September 16, 1380

Charles V (January 21, 1338 to September 16, 1380), was the king of France from 1364 to 1380. His reign occurred during turbulent times as this biography makes clear. War (yes, that 14th century), plague, peasant revolts. He was called Charles the Wise and this part of his biography supports that appellation:

Personally Charles was no soldier. .... He modelled his private life on that of his predecessor Saint Louis, but was no fanatic in religion, for he refused his support to the violent methods of the Inquisition in southern France, and allowed the Jews to return to the country, at the same time confirming their privileges. His support of the schismatic Pope Clement VII at Avignon was doubtless due to political considerations, as favoring the independence of the Gallican church. Charles V was a student of astrology, medicine, law and philosophy, and collected a large and valuable library at the Louvre. He gathered around him a group of distinguished writers and thinkers, among whom were Raoul de Presles, Philippe de Mézières, Nicolas Oresme and others. The ideas of these men were applied by him to the practical work of administration, though he confined himself chiefly to the consolidation and improvement of existing institutions. The power of the nobility was lessened by restrictions which, without prohibiting private wars, made them practically impossible. The feudal fortresses were regularly inspected by the central authority, and the nobles themselves became in many cases paid officers of the king. Charles established a merchant marine and a formidable navy, which under Jean de Vienne threatened the English coast between 1377 and 1380. The states-general were silenced and the royal prerogative increased; the royal domains were extended, and the wealth of the crown was augmented; additions were made to the revenue by the sale of municipal charters and patents; and taxation became heavier, since Charles set no limits to the gratification of his tastes either in the collection of jewels and precious objects, of books, or of his love of building, examples of which are the renovation of the Louvre and the erection of the palace of Saint Paul in Paris

This photograph is of the lions which once decorated the tomb of Charles V of France. Construction was begun on this monument about the time he was crowned.





We quote a recent article © Agence France-Presse:

An employee poses for a photograph with a re-discovered sculpture of two carved marble lions, by French artist Andre Beauneveu, commissioned by French King Charles V, ...

[This] sculpture of two lions carved for the tomb of French King Charles V ....was thought lost in the French Revolution ... The 14th-century marble work by French artist Andre Beauneveu ... [was] held in a private British collection for more than two centuries.

.... The lions were carved as near mirror images of each another, with strikingly detailed manes and one baring its teeth. Beauneveu was commissioned by the king shortly after he came to the throne, and was tasked with constructing four family tombs. The lions were sculpted over two years from 1364 to 1366, .... and placed at the foot of Charles's tomb in what was then the Abbey of Saint Denis in Paris. But the family tombs were dismantled in 1793 by France's revolutionary government, and the lions were purchased in 1802 by Thomas Neave, a British aristocrat...

Their appearance [prior to their coming to auction in 2017] had previously been known only from an 18th-century engraving.

Sotheby's has not yet estimated a sale figure for the work, though it is expected to be high.
A pair of marble figures from the tomb of Charles's brother, the Duke of Berry, were sold last year to the Louvre museum for 5 million euros ($5.3 million). 

Lions have been strenuously associated with royalty, throughout history, all over the planet