During my research in the last few years I came across two references to a supposed “beard edict” that was issued in the 1530s by Francis I, King of France. The first was a pair of epigrams by Jean Voulté, published in 1536:1
On the Edict De barbis radendis.
Go elsewhere, ye beards; France is shaven now: the French King forbids his subjects to be bearded.
On the Same.
The land which of old was called Gallia Comata [“longhaired Gaul” ] may now be better called “shaven”.
The second is a passage from the Nouvelles recreations, a collection of half-baked funny tales from 1558.2
The lawyer in question wore a long beard. Even though this was no longer anything new, inasmuch as plenty of others wore them—even lawyers—all the same it was not to the liking of [the president of the Parlement Pierre] Lizet, because the Beard Edict had been passed during his tenure. But this had not been observed for long, because people followed the fashion of the Court, where everyone wore a beard if he liked.
I am informed by several different commentators on the latter passage that the “Beard Edict” refers to King Francis I’s inaugurating a fad for beards in France.3 One even gives the comment: “Fictitious edict, but Francis I is generally credited with having brought in the fashion of wearing beards.”4 This makes no sense, because the context of the passage (not to mention Voulté’s epigrams) implies that the Edict was a legal prohibition on beard-wearing, not a fashionable trend of the same.
Well, it turns out that the Beard Edict was a genuine royal decree after all, promulgated on 6 November 1535. On the ostensible grounds of preventing people from committing crimes and then shaving to disguise themselves, it forbade the wearing of beards by anyone who was not a soldier, a servant of the king, or a nobleman. (These were the essential workers of the ancien régime. Please pause for a moment to acknowledge their heroic service.)
The edict was published in the beginning of the following December. It read as follows:5
For the prevention of many evils and inconveniences that occur every day, occasioned by the fact that many people—artisans, craftsmen, and others not employed in the service of the King, in his entourage or household, or in the wars—let their beards grow; and after having committed certain murders, homicides, thefts, lootings, and other crimes, offences, and sorceries; shave their aforesaid beard so as to avoid being recognized, and so that no-one may confirm that they have done their crimes, offences and sorceries;
the chamber ordered by the King in the vacation-time has enjoined and commanded, and now enjoins and commands, that all persons of whatever station, quality, or condition—excepting noblemen and other persons in the service of the King, whether in his entourage or household, or in the exercise of his wars—must shave or remove their said beards within three days, on pain of death. In default of which, after the stated period is up, the said Chamber enjoins and commands the court’s ushers, officers of the Châtelet of Paris, and the mounted and unmounted sergeants of the said Châtelet to seize and imprison (whether in the Conciergerie of the Palace or in the Grand or Petis Châtelet of Paris) all who shall not have obeyed this present ordinance and injunction, as transgressors of the same. And lest anyone plead ignorance, the Chamber has ordered and now orders that this present ordinance be published at the sound of the trumpet and with a public cry in the crossroads of this city of Paris.
¶ Published at the sound of the trumpet and with a public cry in the crossroads of this city of Paris the sixth day of November in the year 1535.
Johannes Vulteius, Epigrammatum libri duo (Sebastianus Gryphius, 1536), H6r, p. 123.
Pseudo-Bonaventure Des Periers, Les Nouvelles Recreations et Ioyeux devis de feu Bonavanture des Periers valet de chambre de la Royne de Navarre. (Lyon: Robert Granjon, 1558), h1v, fol. 29v.
Bernard de La Monnoye, ed., Les Contes, ou les Nouvelles récréations et joyeux devis, de Bonaventure Des Periers, Varlet de Chambre de la Royne de Navarre., vol. I (Amsterdam [Paris]: Zacharias Châtelain [Jacques Clouzier?], 1735), p. 210 n. 6; Pierre Jourda, ed., Conteurs français du XVIe siècle, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (Paris: Gallimard, 1965), p. 413 n. 4.
Raymond C. La Charité et Virginia La Charité, ed. and trans., Bonaventure Des Periers’s Novel Pastimes and Merry Tales (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1972), p. 80 n. 2.
Ordonnances nouvelles faictes par la court / tant sur le faict de la pollice / que des povres mendicans. Avecques celles faictes par le roy nostre sire sur la pollice des bleds / publiees a Paris au moys Doctobre. Autre ordonnance sur la deffense de ne porter barbes / Publiee le .vie. iour de Novembre Lan mil cinq cens .xxxv. Avec la deffense de ne faire / ne vendre ne aussi porter masques (Paris: Jehan André, 1535), sig. B3v–4r.
I remember when this happened. Was a good time to be in the razor industry let me tell u