Louis XIII
Louis XIII | |
---|---|
King of France | |
Reign | 14 May 1610 – 14 May 1643 |
Coronation | 17 October 1610 Reims Cathedral |
Predecessor | Henry IV |
Successor | Louis XIV |
Regent | Marie de' Medici (1610–1614) |
Chief ministers | See list
|
Basilica of St Denis , France | |
Spouse | |
Issue |
|
Roman Catholicism | |
Signature |
Louis XIII (French pronunciation:
Shortly before his ninth birthday, Louis became king of France and Navarre after his father Henry IV was assassinated. His mother, Marie de' Medici, acted as regent during his minority. Mismanagement of the kingdom and ceaseless political intrigues by Marie and her Italian favourites led the young king to take power in 1617 by exiling his mother and executing her followers, including Concino Concini, the most influential Italian at the French court.[1]
Louis XIII, taciturn and suspicious, relied heavily on his chief ministers, first
Early life, 1601–1610
Born at the
The ambassador of King
...I presented to the King [Louis] a letter of credence from the King [James] my master: the King [Louis] assured me of a reciprocal affection to the King [James] my master, and of my particular welcome to his Court: his words were never many, as being so extream [sic] a stutterer that he would sometimes hold his tongue out of his mouth a good while before he could speak so much as one word; he had besides a double row of teeth, and was observed seldom or never to spit or blow his nose, or to sweat much, 'tho he were very laborious, and almost indefatigable in his exercises of hunting and hawking, to which he was much addicted...[5]
Regency of Marie de' Medici, 1610–1617
Louis XIII ascended the throne in 1610 upon the assassination of his father, and his mother Marie de' Medici acted as his
The assembly of this Estates General was delayed until Louis XIII formally came of age on his thirteenth birthday. Although his coming-of-age formally ended Marie's Regency, she remained the de facto ruler of France. The Estates General accomplished little, spending its time discussing the relationship of France to the
Beginning in 1615, Marie came to rely increasingly on
In the meantime, Louis XIII decided, with the encouragement of
Ascendancy of Charles de Luynes, 1617–1621
The Thirty Years' War broke out in 1618. The French court was initially unsure of which side to support. On the one hand, France's traditional rivalry with the House of Habsburg argued in favour of intervening on behalf of the Protestant powers (and Louis's father Henry IV of France had once been a Huguenot leader). On the other hand, Louis XIII had a strict Catholic upbringing, and his natural inclination was to support the Holy Roman Emperor, the Habsburg Ferdinand II.
The French nobles were further antagonised against Luynes by the 1618 revocation of the paulette tax and by the sale of offices in 1620. From her exile in Blois, Marie de' Medici became the obvious rallying point for this discontent, and the Bishop of Luçon (who became Cardinal Richelieu in 1622) was allowed to act as her chief adviser, serving as a go-between Marie and the King.
French nobles launched a rebellion on 2 July 1620, but their forces were easily routed by royal forces at the Battle of Ponts-de-Cé on 7 August 1620. Louis then launched an expedition against the Huguenots of Béarn who had defied a number of royal decisions. This expedition managed to re-establish Catholicism as the official religion of Béarn. However, the Béarn expedition drove Huguenots in other provinces into a rebellion led by Henri, Duke of Rohan.
In 1621 Louis XIII was formally reconciled with his mother. Luynes was appointed Constable of France, after which he and Louis set out to quell the Huguenot rebellion. The siege at the Huguenot stronghold of Montauban had to be abandoned after three months owing to the large number of royal troops who had succumbed to camp fever. One of the victims of camp fever was Luynes, who died in December 1621.
Rule by council, 1622–1624
Following the death of Luynes, Louis determined that he would rule by council. His mother returned from exile and, in 1622, entered this council, where Condé recommended violent suppression of the Huguenots. The 1622 campaign, however, followed the pattern of the previous year: royal forces won some early victories, but were unable to complete a siege, this time at the fortress of Montpellier.
The rebellion was ended by the Treaty of Montpellier, signed by Louis XIII and the Duke of Rohan in October 1622. The treaty confirmed the tenets of the Edict of Nantes: several Huguenot fortresses were to be razed, but the Huguenots retained control of Montauban and La Rochelle.
