King of the world : the life of Louis XIV

Introduction: A Thousand Years of France Louis X I V was both King of France and a global ruler with global amb itions. He founded colonies in America, Africa and India, tried to seize Siam (as Thailand was then known), sent missionaries and mathematicians to the Emperor of China and launched the struggle for France's global markets which continues to this day. The motto he adopted early in his reign, in 1662, expressed his hopes and desires: 'Nec pluribus impar' (liter ally 'Not unequal to more'), meaning 'not incapable of ruling other dominions', as well as 'not unequal to many enemies'. Louis was a man in pursuit of glory, a king devoted to dynastic aggran dizement and a leader bent on national expansion. He is also an argument. How could such a civilized man, exceptionally considerate to women (he built the best girls' school of the age, near Versailles at Saint Cyr), order acts of barbarism against French Protestants and France's neighbours? Was Louis le Grand, as he was called from 1680, master or instrument of his court, his ministers and his financiers? Did he leave France stronger or weaker? He dominated his age and, since he chose the sun as his symbol, later became known as le roi soleil -the Sun King. Did he deserve the name? The present biography has benefited from a surge of new books on his palaces, 1 household, 2 finances, 3 diplomacy, 4 ministers, 5 armies, 6 for tresses, 7 enemies, 8 Catholic faith 9 and health, 10 from the recently published complete correspondence of his second wife, Madame de Maintenon, 11 and from an account of his itinerary throughout his life, 12 as well as from the many books published in 2015 to mark the 300th anniversary of his death. 13 Thanks to these and numerous other works, as well as my own researches in archives in Paris and London, this biography can take Louis out of Versailles (his main residence for less than half his reign, and never the only one) and show the view from Lille, Besançon and Strasbourg, as well as from London, Madrid, Constantinople and Bangkok. Multiple perspectives are needed for, in addition to working for the expansion of I n t roduc t ion: A T hous a n d Y e a r s of F r a nc e \* France were encouraged by François I's sister Marguerite, Queen of Nav arre (another woman writer), and his mistress the Duchesse d'Etampes. 14 At least since the marriage of Charles V I I I to Anne, Duchess of Brit tany, the Queen's household and apartments had been almost as large and magnificent as the King's. It was Queen Anne, wrote the French chronicler Pierre de Brantôme, author of Vies des dames galantes, who introduced 'la grande cour des dames' and asked for noblewomen to enter her house hold in order to educate them and increase her own importance. A court without women, he wrote, was like a garden without flowers. 15 Anne of Brittany's son in law François I, who reigned from 1515 to 1547, spent much of the year away from Paris, surrounded by women in his favourite hunting palaces of Fontainebleau, in a forest south east of Paris, and Chambord, in a forest near the Loire. The former was an ancient royal castle which he expanded and had redecorated by Italian artists like Primaticcio and Cellini. The latter was a vast new palace and hunting lodge of 440 rooms which he built in 1519-47, possibly from designs by Leonardo da Vinci. 16 Long before Louis X I V 's creation of Versailles, François I made the French court a synonym for splendour. In 1544 the Mantuan Ambassador wrote: 'If you have not seen the court of France, you have not seen what grandeur is.' 17 This grandeur came not only from the number of courtiers (perhaps 10,000 in all) and the size of the palaces, but also from the luxury of the objects inside: pictures, jewels, furniture, tapestries. The court was always on the move, particularly between the many royal residences in the Île de France and the valley of the Loire, in search of safety, revenue, food and hunting. 18 Sometimes, it needed 12,000 horses to transport it. One shocked Italian bishop wrote to Cosimo de' Medici: 'this court is like no other . . . here one thinks of nothing but hunting, women, banquets and moving house.' 19 Louis X I V 's grandfather Henri I V would later boast that he had never slept in the same place two nights running. 20 Both when the King was a minor and after he reached maturity, his mother publicly exercised or shared his authority. François I's daughter in law Catherine de Médicis, widow of his son Henri I I , served as regent or a member of the council in 1560-88 during the reigns of her sons Charles I X and Henri I I I. So did Marie de Médicis, widow of Henri I V, in 1610-17 and 1620-30 during the reign of her son Louis X I I I , and Anne of Austria in 1643-61 during the early reign of her son Louis X I V. Anne had the largest household of any queen of France (701 members in 1646), larger at times than her son's. 21 Under Louis X I V women would enjoy greater power than at any time before the Fifth Republic. King of the World royal army to come within 20 leagues of Paris. 