Louis XIV

Home > Other > Louis XIV > Page 50
Louis XIV Page 50

by Josephine Wilkinson


  8Jean-Baptist Colbert, marquis de Torcy (1665–1746), a grandson of the late minister Colbert, was secretary of state for foreign affairs.

  9Dangeau, volume 7, p. 418.

  10Mercure Galant, November 1700, p. 237; see also Dangeau, volume 7, pp. 418–19. In time, the ambassador’s words would be attributed to Louis, see for example Voltaire, p. 310.

  11Orléans. Duchesse d’, Letters (Scott–Stevenson), volume II, p.26.

  12Louis’s early morning prayers were said as he knelt at his prie-dieu, but at mass he was accompanied by the rest of the royal family, who all knelt side by side at a carpeted balustrade. Louis alone had a hassock (Norton, Saint-Simon at Versailles, p. 35).

  13Voltaire, pp. 312–14.

  14Dunlop. p. 363.

  15Ibid., p. 365.

  16Cronin, p. 313. Some of Louis’s letters can be found in Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume VI.

  17Ogg, pp. 85–6.

  18Ibid., p. 86.

  19Bluche, Louis XIV, p. 521.

  20Cronin, p. 316.

  21Ibid., p. 317.

  22Claude Henri, duc de Villars (1653–1734), maréchal de France.

  23Cronin, p. 317.

  24Ferdinand Marcin or Marsin (1656–1706) was an ambassador and maréchal of France.

  25Cited in Cronin, p. 318.

  26Ibid.

  27Ibid., pp. 318–19; Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume II, pp. 18–22.

  28For the death of Athénaïs, see Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume II, pp. 31–37; Hilton, pp. 355–6.

  29Ogg, p. 90.

  30Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott–Stevenson), volume I, p. 276.

  31The harsh winter was described by Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume II, pp. 106–12.

  32Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott–Stevenson), volume II, p. 23.

  33There are several variants of this parody. This one is translated from the version printed by Brown, p. 217. Brown (p. 217) also notes that a crowd of starving people marched on Versailles to demand bread, only to be turned back by troops as they approached the château. It was a chilling presentiment of the so-called women’s riot of October 5, 1789. The events in 1709 had a happier ending.

  34Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott–Stevenson), volume II, p. 26.

  35Lair, Louise de La Vallière, pp. 384, 385.

  36Ogg, p. 91.

  37The text of the letter is printed in Sourches, volume 11, pp. 356–58.

  38Louis-Joseph, duc de Vendôme (1654–1712), was general of the galleys, viceroy of Catelonia, and generallisimo of Spain.

  39Louis François, marquis then duc de Boufflers (1644–1711), maréchal de France.

  40Cronin, pp. 321–2.

  41Cited in Hassall, Louis XIV, p. 389.

  42John-Baptiste Colbert, marquis de Torcy (1665–1746), was the grandson of the late minister, Colbert.

  TWENTY-SEVEN: GATHERING TWILIGHT

  1Motteville, volume III, p. 295; see above, p. 165.

  2For this section, see Saint-Simon (Wormeley) volume II, pp. 241–4, 247–53, 267; Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott-Stevenson), volume II, pp. 39–42.

  3Marie-Émilie Thérèse de Joly de Choin (1670–1732). Her name is sometimes rendered as Chouin.

  4Like that of his father, the dauphin’s marriage was morganatic. Marie-Anne, princesse de Conti, was Louis’s legitimized daughter by Louise de La Vallière.

  5Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume IV, p. 458.

  6Choisy was the dauphin’s country seat.

  7Louis XIV, Œuvres, volume IV, pp. 465–6.

  8Jean Boudin (d. 1728) was the king’s apothecary and a student of Fagon.

  9Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, Louis’s legitimized daughter by Athénaïs.

  10Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott-Stevenson), volume II, p. 39.

  11Ibid., p. 40.

  12Ibid., p. 39.

  13Ibid., p. 41.

  14Cronin, p. 325.

  15Saint-Simon (Wormeley) volume III, p. 59.

  16Cronin, p. 325.

  17This section follows Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume II, pp. 34–39.

  18Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott–Stevenson), volume II, p. 130.

  19Ibid., p. 49. Saint-Simon’s tribute is particularly touching (Wormeley, volume III, p. 45):

  With her, all joy, all pleasure, all amusements even, and every species of grace were eclipsed; darkness covered the whole Court; she had animated, she had lighted every corner of it; she had filled it, she had pervaded its most inward parts. If the Court existed without her it was only to languish. Never was a princess so regretted, or so deserving of it; and thus it is that regrets have never passed away; involuntary and latent sorrow has remained, with an awful void which has never been diminished.

