Julian Swann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- July 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198788690
- eISBN:
- 9780191830778
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198788690.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter explores the daily realities of life in disgrace. Starting with the example of prisoners of state, it considers the experience of life in the Bastille or other state prisons before ...
More
This chapter explores the daily realities of life in disgrace. Starting with the example of prisoners of state, it considers the experience of life in the Bastille or other state prisons before turning to the fate of those sent into internal exile. Life in exile was for some an ordeal, for others an adventure and the chapter examines the range of unwritten conventions governing the conduct of a disgracié. Amongst the obstacles to be faced were travel to unknown locations, the need to find accommodation and establish social contacts with the local population, to deal with pressing family affairs and to fight off boredom without appearing to show disrespect to a monarch they had already displeased. For many, exile was brief and not especially unpleasant, but it should not be dismissed too easily. Victims of what was termed ‘profound disgrace’ could suffer grievously as their lives were turned upside down.Less
This chapter explores the daily realities of life in disgrace. Starting with the example of prisoners of state, it considers the experience of life in the Bastille or other state prisons before turning to the fate of those sent into internal exile. Life in exile was for some an ordeal, for others an adventure and the chapter examines the range of unwritten conventions governing the conduct of a disgracié. Amongst the obstacles to be faced were travel to unknown locations, the need to find accommodation and establish social contacts with the local population, to deal with pressing family affairs and to fight off boredom without appearing to show disrespect to a monarch they had already displeased. For many, exile was brief and not especially unpleasant, but it should not be dismissed too easily. Victims of what was termed ‘profound disgrace’ could suffer grievously as their lives were turned upside down.
Paul Cheney
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226079356
- eISBN:
- 9780226411774
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226411774.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter uses the marriage between the French nobleman Etienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays and his wife Marie-Elisabeth Thimothée Binau, the daughter of a creole (native born) planter as a ...
More
This chapter uses the marriage between the French nobleman Etienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays and his wife Marie-Elisabeth Thimothée Binau, the daughter of a creole (native born) planter as a window into conflict among the white elite of Saint-Domingue. Saint-Domingue was settled and governed thanks to a collaboration between metropolitan and creole elites, but as the eighteenth century progressed, the creoles of Saint-Domingue became more self-confident and assertive. Shortly after their marriage, Marie-Elisabeth Thimothée Binau sought to regain control of her dowry and to live independently of a husband she believed had married her for mercenary purposes; the circumstances of their legal separation furnishes an example of how little-awed the white creole elite of Saint-Domingue was by the social and political power of the military nobility who administered France's colonial empire and who made fortunes investing in its plantation complex. It also exposes some of the fault lines that would emerge once the French Revolution arrived in Saint-Domingue, and would make it impossible to re-impose order on a fractured slave society.Less
This chapter uses the marriage between the French nobleman Etienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays and his wife Marie-Elisabeth Thimothée Binau, the daughter of a creole (native born) planter as a window into conflict among the white elite of Saint-Domingue. Saint-Domingue was settled and governed thanks to a collaboration between metropolitan and creole elites, but as the eighteenth century progressed, the creoles of Saint-Domingue became more self-confident and assertive. Shortly after their marriage, Marie-Elisabeth Thimothée Binau sought to regain control of her dowry and to live independently of a husband she believed had married her for mercenary purposes; the circumstances of their legal separation furnishes an example of how little-awed the white creole elite of Saint-Domingue was by the social and political power of the military nobility who administered France's colonial empire and who made fortunes investing in its plantation complex. It also exposes some of the fault lines that would emerge once the French Revolution arrived in Saint-Domingue, and would make it impossible to re-impose order on a fractured slave society.
