Pageantry and Performance: staging the King in France (1480-1570s)
Résumé
Several royal entries are well known for the Renaissance period in France. From Charles VIII (1483-1498) to Charles IX (1560-1574), kings and queens visit their towns, on the way back from Italian wars, for example, or during their great tours in the Kingdom. These journeys are accompanied with banquets, feasts and especially pageants, plays, process or ballets. Pageants and plays are good occasions for the municipalities to stage the figure of the king and/or the queen and princes, by representing or even involving them. How are these royal speakings, these court and king representations staged ? Who are the actors involved in such roles ? What is the word they are allowed or asked to pronounce at these feasts ?
This communication aims to explore several entries in the whole french Kingdom, by the archives, the contemporary chronicles but also by the images of these events that have come to us. Printed entry books (livrets) begun to be widely created and distributed in the sixteenth century France, and some illustrated manuscripts are also kept. These documents are an extraordinary material to address the question.