What does the slogan “Montjoie Saint-Denis”, shouted by the attacker, refer to?

By SudOuest.fr with AFP
Posted on 06/09/2021 10:43 AM
Updated on 06/09/2021 at 11:22 a.m.

The origin of the expression dates back to the 12th century but its meaning and use have totally evolved over time.

Tuesday, during a visit to Tain-l’Hermitage, in the Drôme, Emmanuel Macron was slapped by a man, Damien T. On a video, which has gone viral, we hear the attacker shout: “Montjoie Saint-Denis, down with Macronie ”. But what does this slogan mean?

“Montjoie Saint-Denis” refers to a battle cry of the royal armies in the Middle Ages, which has since become a royalist rallying slogan. This cry of the French royal armies goes back to the Capetians. It would have been shouted during the battle of Bouvines in 1214, by the forces of Philip II Augustus against those of Otto IV, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

“Montjoie” designates the banner behind which the medieval army gathers, when it goes up to combat. And “the cry refers to the royal banner, preserved in Saint-Denis, where the kings are also buried”, underlines Florian Besson, doctor in medieval history and host on Twitter of the @AgeMoyen account.

“Montjoie Saint Denis!” is one of the cries of war of the Capetian dynasty in the Middle Ages, attested from Bouvines (1214). A montjoie is a banner, in this case the cry refers to the royal banner, kept in Saint-Denis, where the kings are also buried. pic.twitter.com/1ajis6w4Gc

– Current Middle Ages (@AgeMoyen) June 8, 2021

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A legend quoted by the Encyclopédie Universalis also reports that King Clovis would have been victorious at “Montjoye”, near Saint-Denis, thanks to a shield bearing three golden lilies on an azure background. A miracle that would have been commemorated by the war cry “Montjoie Saint-Denis! “. This banner then became the standard of the kingdom.

As for the origin of the word “mont-joie”, it is linked, according to the Encyclopédie Universalis, to the mont-joies, these small piles of stone that we still find today at the neck of a mountain.

Became a nationalist cry

The cry is abandoned from the 16th century. Then “it became a political rallying point with the birth of royalism in 1789”, wrote on Twitter Paul Chopelin, lecturer in modern history at the Jean-Moulin University in Lyon.

War cry of the kings of France in the Middle Ages, “Montjoie, Saint-Denis” became a political rallying word with the birth of royalism in 1789. Michel-Ange Mangourit placed it at the head of his newspaper “Le Héraut de la Nation” , at the time of the opening of the Estates General. https://t.co/ussiM0aH5M pic.twitter.com/7V2G2n338i

– Paul Chopelin (@ChopelinP) June 8, 2021

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In the 19th century, it was rediscovered and reinvented. The historian Jules Michelet thus makes it “the cry of France”. More recently, the expression was popularized by the film “The Visitors” (1993). The knight Godefroy de Montmirail, played by Jean Reno, launches “Montjoie Saint-Denis, that passes away if I weaken”, by charging gendarmes.

Moreover for Loïc Dauriac, one of the friends of the aggressor, we must see in the slogan shouted by Damien T. before the slap a simple reference to the film of Jean-Marie Poiré.

A politician attacked in 2018

This is not the first time that we hear “Montjoie Saint-Denis” in the political sphere. In 2018, already, the deputy La France Insoumise Éric Coquerel had been entarted by three students, members of Action Française, to the cry of “Montjoie Saint-Denis! “. The Ile-de-France federation of the far-right nationalist and royalist group then claimed the action on social networks.

“This slogan is that of the royalist extreme right. Exactly what Papacito is [NDLR : un YouTubeur d’extrême droite]. That’s it, do you take extreme right-wing violence seriously now? In solidarity with the President, ”the MP tweeted after the slap in the face of the president.

It is exactly under this slogan that I was also attacked by activists of Action Française a few years ago, a royalist group as well.

Let’s take action: the 12th, all in the street against the extreme right

— Eric Coquerel (@ericcoquerel) June 8, 2021

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What does the slogan “Montjoie Saint-Denis”, shouted by the attacker, refer to?

Became a nationalist cry

A politician attacked in 2018

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