Birth September 27, 1601
Fontainebleau
Death May 14, 1643
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Country
Title King of France and Navarre
(1610 - 1643)
Predecessor of Henri IV
Successor of Louis XIV
Son of Henri IV
and of
Marie de Médicis
Spouse Anne of Austria
Louis XIV children
Philippe d'Orléans
Mistresses Marie de Hautefort
Louise de La Fayette
Louis XIII (September 27, 1601, Fontainebleau-May 14, 1643, Saint-Germain-en-Laye), King of France and Navarre (1610-1643). He is the son of Henri IV and Marie de Médicis as well as the father of Louis XIV.
His reign is marked by the abasement of the Great and the Protestants, as well as the fight against the House of Habsburg. The image of this king is inseparable from that of his main minister, Cardinal Richelieu, his unwavering support in the recovery of the French monarchy.
Childhood
The childhood of Louis XIII is quite well known to us thanks to the diary left by his doctor, Jean Héroard. All the details of his health and intimate life are noted there.
Louis XIII grew up with his brothers and sisters in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He is raised alongside his father's bastards, in an atmosphere it seems, quite dissolute. An Italian diplomat wrote in 1608, never having seen a bigger brothel than the court of France. The future king developed a great aversion to disorder and depravity. The Dauphin Louis did not leave Saint-Germain until 1609. He then went to live in the Louvre alongside his father to learn his future profession as king.
The young king received a fairly superficial education from his tutor, Gilles de Souvre. Little interested in Latin and literature, the young king was rather passionate about hunting and music (he composed several ballets). Louis XIII also proved to be an excellent draughtsman and good horseman, thanks to the teaching of his deputy governor, Antoine de Pluvinel. But, as evidenced by his stutter, he is shy and lacks self-confidence.
On the death of Henri IV in 1610, Louis XIII ascended the throne. He is only 9 years old. Power is then ensured by his mother Marie de Médicis, who governs the kingdom as regent. The majority of the king was proclaimed in 1614, but Marie declared that Louis was “too weak in body and mind” to assume the duties of his office; she dismisses him from the Council and lets his favorites Concino Concini and Léonora Galigaï govern, who monopolize the highest offices of the State.
Traumatized by the brutal death of a father he loved, the little king did not have a very happy childhood. First of all, he found no substitute for paternal love with his mother Marie de Médicis, who considers it a negligible quantity. Louis closes in on himself fairly quickly. Moreover, the contempt of the Italian favorites towards him increases his unease. Growing up, Louis XIII became a taciturn and touchy being.
There were, however, in Louis XIII, alongside all his faults, the instincts of a king worthy of his father Henry IV and he was indignant to see Concini, an incapable foreigner according to him, usurp the government of his State, while he was relegated to a corner of the Louvre. He still suffered from another, more secret and more acute wound. Marie de' Medici had let too much show the preference she felt for her second son, Gaston, Duke of Anjou, since Duke of Orleans, who was, indeed, a very graceful and amiable child.
The regency of Marie de Médicis turns out to be catastrophic. The very poor management of the queen's affairs leads to serious troubles in the kingdom and creates a very heavy feeling of bitterness in the little king. On November 21, 1615 in Bordeaux, Marie de Medici married the king to Anne of Austria, Infanta of Spain. For Louis, it is an additional humiliation, because, in accordance with the memory of his father, he sees in Anne only a Spaniard and therefore an enemy. The king, who was only fourteen, did not consummate his marriage. It took four years for the king, urged on by the Duc de Luynes, to share the queen's bed.
Reign conflicts
It was by a coup de force, on April 24, 1617, that Louis XIII came to power by ordering the assassination of his mother's favourite, Concino Concini. He exiles Marie de Medici to Blois and finally takes her place as king. In reality Louis XIII replaced Concini with his own favourite, Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes. It is true that very quickly Luynes accumulates titles and fortunes. His advancement creates discontent, especially since the king's favorite is a very bad statesman.
In 1619, the queen-mother escaped from the castle of Blois and raised an army against her son who chose to reconcile with her, during the Treaty of Angoulême on April 30, 1619, and ceded to her the towns of Angers and Chinon, but forbade him to return to the board. In 1620, Marie de Médicis started a civil war which ended with her total defeat at the battle of Ponts-de-Cé on April 7, 1620, where the king personally commanded. For fear of seeing his mother pursuing plots, the king accepts her return to the court of France, and is reconciled with her under the influence of Richelieu.
As soon as peace was made, the king went to Pau in Navarre, of which he was the sovereign, to restore the Catholic worship there, which had been banned by Protestants for half a century. From then on, he intended to put an end to the political privileges enjoyed by Protestants since the wars of religion. From 1620 to 1628 (siege of La Rochelle), he pursued a policy of restoring the military authority of the State.
He leads a first campaign against the Protestants in 1621 and allows the capture of Saint-Jean-d'Angély, but he fails in front of Montauban largely due to the incompetence of Luynes. He died of scarlet fever during the siege of Montheurt, when he had already fallen into disgrace.
Louis XIII, determined to participate more in the affairs of State and to bind himself to a single minister, governed with Brûlart de Sillery and his son, the Marquis de Puisieux, as well as with La Vieuville who were quickly disgraced for incompetence. /P>
In 1624, Marie de Médicis managed to bring Cardinal de Richelieu into the king's council, a prelate who had been the representative of the clergy at the Estates General of 1614 and a minister in the Concini government. Most historians highlight the close relationship between Louis XIII and Richelieu who wrote:"I submit this thought like all the others to your majesty" to signify to the king that he would never attempt to govern in his place.
