One of the scraps of the Carillon flag, the ancestor of the Quebec fleur-de-lis, was found in Paris by a Montreal collector. The controversy surrounding the origin of this mythical banner did not prevent Sylvain Lumbroso from paying 1700 euros for the piece of silk the size of a postage stamp. “Whether his legend is true or false, it’s not a problem,” explains the history buff in an interview with The duty.
According to tradition, the Carillon flag would have been unfurled on the battlefield of the same name, south of Lake Champlain, on the afternoon of July 8, 1758. He would thus have witnessed the confrontation won by the French army of Montcalm against the British invaders, who will take their revenge the following year on the Plains of Abraham.
Brought back to Quebec by a chaplain, the standard hung on the vault of the Récollets church when it burned down in 1796. It was saved from the flames in extremis by Brother Louis, who put it back in the attic of his residence. from rue Saint-Vallier. The smoky sheet, three meters high and two meters wide, was still there in 1848 when the lawyer Louis de Gonzague Baillairgé recovered it from the hands of the last of the Récollets of Quebec. It now belongs to the Museum of Civilization.
This version of the facts is strongly disputed by the researcher Luc Bouvier, for whom the discovery of the Carillon banner is part of the great darkness of the years following the patriot rebellions of 1837-1838. “Baillairgé was clever enough to create a symbol of value for French Canadians,” he says, much like François-Xavier Garneau did with his canadian history, published at the same time. »
Fragmentation
The banner dusted off by Baillairgé is unfurled in the streets of Quebec during Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day in 1848. It will be part of all the patriotic processions held in the capital until the end of the 19th century.e century. The historical relic, however, parades out of sight, under a red canvas sheath supposed to protect it from the weather.
The flag is unrolled from its pole only in the presence of prestigious visitors. This is the case of the French soldier Athanase de Charette, who landed in Quebec in 1882. The supporter of the restoration of the monarchy in France could not hold back his tears as he kissed the fabric embroidered with fleur-de-lis: “This standard will still be a day that of France, exclaims Charette. It must also be that of the Church, because the Church must not be separated from the State. »
Held home by illness, Baillairgé had himself represented by his associate Charles Pantaléon Pelletier, who detached three pieces of the flag in his custody: “I believe that I am permitted to do at this moment what never happened. Mr. Baillairgé himself will be grateful to me. The first fragment is given to Charette, the second to his wife, and the third to the Marquis de La Rochefoucauld. It is the latter which was acquired by Sylvain Lumbroso in a bookstore of manuscripts of the VIe borough.
The fragmentation of the flag began long before Charette’s visit. Evidenced by the flap offered to Pierre-Édouard Leclère, the superintendent of the Montreal police. This piece of fabric resurfaced in 1973 during an auction at the Ritz in Montreal. Luc Bouvier has tried to find him by going through the classifieds of the To have to in 1994. “I didn’t get an answer! exclaims the retired professor. Sylvain Lumbroso would also like to get his hands on this missing fragment. “It would be amazing to put all the pieces together in a collection. »
Mystery
Baillairgé’s flag was the subject of a detailed examination on the death of its owner in 1896. It was then noted that the standard had been designed well before the victory of Carillon, since it contained the coat of arms of Charles de Beauharnois, the governor of New France from 1726 to 1747. The arms of the latter are painted there under a representation of the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus towards which four fleur-de-lys point. The coat of arms of France appears on the reverse of the standard, the original background of which was white or pale yellow.
The regimental flag glimpsed by Baillairgé is in fact a religious banner, as indicated by its Madonna and its vertical display. For Luc Bouvier, it is unlikely that it floated on a battlefield. However, historian René Chartrand has noted examples of religious pavilions deployed in military contexts in New France. This was the case in 1711, when the Baron de Longueuil ascended the Richelieu with a flag on which was painted the name of the Virgin Mary surrounded by a prayer composed for the occasion by the Montrealer Jeanne Le Ber.
The use of the Carillon banner during the War of Conquest (1755-1760) is a secondary issue for Sylvain Lumbroso. “It would be extraordinary even if Baillairgé had it made in 1848. Through this flag and its distributed pieces, we find a strong political will in the 19e century to awaken French America. »
Oblivion
The Carillon banner disappeared from public space when Father Elphège Filiatrault was inspired by it to create his own flag in 1902. The parish priest of Saint-Jude, in Montérégie, took over the four white lilies from the standard of the XVIIIe century and its presumed color, azure, which Baillairgé thought he detected by scrutinizing the discolored greenish fabric. He adds the white cross of the regimental flags of Montcalm’s troops. The consecration of the filiatrault fleur-de-lis came in 1948, when it was chosen by Prime Minister Maurice Duplessis to become the official emblem of Quebec.
The Carillon flag has been kept since 2010 in a museum reserve in an industrial park on Wilfrid-Hamel Boulevard in Quebec City. “No development is planned in the short or medium term given its extreme fragility,” explains the spokesperson for the Musée de la civilization Agnès Dufour.
Sylvain Lumbroso regrets the removal of this symbol. “Our museums often put on flashy exhibits inspired by historical series broadcast on Netflix or HBO. It’s a shame, because we are moving away from pieces, like the Carillon flag, which we could make shine, he concludes. It would be worth showing it to people. »