Rearing the Royals: Architecture and the Spatialization of Royal Childhood in France, 1499-1610
type: CreativeWork
description: Investigating the manner in which architecture actively shaped and was transformed by the French royal family, “Rearing the Royals: Architecture and the Spatialization of Royal Childhood in France, 1499-1610” examines architecture's role in the monarchy’s symbolic self-representation, quotidian existence, and dynastic strategies at the châteaux of Amboise, Blois, Fontainebleau, and Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Using a range of sources from French, Spanish, and Italian archives, the project fuses archival research and close readings of buildings. The unique relationship between the French royal children and architecture affected politics, court rituals, and architectural forms. Existent literature analyzes the construction and décor of royal châteaux, but little is known about their functions, which later renovations and a formal focus obscure. This dissertation argues that buildings engaged in mutually influential relationships with their occupants, indoctrinating the children and their entourages into the monarchy’s social hierarchy and cultural regime at a time when European politics were shifting. The dissertation contributes to and engages with architectural history, court studies, social history, and spatial theory, providing a multifaceted analysis of the royal family’s instrumentalization of architecture. By analyzing changes in the monarchy's modes of inhabiting its kingdom, from fortified towers to the socio-architectural experiment that was Versailles, this dissertation emphasizes the relationship between architectural manifestations of power and the monarchy's evolving political strategies. Chapter 1 examines the distribution and location of the children’s apartments at Amboise, Blois, Fontainebleau, and Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the context of contemporary treatises on childhood by authors such as Erasmus and Montaigne, demonstrating how contemporary childrearing beliefs influenced the built environment. Spaces for the children’s domestic officers form the subj…
abstract: Investigating the manner in which architecture actively shaped and was transformed by the French royal family, “Rearing the Royals: Architecture and the Spatialization of Royal Childhood in France, 1499-1610” examines architecture's role in the monarchy’s symbolic self-representation, quotidian existence, and dynastic strategies at the châteaux of Amboise, Blois, Fontainebleau, and Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Using a range of sources from French, Spanish, and Italian archives, the project fuses archival research and close readings of buildings. The unique relationship between the French royal children and architecture affected politics, court rituals, and architectural forms. Existent literature analyzes the construction and décor of royal châteaux, but little is known about their functions, which later renovations and a formal focus obscure. This dissertation argues that buildings engaged in mutually influential relationships with their occupants, indoctrinating the children and their entourages into the monarchy’s social hierarchy and cultural regime at a time when European politics were shifting. The dissertation contributes to and engages with architectural history, court studies, social history, and spatial theory, providing a multifaceted analysis of the royal family’s instrumentalization of architecture. By analyzing changes in the monarchy's modes of inhabiting its kingdom, from fortified towers to the socio-architectural experiment that was Versailles, this dissertation emphasizes the relationship between architectural manifestations of power and the monarchy's evolving political strategies. Chapter 1 examines the distribution and location of the children’s apartments at Amboise, Blois, Fontainebleau, and Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the context of contemporary treatises on childhood by authors such as Erasmus and Montaigne, demonstrating how contemporary childrearing beliefs influenced the built environment. Spaces for the children’s domestic officers form the subj…
author: Narkin, Elisabeth Dawn
keywords: Art history, Architectural History, Court Studies, Early Modern Architecture, French Renaissance, Loire Valley Chateaux, Social History
date published: 2017
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:06:56Z
provider: Duke University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Duke University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/10161/14473