Louis ultimately dismissed Noël Brûlart de Sillery and Pierre Brûlart in 1624 because of his displeasure with how they handled the diplomatic situation over the
Ministry of Cardinal Richelieu, 1624–1642
Cardinal Richelieu played a major role in Louis XIII's reign from 1624, determining France's direction over the course of the next eighteen years. As a result of Richelieu's work, Louis XIII became one of the first examples of an absolute monarch. Under Louis and Richelieu, the crown successfully intervened in the Thirty Years' War against the Habsburgs, managed to keep the French nobility in line, and retracted the political and military privileges granted to the Huguenots by Henry IV (while maintaining their religious freedoms). Louis XIII successfully led the important Siege of La Rochelle. In addition, Louis had the port of Le Havre modernised, and he built a powerful navy.
Louis also worked to reverse the trend of promising French artists leaving for Italy to work and study. He commissioned the painters
Expansion overseas under Louis XIII
Morocco
In order to continue the exploration efforts of his predecessor Henry IV, Louis XIII considered a colonial venture in
In 1630, Razilly was able to negotiate the purchase of French slaves from the Moroccans. He visited Morocco again in 1631, and helped negotiate the Franco-Moroccan Treaty (1631).[16] The treaty gave France preferential treatment, known as capitulations: preferential tariffs, the establishment of a consulate, and freedom of religion for French subjects.[17]
Americas
Unlike other colonial powers, France, under the guidance of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, encouraged a peaceful coexistence in New France between the natives and the colonists. Indians, converted to Catholicism, were considered as "natural Frenchmen" by the Ordonnance of 1627:
"The descendants of the French who are accustomed to this country [New France], together with all the Indians who will be brought to the knowledge of the faith and will profess it, shall be deemed and renowned natural Frenchmen, and as such may come to live in France when they want, and acquire, donate, and succeed and accept donations and legacies, just as true French subjects, without being required to take letters of declaration of naturalization."[18]
Asia
Also in 1615, Marie de' Medici incorporated the merchants of Dieppe and other harbours to found the
Antipathy with brother
Twice the king's younger brother, Gaston, Duke of Orléans, had to leave France for conspiring against his government and for attempting to undermine the influence of his mother and Cardinal Richelieu. After waging an unsuccessful war in Languedoc, he took refuge in Flanders. In 1643, on the death of Louis XIII, Gaston became lieutenant-general of the kingdom and fought against Spain on the northern frontiers of France.
Marriage
On 24 November 1615, Louis XIII married Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III of Spain.[22] The couple were second cousins, by mutual descent from Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor. This marriage followed a tradition of cementing military and political alliances between the Catholic powers of France and Spain with royal marriages. The tradition went back to the marriage of Louis VII of France and Constance of Castile. The marriage was only briefly happy, and the King's duties often kept them apart. After 23 years of marriage and four stillbirths, Anne finally gave birth to a son on 5 September 1638, the future Louis XIV.
Many people regarded this birth as a miracle and, in show of gratitude to God for the long-awaited birth of an heir, his parents named him Louis-Dieudonné ("God-given"). As another sign of gratitude, according to several interpretations, seven months before his birth, France was dedicated by Louis XIII to the
Issue
The couple had the following offspring:
Name | Portrait | Lifespan | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
stillborn child | Dec 1619 | ||
stillborn child | 14 Mar 1622 | ||
stillborn child | 1626 | ||
stillborn child | Apr 1631 | ||
Louis-Dieudonné, Dauphin of France (later Louis XIV) | 5 Sep 1638 – 1 Sep 1715 | Married Maria Theresa of Spain (Spanish: María Teresa de Austria; French: Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche) (1638–83) in 1660. Had issue. | |
Philippe of France, Duke of Anjou (later Duke of Orléans) | 21 Sep 1640 – 8 Jun 1701 | Married (1) Princess Henrietta of England (1644–70) in 1661. Had issue. Married (2) Elizabeth Charlotte, Madame Palatine (1652–1722) in 1671. Had issue. |
Voltaire claimed in the second edition of Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1771) that before Louis XIV was born, Louis XIII had an illegitimate son, who was jailed and his face hidden beneath an iron mask (see the Man in the Iron Mask).
