The Swiss Guards
Today when we talk about the Swiss Guards, the first thing that comes to mind are the pictoresque soldiers at the State of the Vatican, with their colorful Renaissance uniforms that guard of honor of the Pope.
In truth, dating back to the 14th century during the epoch of the Hundred Years' War, many European kings used Swiss mercenaries to form military corps for their protection.
The first monarch to create a Swiss Guard corp was Louis XI and his successor Charles VIII progressively increased the number to 100, hence the name Cent suisses (the Hundred Swiss).
Between the end of the 1400s and the beginning of the 1500s, the Papal State followed the example of the King of France to the point that Julius II had at his service 150 Swiss Guards that demonstrated their faith during the course of the Sack of Rome which was carried out by the German mercenary Landsknecht soldiers enrolled in Emporer Charles V's army.
Even the Savoys had their Swiss Guards in the 16th century, and during the 18th century the Swiss were personal guards to Frederick I of Prussia, the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Joseph I of Portugal and even utilized by Napoleon Bonaparte.
The Mozarts arrived in Versailles on the evening of Christmas Eve in 1763 and were able to watch the traditional mass in the Royal Chapel: the first at midnight, a second later during the night, a third at sunrise, the last at the early morning hours of Christmas Day. As a musician, Leopold voices his opinions of the music: good and bad, he says, specifying that the pieces for only voices and the arias were cold and lacked quality, meaning the French (evidently Leopold did not enjoy French vocal style, preferring Italian and German). However, he found the choral pieces excellent, so much so, that he took advantage of the opportunity to continue Wolfgang's musical and stylistic training, accompanying him everyday to the King's mass held at 1 pm in the Royal Chapel (unless the King decided to go hunting, in which case the mass was anticipated to 10 am).
The blatent visibility of the wealth accumulated by the richest Parisian aristocrats, from the fermiers généraux (private parties who received the privilege of collecting taxes in certain areas, becoming excessively wealthy) and the important upper class bankers (about a hundred people altogether according to Leopold) struck the moderate Salzburg enough to consider them astonishingly mad. The display even led women to wear fur coats in warm weather: fur collars, fur bands in their hair in place of flowers, ribbons of fur around their arms. At the opera and receptions, the great dames who could afford it flaunted the most luxurious furs (ermine, wolf pelts, otter, sable). Particularly favored were hand muffs, in fur or angora in cilinder shape (so-called barrel) or draping majestically to the ground. However, the use and abuse of fur was not only limited to women.
Men wore daggers adorned with ribbons which were highly fashionable in Paris, made of very thin fur, causing Leopold to mockingly comment that something so ridiculous would surely impede the dagger from freezing.
Even excessive love for luxury by the French was reproached by Leopold, in particular the habit of sending newborns to caretakers in the countryside, entrusting them to a tenant who would distribute the children to the wives of farmers, where they wrote the names of the parents and guardians in a ledger in collaboration with the local parish in exchange of an offering for their certification.
The care of children in the 18th century in Paris To be born female was a difficult fate
In general, when a female child was born, it was a disappointment for the parents. Wealthy or poor, the reaction was the same.
No celebrations and above all, a fate marked by a lesser future in comparison to male children. It would not be her who carried the family lineage, or to inherit property and public positions (in the case of noble families) and it would not be her to contribute to the sustainance of the family with physical strength, unless helping in the household or working as a housekeeper (in the case of poor families).
In the aristocratic homes, newborns were immediately entrusted to the tenants and taken away from their homes and mothers until they were weaned.
The tenants were often ignorant farmers that neglected the children often to the point of death or, as happened to Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (Prince and later an astute politician for all seasons), was rendered an invalid.
It appears, in fact, that Talleyrand had a permanent limp due to a fall from a chair that was too high of which the absent-minded tenant had left him unattended.
After the children were weaned, they were returned to their families and were entrusted to a nanny who looked after their every need, from basic education (reading and writing, catechism, some bible study) to attending to their personal habits, often with the aid of the many publications dedicated to educating children.
There was no familiarity with the mother, let alone with the father, if not on the occasion of the morning visit to the mother's room where she received him or her with indifference, paying more attention to her dogs.
