La coiffure de Charlotte Arbaleste

Abstract

Charlotte Arbaleste, the wife of Duplessis-Mornay, was banned from the Last Supper in Montauban in 1584: her hair was considered immodest by Pastor Bérault. This episode, reported in a memoir by Charlotte Arbaleste, is indicative of the Calvinist offensive against luxurious clothing and too conspicuous hairstyles at the end of the century. This offensive, which is based on some texts from Holy Scripture and especially on Tertullian and Cyprian, was led mainly by Pastor Daneau, in several books, and by the consistories of the Montauban area. Above all, it reveals a male desire to dictate their dress to women, to differentiate between genders in order to prioritize them: female hairdressing must be a sign of women’s inferiority compared to men. Faced with these claims, Charlotte Arbaleste presents herself as a free woman with the same skills as men, even if, for tactical reasons, she claims to owe her husband obedience. La coiffure de Charlotte Arbaleste 245