39Petitfils, Louis XIV, pp. 205–6.
40Montpensier, volume II, p. 226. The Innocents, or Holy Innocents, was a Parisian cemetery dating back to the 12th century. Originally graves were separate, with individual sepulchres, but as it filled, the dead were increasingly buried in mass graves. The cemetery was closed in 1780, the remains relocated, and the area, in the Les Halles district, was gradually developed.
41Montpensier, volume II, pp. 91–2.
42Motteville, volume III, p. 244.
43Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume I, p. 62.
44Motteville, volume III, p. 244.
EIGHT: THE SUMMER OF 1661
1At this stage, the rituals surrounding the lever and coucher of the king were less elaborate than they would be later in the reign.
2Louis’s daily routine at this stage of the reign is described by Mme de Motteville, volume III, pp. 242–3.
3Motteville, volume III, p. 243.
4Ibid.
5Ibid., p. 216.
6Ibid., p. 217.
7Marie-Thérèse became pregnant in early February 1661.
8Motteville, volume III, p. 246.
9Ibid., p. 244.
10La Fayette, p. 183.
11Motteville, volume III, p. 248.
12Motteville, volume III, p. 252.
13Motteville, volume III, p. 250.
14Motteville, volume III, p. 252.
15La Fayette, p. 184.
16Lair, Louise de La Vallière, pp. 3, 11.
17Ibid., p. 19.
18Ibid., p. 54. The grateful Louis later granted Mme de Choisy a pension.
19Ibid., p. 55.
20Ibid., p. 58.
21Cronin, p. 122.
22Ibid., p. 124; Lair, Louise de La Vallière, pp. 70–1. Louis first performed the ballet at the Louvre the previous February (Jean Loret, La Muze historique ou recueil des lettres en vers (Paris: P. Daffis, libraire éditeur, 1877), volume 3, p. 32).
23One anonymous chronicler tells of Louis and Louise being caught in a shower of rain while out walking together. The gallant Louis “sheltered the girlish head with his own hat, and brought her back to the Palace, braving the jealous eyes of the Court” (Lair, Louise de la Vallière, pp. 69–70). This scene proved irresistible to Dumas, who included it in Le Vicomte de Bragelonne (Paris: Éditions Robert Laffont, S.A., 1991), volume 2, p. 2. Sadly, it comes from a questionable source and is not supported by any reliable contemporary writer.
24Brienne (1916–19), volume 3, pp. 40–6.
25Robert Lefebvre (1608–1675/7) was called de Venise because of his long sojourn there.
26Prest, pp. 90–1.
27Lair, Louise de La Vallière, pp. 71–2.
28Motteville, volume III, p. 248.
29Ibid., p. 260.
30Dunlop, p. 103.
31Ibid., p. 104.
32Bluche, Louis XIV, pp. 205–6.
33Ibid., pp. 206–7.
34Ibid., p. 207.
35Pascal’s final two Lettres Provincials were a defense against Father Annat’s accusations of heresy against him.
36Bluche, Louis XIV, pp. 210–11.
37Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume I, p. 83.
38l’Écureuil means ‘the Squirrel,’ or foucquet in the Breton dialect.
39Louis explains his decision to bring about the fall of Foucquet in his memoirs (OEuvres volume I, pp. 101–3). This section had originally been drafted by Colbert, who used notes taken at the time, and which reflected his own opinion. Later, when Louis edited the text, he allowed this version of events to stand because he believed it to be correct. By that time, Colbert’s version had become Louis’s own.
40Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume I, p. 33.
41Brienne (1916–19), volume 3, p. 50.
42Chrétien de Lamoignon was president of the Parlement of Paris.
43La Fayette, pp. 185–6.
44Lair, Foucquet, volume 2, p. 36.
45Jean-Christian Petitfils, Fouquet (Paris: Perrin, 1990), p. 349.
46This story is found in an anonymous letter held in the collection of Valentin Conrart, a man of letters and first secretary of the Académie Française. The collection contains many letters and documents, some of which are of questionable authenticity or are heavily redacted. This story does, however, find support in a contemporary publication, Il Mercurio Postiglione p. 76, in which Foucquet is said to have offered Louise 25,000 “doppie,” or doubles. The abbé de Choisy also knew of Foucquet’s approach to Louise, stating that the go-between was Foucquet’s confidante, Mme du Plessis-Bellière (Mémoires, volume 1, p. 131).
47The representative assembly of Brittany, which was composed of the clergy, the nobility, and the bourgeoisie.
