Chapter 1.2.VII: Contrat Social
Background
Jean Jacques Rousseau had published The Social Contract in 1762, a book in which he seeks to ground sovereignty in rational principles. It was his magnum opus and his answer to both Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, whose visions of the state of nature he found respectively repellant and unsatisfactory.
Rousseau’s test of legitimacy is extremely strict: one must exit the state of nature and transition into civilization without giving up any of the liberty he had before.
This can happen if a goverment is set up in accordance with the “general will”. It is easier to say what the general will is not: it is not the will of the strongest, but neither is it the sum of everyone's individual will. You can be forced to adhere to it, or “forced to be free” as Rousseau says. Hegel blames the general will for the Reign of Terror. Here's a lecture if you want:
Notes
Ecce-signum “Behold the sign”, used to announce the display of a sacred image or relic
“forty feet high,” Referring to the gallows where the two men were hanged in the aftermath of the Flour War
Roche-Aymon The not-entirely-pious Grand Almoner of Louis XV’s household. See above Chapter 1.1.III
Necklace-Cardinal Louis de Rohan Should I tell this story here? It is a doozy. Might as well, and maybe move it later. We'll go as quickly as possible.
Louis XV “The Whipped” had commissioned a necklace for Madame du Barry that was to be like no necklace ever before. To do so, he enlisted jewelers named Böhmer and Bassenge, who went into debt to purchase the diamonds.
The trouble was that Louis XV died before the necklace could be completed and paid for, and Madame du Barry was, as we have seen, evaporated.
Now laden with a necklace that only a monarch could afford, the jewelers twice asked Marie Antionette to purchase the necklace, to which she answered “no thanks, wasn't a huge fan of du Barry tbh.”
Meanwhile, in the background, we have a certain Jeanne de Valois, an impoverished descendant of King Henry II who grew up literally begging for food. She was rescued by a benefactress, and eventually began trading on her name to climb the court in a way that can only be described as remarkable.
She married a man named La Motte, and carried out a series of affairs. One was with a man named Retaux de Vilette. Another was a man named Cardinal Louis de Rohan.
Rohan was the successor to Roche-Aymon, and he came from an extremely important family. Not content to be the Grand-Almoner, he had larger political ambitions and was eyeing a ministry.
The problem was that he had formerly been ambassador to Vienna, in which capacity he spied on Marie Antionette for her mother Maria Theresa, leading Marie Antoinette to hate him thoroughly.
After seducing Cardinal Rohan, Jeanne de Valois began to insinuate that she was having a sexual affair with Marie Antoinette, a story which diverted the Cardinal’s blood flow away from his brain and into other organs. With the assistance of Vilette, an expert forger, Jeanne began a fake correspondence between “Marie Antoinette” and the Cardinal, in which “Marie Antoinette” forgave him for his past indiscretions and led him to believe that they might have a special connection.
To solidify this impression, Jeanne once hired a prostitute who looked like Marie Antoinette to meet the Cardinal late at night, where she handed him a letter and a rose.
Böhmer and Bassenge had at this point also come to understand that Jeanne might have a special connection with the queen. They approached her and offered a commission if she could get the necklace sold.
A lightbulb must have flashed like the sun in Valois’ mind. Previously, she had been merely extracting small sums from the Cardinal, whom “Marie Antoinette” had asked to donate to her charities. Now it was time for the major league scam.
Vilette forged a letter in which “Marie Antoinette” requested that the Cardinal buy and deliver her the diamond necklace, which he promptly did. The trouble was, the queen’s assistant to whom he passed the necklace was just Vilette. He and Jeanne broke down the necklace, selling it for parts.
The necklace was to be paid for in four installments which never came, at which point the jewelers went to Marie Antoinette and said “wtf?” to which Marie Antoinette responded “wtf to you?” It took some time to unravel the comedy of errors. The Cardinal was thrown in the Bastille but eventually exonerated as an imbecile, and Valois was sent to a prison from which she promptly escaped to England.
Somehow, the public sided with the scammers against Marie Antoinette, and the incident destroyed her remaining popularity with the public.
Jacqueries A peasant revolt, named after the Jacquerie of 1358 during the Hundred Years’ War in which the peasant wore padded jackets known as jacques
Mablys Abbé de Mably was a French philosopher whose works influenced the early deliberations of the Estates-General in 1789.