From a very young age, the wealthy daughters were dressed like the adult women (corset, farthingdale, noteworthy hairstyles complete with a hat, etc.) and were given dolls with complete wardrobes.
The weekly magazine of information Le Mercure de France announced to its readers in 1722 that the Duchess d'Orleans had given the Dauphine of France (wife of the Dauphin who was first born son and heir to the King of France) a doll with a complete wardrobe and jewels of astronomical value for those times: £22,000.
When the wealthy girl reached the age of six or seven years old, she began to receive dance, singing and music (harpsichord) lessons in order to prepare her for her role in society...and in the end would be sent to a convent, based on the prestige of the other girls she consorted with.
It was obviously not a monastic life as we are accustomed to imagine it today but a kind of boarding school where the girls lived a relatively secluded and morally "guaranteed" life: there were well-furnished apartments for girls of noble lineage and in the most prestigious convents, contacts and friendships were intertwined between the girls who, once they were released and returned to the world through marriage, would be able to obtain social and economic advantages for the family of origin and that of the husband.
It often happened that the young women were married by exclusive decision of the family without consulting the daughter from the age of twelve or thirteen and then sent back to the convent until they reached the appropriate age to consummate the marriage.
Thus it was for a daughter of Madame de Genlis, married at the age of twelve, and for the Marquise de Mirabeau of which she became the widow of the Marquis de Sauveboeuf at thirteen.
In particular convents there was also a curious typology of girls who, even without pronouncing binding religious vows, received a habit and the honorary title of Canoness, which gave prestige to them and to the families to which they belong: however they had the obligation to reside in the convent two out of three years.
The Canonesses were divided, according to age, into Dame aunts, each of whom was entrusted with a Lady niece, who would receive her support to build relationships with the other Ladies and, on the death of her aunt, would inherit her furniture, the jewels and any income and benefits related to her office in the convent.
The Canonesses were divided, according to age, into Dame aunts, each of whom was entrusted with a Lady niece, who would receive her support to build relationships with the other Ladies and, on the death of her aunt, would inherit her furniture, the jewels and any income and benefits related to her office in the convent.
The main convents and most coveted by the noble families were that of Fontevrault, in the Loire Region (where the Daughters of France, the daughters of the Kings and Dauphins of France were educated), that of Penthémont (where the Princesses were educated and "they withdrew" the Dame of quality once they became elderly or widows).
Hospitality in these convents was not free, on the contrary. In 1757 the cost could range, in Paris, from 400 to 600 livres to which other expenses were added: 300 livre for the maid plus more money for the trunk, bed and furniture, for heating wood and for candles or oil for lighting, for washing linen, etc.
At the convent of Penthémont, the most expensive, there was the distinction between ordinary pension (600 livre) and extraordinary (800 livre which became 1,000 if the boarders desired the honor of eating at the Mother Superior's table).
At the end of their preparation in the most prestigious convents the girls were ready for marriage and, if we give credit to what their contemporaries thought, "they knew everything without having learned anything".
Marriage, for most of these girls, simply represented the fulfillment of the family project and had value for the status she would give them, based on her husband's condition, and for the luxury and comfort she would allow.
As new brides, they would then begin the tour of visits to the aristocratic circle of friendly families of their family and their husband to affirm her new condition as married women ready for society life, with a side of fashionable clothes, jewelry, hairstyles. to show off at the Opera and on every occasion, especially if you belonged to the elite who had the opportunity to access the "presentation" at the Court.
At that point, to be capable, the girl had to learn the fashionable words and use them naturally: Amazing, Divine, Miraculous, are terms to be used to describe a musical performance at the Opera rather than a new hairstyle or a new dance step.
A lady's day did not begin until eleven o'clock, when she woke up, she called the maid who helped her wash and dress while the mistress stroked the inevitable pet dog that slept in her room.
The fact that the habit of nursing newborn children to ignorant peasants who often neglected them was widespread not only among the aristocrats but also in decidedly less wealthy sections of the population (the cost, in fact, was very low) which caused disabilities that, for the poor meant misery and marginalization for the rest of their lives. Leopold observes that in Paris one could not easily find a place that was not full of miserable and crippled people.
