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00:03It's the collision, the meeting between big ideas and big violence that have actually
00:10made France what it is today.
00:12Throughout its tumultuous history, Paris has been sacked, occupied multiple times and
00:18endured a bloody revolution.
00:20It's got this history of popular uprising from the Middle Ages right through the 16th
00:26century, the Fronde in the 17th century, and the French Revolution, obviously.
00:31Then the revolution of 1830, 1848, and 1871, there's a whole of that way through.
00:41You've got these explosions, if you like, of popular violence and resistance.
00:48Egality, fraternity, liberty.
00:50The spirit of the revolution lives on in the city of Paris nearly 250 years later.
00:58But despite this, much remains of this most creative of cities.
01:02What has survived is treasured and admired, not just by Parisians themselves, but by people
01:09the world over.
01:10Paris, as the fashion capital of the world, is born in the 12th century and becomes known
01:16throughout Europe in the 13th.
01:18Visually, of course, it has never been destroyed.
01:23Like that of the Greeks in the ancient world, the culture of France is regarded with prestige.
01:29Its language became one of international diplomacy.
01:33It is a Polish city.
01:35It's the city of culture.
01:37It dominates the country in a way that many other capital cities don't.
01:41France's reputation for high culture has meant even its invaders have regarded its capital
01:47with fascination and awe.
01:50Its contents to be treasured and not destroyed.
01:53Throughout French history, Paris has been at the centre of it all.
01:58It's a city that's been very carefully designed to have a kind of unified architecture.
02:03And often when foreigners come here for the first time, and this is often called the Japanese
02:07effect because it happens to Japanese tourists, they can't believe when they get here, what
02:11they've seen on YouTube or on Instagram, it's all real.
02:14The feeling that France is a great power to be reckoned with is something that never goes
02:19away.
02:25Like many ancient cities, Paris owes its founding to its location.
02:30In this case, on a river, the Seine, a mighty river that travels hundreds of kilometers from
02:36the Atlantic to the site of the city today.
02:41Located in the centre of Paris, in the middle of the river Seine, the Romans originally used
02:46the island known as Ile de la Cité as a fortress.
02:50It was fortified by the Romans in 52 BC.
02:54During the first century, the city spread to the left bank of the Seine.
02:59The Romans called it Laetitia, meaning swamp or muddy place.
03:04Paris is one of a large number of cities all across what the Romans called Gaul, we call
03:11France, about 60 of them which were the local government centres.
03:16Paris is in many ways a bog standard Roman provincial city.
03:21By the early fourth century, the city was known as Parisi, after its local inhabitants from
03:28which its name derives.
03:30The Romans had about 60 cities in Gaul, as it was known, and many, such as Nîmes and
03:37Arles in the south of France, were far more important.
03:41This is an old Roman bathhouse still viewable in the centre of modern-day Paris.
03:47Despite the relative insignificance to the Romans, Paris contained more Roman ruins than
03:53London across the Channel, a far more important city at the time.
03:57In the late Roman period, the empire is under huge pressure, there have been invasions across
04:05the Rhine, and therefore the whole of the interior of Gaul is put into a much more defensive posture.
04:13And most cities in northern Gaul, including Paris, acquire a very powerful set of defences.
04:21In the case of Paris, what they do is they fortify the Ile de la Cite, the area where now
04:28Notre-Dame
04:29stands, and a combination of very powerful stone walls and the broad river Seine gives a hugely
04:38defensible kernel to the city.
04:41After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Christianity took hold in Paris as elsewhere
04:47in Europe in the early 6th century.
04:50But these were the Dark Ages.
04:53Legend was that Saint Genevieve, who became the patron saint of Paris in the 5th century,
04:59was credited with saving the city from barbarian invasion, led by Attila the Hun.
05:06St Genevieve organised the citizens to defend their city, not just to give up and be slaughtered
05:13by the Huns, but to stand up against them.
05:17And of course, again, having this enormously powerful fortress out in the middle of the river,
05:23made it very difficult for the Huns to attack.
05:25And eventually, in fact, Attila gives up and goes and tries somewhere easier.
05:30Paris starts to rise to become exceptional in a way that it hadn't ever been under the
05:36Romans.
05:40It was soon after that that Frankish kings from the Netherlands took control over Paris
05:46and beyond.
05:49Then in the 8th century, the Pope crowned Charlemagne as the Holy Roman Emperor, establishing Paris
05:56for centuries to come as the European epicentre of the Roman Catholic Church.
06:04The city then withstood Viking sieges in the 9th century after they had invaded Normandy.
06:11Over time, these Vikings became part of the Norman population.
06:18One of the official titles of the kings of France down towards the revolution was the
06:24most Christian king.
06:25So, yes, it was kingship, it was political and military kingship, obviously, but also,
06:33to an extent, sacred kingship, because the kings of France were crowned in Reims Cathedral,
06:40so they had divine sanction and approval for being kings, and to oppose them was potentially
06:49sacrilege as much as anything else.
06:51This cathedral, on the outskirts of today's Paris, was in fact the first Gothic building
06:59in Europe.
07:00It was built as a mortuary and cathedral to house the remains of the early French kings.
07:06Gothic was invented in Paris as a very sort of practical but also extremely deluxe and exciting
07:14new style.
07:15And that's where you get the first sort of expansive set of Gothic windows around the shrine of St.
07:20Dennis to really spotlight his holy powers.
07:23And that's especially important because St. Dennis is the patron saint of the kings of
07:27France.
