Antoine de Pluvinel's 'Le Maneige Royal'
The Most Influential Early French Horsemanship Manual.
Sep 17, 2008
Antoine de Pluvinel (1555-1620) was one of three riders who, according to William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, ‘fill’d France with French Horse-men; which before were fill’d with Italians’ (A New Method, and Extraordinary Invention, to Dress Horses, London: Thomas Milbourn, 1667, p.3). Of the other two, Salamon de la Broue published the first significant French manual, La Cavalerice François, in1602, though it was still influenced strongly by the methods of Federigo Grisone, while Monsieur St. Antoine distinguished himself in England from 1603 onwards. By then, Pluvinel’s own academy, attached to the royal stables in Paris, was proving that France was the new centre for the training of horse and rider for young noblemen from across Europe.
Royal Connections
The shift from the perception of horsemanship as an Italian art was reinforced by the association with royalty. Monsieur St. Antoine was sent to England in 1603 ‘by Henry the Fourth of France, to teach Prince Henry’ (A New Method , p.2). Alongside the Prince, who died at eighteen years old in 1612, St. Antoine taught many young noblemen, including the future Duke of Newcastle, and appears in Van Dyck’s famous picture, ‘Charles I riding through a triumphal Arch’(1633).
Pluvinel held the same position as horsemaster to the sixteen-year-old King Louis XIII and his manual is written in the form of a dialogue between them. The book opens with the young king saying ‘Let us find out from M. de Pluvinel what is the most perfect understanding of Horsemanship’ (The Maneige Royal, trans. by Hilda Nelson, London: J. A. Allen, 1989, p.15), acknowledging his expertise at once, while the illustrations show mutual respect and affection. Louis leans forward to hear Pluvinel speak, his hand resting on the horsemaster’s arm, or looks over his shoulder to ask Pluvinel’s advice. Pluvinel stands alongside his chair to explain an exercise or leans over him in discussion of the finer points involved. The delicately tender and protective attitude shows a degree of trust that elevates Pluvinel’s status.
The Master in Print
Pluvinel’s manual was not published until after his death and there were numerous unauthorised editions circulating between 1623 and 1640. R.S. Toole-Stott discusses in detail the problems this causes in deciding on a definitive text. Of the 1623 edition alone, he says, ‘This is most difficult book to collate, the plate numbering […] differing from copy to copy’ (Circus and Allied Arts: A World Bibliography 1500-1959, Derby: Harpur & Sons, 1960, pp. 92-95) with some illustrations being duplicated or left out and variations in the date being added to the printed title. While the 1625 edition is considered to be the definitive version, because it was edited by Pluvinel’s friend and student, Rene Menou, identical passages are found in Menou’s own manual so accurate authorship is hard to establish. However, Menou, as a follower of Pluvinel, would have perpetuated his ideas, so the essentials of the method are undoubtedly retained.
A New Approach
While Grisone’s manual of 1550 accepts and even advocates extreme brutality for overcoming any resistance from the horse, Pluvinel chooses instead a courtly refinement. His return to the gentler methods favoured by Xenophon also completes the movement from the battlefield to the riding house. Pluvinel uses the exercises purely as a recreation through which the nobleman may develop physical skills alongside judgement, grace and self-control. This was seen to show the natural moral superiority of human over animal nature without any descent into violence or anger.
The Noble Rider
Pluvinel’s approach requires that the rider never demand ‘more from a horse than half of what he is capable’ and believes that the horse may be treated with patient consideration without any compromise to the natural hierarchy of human dominance. He discusses the making of a ‘judicious horseman’ and describes how by gentle handling he managed a fiery horse called Bonnitte so that ‘It did not take long for him to understand what I wanted of him’(The Maneige Royal, pp. 24, 21, 22).
The Riding House and the Court
Pluvinel's methods illustrate the way in which the art of the riding house reflected and even shaped the culture of the court, making the horsemaster a source of wisdom, as well as riding ability . The soldier-poet Sir Philip Sidney recalls with some irony that they were ‘the Maisters of warre, and ornaments of peace; speedy goers, and strong abiders; triumphers both in Camps and Courts’(Defence of Poesie, Astrophil and Stella and Other Writings, ed. by Elizabeth Porges Watson, London: Everyman, 1997, p. 83).
Pluvinel’s manual show him at the centre of a circle of students and high-born admirers that reflects this high regard. The attraction to his school of young men from across Europe made horsemanship a language which all men of nobility could understand and immortalized him among the most significant masters in the development of the art.
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