4Bussy-Rabutin, Mémoires, volume 2, p. 224.
5Known in French as Roland furieux.
6Nicolas Sceaux, Les plaisirs de l’île enchantée (2008–2009), p. 5.
7Ibid., p. 5.
8Ibid., pp. 6–11.
9Ibid., pp. 21–84.
10Ibid., pp. 83–95.
11Lair, Louise de La Vallière, pp. 140–1.
12Palmer, p. 279.
13Gazette, May 21, 1664, cited in Palmer, p. 280.
14Cited in Palmer, p. 280.
15Ibid.
16Wall, volume 2, p. 292.
17Cited in Palmer, p. 281.
18Nancy Nichols Barker, Brother to the Sun King: Philippe, Duke of Orléans (Baltimore, London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), p. 88; Palmer, p. 285. Louis became Molière’s patron on August 14, 1665.
19The account of the Brancas incident is given in Motteville, volume III, pp. 295–8. Suzanne de Brancas, née Garnier, and her husband had been clients of Foucquet, whose arrest had proved detrimental to them. Suzanne, it appears, was trying to cultivate Louise’s friendship as a means to restore their fortunes.
20Dunlop, p. 101.
21Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV (London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1935), pp. 10–11.
22A commemorative tapestry was begun in 1669, but by this time, Louis’s anger had cooled and he had ordered the pyramid in Rome to be demolished, Dunlop, p. 103.
23Lair, Louise de La Vallière, p. 141.
24Motteville, volume III, pp. 298–303. Mme de Motteville’s account of the cause of the animosity between Louis and Anne is vague, but the details can be followed, and she is in no doubt about the consequences.
25Motteville, volume III, p. 303.
THIRTEEN: THE DARK SIDE OF THE SUN
1Motteville, volume III, pp. 305–6.
2Ibid., p. 306.
3Clément, Lettres, volume V, p. 467.
4Anatole France, Clio and the Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte, trans. Winifred Stevens (London: The Bodley Head, 1923), pp. 259–61.
5The Anqueil is the river that flows through the park at Vaux, and which was diverted to form the canal.
6Orontes was the name given to Foucquet by La Fontaine in the Songe de Vaux. Orontes’s palace was a sanctuary for artists.
7Henri IV, Louis’s grandfather.
8See above, p. 181.
9Chéruel, volume 2, pp. 260–3.
10Louis carried the sword of justice at his coronation, a symbol of one of his royal qualities.
11Charles de La Porte, duc de La Meilleraye, was the governor of Brittany, and another of Foucquet’s enemies.
12Chéruel, volume 2, pp. 263–70; an abridged version appears in Lair, Foucquet, volume 2, pp. 107–8.
13D’Artagnan was serving as Foucquet’s jailer.
14Lair, Foucquet, volume 2, p. 108.
15Pitts, p. 61.
16Pitts, p. 61; Chéruel, volume 2, pp. 334–5.
17The Chambre de justice was a special court believed to have been inaugurated during the reign of François I to investigate corruption in public finances and to try those involved. It acted as a buffer between the populace and the crown, protecting the latter from the people who were angry with the tax system, but it was also a means by which financiers could be forced to make reparation on their excessive profits through fines or threats of prosecution (Pitts, p. 61; Dent, pp. 103–4).
18Foucquet had been loyal to the crown and to Mazarin during the Fronde; nevertheless, Louis always associated him with that dark period of his life. The discovery of the Projet de Saint-Mandé merely confirmed Louis’s fears.
19The reason for Séguier’s hostility is difficult to explain, although it is thought that he blamed Foucquet for his exclusion from the royal council (see Pitts, p. 52; Petitfils, Fouquet, p. 327; Lair, Fouquet, volume 2, p. 6).
20Bluche, Louis XIV, p. 201.
21Foucquet’s accounts would not be examined until the 20th century. Daniel Dessert, Argent, pouvoir et société au Grand Siècle (Paris: Fayard, 1984), pp. 305–6, 310.
22Foucquet’s assertion that he had shown no one the plan was not true if his friend, Gourville, is to be believed. Gourville claimed that Foucquet showed him the document and that he urged the superintendent to destroy it (Mémoires, volume 1, pp. 171–3).
23Lair, Foucquet, volume 2, p. 175.
24Ibid., pp. 318–25.
25Motteville, volume III, p. 308.
26Marie-Anne de France would die on December 26, 1664, after only a few weeks of life.
27Motteville, volume III, pp. 308–9: Sévigné, Marie du Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de, Lettres de Madame de Sevigné, de sa famille et de ses amis (Paris : J.J. Blaise, 1820), volume I, pp. 66–8.