07:28So you also have all this royal money coming in to support this huge new building endeavour.
07:33The facade of this building was originally covered in gold mosaics.
07:37Today that's not the case.
07:39It's in an area of social deprivation and it's in an area where there's a lot of poverty.
07:43Yet still inside of this basilica you've got what remains of the French kings and queens.
07:50There was a lot of iconoclasm there in the revolution though.
07:53So that's why so many deluxe things are long lost.
07:56The Isle de la Cité became the centre of medieval Paris in the 12th century and an important
08:02religious centre, the home of Notre Dame Cathedral, where construction began in 1163.
08:10And the majestic royal chapel of Saint-Chapelle built by Louis IX to house holy relics he'd brought
08:19from Jerusalem.
08:20By the Middle Ages Paris was the largest city in Europe, an important religious and commercial
08:26centre and because of its cathedrals, the birthplace of the Gothic style of architecture.
08:33The medieval period is when Paris became fashionable.
08:36It's when Paris started to cultivate their own style and you really see this in the art
08:42and architecture of the Gothic imagination.
08:44So that's kind of kicking off in the 1140s in and around Paris.
08:50Architects are able to build these extraordinary sites with pointed arches and stained glass windows,
08:57higher and brighter buildings that we've ever seen before.
09:00And so that's for me the hallmark of medieval Paris is the Gothic imagination and then that
09:05just gets copied everywhere else at courts in Europe.
09:11The University of Paris on the left bank, organised in the mid-13th century, was one of the first
09:18in Europe.
09:19At the beginning of the 12th century, the French kings of the Capetian dynasty controlled little
09:25more than Paris and the surrounding region, but they did their best to build up Paris as
09:31a political, economic, religious and cultural capital of France.
09:37The Saint-Chapelle, the chapel of the former royal palace on the Ile de la Cité, flooded
09:42by light through its stained glass windows, is a masterpiece of Gothic style.
09:48Built nearly 800 years ago, is still regarded as the most beautiful church in Paris.
09:55It's light and ambience are breathtaking.
09:59And its most striking feature is its 15 stained glass windows soaring 50 feet to a star-covered
10:07vaulted ceiling.
10:09It was built by the French king Louis IX in 1248 to house holy relics he'd collected in
10:16the Holy Land.
10:18The Saint-Chapelle is the royal chapel in Paris, and it's arguably the most sort of deluxe, beautifully
10:26designed church in all of Europe.
10:29When you visit it today, it's almost like standing inside of a jewellery box, or looking through
10:34a kaleidoscope.
10:35It's full of gold, it's full of polychromy or paint, and it's got over 1,000 different
10:41panels of Gothic glass windows.
10:43So, you're not going to find a more sort of visibly and visually charging atmosphere.
10:50But the Saint-Chapelle isn't just beautiful.
10:53This holy chapel is extremely sacred in its function and its representation, what it sort
10:59of needs to do.
11:00What it needs to do is hold precious relics.
11:03It was constructed from about 1239 until 1248 to hold the crown of thorns, putatively worn
11:12by Christ during his passion.
11:14And not just the crown of thorns belonged to the Saint-Chapelle.
11:17About 20 other sacred relics were collected there and enshrined together under the aegis
11:24of King Louis IX of France.
11:27It was the largest private collection of passion relics in Christendom.
11:33Louis was deeply religious and went on a crusade to the Holy Land, where, in 1239, he apparently
11:41collected the relics, which included the crown of thorns, fragments of the true cross, nails
11:47from the crucifixion, and droplets of Christ's blood.
11:51It is said Louis bought the relics from the Emperor of Constantinople, paying three times
11:57as much as it cost to build the church.
12:00The crown of thorns, a true cross relic, we're told, that was longer than a man's leg.
12:06The holy lance that pierced the side of Christ on the cross, those are the kind of top three
12:12objects.
12:12But it also gets into sort of deeper aspects of the drama of the Passion.
12:17It had a shroud that was wrapped around Christ's face when he was in the tomb.
12:23It contained fragments of some of the purple vestments that Christ was wrapped in when
12:27he was mocked by the soldiers as the King of the Jews.
12:31There are some objects in that collection that aren't actually directly related to Christ,
12:35some that might surprise people today, like drops of the Virgin Mary's milk.
12:40And four head relics, a bit of John the Baptist's head, and then the head of St. Clement,
12:46St. Blaise, and St. Simeon.
12:49So a really formidable collection of holy things.
12:52And I should add that all of these things were acquired by Louis IX because he bailed out
12:59his broke cousin, the Latin Emperor Baldwin II, who was then in Constantinople.
13:06So all of those sacred items, about 20 of them in Paris, enshrined in the Saint-Chapelle, came
13:12from very ancient imperial collections in Constantinople.
13:20When Louis was older, he launched his first crusade that occurred in 1244, and he left for
13:27the Holy Land in 1248.
13:30The crusade was a disaster.
13:32It went terribly wrong.
13:34His brother died in it alongside thousands of other fighters.
13:38He was actually captured in Egypt and held for ransom.
13:42He didn't return to Paris until 1254.
13:46When he comes back to Paris, the formerly quite fun king who loved to dress in furs and fine
13:53clothes was a totally transformed man.
13:56And that's when his asceticism really kicks off.
13:59It looks like he felt that the crusade disaster was his fault.
14:04And he started to live a much more humble life thereafter.
