In the daily life of Louis of Orleans and his wife, everything corresponded with the luxury of their house.  Thus, for the amusement of their children, two little books of pictures were made, illuminated with gold, azure, and vermilion, and covered with vermilion leather of Cordova, which cost sixty sols parisis, i.e. four hundred francs.  But it was in the custom of New Year’s gifts that the duke and duchess displayed truly royal magnificence, as we find described in the accounts of their expenses.  For instance, in 1388 they paid four hundred francs of gold for sheets of silk to give to those who received the New Year’s gifts from the King and Queen.  In 1402, one hundred pounds (tournois) were given to Jehan Taienne, goldsmith, for six silver cups presented to Jacques de Poschin, the Duke’s squire.  To the Sire de la Tremouille Valentine gives “a cup and basin of gold;” to Queen Isabella, “a golden image of St. John, surrounded with nine rubies, one sapphire, and twenty-one pearls;” to Mademoiselle de Luxembourg, “another small golden sacred image, surrounded with pearls;” and lastly, in an account of 1394, headed, “Portion of gold and silver jewels bought by Madame la Duchesse d’Orleans as a New Year’s gift,” we find “a clasp of gold, studded with one large ruby and six large pearls, given to the King; three paternosters for the King’s daughters, and two large diamonds for the Dukes of Burgundy and Berry.”

[Illustration:  Fig. 53.—­Styli used in writing in the Fourteenth Century.]

Such were the habits in private life of the royal princes under Charles VI.; and it can easily be shown that the example of royalty was followed not only by the court, but also in the remotest provinces.  The great tenants or vassals of the crown each possessed several splendid mansions in their fiefs; the Dukes of Burgundy, at Souvigny, at Moulins, and at Bourbon l’Archambault; the Counts of Champagne, at Troyes; the Dukes of Burgundy, at Dijon; and all the smaller nobles made a point of imitating their superiors.  From the fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries, the provinces which now compose France were studded with castles, which were as remarkable for their interior, architecture as for the richness of their furniture; and it may be asserted that the luxury which was displayed in the dwellings of the nobility was the evidence, if not the resuit, of a great social revolution in the manners and customs of private life.

At the end of the fourteenth century there lived a much-respected noble of Anjou, named Geoffroy de Latour-Landry, who had three daughters.  In his old age, he resolved that, considering the dangers which might surround them in consequence of their inexperience and beauty, he would compose for their use a code of admonitions which might guide them in the various circumstances of life.

[Illustration:  A Young Mother’s Retinue

Representing the Parisian costumes at the end of the fourteenth century.  Fac-simile of a miniature from the latin Terence of King Charles VI.  From a manuscript in the Bibl. de l’Arsenal.]