  20Cited in Williams, Rose of Savoy, p. 449, note.

  21Cronin, p. 326.

  22Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, p. 47.

  23Marie-Adélaïde often used tobacco products for toothache, either as snuff, a chew, or smoked in a pipe.

  24Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, pp. 32, 35, 36.

  25Ibid., pp. 73–77; see also Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott-Stevenson), volume II, p. 57.

  26Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, pp. 74.

  27Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott-Stevenson), volume II, p. 50.

  28Ibid., p. 57.

  29Ibid., p. 51.

  30Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, pp. 65–66. In the interests of clarity, this child will continue to be referred to as the duc de Bretagne, rather than the dauphin. He was, incidentally, the second duc de Bretagne. An elder brother, who bore the same title, had been born to the duc and duchesse de Bourgogne in 1704 but died the following year.

  31Cronin, pp. 328–29.

  32Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott-Stevenson), volume II, p. 52. According to Saint-Simon (Wormeley, volume III, p. 67), the young duc d’Anjou was given medicine brought from Turin by the comtesse de Verue. The comtesse was a mistress of Victor Amadeus, who had sent her the medicine after she had been poisoned and lay dying at Turin. She brought some of this antidote with her when she returned to France.

  33Cited in Cronin, p. 329.

  TWENTY-EIGHT: LE SOLEIL SE COUCHER

  1Claude-Louis-Hector, duc de Villars (1653–1734), maréchal de France.

  2Alfred Baudrillart, Philippe V et et la cour de France, 1700–1715 (Paris: Bureau de la Revue, 1869), p. 479.

  3Baudrillart, pp. 480–81.

  4The renunciations were registered in parlement on March 15, 1713 (Gazette, 1713, pp. 131–32).

  5Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott-Stevenson), volume II, pp. 71–4.

  6Ibid., p. 75.

  7Ibid., p. 21.

  8Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, p. 158.

  9Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott-Stevenson), volume II, p. 76; Gazette, 1714, pp. 371–2. In time, even this small distinction would be removed and du Maine and Toulouse would be fully equal to legitimate princes of the blood (Voltaire, p. 306).

  10Voltaire, p. 306.

  11Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, p. 156.

  12Jean and François Anthoine, Journal de la Mort de Louis XIV (Paris: Quantin, 1880), p. 86.

  13Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, p. 163.

  14Ibid., p. 164.

  15Ibid.

  16Ibid., pp. 164–5. Saint-Simon (p. 165) felt obliged to assure his readers of his sources for these two speeches by the king:

  I hold those [words] said by the king to the president and the procureur-général, who could never forget them, from the first-named; it is true that this was a long time after they were said; for one ought to be exact in reporting such things. I also heard them from the procureur-général, who repeated them to me, apart and at another time, in precisely the same language, and such as I have here written down. With regard to what the king said to the Queen of England, which is even stronger and more explicit because he was more free with her, perhaps also because Mme. de Maintenon
was present, on whom the greater part of the reproaches were intended to fall, I knew it two days later from M. de Lauzun, to whom the Queen of England told it while still in her first surprise.

  That Louis was coerced into writing his will in favor of the duc du Maine and his circle is supported by Saint-Simon’s assertion that Louis had wanted to entrust the young king’s education to the duc de Beauvillier, who had served as governor to the royal grandsons. Beauvillier requested Saint-Simon to help him with this charge: see Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, pp. 169–71.

  17Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, p. 166.

  18Ibid., p. 166.

  19See the argument in Dunlop, p. 455.

  20This section follows Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, pp. 206–10.

  21Dangeau, volume 15, p. 411.

  22Dunlop, pp. 456–60.

  23See above, pp. 122–3, 211.

  24Blennerhassett, p. 293.

  25This event is described by Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, pp. 210–11.

  26This section follows Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, pp. 264–79; Dangeau, Journal, volume 16, pp. 11–12, 95–137 and the account written by the Anthoine brothers, pp. 5–77. Quotations and additional information are as indicated.

  27Dangeau, volume 16, p. 11.

  28Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, pp. 270–1.

  29The duc d’Orléans told his mother that Louis “had told him that he had made a will about which he would have no complaints to make, and this will was found to be entirely in favor of the Duc du Maine.” Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott-Stevenson), volume II, p. 97. At a lit de justice which followed the king’s death, Orléans was recognized as regent, see Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott-Stevenson), volume II, pp. 95, 97.

