of its origin makes it Charlemagne's standard, "of a vermilion color as sparkling as gold", The Song of Roland tells us. According to a more modest version, it was a matter of a simple feudal banner, cut from plain red cloth and belonging to the abbey of Saint-Denis. As the abbey could not wage war, it was represented in battle by an "avowed", the Count of Vexin, who, in rallying his troops, came to the abbey itself where the banner was kept to collect it. Philip I inherited the Vexin countship in 1077, and henceforth it was the kings of France who had the honor of bearing the oriflamme of Saint-Denis into battle. It seems that Louis VI, son of Philip I, was the first to actually do so, in 1124, and Louis XI did it for the last time during the Battle of Montlhéry in July 1465. A simple monochrome gonfalon of the feudal period, the oriflamme seems to have been given long flying tails during the Hundred Years War and sometimes to have been decorated with flowers, rings, flames, or small crosses. All these materials, objects, and practices underscore how the color red maintained direct ties with power in the medieval West, with sovereign power but also feudal power, and representative power.

Michel Pastoureau - Red, the History of a Color

[rjhamster]

McLaren F1 GTR vs Ferrari F40 LM battle on the banking at France’s historic Autodrome de Montlhéry during the 1995 BPR Global GT championship.

McLaren F1 GTR vs Ferrari F40 LM battle on the banking at France’s historic Autodrome de Montlhéry during the 1995 BPR Global GT championship. pic.twitter.com/iEUwbjGXVF — Mark Whitelegge (@Mark_Whitelegge) June 30, 2023

[illustratus]

King Louis XI of France leading his army into the Battle of Montlhéry

[topworldhistory]

1465 - Battle at Montlhéry between Louis XI and the League of the Public Weal 1926 - National Geographic takes 1st natural-color undersea photos 1941 - 100°F (38°C) highest temperature ever recorded in Seattle, Washington 1942 - Jews transported from Holland to extermination camp 1977 - Janelle Commissiong, of Trinidad and Tobago crowned 26th Miss Universe 1981 - India performs nuclear Test 1988 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee sets women's heptathlete record of 7,215 pts 1993 - S van Ruysdael's "Winter Landscape" sold for £705,500 in London 1994 - Shreveport Pirates lose first CFL home game, 35-34 to the Toronto Argonauts at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana 2018 - Historic cemetery (1878-1911) announced discovered near Houston, Texas, containing 95 remains though to be African Americans forced into labour

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from Historical Events | OnThisDay.com https://ift.tt/2lvI0lv July 16, 2019 at 09:33AM

[thefreelancehistorywriter]

Antoinette de Maignelais, Viscountess de la Guerche and Royal Mistress

Antoinette de Maignelais, Viscountess de la Guerche and Royal Mistress

Tombstone of Antoinette de Maignelais (Photo by DeuxPlusQuatre from Wikimedia Commons)

We have told the story of Agnes Sorel, the first officially recognized royal mistress of a French king. Agnes was the mistress of King Charles VII of France and he elevated her to this position. When Agnes died in 1450, Charles swiftly took her cousin Antoinette as his lover although she never became his…