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Catherine de' Medici's court festivals were a series of lavish and spectacular entertainments, sometimes called magnificences, laid on by Catherine de' Medici, the queen consort of France from 1547 to 1559 and queen mother from 1559 until her death in 1589. As queen consort of Henry II of France, Catherine showed interest in the arts and theatre, but it was not until she attained real political and financial power as queen mother that she began the series of tournaments and entertainments that dazzled her contemporaries and continue to fascinate scholars. Biographer Leonie Frieda suggests that "Catherine, more than anyone, inaugurated the fantastic entertainments for which later French monarchs also became renowned".〔Frieda, 225.〕 For Catherine, these entertainments served a political purpose that made them worth their colossal expense. She presided over the royal government at a time when the French monarchy was in steep decline. With three of her sons on the throne in succession and the country torn by religious civil war, Catherine set out to show not only the French people but foreign courts that the Valois monarchy was as prestigious and magnificent as it had been during the reigns of Francis I and her husband Henry II.〔Strong, 99.〕 At the same time, she believed these elaborate entertainments and sumptuous court rituals, which incorporated martial sports and tournaments of many kinds, would occupy her feuding nobles and distract them from fighting against each other to the detriment of the country and the royal authority.〔Yates, 51–52.〕 It is clear, however, that Catherine regarded these festivals as more than political and pragmatic exercises: she revelled in them as a vehicle for her creative gifts. A highly talented and artistic woman, Catherine took the lead in devising and planning her own musical-mythological shows. Though they were ephemeral, her "magnificences"—as the contemporary commentator Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme, called them—are studied by modern scholars as works of art.〔 Historian Frances Yates has called Catherine "a great creative artist in festivals".〔Yates, 68.〕 She employed the leading artists and architects of the day to create the necessary dramas, music, and scenic effects for these events, which were usually dedicated to the ideal of peace and based on mythological themes. It is difficult for scholars to piece together the exact form of the entertainments, but clues have been gleaned from the written accounts, scripts, artworks, and tapestries that derived from these famous occasions. Though such sources must be treated with caution, since they contain demonstrable inaccuracies and contradictions, they provide evidence of the richness and scale of Catherine de' Medici's court festivals. ==Entertainments== Catherine de' Medici's investment in magnificent entertainments was part of a conscious political programme.〔 She recalled the belief of her father-in-law, King Francis I, that the court needed to be physically active and constantly entertained.〔Knecht, 235. • Catherine wrote to Charles IX: "I heard it said to your grandfather the King that two things were necessary to live in peace with the French and have them love their King: keep them happy, and busy at some exercise, notably tournaments; for the French are accustomed, if there is no war, to exercise themselves and if they are not made to do so they employ themselves to more dangerous ()". Quoted in Jollet, 111.〕 She also declared her intention to imitate the Roman emperors, who kept their subjects from mischief by occupying them with games and amusements.〔 She therefore adopted a policy of distracting her nobles from fighting among themselves by laying on irresistible entertainments and sports for them at court.〔Yates, ''The Valois Tapestries'', 68. She intended to prevent them from having, in Brantôme's words "loysir á mal faire" (free time in which to make mischief).〕 Catherine also maintained about eighty alluring ladies-in-waiting at court, whom she allegedly used as tools to seduce courtiers for political ends. These women became known as her "flying squadron".〔Knecht, 235.〕 Catherine did not hesitate to use the charms of her ladies as an attraction of the court. In 1577, for example, she threw a banquet at which the food was served by topless women.〔Knecht, 236.〕 In 1572, the Huguenot Jeanne d’Albret, Queen of Navarre, wrote from the court to warn her son Henry that Catherine presided over a "vicious and corrupt" atmosphere, in which the women made the sexual advances and not the men.〔"Although I knew it was bad, I find it even worse than I feared. Here women make advances to men rather than the other way around." Quoted in Knecht, 149.〕 In fact, Charlotte de Sauve, one of the most notorious members of the "flying squadron", first seduced and then became a mistress of Henry of Navarre on Catherine's orders. On the other hand, Brantôme, in his ''Memoirs'', praised Catherine’s court as "a school of all honesty and virtue".〔Knecht, 235–36.〕 In the tradition of sixteenth-century royal festivals, Catherine de' Medici's magnificences took place over several days, with a different entertainment each day. Often individual nobles or members of the royal family were responsible for preparing one particular entertainment. Spectators and participants, including those involved in martial sports, would dress up in costumes representing mythological or romantic themes. Catherine gradually introduced changes to the traditional form of these entertainments. She forbade heavy tilting of the sort that led to the death of her husband in 1559; and she developed and increased the prominence of dance in the shows that climaxed each series of entertainments. As a result, the ''ballets de cour'', a distinctive new art form, emerged from the creative advances in court entertainment devised by Catherine de' Medici.〔Yates, 51; Strong, 102.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Catherine de' Medici's court festivals」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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