  30Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, pp. 273–4. Saint-Simon assures his readers that these words were written down within the hour.

  31Voltaire, pp. 307–9. Louis XV had these words inscribed and hung in his bedroom, where Voltaire found and copied them.

  32Orléans, duchesse d’, Letters (Scott-Stevenson), volume II, p. 93.

  33Voltaire, p. 307.

  34Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, p. 275; cf Voltaire, p. 307.

  35Dangeau (volume 16, p. 136) gives the time of Louis’s death at eight forty-five; Saint-Simon (Wormeley), volume III, p. 275, places it as eight fifteen.

  INDEX

  Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.

  A

  Act of Renunciation, 198–199

  Ad sacrum beati Petri sedem, 122

  Affaire des Poisons, 262–269, 273

  Aguesseau, Henri François d’, 385–386

  Albret, maréchal d’, 202

  Alexander VII, Pope, 122, 156–158, 172–173, 211

  Alexandre le Grand, 197

  Amadeus I, Victor, 88, 304

  Amadeus II, Victor, 340, 346

  Amiens, siege of, 310

  Angélique, Mère, 121

  Angleterre, Henriette d’, 112–120. See also Henriette, duchesse d’Orléans

  Anjou, duc d’, 266, 353–356, 379, 382–384. See also Philippe V, King of Spain

  Annat, Father, 123, 147

  Anne, Queen of England, 381

  Anne of Austria

  anointment of son, 58, 60–68, 75

  birth of sons, ix, 10–11, 13

  death of, 194–195

  death of husband, 14

  Foucquet and, 126–128, 130–132

  Fronde and, 33–57, 60–61

  illnesses of, 154–156, 178–179, 192–194

  marriage of, 1–13

  marriage of son, 86–100, 117–120, 126–127, 153–156

  Mazarin and, 14, 17, 71–84, 88–112

  quarrel with son, 170, 172, 174–177

  raising sons, 15–63

  regency powers of, 387

  Tartuffe and, 170–173

  will of husband, 387

  Anne-Elisabeth, Princess, 154

  Aquin, Antoine d’, 318–320

  Ariosto, 167

  Armagnac, comte d’, 299

  Armagnac, Mme d’, 204

  Armide et Renaud, 309

  Arnauld, Antoine, 121–123

  Arnauld, Henri, 134

  Arnauld, Simon, 332

  Artagnan, Charles de Batz Castelmore, d’ 135–137, 182, 229, 240

  Aubigné, Charles d’, 274–275, 278

  Aubigné, Constant d’, 274

  Aubigné, Françoise d’, 273–284, 290, 293–297

  Aubigné, Jeanne d’, 274–277

  Aubigné, Théodore Agrippa d’, 273

  Aubray, Antoine Dreux d’, 262

  Augustine of Hippo, 121, 123

  Augustinus, 121–122, 389

  B

  Bade, Mme de, 203

  Bailleul, Nicolas de, 20

  Bailly, Monsieur, 374

  Ballet de la Nuit, 58–59

  Ballet des Fêtes de Bacchus, 48

  Ballet des Plaisirs, 70

  Ballet des Saisons, 120

  Baron, Michel, 238–239

  Baudean, Bérénice de, 275

  Beata Dei Genitrix, 61

  Beaufort, duc de, 16, 21, 42, 56, 106, 116–117, 129

  Beauvais, bishop of, 18–20, 62–63

  Beauvais, Mme de, 37, 72–73

  Beauvillier, duc de, 343, 355, 376

  Beauvillier, duchesse de, 336

  Béjart, Armande, 131, 238–239

  Béjart, Madeleine, 131

  Bellièvre, Pomponne de, 74–75, 123, 236–237, 332

  Benserade, Isaac de, 58, 70, 202

  Bernini, Gian Lorenzo, 272, 309

  Berry, duc de, 355, 376–377, 382–383

  Berryer, Louis, 185

  Bléneau, battle of, 54–55

  Blois, Françoise-Marie de, 350

  Blois, Marie-Anne de, 185–186, 196–197, 243, 259, 339

  Bontemps, Alexandre, 71, 224, 250, 294

  Bossuet, Bishop Jacques-Bénigne, 147–148, 207, 244, 247, 283, 285, 330, 335–337

  Boudin, Jean, 369–370, 377

  Boufflers, maréchal de, 367

