Prof. Janusz Tazbir stated that “This kind and stupid king just happened to come across terrible times. In peaceful, quiet times, he would live to the end of his days without much agitation. He ate a lot, he loved hunting, he was fond of manual labor. And he was not a king.
Louis XVI took power at the age of twenty. The young king was not properly prepared for this role and did not have the ability to rule such a powerful country. He was indecisive and shy. At the same time, however, he was good-natured, he liked Latin, history, geography and astronomy, he knew foreign languages. The period of his reign coincided with extremely dramatic times in the history of France, and the very end turned out to be tragic. What was the private life of the ruler who ended his life on the guillotine on January 21, 1793? Let's focus on three very distinctive aspects.
The king is getting fat
Shortly after taking the throne, Louis XVI began to gain weight. He liked good food and did not deny himself . Jan Baszkiewicz in the ruler's biography quoted the following description from the Versailles correspondence:
At 6 o'clock the king calls and asks what's for breakfast. - Sire, there's fattened chicken and chops. - It's not enough, let them make me eggs in sauce.
and
the king himself presides over the preparations, eats four cutlets, chicken, six eggs in sauce, a slice of ham and drinks a bottle and a half of champagne. He gets dressed, goes hunting and comes back with an incredible appetite.
Louis XVI
Ludwik did eat a lot. His surroundings seemed to be disturbed by this situation. Some tried to counteract the effects of gluttony:
Since the king was gaining weight seriously, the doctors advised him to walk a lot and His Majesty follows this good advice ... The king is getting fat in his eyes and the medics recommend him to drink Vichy water to stop, if possible, excessive and dangerous obesity.
However, it turned out to be ineffective. Mercy-Argenteau wrote in 1787 that:
The king's physical habits affect him more and more adversely:he is getting fatter, and returns from hunting entail such immoderate meals that they cause loss of sense and careless roughness, very unpleasant for those who have to endure it.
Louis XVI
Count Felix d'Hezecques - uncritical towards the king - defended him, however, claiming that obesity "did not harm him at all, but gave him that dignity he did not have when he was a dolphin" . There is an anecdote that the ladder collapsed under his weight as he climbed onto the roof of Versailles to take a break from the company and watch the workers working.
Violent weight gain gave an excuse for indiscriminate comments:
It has been seen for some time that his intelligence, which was promising to be very light, is becoming sluggish, as is his body as a result of obesity.
Louis XVI liked manual work and DIY.
The king was also accompanied by the opinion that he liked to abuse alcohol. Supposedly he was drinking alone . This vice was emphasized in revolutionary pamphlets, calling the ruler "the drunkard of the Temple" . It is not entirely known whether the rumors about the ruler's drunkenness are true. The aforementioned Count D`Hezecques claimed that the king might eat a lot, but drank little. " Some argued that the opinion about the ruler's drunkenness was caused by a misinterpretation of the king's behavior by the servants, especially when he was staggering after long hunts. Interestingly, Catherine II was supposed to say about him:“He is drunk every evening and anyone who wants to can cause him to do so. Besides, Paris is a well-known refuge for criminals and criminals. ”
Hunting enthusiast
As a child, Louis August loved physical activity - especially hunting with his grandfather, King Louis XV of France. This passion was with him throughout his life. In his meticulous notes you can find a lot of information about his favorite entertainment. So we know that he hunted deer, wild boars, stags, birds (including swallows!) . We know weather problems from the ruler's notes, as he noted them when they prevented him from taking part in his favorite entertainment. He considered the day without hunting lost, hence the word rien in his notes - "nothing", meaning no hunting. And so we can read:"nothing, Mr. Maurepas is dead", "nothing, a memorial service". "Rien" also appeared on the fall of the Bastille.
The king reportedly shot very accurately:
Despite her poor eyesight, she shot very accurately, and I saw her often come back with her face black with gunpowder.
Many stories about the king just started with the words “while hunting….
Handyman
Louis XVI developed an early interest in locksmithing, which was considered a useful occupation for the developing boy. His favorite teacher was an ordinary foreman, Gamain, with whom he worked in a specially arranged "forge" over the royal apartments. These interests were like water on the mill for numerous scoffers. Even Marie Antoinette joked about her husband:
You will admit that I would have looked bad in the forge:I would not be a volcano, and the role of Venus would have displeased the king much more than my preferences, which he approves of.
Idealized statues of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in Saint-Denis
Louis XVI was also interested in playing the game, he was fond of construction works - he sometimes helped workers at work! He hammered nails, cleaned and laid floors . However, attempts to interest the king in the topics of craft, navy or industry in the context of the state failed.
Prof. In the biography of Louis XVI, Jan Baszkiewicz wrote:"You must sympathize with the fate of this average man, a good father of a family, a ruler devoid of demonic vices and outstanding virtues. The laws of dynastic succession took away from him the chance of success to the best of his ability. After all, he could have been a very good cartographer, watchmaker or locksmith ”. And that is perhaps the best summary of this king's reign.
Source:
Trivia is the essence of our website. Short materials devoted to interesting anecdotes, surprising details from the past, strange news from the old press. Reading that will take you no more than 3 minutes, based on single sources. This particular material is based on the book:
- Jan Baszkiewicz "Louis XVI" ed. Ossolineum 1983.