14:08So in the 1250s and in the 1260s, King Louis IX, his life really resembled that of a friar
14:16or a monk.
14:17He was up praying all times of day and night.
14:19He'd washed the feet of the poor.
14:22He spent loads of money building hospitals, looking after lepers.
14:25He was a huge patron not just of the arts and architecture, like I said earlier, but
14:30of health and abbeys and churches.
14:34Louis IX presided over a regime which moulded church and state together.
14:40His Saint-Chapelle remains an exquisite example of Gothic architecture, which would be exported
14:47to other parts of Europe and to the wider world.
14:50But the holy mission of the crusading King Louis would end tragically in North Africa.
14:56In 1267, King Louis IX launches his second crusade.
15:01And in this case, like his first crusade, the real objective was, of course, taking back,
15:08as it were, the Holy Land for Christians.
15:11And, of course, taking back's not really the right word, but he wanted to take it over.
15:16He was really keen on conversion.
15:20And there's something very interesting about what Louis did after the first crusade in the
15:241250s, even though it failed.
15:26He brought back with him thousands of Muslims who'd converted to Christianity and set them
15:32up with free housing in and around Paris and Pontoise.
15:35It's an amazing sort of civic project.
15:38So in the 1260s, in 1267, when he declares his second crusade, he starts that crusade in
15:44present-day Tunisia, near Carthage.
15:48But in August, there's an outbreak of dysentery.
15:51And at this stage, he gets it and he dies quite soon after.
15:56Louis's crusades were disasters.
15:58They were the most expensive in the run-up.
16:01They had the highest number of participants.
16:04But they failed miserably, as in tens of thousands of people died early on in the kind of planned
16:11attack.
16:12King Louis became Saint Louis in 1297, after being canonized by the Pope.
16:19His holy chapel, Saint-Chapelle, has been beautifully restored after being badly savaged in the French
16:26Revolution.
16:29Nearby, also on the Ile de la Cité, Notre Dame, the cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary,
16:37is considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture.
16:43Beautifully restored after a tragic fire in 2015, Notre Dame is visited by thousands of people
16:50every day.
16:51Several attributes set it apart from the earlier Romanesque style, including its pioneering use
16:58of the rib vaults and flying buttresses, its enormous and colorful rose windows, and the
17:05naturalism and abundance of its sculptural decoration.
17:09It seems to represent the entire history of Paris, and all of France, too. It's the place where Parisian
17:18identity and French national identity was essentially forged. It becomes the place where power is cultivated
17:26and pronounced. And we've talked a lot about that so far in the medieval period. So, for example, when Louis
17:33IX brings the crown of thorns into Paris, he leads this spectacular procession through the
17:39city that culminates in this climactic celebration inside the cathedral of Notre Dame. It's sort of the umbilicus, or the
17:47sort of navel of his kingdom.
17:48And that's where the people are allowed to sing their praises for the first time, to honor the crown's coming.
17:54Later on in history, of course, when Napoleon crowns himself emperor, he does so inside Notre Dame, because that's again
18:04where the power is activated for these kings and these rulers and these generals.
18:08And, of course, earlier on in the French Revolution, when people are very angry about being oppressed by these ancient
18:17regime participants, they focus their iconoclasm on Notre Dame.
18:22Notre Dame is the crucible of this French power. It's also a place that is incredibly holy and means lots
18:31of things to lots of people.
18:33It's a place of great scholasticism. It's where a lot of theologians have passed through, and it's a sanctuary for
18:39everybody, not just bishops, not just monks, but for anyone who's ever lived in Paris.
18:44You could find solace inside those walls.
18:47Mounted within this impressive display, it also now holds Louis IX's most holy relics, the crown of thorns, which disappeared
18:57during the French Revolution,
18:59only to appear here after the restoration of the monarchy.
19:03From my point of view, at least, the object that's in Notre Dame today is probably the same object that
19:10King Louis IX carried into Paris eight centuries ago.
19:13What you see today in Notre Dame Cathedral is a 19th century circlet with crystal and gold,
19:21and if you look very carefully in those kind of crystalline vitrine sections, you can see these rushes or bands
19:28gathered together.
19:30You can't see much more than that, but that's offered to pilgrims and the faithful to kiss every Good Friday.
19:37So if you want a close look at the relic of the crown of thorns, I recommend that you book
19:41in for Passion Week next year and visit it,
19:44because you can queue up to venerate the relic, and you have a few seconds looking at it, and that's
19:49the best chance to get a close look at it today.
19:52The exquisite quality of French religious craftsmanship during the early Middle Ages,
19:57apparent in the Gothic structures of Saint-Chapelle, Notre Dame, and the Cathedral of Saint-Denis,
20:04can be seen elsewhere in the collections of Paris museums, from tapestries, sculptures, stained glass, and ceramic inlay.
20:14The high quality of French craftsmanship, which would make it the envy of Europe in the coming centuries,
20:20was evident as far back as the time of the Crusades and the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066.
20:28In the 13th century, Paris was arguably the most impressive and powerful city in Europe.
20:35At the start of the century, you had about 100,000 people living in about a square mile radius.
20:41By the end of the century, 200,000 people.
20:44So it's growing, and it's growing because it's a place you want to work and trade.
20:49It's the epicenter of what's cool in Europe.
20:53You've got goldsmiths, you've got architects, but you also have, of course, the University of Paris.
20:59In other places, like Bologna, there's an earlier one from the late 11th century.
