Louise Françoise de Bourbon

Louise Françoise, Duchess of Bourbon, Légitimée de France was the eldest surviving legitimised daughter of Louis XIV of France and his maîtresse-en-titre Françoise-Athénaïs, Marquise de Montespan. She was said to have been named after her godmother, Louise de La Vallière, the woman her mother had replaced as the King's mistress. Before her marriage, she was known at court as Mademoiselle de Nantes.

Everyday attire of a rural peasant

A typical rural peasant of the period wore a brownish-gray coat, dark breeches, dark stockings, and a simple dark hat, often accessorized with a feather.

The wide rhinegrave style for men

The rhinegrave was a popular men's garment from 1655 to 1675, consisting of extremely wide, pleated breeches that resembled a skirt and could require up to 1.77 meters of fabric per leg.

Christmas carols in church

During Christmas, churches performed Cantiones Natalitiae, polyphonic motets in Dutch or Latin that featured pastoral themes, such as shepherds playing bagpipes and flutes for the newborn Jesus.

Popular songbooks in Brussels

People in Brussels enjoyed singing and listening to collections of popular songs, poems, and love laments published in pocketbooks like Den eerelycken pluck-voghel (1677).

Canal travel by horse-drawn barge

Horse-drawn barges on canals were a primary means of passenger transport in Flanders, moving between cities like Bruges and Ostend. Travelers often had to transfer between different boats at canal locks along the way.

Preparing for the dangers of travel

Because travel was grueling and often insecure, many people wrote a formal will and commended themselves to saints before departing on a journey outside their home region.

Basic schooling provided by village masters

Schooling was not mandatory and often paid for by the village community; children were taught by local masters just enough reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Cooking centered on the hearth

Cooking was typically done over a hearth, which also provided heat, though some poor urban dwellers without space or fuel relied on purchasing ready-made food from street shops.

Meat was a rare luxury

Meat was extremely rare for ordinary families, with many peasants eating it fewer than three times a year. In contrast, they frequently relied on thick pottages made from seasonal vegetables, legumes, and bread.

The cost of wine for weddings

During popular wedding celebrations, good Tonnerre wine could be purchased for ten sous per pinte. Ordinary people rarely drank wine, often consuming water or sour piquettes made from leftover grape marc or fruits instead.

Food prices in the 17th century

A pig cost 24 livres, while a bushel of red wheat was priced at 47 sous in the 17th century.

Fixed daily wages for laborers

In 1567, a royal edict set daily wages at ten sous tournois for skilled workers and five sous tournois for laborers.

Shoemakers as neighborhood news reporters

Shoemakers were the neighborhood gazetteers who gossiped and shared news from their open-fronted stalls until closing time.

Fast local delivery in Paris

With the 1653 system, mail was collected three times a day, with delivery guaranteed within one to four hours after pickup.

Postal travel times across Europe varied greatly

News traveling by post between major European hubs like Brussels and San Sebastian took about ten days, while long-distance dispatches to capitals like Vienna could take weeks.