NINE: AT VAUX-LE-VICOMTE
1For an account of the fête given by Foucquet at Vaux, see Urbain-Victor Chatelain, Le Surintendant Nicolas Foucquet, Protecteur des Lettres, des Arts et des Sciences (Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1971), pp. 471–81.
2Chatelain, p. 472.
3Cronin, p. 133.
4Jean de La Fontaine, Fables et OEuvres Diverses. ed. C. A. Walckenaer (Paris: Librairie de Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1852), p. 540.
5Ibid.
6Petitfils, Fouquet, p. 356.
7The rocks, shells, and other special effects were designed by Giacomo Torelli and painted by Le Brun.
8The ballets were choreographed by Pierre de Beauchamps.
9Molière is known to have played more than one of these characters, although it is not certain which. Charles Heron Wall, The Dramatic Works of Molière (London: George Bell and Sons, 1876), p. 283, suggests Molière played Lisandre, Alcandre, and Alcippe.
10Petitfils, Fouquet, p. 358.
11Choisy, volume 1, p. 136.
12Brienne (1916–19), volume 3, p. 49.
13Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos, Vaux-le-Vicomte, trans. Judith Hayward (London: Scala Books, 1997), pp. 137–8. Foucquet’s motto is sometimes given as Quo non ascendam?—‘Whither will I not climb?’ but this is incorrect.
14Choisy, volume, 1, p. 136. This, however, does not appear in the section of Jean Hérault Gourville’s Mémoires de Gourville (Paris: Librairie Renouard, 1894) that deals with the fête at Vaux-le-Vicomte.
15La Fayette, p. 136.
16The ordonnance de comptant was a cash account of the treasury which made expenditure of matters of state that were to be kept secret from the public, see Julian Dent, Crisis in Finance: Crown Finances and Society in Seventeenth Century France (Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1973), p. 84.
17Choisy, volume 1, p. 137.
18Palmer, p. 176.
19Virginia Scott, Molière: A Theatrical Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 136–7.
20For Petitfils (Fouquet, p. 360), this was proof that Louis had “decided to finish with his superintendent and seize Belle-Isle.”
21The Chambre des Comptes was a royal accounting agency and one of the oldest institutions of the French monarchy (Dent, p. 100).
22There are several accounts of the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of Nicolas Foucquet, the official version being Récit officiel de l’arrestation de Fouquet rédigé par Ordre de Colbert, which is printed in volume 8 of the Mémoires complets et authentiques du duc de Saint-Simon edited by Chéruel (Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1879) pp. 447–453. Another version, Arrestation de Fouquet: Mesures Préparatoires, is printed in Pierre Clément, Lettres, instructions et Mémoires de Colbert (Paris: Imprimerie Imperiale, 1859) volume 2, part 1, pp. cxcix-cxcvi. Brienne, who was present at Nantes, includes the event in his Mémoires (1916–19, volume 3, pp. 53–77). His account is particularly poignant as it highlights the still unwell Foucquet’s sense of helplessness in the face of forces beyond his control. The abbé de Choisy, who was not present but was otherwise well-informed, wrote about the arrest in his Mémoires, volume 1, pp. 137–151.
23Foucquet’s fever was such that he was relatively well for two days and ill on the third. The exact nature of the illness is not known, although it is described as ague in
some sources and malaria in others.
24Brienne (1916–19), volume 3, pp. 62–3.
25Ibid., p. 61.
26Charles de Batz Castelmore, sieur d’Artagnan, was the historical figure who inspired Dumas’s famous hero. Although often referred to as Captain d’Artagnan, he was not the real captain of the musketeers, as that post was held by the king.
27Chéruel, Saint-Simon, p. 448.
28Letter from Louis to his mother, dated September 5 (Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume V, p. 50).
29Letter from Louis to his mother, dated September 5 (Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume V, p. 51).
30Chéruel, Saint-Simon, p. 448.
31Letter from Louis to his mother, dated September 5 (Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume V, pp. 53–4).
32Chéruel, Saint-Simon, p. 449.
33Brienne (1916–19), volume 3, p. 72.
34Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume V, pp. 50–54.
35Inès Murat, Colbert (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1980), pp. 110–111.
36Brienne (1916–19), volume 3, p. 73.
TEN: THE SUN KING
1Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume I, p. 104.
2Ibid., p. 105.
3Murat, pp. 109–110. Louis (Œuvres, volume I, pp. 108–9) claimed the idea as entirely his own, but this was not true. However, he and Colbert were as one on this subject, as they were with many others.
4Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume I, pp. 111–12.
5Ibid., p. 112.
6Ibid., pp. 113–15.
7Cronin, pp. 159–160. Louis’s measure is reminiscent of that of his grandfather, Henry IV, who insisted that every peasant should have a chicken in the pot on Sundays.
8Cronin, pp. 160–161.
9Loret, volume 3, pp. 417–18.
10Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume I, p. 121.
11Ibid., p. 127.
12Louis (Œuvres, volume I, p. 129) refers to him as the comte de Fuensaldagna, although he was actually the marquis de La Fuente.
13Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume I, pp. 129–30.
14Ibid., p. 140.
15Motteville, volume III, p. 268.
16Loret, volume 3, p. 423.
17Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume I, p. 141. Louis added the warning that if princes did not fulfill expectations, their people would reproach them forever.
18Ibid., p. 153.
19Anne-Constance de Montalais. She had been a companion to the d’Orléans princesses at Blois, and was maid of honor to Henriette, duchesse d’Orléans.
20When Louise first arrived at court, she attracted the attention of several young beaux, among them the comte de Guiche. Upon seeing the king take an interest in her, he had the good sense to withdraw, but he exacted his revenge on Louis by paying court to Henriette. Louis exiled him from court for his insolence, although he soon allowed him back.
21La Fayette, pp. 189–90.
22Ibid.
23Ibid.
24Motteville, volume III, pp. 284–85. The story of the anonymous letter is related by several writers, including Motteville (volume III, pp. 283–5), La Fayette (pp. 190–2) and d’Ormesson (p. 330–2). All vary in their details. The version given here is taken from La Fayette, whose narrative was related to her by Louise’s mistress, Henriette.
25Lair, Louise de La Vallière, pp. 99, 100.
26Ibid., p. 101.
27Ibid., p. 102.
28Charles Perrault, Courses et Têtes et de Bague, faites par le Roy (Paris: L’Imprimerie Royale, 1670); Loret, volume 3, pp. 511–12; Dunlop, pp. 94–6; Lair, Louise, pp. 104–5.
29The carousel provided the arena for an early spat between Colbert and Louvois. Louvois had suggested to Louis that he hold the carousel, his motive apparently being to embarrass Colbert, who, as intendant of finances, would be responsible for raising the money to pay for it. If so, Louvois’s plan failed, because Colbert asked Louis to keep the carousel secret for a week, during which time he temporarily transferred to octroi (a tax levied on the goods entering the city) of Paris to the royal treasury. The carousel was then announced, which attracted people from other parts of France and abroad. Colbert then asked for the carousel to be delayed for a further two weeks, during which time the hordes of visitors spent their money on food and other provisions, thereby filling the royal coffers and paying for the entire celebration, see Louis XIV, Œuvres, I.195 note; Dunlop, p. 96.
30Perrault, p. 44.
31Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume I, p. 195.
32Ibid., p. 190.
33Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume I, p. 196.
34Ibid., p. 196. Sun iconography was not unique to Louis, although he is the king most closely associated with it. The sun had been part of the iconography of the royal House of France for some time, the first Sun King being Charles VI, who reigned between 1380 and 1422 (Erlanger, Louis XIV, p. 83).
35Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume I, p. 197.
ELEVEN: LE CHTEAU DE CARTES
1Motteville, volume III, p. 276.
2Bussy-Rabutin. Les Mémoires de Roger de Rabutin comte de Bussy (Amsterdam: Chez Zacherie Chatelain, 1731), volume 2, p. 205.
3Catherine de Menneville was one of the queen-mother’s young ladies. Famed at the court for her beauty, the twenty-five-year-old was the mistress of Nicolas Foucquet at the time of his arrest. Disgraced, she would spend the rest of her life in a convent.
4Antoine Hamilton, Mémoires du Chevalier de Grammont (Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1876), p. 81; Lair, Louise de La Vallière, p. 107 note 1. Gramont was exiled to England, where he arrived in June 1662.
5Montpensier, volume II, p. 253.
6Lair, Louise de La Vallière, p. 107.
7Ibid., p. 108. Louis was annoyed by the duchesse de Navailles’s attachment to Marie-Thérèse. He did not realize that she was faithful enough to him to defend him to the queen (Motteville, volume III, p. 292).
8Motteville, volume III, p. 293.
9Ibid., p. 294.
10Montpensier, volume II, p. 253.
11Ibid.