87 It was no longer discuss ing laws, but attacking the monarchy's military power. It also decreed, on 23 October 1648, that no financiers, or their children, could buy judicial offices. 88 Like Henri I I I in May 1588 and Louis X V I in June 1791, the court decided on flight. Mazarin and the Queen chose the night of 5/6 January 1649. It was the feast of Epiphany, traditionally a time when 'everyone would be engaged in debauchery', wrote Gaston's daughter Mademoiselle de Montpensier, whose memoirs are among the most direct of this period. 89 In those circumstances it would be easier to slip out of the city. That even ing the Queen remained in her Petit Cabinet, watching her sons and courtiers enjoy 'choosing the king', by hunting for a bean in a special Epiphany cake. The only change Madame de Motteville noted was that she seemed more cheerful than usual. She told courtiers that the following day she would visit the Val de Grâce. 90 Having retired for the night, she woke her sons at 2 a.m. They left by an escalier dérobé, or backstairs, accompanied by the King's Governor the Maréchal de Villeroy; the Duc de Villequier, Capitaine des Gardes du Corps in waiting; guards officers such as Comminges and Guitaut; and the Queen's Première Femme de Chambre in waiting, Madame de Beau vais. De Beringhen, the Premier Ecuyer, organized the journey -as in 1567, 1588 and 1791, the success of the King's flight depended on his coaches and horses. In the gardens of the Cours la Reine west of the Tuil eries garden, they were joined by Gaston, Condé and Mazarin, the latter carrying some of his jewels. As the royal coaches left Paris, Mademoiselle remarked that she had never seen anyone as gay as the Queen. It was as if she had taken the city and hanged all her enemies. 91 Since the move was a surprise, and furniture generally followed the royal family from palace to palace, in the Château Vieux of Saint Germain nothing was ready except four camp beds which Mazarin had had the foresight to send ahead a few days earlier. All but the King and Queen, Mazarin and Anjou had to sleep on straw. 92 Justifying the move in a letter referring to a plot 'to seize our own person' and parlementaires ' 'pernicious plans' and alleged negotiations with Spanish agents, the government had hoped to win Parisians' support against the Parlement. 93 However, the two remained in alliance. In add ition part of the court and the nobility, in the language of the Registres de l'Hôtel de Ville, 'embraced the party of the City and the Parlement'. They included the illegitimate descendant of Henri I V, the Duc de Beaufort, known as 'le roi des halles', the king of the markets; the Duc de Bouillon; the Duc d'Elbeuf, younger brother of the Duc de Guise; and the ducs de King of the World Parisians drank his health, with money distributed to them by his servants. 31 On 25 August, his own feast day as well as that of St Louis, the King went in procession to the new, baroque church of Saint Louis in the Marais, 'as superior in appearance and grace as in birth and dignity'. He was again greeted by 'continuous acclamation', according to Olivier d'Ormesson, and constantly took off his hat to the ladies cheering him from their windows. Anne of Austria wept for joy, 'acknowledging to the right and left all the princesses, ladies and other persons of condition' with 'caresses and obliging words', since she wanted 'to make herself popular with the Parisians'. 32 Market women who had formerly cursed her cheered and blessed her, begging forgiveness, trying to touch her dress. 33 The Fronde was marked by balls as well as battles. The monarchy and Paris not only remained in dialogue; they danced together. On 5 Septem ber at a ball in the Hôtel de Ville (which was required to provide, in advance, 'rooms and private places' in which the ladies of the court could 'coiff and adjust themselves'), the King opened the dance with his first cousin Anne Marie, 'la Grande Mademoiselle', daughter of Gaston, Duc d'Orléans by his first wife, the heiress of the ducs de Montpensier.\* The greatest heiress in Europe, she considered only the King of France or the Holy Roman Emperor worthy to be her husband. As his next partner, again showing the court's desire to woo Paris, he took Madame le Feron, wife of the Prévôt des Marchands: an act of condescension to which, when older, he would never have stooped. Social distinctions were still fluid: as a young man, Louis X I V hunted and dined with judges, financiers and Protestants, whom in old age he would spurn. 34 On 8 December Louis X I V was confirmed in the chapel of the Palais Royal. That Christmas, in another gesture to Parisians, he made his first communion in the local parish church, Saint Eustache, still today, like Saint Louis in the Marais, one of the great churches of Paris. There were 'perpetual cries of "Vive le roi" ' despite the curé being an ardent frondeur. 