21:04Oxford and Cambridge are just coming into their own at the start of the 13th century.
21:08Paris is where you go to learn about medicine, where you go to learn about the law,
21:13and, of course, where you go to learn about how to have power in the church.
21:17I think people might be aware that if they live in a place like St. Louis, that it alludes to
21:23a saint,
21:23but they might not know that their saint is a crusader king who got it wrong,
21:27and who kicked off various different styles of art and architecture,
21:33and who patronized craftsmen, and who tried to convert North Africans and convert the Mongols to Christianity.
21:42I think St. Louis is one of the most fascinating people in the Middle Ages,
21:46and he made Paris into a sort of new paradise.
21:51In acquiring the crown of thorns, of course, he makes Paris into a new Jerusalem.
21:56The power and attraction of a Christian faith dominated art,
22:01and found ready patrons in religious zealotry of the early French kings such as Louis.
22:06All the best stuff is being developed there because, in part, you've got a lot of comfortable patronage
22:14from a very, very wealthy royal family and an extensive, luxurious, fashion-loving royal court.
22:22It is, perhaps, the most impressive place to make things because these artists have the ability to experiment.
22:30They have a lot of money coming in, and their productions are valued by the most wealthy people just around
22:38the corner.
22:39There are all these other glorious places with excellent artistic production,
22:44but Parisian style remains special.
22:47And a lot of the developments further afield owe their sort of roots to sourcing Parisian stuff
22:55and getting Parisian goldsmiths, artisans, and architects over.
23:00As for Louis, the great royal patron of the medieval age,
23:05his name would be the name carried forward by most French kings in the centuries to come.
23:13Over time, especially throughout the Capetian dynasty,
23:18the Louis as a sequence of rulers are much loved and respected,
23:23and so they continue to name their ruler after Louis.
23:27And this continues beyond the Capetian dynasty, beyond the Valois dynasty,
23:32and into the Bourbon dynasty, in part because of the reputation of Louis IX.
23:38Louis IX becomes Saint Louis.
23:41He's a Christian king, and that's one of the most attractive and desirable things for any ruler in Christendom.
23:48You know, he's on par with Charlemagne, in a sense, or Constantine,
23:53these great rex christenissimi, most Christian kings.
23:58So especially after Louis IX, who dies in 1270 but is canonized in 1297,
24:05you want to be called Louis, just like him.
24:10With the departure of the French king to the Louvre Palace, the Tuileries Palace,
24:15and then the Palace of Versailles, the Ile de la Cité became France's judicial center.
24:21In 1302, it hosted the first meeting of the Paris Parliament,
24:26and was later the site of the trials of the aristocrats during the French Revolution.
24:31La Conciergerie, situated in an old Gothic palace next to Saint-Chapelle,
24:37was converted into a prison for those convicted at show trials in the Palais of Justice next door.
24:46In the 14th and 15th centuries, Paris entered a dark age,
24:51hindered twice by the Black Death or bubonic plague.
24:58But in the late Middle Ages, the cultural artistry that was emerging from Renaissance Italy
25:04would eclipse what was being produced elsewhere in the continent, including France.
25:11Like everywhere else, the French kings would now embellish their capital cities
25:16with architectural styles borrowed from those of Renaissance Italy.
25:21Italian artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci, were recruited to work for monarchs such as Francis I.
25:30There is a movement by the kings and their key courtiers to export Italian artists back to France.
25:40And there is a legend that Francis I was very, very close to Leonardo da Vinci in his last years.
25:48Certainly, he provides accommodation for Leonardo at a manor house near the Royal Chateau at Amboise.
25:58And this is where Leonardo spends the final years of his life.
26:03He travels there with his favourite assistant.
26:06He takes his favourite, most precious paintings and those he's still working on with him to France.
26:12And this is how many of Leonardo's paintings finish in the Royal Collections and are now present in the Louvre,
26:21in the National Collections.
26:24It's said Leonardo brought his most famous work, the Mona Lisa, now at the Louvre at this time.
26:31Certainly, Francis I was a huge fan.
26:37Situated on the border between Saint-Chapelle-de-Prince and the Latin Quarter,
26:42the Luxembourg Gardens, inspired by the Boboli Gardens in Florence,
26:47were created on the initiative of the mother of Louis XIII,
26:51the widow of Henry IV, Queen Mary de' Medici, in 1612.
26:57The gardens cover 25 hectares of land.
27:01Here, you find statues, not only of Saint-Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris,
27:07but of numerous French queen consorts, but none were ever a queen in their own right.
27:14It's very interesting because we tend to think of many female figures in French history
27:20as key and influential, particularly in the 16th century Catherine de' Medici.
27:28Unfortunately, under Salic law, which is particular to France,
27:34no woman, no princess can become queen in their own right.
27:39Queen Mary de' Medici's husband Henry IV and her son Louis XIII
27:44also oversaw the building of some of the city's most famous parks and monuments.
27:51A statue of Louis XIII still stands in the centre of this picturesque small park
27:57known as the Place des Vosges in the city's Marais district.
28:02The park is surrounded by these exquisite apartments built in the early 16th century,
28:09the finest example of the style in the city.
28:12This still remains, arguably, Paris's most beautiful square,
28:17a masterpiece of aristocratic elegance,
28:20and is the first example of a planned development in the city.
28:25Soon, the French kings and their capital would see themselves and their city
28:29as the natural heir to not only the culture of Renaissance Italy, but of Rome itself.