28The mass Locatelli attended took place on November 11, 1664.
29Sébastien Locatelli, Voyage de France: Moeurs et Coutumes Française (1664–1665), trans. Adolphe Vautier (Paris: Alphonse Picard et Fils, 1905), p. 126.
30Petitfils, Fouquet, p. 428.
31Lair, Louise de La Vallière, pp. 148–9.
32Philippe de Courcillon, marquis de Dangeau, a memorialist, was one of Louis’s close friends.
33The story of the maréchal and the madrigal is told by Mme de Sévigné (1820), volume I, pp. 82–3.
34Pitts, p. 146.
35François Ravaisson, ed. Archives de la Bastille (1870), volume 2, pp. 390–92.
36Sévigné (1820), volume I, p. 100.
37Chéruel, volume 2, p. 334.
38Pitts, p. 158.
39Lair, Foucquet, volume 2, p. 406; Patin, volume 3, p. 503.
40Ormesson, Journal, volume 2, p. 278.
41Ravaisson, ed., volume 2, p. 393.
42Pitts, p. 159.
43Sévigné (1820), volume I, p. 102.
44Pignerol is known today by its Italian name, Pinerolo.
45The only clemency Foucquet would receive came in 1679, some eighteen years after his arrest, when he was allowed to talk to a fellow prisoner, the comte de Lauzun. Also that year, his wife and children, all now grown up, would be allowed to travel to Pignerol to visit him. He died in 1680, and a few weeks later, his wife was given permission to bury his body where she wished. The following year, Foucquet’s mother died at the age of 91, just as her son’s coffin was making its way back to Paris. Mother and son were buried together in the convent of the Visitation on the rue Saint-Antoine.
FOURTEEN: MARS AND ATHENA
1Motteville, volume III, p. 342.
2Ibid., p. 344.
3Ibid., p. 345.
4Ibid., p. 348.
5Ibid., p. 349.
6Ibid.
7Ibid., p. 350.
8Ibid., p. 355.
9Ibid.
10Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume II, p. 50.
11Ibid., p. 51.
12Ibid., p. 52.
13Ibid., pp. 52–3.
14Ibid., p. 53.
15Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume V, p. 361. Louis’s letter is dated February 11, 1666.
16Lair Louise de La Vallière, p. 168.
17Gazette, 1666, pp. 341–4. Mouchy-le-Châtel is in the Département Oise, north of Paris.
18For the text of the letters patent and analysis, see Lair, Louise de La Vallière, pp. 195–201.
19Département Indre et Loire.
20Marie-Anne was born at Vincennes on October 2, 1666, the first of Louis’s illegitimate children to be born after his mother’s death.
21Lair, Louise de La Vallière, p. 197.
22Ibid., p. 199. At this point, Louise was again pregnant with the king’s child, but this child was excluded from the inheritance (Lair, p. 201). Louise had previously given birth to a son at noon on January 7, 1665. Following the usual procedure, he was secreted away nine hours later by Colbert, who handed the child to Bernard, the husband of the demoiselle du Coudray, both former servants in Colbert’s household. The following day, at Louis’s command, the baby was baptized in the church of Saint-Eustache as Philippe, the son of François Derssy and Margaret Bernard, hi
s wife. Philippe, like his elder brother, Charles, was not destined to live long; he would die at the end of June 1666.
23Louis, Œuvres, volume II, p. 291.
24Ibid., pp. 290–1.
25Arthur Hassall, Louis XIV and the Zenith of French Monarchy (London, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1923), pp. 138–9.
26Treasure, Louis XIV, p. 163.
27Hassall, Louis XIV, p. 139.
28Montglat, p. 357.
29Hassall, Louis XIV, pp. 140–41. Franche-Comté operated a system of gavelkind, in which a deceased man’s property would be divided among his sons. In Luxembourg, two thirds of a man’s property would go to the son, with the final third going to the eldest daughter. In this scenario, Charles II would have inherited the main part of the inheritance, with the rest going to Marie-Thérèse. Louis’s claim, therefore, would be upheld in a few locations only.
30Treasure, Louis XIV, p. 163.
31A treaty of alliance with the Dutch (1662) obliged Louis to wage war on England, but his navy was unequal to the task, and he was unable even to assist Ruyter in his assault on England.
32Saint-Maurice, volume 1, p. 115.
33Motteville, volume III, p. 258.
34Saint-Maurice, volume 1, p. 110.
35Ibid., p. 56.