35 Condé, to whom Anne of Austria had publicly expressed her gratitude for the court's safe return to Paris, was now the most powerful man in France. He faced the dilemma common to ambitious royal cousins. The order of succession was too well established for usurpation to be easy. However, portions of sovereignty might be within reach. As the victor of Rocroi and defender of the monarchy, this arrogant Prince demanded influence over royal patronage and policy, and an automatic seat in the \* Gaston was usually known as 'Monsieur', short for 'Monsieur, frère du roi'. His daughter's title was 'Mademoiselle': she was called 'la Grande Mademoiselle' as she was unusually tall. \* English royal love matches across class barriers, such as Henry V I I I 's to Anne Boleyn in 1532, or that of Louis X I V 's cousin James, Duke of York to Anne Hyde (to the fury of the bride's father the English chief minister Lord Clarendon, as well as of the royal family) on 9 September 1660, a year after Louis X I V renounced Marie Mancini, were almost unthink able in France. The exception was Henri I V, who had planned to marry his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées before her sudden death in 1599, and had shortly after promised marriage in writing to another mistress, Henriette d'Entragues. In 1600, however, he too had made a dynastic marriage, to Marie de Médicis: Louis XIV was a man in pursuit of glory. Not content to be the ruler of a world power, he wanted the power to rule the world. And, for a time, he came tantalizingly close. Philip Mansel's King of the World is the most comprehensive and up-to-date biography in English of this hypnotic, flawed figure who continues to captivate our attention. This lively work takes Louis outside Versailles and shows the true extent of his global ambitions, with stops in London, Madrid, Constantinople, Bangkok, and beyond. We witness the importance of his alliance with the Spanish crown and his success in securing Spain for his descendants, his enmity with England, and his relations with the rest of Europe, as well as Asia, Africa, and the Americas. We also see the king's effect on the two great global diasporas of Huguenots and Jacobites, and their influence on him as he failed in his brutal attempts to stop Protestants from leaving France. Along the way, we are enveloped in the splendor of Louis's court and the fascinating cast of characters who prostrated and plotted within it. King of the World is exceptionally researched, drawing on international archives and incorporating sources who knew the king intimately, including the newly released correspondence of Louis's second wife, Madame de Maintenon. Mansel's narrative flair is a perfect match for this grand figure, and he brings the Sun King's world to vivid life. This is a global biography of a global king, whose power was extensive but also limited by laws and circumstances, and whose interests and ambitions stretched far beyond his homeland. Through it all, we watch Louis XIV progressively turn from a dazzling, attractive young king to a belligerent reactionary who sets France on the path to 1789. It is a convincing and compelling portrait of a man who, three hundred years after his death, still epitomizes the idea of le grand monarque . "Philip Mansel's book is poised to become the new standard English-language biography of Louis XIV, one that takes into account the revolution in the last fifty years in knowledge about every aspect of the king's reign: the army; Catholicism; diplomacy; the arts; music; medicine; homosexuality at his court; the role of women and the publication of the entire correspondence of his second wife, Madame de Maintenon. This is a global biography of a global king, whose power on the French monarchy and state was large but also limited by laws and circumstances, and whose interests and ambitions stretched from the eastern frontiers of his territory, which he enlarged to what is essentially France's shape today, to the territories along the Mississippi and Mekong rivers. Through it all, we watch Louis XIV progressively turning from a dazzling, attractive monarch to a belligerent reactionary who sets France on the path to 1789"-- Provided by publisher. Contents List of Illustrations Maps Family Trees Introduction: A Thousand Years of France 1. The Gift of God 2. Our Good City of Paris 3. The Struggle for France 4. M. le Cardinal 5. The Power of Queens 6. Fouquet’s Fall 7. Making France Work 8. The Pursuit of Immortality: The Louvre and Versailles 9. Conquering Flanders 10. Fighting the Netherlands 11. To the Rhine 12. The King Outdoors 13. Inside Versailles 14. Inside Louis XIV 15. The Global King: From the Mississippi to the Mekong 16. The Huguenot Cataclysm 17. England Changes Sides: The Flights of King James 18. France against Europe 19. Spain Changes Sides: The Accession of King Philip 20. The Triumph of Europe 21. Towards the Precipice 22. Nemesis Averted 23. Funeral Games 24. The Shadow of Versailles Acknowledgements Notes Bibliography Index