28:36It is in their interest to try and perpetuate the Roman system,
28:40because, amongst other things, it produces things like tax and other revenues and things that you want.
28:47The modern diplomatic system was established by the Italians in the 15th century,
28:53who initially send out temporary ambassadors and then establish resident ambassadors at the key courts.
29:04The system of negotiation is, of course, established by the great Italian peace treaties of the 15th century.
29:14But then we think of French diplomats as really leading that process, particularly by the 17th century.
29:23So France becomes the arbiter of the world, whereas Italy had been in the 15th century.
29:31French becomes the language of diplomacy, whereas Latin and, of course, the vernacular Italian had been in the 15th century.
29:40At the royal burial tombs of the French monarchs at the cathedral at Denys,
29:46the royal effigies of monarchs such as Francis I, Louis XII, would now be presented not just as monarchs,
29:54but as emperors, beginning a trend that would last for centuries.
29:58But by the 17th century, Paris was once again the centre of global ambitions.
30:05It was the largest city in Europe, with a population of half a million,
30:10matched in size only by London in the 16th century.
30:14Paris had become the book publishing capital of Europe.
30:18Its heritage is still on display in the streets, cafes and riverside stalls.
30:27France's next king, Louis XIV, would take the royal connection to empire, ancient Rome, Italian Renaissance
30:35and, of course, Roman Catholicism to new heights.
30:40The most tangible evidence of Louis XIV having a strong sense of grandeur
30:46are the statues which are produced of him, both for Versailles and for places like the Place des Victoires
30:52in the middle of Paris and the Place de Vendôme, as it now is in the middle of Paris, too.
30:57These have Louis as a Roman emperor of one sort or another, perhaps dressed in his coronation robes,
31:04perhaps dressed as a Roman emperor, perhaps wearing a laurel wreath,
31:08perhaps having victory crowning him with a laurel wreath standing behind him.
31:12But in any case, what is going on here is the projection of the King of France
31:18as a Roman emperor and not just as God's vicar on earth, but almost as a demigod himself.
31:26Louis XIV was born in 1638
31:31and was also known as Louis the Great, or Louis Le Grand, or the Sun King.
31:39He was the King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715.
31:46The King of Spain until 1665, Philip IV, always was called the Planet King
31:53because he had territories all over the planet, in the Americas, in the East Indies, and everything else like that.
32:00And Louis XIV said, well, you know, if he's the Planet King, I'm the Sun King,
32:04and the Sun is a much bigger thing than the planet.
32:07His reign of more than 72 years was for centuries the longest of any sovereign.
32:14He ascended the throne aged only five.
32:18Later on, as he became a teenager, he was very much led by Mazarin,
32:23who was the chief minister at that time.
32:26And when Mazarin died, people thought this very young king
32:30would actually depend upon other dominant ministers like that.
32:37And they came to him and they said, who should we report to now?
32:40And the king said, to me, I'm the king.
32:42And from then on, you know, everybody knew that this was the king
32:47and he was the one who was going to give the orders.
32:49Louis XIV becomes, over the course of his reign, the most important figure in Europe.
32:54And, of course, as King of France, he is the embodiment of France
32:57and, in fact, sees himself as the embodiment of its interests as well.
33:01And he wants everybody else to think so too.
33:03To a very large extent, people outside France do think that.
33:08And the great thing about Louis XIV, he was not impulsive.
33:11He was careful, he was systematic, he was a very conscientious ruler in one sense.
33:19But that conscientiousness reflected the fact that he had a dominant personality.
33:23His pageantry, opulent lifestyle and innate cultivated image
33:30earned him enduring admiration as he established a cultural prestige for France
33:36which lasted through the subsequent centuries and continues today.
33:41In the age of the divine right of kings, Louis would grow to see himself
33:46as a modern equivalent of the Egyptian pharaohs and Paris would be his new Rome.
33:53This is why Voltaire, who wrote the first great life of Louis XIV, sort of 30 years after he died,
34:02said, you know, this was the peak, the most culturally glorious age since the Roman times.
34:09France's relationship with Italy is an ambivalent one.
34:12In the 16th century, they had sought to take over large chunks of it through inheritance and conquest.
34:17There is, in many respects, a cultural cringe in France towards Italy in the 15th, 16th and early 17th centuries.
34:24But as the 17th century wears on, you start to see a desire to actually surpass Rome
34:31in the achievements of the French, in the perfection of the French language,
34:35and also in the perfection of artistic styles that you can date back to imperial antiquity.
34:42It was very, very impressive because it did make the French language, French ways, French fashions and so on,
34:52the really dominant ones in Europe for a good century and maybe more.
34:56The Louvre, now one of the world's most popular museums, had been the Paris home
35:03to a succession of French monarchs stretching back to the Middle Ages.
35:08A number of French kings added or redesigned this giant palace.
35:13It has been embellished, renovated and added to over a period of nearly 500 years.
35:20Louis XIV's great contribution was to the grand façade housing its eastern entrance,
35:28signified by his initials, embellished into the stonework,
35:33as was common for all French monarchs as acknowledgement of their architectural contribution.
35:39The history of the Louvre would change forever when the Sun King decided to move his court outside of Paris,
35:47where he would construct a brand new palace.
35:51Initially, Louis XIV simply expanded the original hunting lodge
35:56by adding a couple of wings at the front and some formal gardens at the back.
36:01In the 1670s, however, Louis XIV decided to expand Versailles once again,
36:08this time on a truly massive scale.