36This incident is airbrushed out of the official history (Gazette, 1667, p. 582).
37Montpensier, volume II, pp. 305–6.
38Ibid., p. 306.
39Tonnay-Charrante was one of the titles held by Athénaïs’s family.
40Since neither family had anything material to gain from the marriage, it is generally accepted that this was a love match.
41Lisa Hilton, The Real Queen of France: Athénaïs & Louis XIV (London: Abacus, 2003), p. 42.
42Montpensier, volume II, p. 305.
43Ibid., p. 306.
44Catherine de Neufville-Villeroy, contesse d’Armagnac, was one of Marie-Thérèse’s ladies. Known for her mischief, she would be dismissed from court.
45Montpensier, volume II, p. 311.
FIFTEEN: THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE
1Bluche, Louis XIV, pp. 242–3.
2Ibid., pp. 243–4.
3Ibid., p. 244.
4Peter Robert Campbell, Louis XIV (London: Longman Group Limited, 1993), p. 62.
5Bluche, Louis XIV, p. 243.
6Campbell, Louis XIV, p. 62. Under the terms of the partition treaty, which was intended to be implemented in the event of Carlos II’s death, France would receive Naples, Sicily, Flanders, Franche-Comté, and Navarre. Austria would take Spain, the remaining Italian territories, and most of Spain’s overseas empire. As it was, the treaty was never implemented because Carlos defied all expectation and lived, and because it was compromised when France occupied Lorraine in 1700, with Leopold being forced to defend the province, which was part of the Austrian Empire.
7Cornette, pp. 173–4.
8Marc Fumaroli, The Poet and the King: Jean de La Fontaine and His Century, trans. Jane Marie Todd (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002), pp. 94–5.
9Lair, Louise de La Vallière, pp. 233–4.
10Ibid., p. 236; Bussy-Rabutin, Correspondance avec ses Famille et Amis (Paris: Lalanne, 1858), volume 1, p. 382.
11Pierre Clément, Madame de Montespan et Louis XIV: étude historique (Paris: Librairie Académique, 1868), p. 13; Jean Lemoine and André Lichtenberger, De La Vallière à Montespan (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1902), pp. 256–7.
12Lemoine and Lichtenberger, p. 258; see also Ravaisson, ed., vol. IV, p. 16. Mme de Montausier never recovered from the shock of her encounter with Montespan. She rapidly declined and on her deathbed begged forgiveness for her part in facilitating the king’s affair with Athénaïs (Hilton, p. 92). According to Saint-Simon, Montespan had even physically attacked his wife.
Although not always the most reliable memoirist, Saint-Simon appears to have been accurate on this occasion. The document formalizing the separation of Montespan and her husband refers to his ill-treatment towards her, see Anne Somerset, The Affair of the Poisons. Murder, Infanticide & Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003), p. 91.
13The people of Gascony were well known for their eccentricity, and boastful or exaggerated behavior was often referred to as gasconnade.
14A lettre de cachet, or letter under the signet, was a notorious instrument by which the king could order the imprisonment of anyone who displeased him without his having to give a reason and without the prisoner facing trial.
15Guy Patin, cited in Lair, Louise de La Vallière, p. 230. The For-l’Eveque was demolished in the early 19th century. The building at 19 rue Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois now stands on the site.
16Lemoine and Lichtenberger, p. 269; J.-B. Primi Visconti, Mémoires dur la cour de Louis XIV, 1673–1681 (Paris: Perrin, 1988), p. 26.
17C. C. Dyson, Madame de Maintenon: Her life and times 1635–1719 (London: J. Lane, 1910), p. 76.
18Gazette, 1668, p. 1010.
19Cronin, p. 175; Lair, Louise de La Vallière, p. 231.
20Hilton, p. 87.
21Ibid., pp. 87–8.
22Bluche, Louis XIV, pp. 213–14.
23Ibid., pp. 303, 215.
24Medailles sur les principaux evenements, p. 114. The medal is dated 1669.
25Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume I, pp. 142–3.
26Recueil général des anciennes lois françaises, XVIII, pp. 44–5; Louis XIV. Memoirs for the Instruction of the Dauphin, trans. and ed. Paul Sonnino (New York: Free Press; London: Collier-Macmillan, 1970), pp. 115–16: Bluche, Louis XIV, pp. 113–15.
27Sévigné (1820), volume I, p. 154.
28Bluche, Louis XIV, p. 114.
