I am reading a book about Voltaire and they mention that Louis XV moved his court from Paris to Versailles, which was 14 miles from Paris. The author noted “it was a 3 hr carriage ride from Paris.”
Geeze, that seems awful slow…3 hrs to cover 14 miles? I realize the roads were probably terrible, but what IS a reasonable pace to expect from carriages moving at a good clip but not exhausting the horses?
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His Majesty probably didn’t want to spill his wine during the ride…
I think 8mph is a doable average on decent roads for a relatively short trip like that. (Mostly trotting, slowing to a walk to blow a couple times as needed.)
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Averaging 5 mph to make the journey is fairly good time in those days where speed depended upon the terrain that a carriage has to negotiate (hills, flatland, river crossings), and the condition of the road at the time (dry, wet, muddy, potholed).
The roads in the city were excellent; less so in the countryside where the weather could play havoc with the passage, especially if the road got “ditched” from heavy wagons on wet ground, or the water crossings were flooded. Hard to compare those days with modern times because we don’t have the problems they encountered.
A 13 mile journey today - rolling terrain, gravel roads – with a fit pair of horses could average 7-8mph.
France was well-know for terrible roads back in those times. That was probably quite a speedy transfer for the period!
And various things like wine, were walked, so as not to jostle the contents of the bottles that were deeply packed in straw. Stirring the sediment could ruin a good bottle of wine, or at least severely affect the flavor.
Carriages were heavily built to prevent breaking, ponderous to pull, even with 4-6-8 horse teams out front. Poor springs and not that comfortable for the people inside. This was WAY before the improved vehicles with narrow wheels, light wood construction came into being because the bad roads would not have let light vehicles survive! Many people rode horses to avoid the beating that carriage rides gave you, even rich folks.
Carriages moved at a much different pace than wagons hauling “goods” like luggage or special products for meals, servant or household hauling vehicles. Carriages of the rich court attendants, the King himself, would be horsed with the best quality animals available, got up a better speed if road surfaces allowed. Wagons and lesser folks would have common horses, many of whom were poorly taken care of. Just could not move with speed. French didn’t seem to have the same admiration of horses that the UK did, not treated the same in many cases, and eaten as cheap meat when put down.
Modern folks have no real concept of “poor roads” from a historical viewpoint. Wagon trains considered 12-15 mile DAYS to be excellent travel in the Western Territories. And they had better vehicles than Louis XV, though westward trails were not improved or constructed surfaces at all. Any ridden horse could easily cover a lot more ground in a day, but of course that didn’t move the goods in the wagons.
Muck filled trenches, pot-holed expanses to drive on, were more common than not in Europe, pretending to be roads. Some “improved roads” were slightly better because the French Royal Mail used them and needed speedy transfer of important documents. Still were pretty awful, easy to be delayed getting stuck in bad weather or having to give way to the Troops or Royal Mail also using the roads to the coast towns.
The UK nations, England especially, made good roads a priority. MacAdam got contracts to pave roads with his special surfacing so speeds could be improved for carriage travel. Toll Roads, Pikes, were kept up by folks paying to use them because the surfaces let them speed along in new designs of carriages. But this was later than Louis XV. He was the one who lost his head, right?
Even roads between towns in the United States were often in very poor condition during the worst weather months, and only slightly better in summer. There were a very limited amount of carriages on the WHOLE East Coast at this Colonial time, usually only driven in the cities. People rode horses, walked or took ships/boats for long distance travel along the Seaboard in the early days.
Goodhors, what a great and informative post. Thanks!
I guess Louis wasn’t much of a rider…
It was Louis the 16th that lost his head, you were close.
and he was a good rider, he was a very accomplished hunter. He actually liked to hunt more than be with Marie Antoinette.
I too agree with kyzteke
The other thing to consider, it says moving his “court.” That was a whole heck of a lot of people, food, goods, etc… Some kings took their beds, furniture, etc along with them if they were picky about it. You would also have wagons with hunting dogs and hawks. As someone else mentioned about the wine, they couldnt risk ruining the wine and that was all important in the time period. The entire “court” of people were easily 3,000 plus people and i would say that’s grossly minimal for most occasions. I’m a huge fan of the time period and have read books that speak about moving the court and feeding 8000 people that “moved” with the royal family. How it was such an “honor” to be visited by the court, yet they would leave the home they visited starving after they emptied their food reserves and ate all their livestock…
If they were simply driving one carriage to and from, they could make quicker time even on rougher roads. The front horses likely made better time, but think about how mucky the roads would get after you put a few carriages over it.
They would not move much faster than the slowest thing in the move, generally the milk cows, so figure 3.5mph.This also applied to all military moves when wheeled vehicles and pack trains were involved
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