In and out of churches or walking in the streets one was continually subjected to requests for money from the blind, paralyzed, crippled, pustular beggars, people whose pigs had devoured a hand as children, or who had fallen into the fire and burned their arms while their keepers had left them alone to go to work in the fields. All this disgusted Leopold, who avoided looking at those poor people.
The poor
Social inequalities were extremely large in the 18th century.
In the face of an aristocratic class, which lived in luxury and which was "forbidden" to work (thus living off the remaining part of the population) and among the large and middle bourgeoisie (which got along quite well thanks to finance, trade and professions), there were crowds of poor people and going farther down the social ladder, of miserable people without a home, food or family.
Of Neapolitan beggars, Prince Strongoli says in 1783, that "they overflowed without a family" because misery often prevented the formation of family ties or even caused their disintegration, with husbands abandoning their families or children leaving to seek better fate elsewhere, usually in some city where they hoped for more opportunities.
The needy not only included slackers and wanderers by choice but also all those who were unable to earn their daily bread because they were too old or too young (although children started working at a very young age), disabled or sick.
During Prince Strongoli's time, it is estimated that in Naples a quarter of the population (100,000 out of 400,000 inhabitants) belonged to the poor or miserable class.
The number of the poor then increased or decreased also on the basis of contingencies: famines, wars, job losses, diseases, epidemics could increase the percentages even to 50% or more in moments of the worst crisis.
Without reaching the frightening numbers of Naples at the end of the 1700s, poverty was also great in other European cities: from south to north (Rome, Florence, Venice, Lyon, Toledo, Norwich, Salisbury) ranging between 4% and 8% of the population.
One can therefore easily imagine the enormous mass of miserable and poor people in Europe, considering that the continent's population amounted to about 140 million in the mid-1700s rising to 180 million on the threshold of the French Revolution.
A small part of the enormous mass of poor children, because they were orphans or belonging to families who were unable to feed and care for them, were "taken care of" by the Conservatories or Hospitals which, born in Naples, Venice and other Italian cities during the 16th century, also spread to other large European cities.
In his letters, Leopold also refers in passing to the remains of the famous "Querelle des bouffons", the dispute between the supporters of the Italian theatrical musical style (performance of the Serva padrona The Maid Turned Mistressby Pergolesi) among which the encyclopedists with Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the front row, and the admirers of the French style à la Lully (who, incidentally, Giovan Battista Lulli, was also Italian, in spite of the French name). Although the discussion had been resolved a dozen years earlier, evidently the controversial aftermath had not completely subsided and Leopold does not hold back from giving his opinion on the matter: French music, all of it, is worth nothing while the German musicians present in Paris or whose printed compositions were widespread in the French capital (Schobert, Eckard, Honauer, etc.) were helping to change the musical taste of their French colleagues. Some of the main composers operating in Paris, Leopold writes, had brought their published compositions to Mozarts while Wolfgang himself had just delivered 4 Sonatas for harpsichord with violin accompaniment marked in the Mozart catalog as K6 and K7 (those dedicated to the Delfina Victoire Marie Louise Thérèse, daughter of King Louis XV) and K8 and K9 (those dedicated to the Countess of Tessè). We will speak more about the compositions published in Paris by Wolfgang (but composed in the previous months, not without the help of his father) after completing the information on the stay of the Mozarts in the French capital. In the meantime, Leopold figures out, and does not fail to highlight it to his interlocutors from Salzburg, the clamor he expects will provoke the Sonatas by his son, especially considering the age of the author.
Nor is he afraid that Wolfgang could be put in crisis by any public proofs of his abilities, proofs that had already been faced and overcome not only at the level of executive virtuosity (execution, sight reading, transposition into other tones, improvisation, etc. .) but also, according to what he says, at the level of composition when he was put to the test in writing a bass and the violin accompaniment of a minuet. Little Wolfgang's progress was so rapid that his father imagined that, upon returning to Salzburg, he could take up court service as a musician.