29The French populace was divided into the first, second, and third estates. The first estate comprised the clergy, who were exempt from paying taxes because they served the country through prayer and charitable works. The second estate comprised the nobility and the royal family, but not the king, who stood above the estates. The nobility served in the military and the royal household, and were exempt from most forms of taxation. The third estate was made up of everyone who did not belong to the first two estates. Comprising some 98 percent of the population, they were liable for all forms of taxation.
30Bluche, Louis XIV, p. 144.
31Ibid., p. 115.
32Hassall, Louis XIV, pp. 156–61, 163, 168.
33Brown, p. 163.
34Fraser, Charles, p. 272.
35Arthur Bryant, Charles II, Revised edition (London: Collins, 1955), p. 203.
36For the palace of Trianon, see Hilton, p. 151.
37See Hilton, pp. 152–3.
38Melanie Clegg, The Life of Henrietta Anne, Daughter of Charles I (Barnsley, U.K.: Pen & Sword History, 2017), p. 180.
39Bryant, p. 211 note. Among the ladies who accompanied Henriette to England was Louise de Kérouaille. Charles was instantly attracted to the beautiful Breton, only to be discouraged by Henriette, who reminded him of her responsibility to the lady’s family. The English king would have to wait a while longer before he could add the fair Louise to his collection of mistresses.
40Montpensier, volume III, p. 61.
41Ibid., p. 65.
42Ibid.
43Ibid., p. 66.
44Ibid.
45Ibid., p. 67.
46Ibid., p. 68.
47Ibid., p. 72.
48Ibid., p. 70. Despite the findings of the physicians, there were those who continued to believe that Henriette had been poisoned, among them her brother, Charles II of England.
SIXTEEN: MARRIAGES AND INTRIGUES
1Montpensier, volume III, p. 69.
2Ibid., p. 76.
3Ibid., p. 81.
4Lair, Louise de La Vallière, pp. 283–4.
5The unhappy Louise looked upon her continued residence at court as God’s way of helping her atone for her sin in loving Louis (duchesse de La Vallière, Réflexions sur la Miséricorde de Dieu (Paris: J. Techener, Librairie, 1860), volume 1, p. 52).
6Elisabeth-Charlotte von der Pfalz was the great-granddaughter of James I of England though his daughter, Elizabeth Stuart.
7Barker, p. 126.
8However, as shall be seen, Louis would later assert Liselotte’s claims for his own ends.
9Elizabeth-Charlotte, duchesse d’Orléans, Life and Letters of Charlotte Elizabeth, Princess Palatine and Mother of Philippe d’Orléans, Regent of France (London: Chapman and Gall, 1889), p. 17.
10Elizabeth-Charlotte, duchesse d’Orléans, The Letters of Madame, trans. and ed. Gertrude Scott-Stevenson (London: Arrowsmith, 1925), volume II, p. 21.
11Petitfils, Lauzun, p. 15; A. Jal, Dictionnaire critique de Biographie et d’Histoire (Paris: Henri Plon, 1867), p. 749.
12The date at which Lauzun inherited his title is disputed, with sources variously stating 1660, 1668, or 1671; for convenience, he will be referred to as Lauzun throughout.
13The festivities took place between April 6–15, 1666.
14Saint-Simon (Cheruel), volume 20, p. 46.
15Alexandre Bontemps, the king’s chief valet and confidant.
16One would scratch at the door, not knock. Courtiers often grew the nail on the little finger longer for the purpose.
17Saint-Simon (Chéruel), volume XIX, p. 174.
18Montpensier, volume III, p. 101.
19Ibid.
20Ibid., p. 116.
21Ibid.
22Ibid., p. 121.
23Ibid., p. 120.
24Ibid., p. 123–4.
25Ibid., p. 127.
26Ibid., p. 130.
27Now part of Paris, Charenton was still a rural village in the 17th century.
28Montpensier, volume III, p. 133.
29Ibid., p. 134.
30Ibid., p. 135.
31Ibid., p. 144.
32This date is established in the Gazette, October 28, 1671.
33Saint-Simon (Chéruel), volume XIX, pp. 172-3.
SEVENTEEN: THE DUTCH WAR
1Saint-Maurice. Lettres sur le Court de Louis XIV, ed. Jean Lemoine (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, c. 1910), volume 2, p. 58.
2Sévigné (1820), volume II, p. 195.
3Sévigné, volume I, pp. 198–9.
4Ibid.
5Ibid., p. 200.
6Burke, p. 74.
7Only the ranks of colonel and captain could be obtained by purchase. Those available by promotion were ensign, lieutenant, major, lieutenant-colonel, and brigadier. Cadets were required to serve a minimum of two years before they were eligible to purchase a commission. See Brown, p. 159.
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