36:11By 1682, the vast new palace was finally completed
36:17and was now worthy of becoming his principal home.
36:25Located just over 10 miles outside Paris,
36:28the extraordinary grand scale of Versailles was specifically intended by Louis XIV
36:34to visibly demonstrate the French monarch's huge power and wealth.
36:39This was important because from 1682 onwards it became not only his principal home
36:46but also the seat of the French government.
36:51It's interesting to reflect why he should have wanted to build a palace outside of Paris.
36:58He had a perfectly serviceable, in fact, a rather brilliant palace in Paris, which was the Louvre.
37:04But Louis XIV doesn't seem to have felt very comfortable in Paris.
37:09So putting himself at a distance from the people of Paris,
37:13who have a reputation, obviously, of being turbulent and later revolutionary,
37:16was definitely one possible reason.
37:19I think also he just liked, you know, he liked the model.
37:22He liked to be himself the centre of attention,
37:25the centre of a world that he had constructed, really.
37:30Remarkably, the palace is said to have over 2,000 rooms.
37:35Of all the rooms, the largest and most spectacular is its dazzling main reception,
37:40the Grand Gallery, otherwise known as the Hall of Mirrors.
37:45Astonishingly, it's 240 feet long.
37:49Certainly the most famous room in all of France.
37:52Over the centuries, it has hosted numerous great state occasions,
37:57including the signing of the Treaty that recognised the independence of the United States of America
38:02and the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I.
38:07The room's magnificent mirrors, of course, are its most famous feature.
38:14Louis XIV was very proud of his mirrors because there is 357 mirrors,
38:19and it was very difficult to make so big mirrors at that time.
38:23So, Louis XIV sent spies to Venice to know how to make these mirrors,
38:29but he wanted to have his own French manufacturers.
38:33So, this Hall of Mirrors was kind of like a showroom of the French technical abilities.
38:40When they arrived here, the visitor had to be very impressed by the power and the money,
38:46the richness of the king of Louis XIV and the French people.
38:51300 years after, it's always a symbol of France, Versailles.
38:56So, Louis XIV succeeded with his dream of Versailles.
39:04When the king decided to settle here in 1682,
39:09thousands of his courtiers came here in Versailles,
39:13so you have to imagine here more than 1,000 people a day.
39:25Cleverly, Louis XIV took advantage of the vast size of Versailles
39:30by insisting that his thousands of courtiers live here in the palace too,
39:35so that he could keep a close eye on them.
39:37The reign of previous French kings had been plagued by plots
39:41led by discontented nobility.
39:44By keeping the nobles here at Versailles
39:47isolated from their regional power bases,
39:50Louis XIV could easily foil any treacherous plots.
39:56Right at the heart of the palace,
39:59beyond room after room of grand state apartments
40:02used for receptions and official occasions,
40:05were Louis XIV's so-called private apartments
40:09centred around the royal bedchamber.
40:14We are here in the king's bedroom
40:15and it is the most important room in the palace
40:18because it's just in the middle
40:20and because it is the room of the king, of course.
40:22And it was the seat of the government,
40:25so European ambassadors were received here.
40:32Remarkably, to modernize,
40:34almost all aspects of Louis XIV's life
40:37took place as a public ritual
40:39and even his bedroom was usually crowded with courtiers.
40:43The most distinguished or favored of them
40:46would even be invited as a great honor
40:48to participate in the couché ceremony,
40:51which involved helping the king undress before he went to bed.
40:57Here you have a balustrade and it's very important.
40:59It is a symbolic separation
41:01between the temporal and spiritual area.
41:05As the king was considered as God on earth,
41:08so only few people could enter
41:10and cross this balustrade.
41:13That is to say the people,
41:14the king wanted to honor for the couché.
41:17It is what we call etiquette.
41:20Nowadays it's very funny to understand,
41:22but at that time it was very important.
41:25His reign would come to be seen as a golden age
41:28and later rulers, not just in France,
41:31but all across Europe,
41:33would try to copy the legacy of the so-called Sun King.
41:38One of the things which is very evident
41:40from the late 17th and for the rest of the 18th century
41:43is any monarch worth their salt,
41:46any monarch wanting to sort of cut the mustard
41:48and international power politics wants a Versailles.
41:51So Versailles became a model which was much admired,
41:55but also was much imitated.
41:57All the courts of Europe began to imitate Versailles,
42:00in other words,
42:01to build royal palaces outside their capital cities.
42:06So you see, this is why,
42:07when William III comes to the throne,
42:10this is why he elaborates Hampton Court, for example,
42:13sort of British Versailles.
42:14But you've got palaces like that in Austria,
42:19Schoenbrunn, for example,
42:21in Naples, Caserta, for example,
42:25the great palaces of Russia,
42:27which that's in the 18th century.
42:28But what they've got their eye on all the time
42:30is the Versailles model,
42:32which Louis XIV had established.
42:34France was by far the most populous country in Europe,
42:37so it could draw upon enormous numbers of manpower,
42:41which obviously was crucial
42:45for dominating other countries as well.
42:47So that was part of it.
42:49And Louis XIV wanted also to be the dominant ruler in Europe.
42:54He had that power behind him.
42:55He had that taxation revenue behind him.
42:58He had the biggest army in Europe by far.
43:00And by the first decade of the 18th century,
43:05he had an army of 400,000 men,
43:08which was totally unprecedented in Europe.