12Lair, Louise de La Vallière, p. 108. Louis was eventually forced to deal with the comtesse de Soissons. In the spring of 1665, she and her husband were ordered to retire to one of their estates for having said disrespectful things about Henriette. Vardes was also punished. Having already been exiled, he was imprisoned in the citadel of Montpellier (Motteville, volume III, pp. 315–18).
13Simone Bertière, Les Femmes du Roi-Soleil, Les Reines de France au Temps des Bourbons (Paris: Éditions de Fallois, 1997), p. 116.
14Motteville, volume III, p. 285. Motteville qualifies Louis’s happiness with “if anyone in this world can be happy.”
15Ibid., pp. 287–90.
16Ibid., p. 288. Of course, Anne of Austria was Marie-Thérèse’s mother-in-law as well as her aunt, but she made no such distinction.
17Ibid., pp. 288–9.
18This exchange is recounted in Motteville, volume III, p. 290–91.
19Le Roi, ed., p. 80.
20The Concordat of Bologna was an agreement, signed between François I and Pope Leo X in 1516, involving the regalian rights of the French church. The régale, or regalian rights, referred to the king’s right to receive the revenues of vacant bishoprics in certain parts of France.
21The Three Bishoprics comprised Metz, Toul, and Verdun.
22Bluche, Louis XIV, p. 211; Dunlop, pp. 99–103; Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume V, pp. 91–2.
23Dunlop, p. 99.
24Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume V, pp. 91–2.
25Clément, volume V, pp. lix-lx; Petitfils, Louis, p. 292; Cornette, p. 105.
26Jean Coural, “Gobelins.” In Dictionnaire du Grand Siècle, ed. Bluche (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1990), pp. 660–1.
27Pérouse de Montclos, p. 36.
28Ibid., p. 44.
29Coural, p. 661.
30Guy Walton, Louis XIV’s Versailles (Harmsworth, U.K.: Viking, 1986), p. 54.
31The Gazette (1651, p. 672) records Louis having visited Versailles in July 1651; Pierre de Nolhac, Versailles et la Cour de France
: La Création de Versailles (Paris: Louis Conard, 1925), p. 29 notes that the young king had also hunted there the previous April.
32Louis de Touvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon on the Times of Louis XIV. and the Regency, trans. and abridged Katharine Prescott Wormeley (Boston: Hardy, Pratt & Company, 1902), volume III, p. 304.
33Nolhac, p. 33 and note.
34Walton, p. 55.
35Clément, volume V, pp. 268–70, where it is dated 1665; Nolhac, pp. 49–50, who dates it to 1663.
36The course of Louis’s attack of measles and his various treatments can be followed in Le Roi, ed., pp. 82–7.
37Lair, Louise de La Vallière, p. 123.
38Ibid., pp. 122–3. While the king was honorary captain of this regiment of veterans and the young dauphin lieutenant, there is some dispute as to whether or not La Vallière was the actual commander. Lair says not.
39Lair, Louise de La Vallière, p. 124.
40Motteville, volume III. p. 283; Bussy-Rabutin, Mémoires, volume 2, p. 204.
41Bluche, Louis XIV, pp. 236–7.
42The modern-day rue Richelieu covers the area where the Palais Brion was situated.
43Over the next fifty years, Louis would spend some 95 million livres on Versailles. His wars, on the other hand, would cost 3,000 million (Erlanger, Louis XIV, p. 153 note). During the twenty years it would take to build Versailles, 227 people would die (Erlanger, Louis XIV, p. 153). Louis would live at Versailles in 1674, 1675, and 1677 before moving in permanently in 1682 (Bluche, Louis XIV, p. 183).
44Nolhac, p. 47, quoting an account written by Colbert.
45Ibid., p. 48.
46After Louvois’s death, his son, Courtanvaux, would take over this function.
47Bluche, Louis XIV, pp. 185–6.
48Midwives could be male or female: Boucher was a man.
49duchesse de La Vallière, Réflexions sur la Miséricorde de Dieu (Paris: J. Techener, Librairie, 1860), volume 2, pp. 201–6; Lair, Louise de La Vallière, pp. 131–2. Charles died when he was about two years old, the victim of one of many childhood illnesses.
50Motteville, volume III, p. 295.
TWELVE: THE PLEASURES OF THE ENCHANTED ISLE
1Walton, p. 55.
2Motteville, volume III, p. 295.
3Louise was already pregnant with her second child by this time (Fraser, Louis XIV, p. 88).
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