Why Read Historical Fiction Set in Sixteenth Century France? Reason #2

Yesterday, I set out to convince you why reading and writing historical fiction set in Renaissance France was a worthwhile endeavor. The first reason I offered was ESCAPE from the turbulence of our present situation. Today, I offer a second reason: RELEVANCE.

Reason #2: RELEVANCE

While reading historical novels can offer a temporary escape from the troubles of today's world, it can also serve as a means to examine issues at the forefront of our national consciousness. Despite the five hundred years that separate our two eras, today's society continues to grapple with many of the same issues that preoccupied the people of the Renaissance. In the sixteenth century, Western Europe was a world in flux, caught between a renewed appreciation of the arts and wisdom of the ancient Greeks and Romans and the new vistas offered by exploration and the expansion of trade. Although monarchy as a form of government would remain unquestioned for two more centuries, feudal society was beginning to crumble. Class boundaries were becoming more porous as court functionaries gained titles and merchants and tradespeople amassed wealth that allowed them to climb a few rungs up the social ladder. Christians called into question central tenets of the Catholic faith and the supreme authority of the Church. Women were demanding access to education and professions traditionally denied to them. The world was changing with a speed that often left people of the era breathless and unmoored--similar to the way many people feel today. 

Exploration and an expansion of foreign trade brought the people of Renaissance Europe into contact with societies vastly different from their own. Just as readers of today must weigh issues of immigration and globalization, people of sixteenth century had to expand their worldview to incorporate an entire New World and the unfamiliar peoples who inhabited it. Issues of race complicated the quest for resources, as explorers and settlers subjugated and exploited native inhabitants for their own gain. The broadening of the known world affected everything from religious to social to politico-economic thought and required the adjustment of long established systems.

1591 French map of Florida by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues

Portrait of an African Slave Woman
by Annibale Carracci, circa 1580s

Historical fiction that deals with exploration, such as Laila Lalami's The Moor's Account (2014) and Ronald Wright's The Gold Eaters (2016), stir a reader's imagination and conscience, providing new ways to consider the issues of racism and immigration that affect twenty-first century life. 

Religious liberty was another hot topic in the sixteenth century, just as it is today. Even before Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Cathedral of Wittenberg in 1517 and sparked the Protestant Reformation, French Catholics had been questioning abuses by the Church and agitating for reform. The Wars of Religion broke out in 1562, as Catholic and Protestant armies vied to take control of the country. Bloody battles between the two factions continued through the remaining decades of the century; the infamous St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, in August 1572, resulted in the death of thousands of Protestants. The carnage did not abate until 1598, when the heir to the throne, the Protestant Henri of Navarre, converted to Catholicism. Crowned king, he issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted Huguenots important rights and freedoms.

Luther's Ninety-Five Theses

St. Bartholomew's Massacre by François Dubois

Religious dissension in the sixteenth century often pitted family members, friends, and lovers against each other and caused internal turmoil as individuals were forced to choose a side and publicly defend their beliefs. Issues of individual conscience find ready parallels in today's world, where the battle is not so much between creeds but between secular and religious values. Historical novels such as Robert Merle's The Brethren (English translation, 2019) and Kate Mosse's The Burning Chambers (2018) capture these conflicts and the attention of readers interested in questions of religious liberty and freedom of conscience.

A final issue relevant to modern readers is that of women's rights. During the sixteenth century, women began to clamor for increased participation in the world of men. The right to a humanist education was championed by King François I's own sister, Marguerite de Navarre, a prolific writer, poet, and religious thinker who could hold her own in debate with the male scholars that roamed her brother's halls. Similarly, Marie de Gournay, Michel de Montaigne's adopted daughter, editor, and commentator, published The Equality of Men and Women and The Ladies' Grievance, demanding that women be educated as thoroughly as men. Writers like the poet Louise Labé and artists like the enamelist Suzanne de Court struggled to carve a place and earn respect in literary and artistic circles, while women in trades like printing and brewing endeavored to run their own enterprises.

L'Heptameron of Marguerite de Navarre

Louise Labé by Pierre Woeiriot

Suzanne de Court's signature on an enameled platter

Twenty-first century readers enmeshed in the ongoing struggle for women's rights would find historical fiction such as Jenny Diski's novel about Marie de Gournay, Apology for the Woman Writing (2008),  and Joy McCullough's novel about the painter Artemisia Gentileschi, Blood Water Paint (2018), especially pertinent.

The sixteenth century in France offers authors an abundance of situations ripe for the development of complex characters and riveting conflict. Readers of their works will be pleasantly surprised to discover how closely these engrossing stories parallel the struggles of their own lives and of society as a whole, so many centuries later.  

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Historical fiction set during the Renaissance is both entertaining and culturally relevant. Need another reason to read it? Reason #3 is just around the corner!