  Bouillon, Mme de, 350

  Bourbon, Anne-Louise-Françoise de, 339

  Bourbon, Henri II de, 16

  Bourbon, Louis III de, 339

  Bourdaloue, Père, 283, 314

  Bourgogne, duc de, 289, 300, 336, 340–343, 358, 361–362, 372–373, 382–384

  Bourgogne, duchesse de, 341–343, 346, 348, 358, 369, 373, 384

  Bouthillier, Claude, 20

  Boyne, battle of, 330

  Braganza, Catherine of, 126

  Brancas, Mme de, 172, 177

  Bretagne, duc de, 379

  Breteuil, baron de, 387–388

  Brienne, Loménie de, 105, 119–120, 132, 135–137, 152

  Brienne, Mme de, 20, 23, 93, 103

  Brinon, Mme de, 315, 335

  Broussel, Pierre, 34, 56

  Buckingham, Duke of, 5–6, 20

  Büderich, siege of, 234

  Burning Chamber, 264

  Bussy-Rabutin, comte de, 167, 207, 257–260, 283

  C

  Calvinism, 121, 123, 212, 236, 275, 312

  Cardilhac, Jeanne de, 274

  Carlos II, King of Spain, 198, 254–255, 305, 326–327, 353–355, 359

  Carmelite Marguerite, 9

  Cassini, Giovanni, 272, 389

  Caumont, Antoine-Nompar de, 222–223

  Caumont, Charlotte de, 223

  Caumont, Gabriel-Nompar de, 223

  Caumont, Henry Nompar de, 223

  Caylus, Mme de, 294, 375

  Ceremonial, 300

  César, duc de Vendôme, 16, 241, 366

  César, Père, 258

  Châlons, bishop of, 62–63

  Chambre Ardente, 264–266

  Chambre de justice, 182–185, 189

  Chambre de l’Arsenal, 264

  Chambre des Comptes, 28
, 33, 134

  Chambre Saint-Louis, 33, 35

  Chambres de réunions, 303–306

  Chamillart, Michel, 299

  Chamley, marquis de, 325

  Charles, Archduke, 354–355, 361

  Charles, Prince of Wales, 5, 26–27, 29. See also Charles II, King of England

  Charles I, King of England, 5, 34, 39, 57, 112, 215–217

  Charles II, King of England, 112–115, 141, 162, 214–215, 324

  Charles III, King of Spain, 381

  Chartres, duc de, 340, 349–352

  Château de cartes, 151–164, 166–167

  Chavigny, Léon de, 20

  Chémerault, Mlle de, 117

  Chevreuse, duc de, 19

  Chevreuse, duchesse de, 4, 21, 42, 123, 126–127, 336

  Chigi, Cardinal Flavio, 157, 172–173

  Choin, Mlle de, 369

  Choisy, Mme de, 118, 132–133, 257, 369

  Christina of Sweden, 28, 78–79, 82

  Christine de France, 255

  Civil wars, 32–34, 45, 49, 54, 107, 190, 195, 199, 336. See also Fronde

  Clément, Monsieur, 210, 288–289

  Clement IX, Pope, 211–212

  Clement X, Pope, 284, 285

  Clement XI, Pope, 389–390

  Clovis, 11, 43, 61, 102

  Coislin, Cardinal de, 342

  Colbert, Jean-Baptiste

  daughters of, 336

  death of, 291–292

  as finance minister, 109–111, 124–126, 137–143, 158–164, 182–185, 200, 214, 240, 264, 269–272

  Foucquet and, 134, 189, 191

  illness of, 291

  Lauzun and, 226

  Le Tellier and, 134, 189, 232–233

  lottery and, 169

  Mazarin and, 103–104

  Colbert, Jean-Charles, 124

  Commentaries of Caesar, 25

  Condé, prince de, 8, 14–21, 30–56, 75, 79, 82, 94–96, 106–107, 116, 126, 129, 149, 162, 186, 196–197, 206, 230–234, 244, 300, 311, 321, 339

  Condé, princesse de, 14, 18

  Contarini, Angelo, 22

  Conti, Louis de, 339

  Conti, prince de, 18, 40–42, 45, 53, 87, 98, 106, 129, 170, 321, 339

  Conti, princesse de, 369, 371

  Corneille, Pierre, 179

  Corneille, Thomas, 179

  Cornet, Nicolas, 122

  Cosnac, Daniel de, 87

  Cotardais, Gabrielle Glé de la, 162

  Coypel, Antoine, 388

  Coypel, Noël, 160

  Créqui, duc de, 157

  Croissy, Colbert de, 303–304

 

‹ Prev