Reigning Cats and Dogs Pt 4

...was beating the dog. He cried at having displeased the King, the King got angry and led him by the hand to his bedroom.' When his mother's dog, Brigantin, bit Louis on the eyebrow in 1610 she showed no pity, he having accidentally trodden on the dog's paw. Louis stormed out, protesting that Marie de Medici cared more about her dog than she did him. He was probably right.

At European courts, education began in earnest once breeching had taken place and a tutor had been appointed to oversee the prince's upbringing. Hunting manuals and fairytales formed a significant part of the curriculum. The Dauphin, Louis, had mastered Jacques de Fouilloux's La Vénerie, written in 1561, by the age of nine. He also greatly admired Conrad Gesner's magisterial Historiae Animalium, 1551-8, which Héroard lent him regularly. Fairytales confirmed the hierarchy of the animal kingdom by distinguishing between noble and ignoble creatures in the same manner as medieval bestiaries had done previously and were thus instrumental in reconciling a love for animals with a passion for the chase. From the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries children at all European courts learned the fables of Aesop, and subsequently La Fontaine, by heart. In a letter to his Sister Wilhelmina, Margravine of Bayreuth, written in 1748, Frederick the Great (Frederick II, 1712-86, King from 1740) expressed his admiration for the great fabulist: `Animals often help us to explain our sentiments more naturally and candidly. La Fontaine, author of such pretty fables, was well aware of this; hence the creatures whom he endowed with his eloquence teach man a moral which sadly few put into practice'.

Breeching, with its severance of a prince from female influence and affection, caused many a prince — and his governess — considerable grief and could lead to animosity between the redundant governess and the new tutor, whose position was a source of great potential influence over his charge. Louis was given a tutor in 1609, Monsieur de Souvré, who squabbled with Madame de Montglat, the child's beloved governess, over the child. Souvré attempted to diminish the Dauphins affection for his dogs as part of forcing him into adulthood. Héroard recorded how Louis `had a dog called Pataut, the eldest of them all, which he wanted to bring to St Germain and which he loved and had always loved. Monsieur de Souvré said to him. "Sir, you have too many dogs, you must get rid of those that are worthless and particularly those that are too old, like Pataut." "Pataut, monsieur de Souvré, oh! No, I want to look after the old"' replied the boy. Louis was devoted to his father and saw him relatively often. He paid him a unique compliment when he confided to Madame de Montglat that he liked him even `more than Pataut'. Nonetheless, on the rare occasion when the Dauphin laughed, Héroard recorded that it was normally prompted by an incident relating to his dogs as, for instance, when he persuaded a courtier to play the bagpipes to Pataut. He also suffered from an appalling stutter, as did his contemporary and future brother-in-law, Charles I, another great dog lover.

Most royal children were raised in relative isolation and tutored privately until the twentieth century. The principal reason for this was the necessity for protecting them against disease and plague. Despite such precautions, the incidence of infant mortality remained extremely high and the death of siblings deprived many princes of potential playmates. The stringent precautions taken to prevent their contracting disease were particularly severe in the case of a sole heir. Henry VIII's only son, the future Edward VI, was brought up at Hampton Court where the walls and floors were were washed three times a day. His mother, Jane Seymour, having died in childbirth, and his father being an infrequent visitor, he understandably formed a close tie with his nurse, Mother Jack, ruptured at the age of six when he was breeched.