Sexuality
There is no evidence that Louis kept mistresses (a distinction that earned him the title "Louis the
A further liaison with an equerry, François de Baradas, ended when the latter lost favour fighting a duel after duelling had been forbidden by royal decree.[29]
Louis was also captivated by Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars, 19 years his younger, who was later executed for conspiring with the Spanish enemy in time of war. Tallemant described how on a royal journey, the King "sent M. le Grand [de Cinq-Mars] to undress, who returned, adorned like a bride. 'To bed, to bed' he said to him impatiently... and the mignon was not in before the king was already kissing his hands."[30]
Death
Louis XIII was unwell during the winter of 1642–1643. He managed a few hunting trips to Versailles, but by the middle of February was mostly bedridden. From contemporary descriptions, modern historians have surmised that he suffered from
Composer and lute player
Louis XIII shared his mother's love of the lute, developed in her childhood in Florence. One of his first toys was a lute and his personal doctor, Jean Héroard, reports him playing it for his mother in 1604, at the age of three.[34] In 1635, Louis XIII composed the music, wrote the libretto and designed the costumes for the "Ballet de la Merlaison." The king himself danced in two performances of the ballet the same year at Chantilly and Royaumont.[35]
Influence on men's fashion
In the sphere of
In fiction and film
- Louis XIII, his wife Anne, and Cardinal Richelieu became central figures in Alexandre Dumas, père's 1844 novel The Three Musketeers and subsequent television and film adaptations. The book depicts Louis as a man willing to have Richelieu as a powerful advisor but aware of his scheming; he is portrayed as bored and sour, dwarfed by Richelieu's intellect. Films such as the 1948, the 1973 or the 2011 versions tend to treat Louis XIII as a comic character, depicting him as bumbling and incompetent. In the 1993 film, he is depicted as willing to stand up to Richelieu when necessary but still strongly influenced by him. He is also depicted as in love with his wife, Anne, but very nervous and unsure around her.
- The 2014 BBC TV series, The Musketeers, merging the historical with the fictional, portrayed the King as both incompetent and strong, whose alliance with Spain is ever faltering. He is portrayed by Ryan Gage.
- Bardelys the Magnificent.
- Louis XIII, his wife Anne, his younger brother Gaston, Cardinal Richelieu, Cardinal Mazarin and members of the Royal family are mentioned throughout the course of the 1632 series of novels and other writings by Eric Flint et al., especially 1636: The Cardinal Virtues.
- Louis XIII appears in novels of Robert Merle's Fortune de France series (1977–2003).
- Louis XIII was portrayed by Edward Arnold in the 1935 film Cardinal Richelieu, with George Arliss portraying the Cardinal.
- Ken Russell directed the 1971 film The Devils, in which Louis XIII is a significant character, albeit one with no resemblance to the real man. Louis XIII is portrayed as an effeminate gay man who amuses himself by shooting Protestants dressed up as birds. The film was based on Aldous Huxley's 1952 book The Devils of Loudun.
- Louis XIII appears in the 2002 The Church and the Crown.
Ancestors
Ancestors of Louis XIII | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
See also
- Absolute monarchy in France
- Charles de Lorme , personal medical doctor to Louis XIII
- French monarchs family tree
Notes
- ^ Moote 1989.
- ^ Tilly, Charles (1985). "War making and state making as organized crime". In Evans, P.B.; Rueschemeyer, D.; Skocpol, T. (eds.). Bringing the State Back In. Cambridge University Press. p. 174.
- ^ "Schneider, Robert A. History 1450–1789: Louis XIII.". Answers.com. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
- ^ James 1897, pp. 421
- ^ Herbert of Cherbury 1830, pp. 116
- ^ Moote 1989, p. 86.
- ^ Kettering 2008, pp. 76–78. According to Moote, it is generally accepted that Louis XIII knew that Concini would be killed during the arrest (Moote 1989, p. 94).
- ^ Moote 1989, pp. 92–94.
- ^ "Concini, Concino", Encyclopædia Britannica online.
- ^ Moote 1989, pp. 100–101.
- ^ Kettering 2008, pp. 100–101.
- ^ Moote 1989, p. 135
- ^ Moote 1989, p. 114
- ^ Round table of Franciscan research. Vol. 17, 18. Capuchin Seminary of St. Anthony. 1952.
The narrative really begins in 1619, when the adventurer, Admiral S. John de Razilly, resolved to go to Africa. France had no colony in Morocco; hence, King Louis XIII gave whole-hearted support to de Razilly.
- ISBN 978-0-7766-0559-3.
- OL 7871017M.
- ^ Tapié 1984, p. 259.
- ^ Acte pour l'établissement de la Compagnie des Cent Associés pour le commerce du Canada, contenant les articles accordés à la dite Compagnie par M. le Cardinal de Richelieu, le 29 avril 1627
- ^ https://www.projectmanifest.eu/french-ports-and-the-development-of-the-plantation-economy-and-the-trade-of-enslaved-people-manifest/#:~:text=In%201642%2C%20Louis%20XIII%20authorized,captives%20were%20converted%20to%20Christianity.
- ^ Butler's Lives of the Saints by Alban Butler, Paul Burns, p. 259
- ISBN 9780226467658.
- ^ Kleinman 1985, p. ?.