43:12The Hotel Nacional des Invalides,
43:15with its imposing golden dome rising to over 110 metres,
43:20was built by Louis XIV
43:22to house and treat wounded soldiers.
43:26It also tended later to several thousand soldiers
43:30from Napoleon's army.
43:32Louis XIV takes very seriously
43:35the Roman idea of discipline in his armed forces,
43:39but also the need to ensure that his veteran troops,
43:43as they come to the end of their time in his service,
43:46are taken care of.
43:47And he wants to try and build upon
43:50recent traditions of the last 100 or 200 years,
43:53but also build upon Roman traditions
43:56of military authority,
43:57military decorum,
43:59and military welfare.
44:01The hospital of Les Invalides
44:03is for old veteran soldiers,
44:06particularly those who have got severe wounds,
44:09but may well live quite a few more years,
44:11those who have done their duty.
44:13The way in which it is designed
44:16as a grid system,
44:18the austerity of it,
44:20the way in which you're using stone which will last,
44:23all of these ideas were very much
44:26the ideas of the time
44:28as to what Rome was like,
44:30that Rome built to last.
44:32It built in monumental stone,
44:35it built in monolithic stone,
44:38and it built in a rather austere fashion.
44:42That is the agenda,
44:44not just of Jean-Baptiste Colbert,
44:46but also of Louis XIV's war minister,
44:49the Marquis de Louvois.
44:50And it's the rivalry between Louvois and Colbert
44:54which I think very much helps to shape
44:56the design of Paris in the 1660s and the 1670s.
45:01Nearby, Napoleon's tomb can be found in a crypt
45:04in the Cathedral of Saint Louis,
45:07also constructed during the reign of Louis XIV.
45:11Later, Napoleon, who died in exile
45:13on the island of Saint Helena,
45:15was laid to rest here
45:16in a giant red quartz-sized sarcophagus
45:19which was finally constructed 40 years later in 1861.
45:24The old city walls of Paris were dismantled
45:28during the reign of Louis XIV,
45:30but Louis erected giant entry gates
45:33modelled on Roman triumphal arches.
45:36Two of these,
45:37the gate of Saint-Martin
45:39and the gate of Saint-Denis,
45:41are still here today.
45:44What these are,
45:45are gigantic statements
45:47that France is the new Rome,
45:51Paris itself is the epicentre of this
45:53and is the new Roman city.
45:55Now those look big,
45:56but what was also planned
45:58was another triple arch,
46:01like Constantine the Great's arch,
46:03which was supposed to be set up
46:04to the east of Paris,
46:06halfway between Paris
46:07and what is now Vincennes.
46:09But that never got built
46:10because it was one step too far,
46:12it was one project
46:13just too big for that period.
46:16Jean-Baptiste Colbert
46:17is the great culture minister of France
46:19of the 1660s and 1670s.
46:22And Colbert believes
46:23that in order to emulate Rome,
46:26you've got to emulate
46:28as much as possible
46:29the various trappings
46:30of Roman imperialism,
46:32the visual trappings of it.
46:34But he also believes
46:35that Rome's power
46:37derived from the city itself,
46:40and the example it's set
46:42to the world.
46:43He wants Paris to do the same
46:45and he persuades Louis XIV
46:47that that is the way forward.
46:49So in the case
46:50of the triumphal arches,
46:51what you see going on here
46:53is a direct attempt
46:55to emulate Roman triumphal arches,
46:58which display the victory
47:00of the French
47:01over what they consider
47:03to be the barbarians
47:04of the rest of Europe.
47:06Louis's Paris established itself
47:09as the world's capital
47:10of fashion and luxury
47:12as it exported
47:13colossal amounts of the stuff
47:15on a grand scale.
47:17The craftsmanship
47:18in its tapestries,
47:19furniture and paintings
47:21was the best in Europe.
47:23Back in the early 17th century,
47:25the great centre
47:26for the manufacturing
47:27of luxury goods
47:29was really the Spanish Netherlands,
47:31what is now Belgium,
47:32and the Dutch Republic.
47:33But the French are determined
47:35to make Paris
47:36the centre
47:37of the luxury goods industries.
47:39They know that they cannot
47:40necessarily compete
47:41in terms of volume,
47:43but they know that they can compete
47:44in terms of skill.
47:46And so what they do
47:48is that they encourage
47:49the development of skills,
47:51they bolster the guilds
47:52where they feel
47:53that it can be useful
47:55to encourage
47:56high-quality manufacturing,
47:58and they really go
47:59for what we would now call
48:01value-added.
48:02They are really trying
48:03to make France
48:04the luxury exporters
48:06of Europe
48:07to the rest of Europe.
48:09And it begins
48:10in the 1660s
48:11and it really
48:13has its ups and downs
48:14for several centuries,
48:16but that is why,
48:17for example,
48:18we still associate Paris
48:19with the luxury goods industries
48:21today.
48:22But he also sets up
48:24establishments like
48:25the Gobelin Tapestry
48:26Manufacturing,
48:27the purpose of which
48:29is to essentially
48:30make France
48:30and particularly Paris
48:32the centre in the world
48:34of tapestry manufacture.
48:37And tapestries
48:37are phenomenally expensive
48:39objects.
48:40We can buy them
48:41quite cheaply now
48:42in reproduction,
48:43but in France
48:43you'd be talking about
48:44major outlays of money
48:46for any aristocratic family
48:47that might want to have them.
48:49So Louis wants to be
48:50the person who is
48:51producing these as well.
