le fou, the fool, presumably because it can only see things from a single perspective, its own? Is it uncompromising single mindedness or unadulterated narcissism? A strength or a weakness, or both?
We, (my wife, Milissa Ellison, (historian, economist, etc etc) and I have written an article which suggests a reason why the French call the bishop 'fool'.
In order to understand this one needs a little history.
The game of chess was changed to something like our modern game sometime in the 15th c. That is to say, allowing the pawn to move two squares on its first move (and consequently the en-passant rule, (the bane of many a tyro)) and the so-called "mad queen" (which previously could move in only a very restricted way). At this time in France and elsewhere things were very different to the society in which we now live (I recommend reading a good biog of Louis 14th for a flavour of this time (although he was later of course)). Anyway, to get to the point, the clergy were a corrupt lot by and large and not much liked so the French did not want a 'religious' icon in their sets and so,called this piece le fou (the fool) representing the fool who (often a dwarf or hunchback or simpleton) was kept in court to amuse the king. This was, of course, a swipe at these corrupt bishops and the like.
France was Catholic (officially) and the treatment of Protestant groups such as the Huguenots was worse than deplorable (worsted only by the Nazis centuries later)
le fou, the fool, presumably because it can only see things from a single perspective, its own? Is it uncompromising single mindedness or unadulterated narcissism? A strength or a weakness, or both?
We, (my wife, Milissa Ellison, (historian, economist, etc etc) and I have written an article which suggests a reason why the French call the bishop 'fool'.
In order to understand this one needs a little history.
The game of chess was changed to something like our modern game sometime in the 15th c. That is to say, allowing the pawn to move two squares on its first move (and consequently the en-passant rule, (the bane of many a tyro)) and the so-called "mad queen" (which previously could move in only a very restricted way). At this time in France and elsewhere things were very different (I recommend reading a good biog of Louis 14th for a flavour of this time (although he was later of course)). Anyway, to get to the point, the clergy were a corrupt lot by and large and not much liked so the French did not want a 'religious' icon in their sets and so,called this piece le fou (the fool) representing the fool who (often a dwarf or hunchback or simpleton) was kept in court to amuse the king. This was, of course, a swipe at these corrupt bishops and the like.
France was Catholic (officially) and the treatment of Protestant groups such as the Huguenots was worse than deplorable (worsted only by the Nazis centuries later)