- ^ "Apparition story of the Virgin Mary in Cotignac (Var, Provence)". Archived from the original on 14 October 2007. Retrieved 31 January 2008. Our Lady of Graces and the birth of Louis XIV, The website of the Sanctuary of Our Lady at Cotignac, Provence Archived 13 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 24 January 2008
- ^ Brémond 1908, pp. 381 "Sans l'assurance d'avoir un fils, Louis XIII n'aurait pas fait le voeu de 1638." Translation: "Without the assurance of having a son, Louis XIII would not have made the vow of 1638."
- ^ Louis XIV. MSN Encarta. 2008. Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2008.
- ^ Dulong, Claude, Anne d’Autriche. Paris: Hachette, 1980. "Irrité de voir tant de courtisans parler de "miracle", Louis XIII aurait répliqué que "ce n'était point là si grand miracle qu'un mari couchât avec sa femme et lui fasse un enfant." Translation: "Irritated to see so many courtiers speak of a 'miracle', Louis XIII is said to have replied: 'it was not such a great miracle that a husband slept with his wife and made a child with her'."
- ^ John Baptiste Wolf (1968). Louis XIV. Norton.
- ^ Moote 1989, p. 148
- ^ Crompton 2006, pp. 338 The grandson of Henry III, Saint-Luc, penned the irreverent rhyme: "Become a bugger, Baradas / if you are not already one / like Maugiron my grandfather / and La Valette".
- ^ Crompton 2006, pp. 338
- ^ Kleinman 1985, p. 131.
- ^ Kleinman 1985, p. 137.
- ^ Moote 1989, p. 292
- ^ "INTERVIEW with Miguel Yisrael, lutenist, about the lute in France in the 17th century". classiquenews.com.
- ^ "CND - Centre National de la Danse". cnd.fr. Archived from the original on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
- ^ Stenn, Kurt (13 March 2016). "Everything Has a History Including Wigs". Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
- ^ ""Horrid Bushes of Vanity": A History of Wigs". Randomhistory.com. 24 February 2009. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
- ^ a b Anselme 1726, pp. 143–144.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-06-074493-9.
- ^ a b Anselme 1726, pp. 328–329.
- ^ a b Anselme 1726, p. 211.
- ^ a b "The Medici Granducal Archive and the Medici Archive Project" (PDF). p. 12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 January 2006.
- ^ Wurzbach, Constantin von, ed. (1860). Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire] (in German). Vol. 6. p. 290 – via Wikisource. .
Explanatory footnotes
- ^ In these years the French kingdom was literally surrounded by the Habsburg realms, for the Habsburgs were Kings of Spain as well as Holy Roman Emperors. In addition, the Spanish and Holy Roman empires included the territories of today's Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, and northern Italy.
References
- Anselme de Sainte-Marie, Père (1726). Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France [Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France] (in French). Vol. 1 (3rd ed.). Paris: La compagnie des libraires.
- Brémond, Henri (1908), La Provence mystique au XVIIe siècle, Paris: Plon-Nourri
- Crompton, Louis (2006), Homosexuality & Civilization, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-02233-1
- Dulong, Claude, Anne d’Autriche. Paris: Hachette, 1980
- Herbert of Cherbury, Edward (1830). The life of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury. Whittaker, Treacher, and Arnot.
- James, Ralph N. (1897), Painters and Their Works, L.U. Gill
- Kettering, Sharon (2008). Power and Reputation at the Court of Louis XIII: The Career of Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes (1578–1621). Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719089985.
- Kleinman, Ruth (1985). Anne of Austria: Queen of France. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. ISBN 9780814204290.
- Moote, A. Lloyd (1989). Louis XIII, the Just. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520075467.
- Tapié, Victor L. (1984). France in the Age of Louis XIII and Richelieu. Cambridge University Press. OL 3181429M.
Further reading
- Blanchard, Jean-Vincent. Éminence: Cardinal Richelieu and the Rise of France (2011) New York: Walker & Company. ISBN 978-0-8027-1704-7
- Hayden, J. Michael. "Continuity in the France of Henry IV and Louis XIII: French foreign policy, 1598–1615." Journal of modern history 45.1 (1973): 1–23. [1]
- Howell, James "Louis XIII" English historiographer Royal 1661–1666
- Huxley, Aldous. "The Devils of Loudun" (1952). The trial of Urbain Grandier, priest of the town who was tortured and burned at the stake in 1634
- Knecht, Robert, Renaissance France, genealogies, Baumgartner, genealogical tables
- Malettke, Klaus. The Crown, Ministeriat and Nobility at the court of Louis XIII (German Historical Institute London, 1991) online.
- Willis, Daniel A. (comp). The Descendants of Louis XIII (1999). Clearfield