4 - The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

Summary

Before 1789, the king was the “sacred center” of French society and his charismatic aura legitimated the political elite who actually governed the nation. The mystique of the monarchy was continuously regenerated by an ensemble of mythological narratives, ritual forms, symbolic regalia, historical tradition, and an attendant nobility; as a result, the king gave the French people a social unity and political coherence that, in turn, conferred order and stability. While political, instrumental calculation shaped much of what went on at Versailles, the charisma of the monarchy psychologically and emotionally connected the common people to the very ground of their collective, cosmological existence. Although, in the words of Clifford Geertz, “majesty is made, not born,” the mystique of the monarchy rested on a largely irrational foundation. There are only two origins for such a sacred center: descent from inherited tradition and invention through a revolution.¹