Éduquer le Dauphin: exempla, image du père, éducation exemplaire ?

The Dauphin’s education is unmistakably embedded in the political culture of the Ancien Régime and in the process of royal representation of the absolute monarchy. This paper analyses the choice of educational staff for the king’s son as a fundamental choice for the kingdom, seeking to balance intellectual currents in the second half of the seventeenth century. This will draw out the underlying issues in the implementation of an innovative educational programme from early childhood, seven years in the hands of women followed by seven years with men. Thus the knowledge necessary for a prince, who now must learn to reign, was structured for the Dauphin. In the framework of thinking about the Ancients and the Moderns, then, the question arises of models proposed for the Dauphin, between ancient heroes, kings of the Bourbon dynasty and the image of his own father. The Dauphin’s education caused a break in the history of the education of elites, between the prince whose virtues would help him rule and the prince who acquired knowledge through educational practices, which are first missions assigned by the king to his son before the court, the army and artists. The Dauphin’s education had far wider implications than formal college education, for example.Thus created, this education first became a model for princes, his contemporaries, before determining a framework for delphinal education until the end of the Ancien Régime. It equally constituted, in the diffusion of education materials and books to follow, a model for his subjects.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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