One of the fragments of the Carillon flag, the ancestor of the Quebec lily, was found in Paris by a Montreal collector. The controversy over the origin of this legendary banner did not prevent Sylvain Lumbroso from paying 1700 euros for the piece of silk the size of a postage stamp. “Whether the legend of him is true or false is not a problem”, explains the history buff in an interview with The duty.
According to tradition, the Carillon flag was deployed on the battlefield of the same name, south of Lake Champlain, in the afternoon of July 8, 1758. It would thus have witnessed the battle won by the French army of Montcalm against the invading English they will avenge the following year in the plains of Abraham.
Brought back to Quebec by a chaplain, the banner hung in the vault of the Récollets church when it caught fire in 1796. It was saved from the flames in extremis by Brother Louis, who placed it in the attic of his residence. Saint-Vallier. The smoky sheet, three meters high and two wide, was still there in 1848 when the lawyer Louis de Gonzague Baillairgé recovered it from the hands of the last of the Quebec Récollets. Now it belongs to the Museum of Civilization.
This version of the facts is strongly contested by researcher Luc Bouvier, for whom the discovery of the Carillon banner fits into the great darkness of the years following the patriotic rebellions of 1837-1838. “Baillairgé was clever enough to create a symbol of value for French Canadians,” he says, just as François-Xavier Garneau did with his Canadian history, published at the same time. “
Fragmentation
The banner dusted off by Baillairgé is unrolled in the streets of Quebec during the day of Saint-Jean-Baptiste in 1848. It will be part of all the patriotic processions that will be held in the capital until the end of the 19th century.And century. The historical relic, on the other hand, slips out of sight, under a red canvas sheath that should protect it from the elements.
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 tears as he kissed the fabric embroidered with lilies: “This standard will one day still be that of France, exclaims Charette. It must also be that of the Church, because the Church must not be separated from the State. “
Held at home due to illness, Baillairgé was represented by his partner Charles Pantaléon Pelletier, who broke off three pieces of the flag in his custody: “I think I can afford at this moment what has never happened. Mr. Baillairgé himself will be grateful. 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 that was acquired by Sylvain Lumbroso in a manuscript library of the VIAnd arrondissement.
The fragmentation of the flag began long before Charette’s visit. This is demonstrated 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 tried to find him by browsing the classifieds of the Must in 1994. “I got no answer! exclaims the retired professor. Sylvain Lumbroso would also like to get his hands on this missing fragment. “It would be great to put all the pieces together in one collection. “
Mystery
The flag of Baillairgé was the subject of a thorough examination upon the death of its owner in 1896. It was later noted that the banner had been designed well before the victory of Carillon, as it contained the coat of arms of Charles de Beauharnois, the governor of New France since 1726 to 1747. The coat of arms of the latter is painted under a representation of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus towards which four lilies point. On the back of the banner appears the coat of arms of France, the original background of which was white or pale yellow.
The flag of the regiment glimpsed by Baillairgé is in fact a religious banner, as indicated by his Madonna and her vertical exposure. For Luc Bouvier, he is unlikely to float on a battlefield. However, historian René Chartrand has noted examples of religious pavilions deployed in military settings in New France. This was the case in 1711, when Baron de Longueuil climbed the Richelieu with a flag on which the name of the Virgin Mary was painted surrounded by a prayer composed for the occasion by Jeanne Le Ber from Montreal.
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 19And century to awaken French America. “
Oblivion
The Carillon banner disappeared from public space when Father Elphège Filiatrault took inspiration from it in 1902 to create his own flag. The parish priest of Saint-Jude, in Montérégie, took over the four white lilies of the 18th century bannerAnd century and its presumed color, blue, which Baillairgé believed to detect by examining the discolored greenish fabric. He adds the white cross of the flags of the Montcalm troop regiment. The consecration of the filiatrault fleur-de-lis took place in 1948, when it was chosen by Prime Minister Maurice Duplessis to become the official emblem of Quebec.
The Carillon flag has been stored since 2010 in a museum reserve in an industrial park on Wilfrid-Hamel Boulevard in Quebec City. “No development is expected 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 stage flashy exhibits inspired by historical series that aired on Netflix or HBO. Too bad, because we are moving away from pieces, like the flag of the Carillon, that we could make shine, he concludes. It would be worth showing it to people. “
