France: medieval to Renaissance

[jjhunter]

x-posted to jjhunter; related to previous comm posts re: women labor & textile traditions and abandoned castles

I'm looking for thoughts, links, meta snippets, quotes, etc. related to 16th - 17th century French food / politics / culture, esp. concerning the Centre region of France, and more generally to overarching trends in France re: shift from 'medieval' to 'Renaissance'.

In particular, information re: the following is especially relevant:

• feasts hosted by high ranking members of the nobility - particularly as would be appropriate for major occasions such as formal recognition / celebration of a new infant heir (if it helps, am thinking late 16th century specifically)


• formal & informal positions of significant power women ('noble' or otherwise) could be recognized as wielding in their own right; bonus if you name specific women as examples and/or summarize briefly how such women acquired their power & what they did with it


• the economy - how did people of various classes make their livelihood, and how did this change (or not change!) from the 1500's to the 1690's? To what extent did France's economy & French politics / French social tensions related to the economy mirror those of surrounding countries during this time period, and to what extent were they localized? Again, I'm particularly interested in what's going on in the Centre region, but it's also helpful to get a sense of the national context & national trends in order to properly contextualize the local specifics.


• spinning / thread and fiber production traditions - where did people in France get their clothes? Who spun the thread that was used to weave the cloth that was used to make the clothes? How did they spin that thread? (Spindles? Spinning wheels? some combination thereof?) Were the participants at any stages of the fiber -> clothes production process in France organized or professionalized? i.e. were there guilds or other formal or informal associations for those who herded or spun or wove or fashioned clothing?


• songs or folk tales that reference spinning from 16th century or earlier in France (note that literary 'fairy tales' are more of a 17th century on -type thing)


• politics - my current understand is 1.) feudalism, 2.) ???????, 3.) 18th century events --> French Revolution; I need help getting some kind of a handle on that '?????' bit

Any assistance you can provide, large or small, deeply appreciated - thank you thank you thank you.

ETA: can haz tags, plz?