Tricoteuse
Encyclopedia
Tricoteuse literally translates from the French as a (feminine) knitter or knitting device. The term is most often used in its historical sense as a name for the women who frequented the public executions in Paris during the French Revolution
.
to protest. Numbering in the thousands, the crowd of women commanded a unique respect: their demands for bread were met and King Louis XVI
was forced to leave his luxurious palace of Versailles
and return, most unwillingly, to Paris to preside "from the national home".
The unexpected success of the march bestowed a near-mythic status upon the previously unheralded market women. Though lacking any central figures who could be ascribed leadership, the group identity of the revolutionary women became highly celebrated. The working "Mothers of the Nation" were praised and solicited by successive governments for years after the march.
Eventually, however, the persistently rowdy behavior of the market women became a liability to the increasingly authoritarian government. When the Reign of Terror
began in 1793, the dangerously unpredictable market women were made unwelcome: in May they were excluded from their traditional seats in the spectator galleries of the Convention, and only days later they were officially prohibited from any form of political assembly whatsoever.
The veterans of the march, and their numerous successors and hangers-on, gathered thereafter at the guillotine
in the Place de la Révolution, as sullen onlookers to the daily public executions. The women became regular attendees, who alternated between bellowing rage and disturbing impassivity. During their quieter moments between decapitations, the women sat morbidly calm, knitting and watching as the executioner prepared the next victim.
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
Origins
One of the earliest outbreaks of insurrection in the revolutionary era was the Women's March on Versailles on 5 October 1789. Irate over high food prices and chronic shortages, working class women from the markets of Paris spontaneously marched to the royal residence at VersaillesVersailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
to protest. Numbering in the thousands, the crowd of women commanded a unique respect: their demands for bread were met and King Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
was forced to leave his luxurious palace of Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
and return, most unwillingly, to Paris to preside "from the national home".
The unexpected success of the march bestowed a near-mythic status upon the previously unheralded market women. Though lacking any central figures who could be ascribed leadership, the group identity of the revolutionary women became highly celebrated. The working "Mothers of the Nation" were praised and solicited by successive governments for years after the march.
Eventually, however, the persistently rowdy behavior of the market women became a liability to the increasingly authoritarian government. When the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
began in 1793, the dangerously unpredictable market women were made unwelcome: in May they were excluded from their traditional seats in the spectator galleries of the Convention, and only days later they were officially prohibited from any form of political assembly whatsoever.
The veterans of the march, and their numerous successors and hangers-on, gathered thereafter at the guillotine
Guillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
in the Place de la Révolution, as sullen onlookers to the daily public executions. The women became regular attendees, who alternated between bellowing rage and disturbing impassivity. During their quieter moments between decapitations, the women sat morbidly calm, knitting and watching as the executioner prepared the next victim.
In literature
- In Charles DickensCharles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
's novel A Tale of Two CitiesA Tale of Two CitiesA Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature....
, the character Madame DefargeMadame DefargeMadame Thérèse Defarge is a fictional character in the book A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. She is a tricoteuse, a tireless worker for the French Revolution and the wife of Ernest Defarge....
is a particularly bloodthirsty tricoteuse during the Reign of Terror. She and her fellow guillotine-watchers encrypt the names of those executed (and other information) into their hand-knit goods by using different sequences of stitches, creating a sort of Morse codeMorse codeMorse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
from yarn. - In the first chapter of Baroness Emma Orczy's novel The Scarlet PimpernelThe Scarlet PimpernelThe Scarlet Pimpernel is a play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The story is a precursor to the "disguised superhero" tales such as Zorro and Batman....
the Pimpernel disguises himself as a cart-driving tricoteuse in order to smuggle aristocrats out of Paris. - The final chapter in Ian FlemingIan FlemingIan Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
's novel From Russia With Love is titled La Tricoteuse because the head of SMERSH, Rosa Klebb, is frequently associated with the tricoteuse throughout the novel.