48:54He wants to have
48:54the ultimate kudos
48:56that comes from doing that.
48:58Venice was prestigious
49:00in part in the middle
49:02of the 17th century
49:03because of its glassware
49:04and its mirrors.
49:06France sees
49:08that this is something
49:10that they can do as well.
49:12And so Louis XIV is determined
49:14to make France
49:15the centre of glassware.
49:17Not because they think
49:18they can necessarily
49:19out-compete the Venetians
49:21but because it is a prestige
49:23luxury industry.
49:25And if it involves grandeur,
49:27if it involves prestige,
49:28the French government
49:29wants to be in on the act
49:31and it wants to promote
49:32those people
49:32within its borders
49:33who can really deliver
49:35this wonderful material.
49:37French cabinets,
49:40the sort of thing
49:41that you would see
49:42in the side of reception rooms,
49:45in aristocratic houses,
49:46in royal palaces,
49:48Louis XIV very much
49:50encourages the development
49:52of the highest end
49:54of French carpentry.
49:56The most luxurious forms
49:59of furniture
50:00are built in French workshops,
50:03particularly in Paris
50:04and in parts of the north
50:05north of France
50:06and Lyon as well.
50:08And Louis doesn't just
50:10promote these objects
50:12and promote the people
50:15who are in fact
50:16producing these objects.
50:18He buys them himself.
50:20He commissions them
50:21from the royal palace.
50:22You get the most
50:23extraordinary cabinets
50:25with marquetry
50:27that you really are unrivaled
50:30anywhere else in the world.
50:31Louis now wanted France
50:33to become the centre
50:34not just of Europe
50:35but the world.
50:37French science,
50:38as well as its arts,
50:40would get it there
50:40with the founding
50:41of the Paris Observatory
50:43and the French Academy
50:45of Sciences.
50:47The French government,
50:49particularly driven
50:49by Jean-Baptiste Colbert,
50:51very much want Paris
50:52to be seen
50:53as the centre of Europe,
50:56if not the centre of the world.
50:58This is not just
50:59a matter of symbolism.
51:00This is not just
51:01a matter of culture
51:02and prestige.
51:03It also involves
51:05the Paris Meridian
51:06and actually trying
51:08to make the rest
51:08of the world think
51:09that in fact
51:11the Meridian line
51:12does not run
51:13through Greenwich,
51:13it runs through Paris.
51:15They are trying
51:16to standardise measurements
51:17in France
51:19140 years or so
51:20before they come up
51:21with the metric system.
51:23And they are trying
51:24to attract foreign scientists
51:26to Paris
51:27so that this will be
51:28the great centre
51:29in the world.
51:31Not Peking,
51:32not Beijing at the time
51:33which had had that reputation,
51:35but Paris from now on
51:36will be the centre
51:38of astronomy
51:39and if Paris
51:40is at the centre
51:41of the world
51:41and the centre
51:42of astronomy,
51:43Paris is also
51:44at the centre
51:45of the solar system
51:46and the centre
51:47of the universe.
51:49And to that end,
51:50the French government
51:52builds the Great Observatory
51:54which at that point
51:55is just to the south
51:56of Paris' city walls
51:58in open countryside
51:59where you can gaze
52:00at the night stars
52:01without any of the problems
52:03of light coming
52:04from the city.
52:05The Observatory of Paris
52:06remains to this day
52:08to the south
52:09of the Luxembourg gardens
52:10and it is again
52:12one of the great examples
52:14of Roman imperial style
52:16architecture in Paris.
52:18And like many Roman buildings,
52:20the original ones I mean
52:22back in the days of Augustus,
52:24this is actually
52:26a very austere
52:27and simple building
52:29that is built to last.
52:32On September 1st, 1715,
52:36Louis XIV died here
52:37in his bedroom
52:38surrounded by his courtiers.
52:41On his deathbed,
52:42his last words
52:43to his successor
52:44as king were,
52:45apparently I loved walls
52:47and buildings too much.
52:49Do not copy me.
52:53Louis' critics say
52:54Louis' privilege,
52:55he was king
52:56almost his entire life
52:57from the age of five
52:59until his death,
53:00meant he became
53:01too full of himself.
53:04If you look
53:05at some of the
53:07semi-allegorical pictures
53:10of Louis XIV,
53:11he's dressed as a Roman emperor
53:12and this is the legacy
53:14of Rome.
53:15Even one of his
53:16visual signatures,
53:18they say the extravagant wig,
53:20was introduced
53:21because he was almost bald.
53:23They're absolutely universal
53:25by 1700,
53:27but they start off
53:28with Louis XIV,
53:29who was losing his hair
53:30and wanted wigs
53:32and everyone copied them.
53:34Whatever your view,
53:36it was less than
53:37a hundred years
53:37after Louis' passing
53:39that the divine right
53:40of kings,
53:41so central to the
53:43ancient regime,
53:44would begin to falter
53:45and would soon come
53:47to a sudden
53:47and bloody end
53:49on the streets
53:50of Paris.
53:54Next time,
53:55Napoleon,
53:56the empire builder,
53:58shapes Paris
53:59as it enters
54:00a new and uncharted era
54:02in its grand history.
54:05Napoleon,
54:05who really dominates
54:07Europe in a way
54:08Louis XIV never managed
54:09to do
54:10and turns Europe
54:12completely upside down.
54:30To be continued...
54:53It's the collision, the meeting between big ideas.
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