The two men share the same conception of the greatness of France and the priorities which are essential in the political field.
Richelieu's political program is declined in several ways:the lowering of the great feudal lords, the rationalization of the administrative system and the fight against the House of Habsburg abroad.
It has often been said that Richelieu fought the Protestants internally in a planned way. This is another mistake:all the wars against the Huguenots were started by the uprising of one of their leaders (Duke of Rohan, Prince of Soubise). Even the siege of La Rochelle was probably unwanted until Rohan launched hostilities.
The surrender of this last city, after a very long siege which ended in 1628, was followed by the promulgation of the edict of grace of Alès (June 28, 1629), prohibiting political assemblies and suppressing Protestant places of safety. , but now freedom of worship throughout the kingdom except in Paris.
Louis XIII then had to face the hostility of part of the royal family towards Richelieu. The day of the Dupes (November 10, 1630), during which the court believed the cardinal had been dismissed following a violent altercation between the king and the queen-mother, ended with the exile of the queen-mother to Moulins ( the King never saw her again), the imprisonment of Chancellor Michel de Marillac and the execution of his brother, Marshal de Marillac, for false reasons.
Wanting to belittle the pride of the greats of the kingdom, the king proved inflexible on several occasions during the execution of the Comte de Montmorency-Bouteville for having violated the ban on duels and during the execution of the Duc de Montmorency for revolt. The legend that made Louis XIII a puppet subject to Richelieu originated in the refusal of many contemporaries to give the king credit for the many executions that took place during his reign.
Louis XIII had to put down several revolts organized by Gaston d'Orléans and had many of his half-brothers locked up, such as the Duke of Vendôme. Aware of the dilemmas that agitated the king, Pierre Corneille dedicated several lines to Le Cid to him.
The king's attention was, from 1631, obsessed with the Thirty Years' War. Since the death of his father, the war against Spain has been postponed each time. The recovery of France by Richelieu leads to the increase of Franco-Spanish tensions. For several years, the two countries contented themselves with a cold war (passage of the Susa pass and war of succession of Mantua). The year 1635 marked a real turning point:France declared open war on Spain. From now on, until the end of the reign, the king is engaged in a terrible war during which he commands several times personally (siege of Corbie). After a few difficult years, the French army is gradually overcoming the Spanish army.
Political work
King truly concerned about the well-being of his people, Louis XIII is at the origin of the edict which obliges the bishops to grant remuneration to the officers of the worship. He also helped Saint Vincent de Paul to found a religious congregation whose goal was to help the poorest, he completed the construction of the Pont Neuf, had the Briare canal dug and created the first census office for the unemployed and invalids.
It also allows the return of the Jesuit school of Clermont to Paris and opens it to the sons of the bourgeoisie.
He is at the origin of the creation of the body of Intendants who replace the bailiffs and seneschals in the administration of the territory, and it is also under his reign that the first Louis d'or is struck.
The difficulties he encountered in 1638, as well as his very pious temperament, led him to place France under the protection of the Virgin Mary. He also wrote, with his confessor, Father Nicolas Caussin, a prayer book.
Territorially, France grew considerably under his reign. Béarn and Navarre are attached to the crown while the Protestants cease to form a "State within the State". Catalonia in revolt against Spain is annexed to France, as well as all of Savoy and Piedmont, as well as the town of Casale Monferrat in Lombardy. Perpignan and Roussillon are also annexed to France. To the north, a large part of Hainaut was conquered with the capture of Arras. To the east, Lorraine is fully occupied by French troops. Finally, the king subsidized Champlain's expeditions to Canada and encouraged the development of New France. He later wrote military articles for the Gazette of Théophraste Renaudot.
Louis XIII is not a patron king, he mainly subsidizes charities and religious buildings. The only statue bearing his likeness was melted down during the Revolution. However, he protected the painter Georges de La Tour and promulgated several edicts in favor of theater troupes.
Her relationship with Richelieu is quite complex and has undoubtedly evolved over time into real affection. He is the author of this eulogy on the cardinal:“Cardinal de Richelieu is the greatest servant that France has had”. When the cardinal died, the king decided to reconcile with some of the former conspirators like his half-brother, César de Vendôme and his sons, the duc de Mercœur and the duc de Beaufort, but he did not appoint a new prime minister and continues to make the policy of the Cardinal. He brought into the Council of State one of his close collaborators, Cardinal Mazarin, who quickly took the place of Richelieu with the King. The proof is that, a few months later, when the Secretary of State for War, Sublet de Noyers resigned, the king appointed one of Mazarin's proteges, Michel Le Tellier, to replace him.
Ambiguous personality
Louis XIII is a soldier-king like his father. He has always been passionate about horses and weapons. An excellent horseman, he is frequently found on the battlefields, where he shows great courage. In times of peace, hunting is his favorite pastime. He is not afraid to sleep on straw, when his rides take him far from the city.
Louis XIII is also a very pious man, deeply Catholic. If he is tolerant towards Protestants, it is out of respect for the work of reconciliation accomplished by his father. Otherwise, Marie de' Medici ensured that her son received a harsh Catholic education. Louis XIII abhors sin. It's an obsession for him. The king is repelled by the superfluities of life. His rejection of vanities has led him to have a great distrust of courtiers and, above all, of women whom he considers frivolous and vicious.
Louis XIII had a number of favorites (in order:the Duc de Luynes, the Marquis de Toiras, Baradat, the Duc de Saint-Simon and the Marquis de Cinq-Mars). The sole source in this respect is Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux, a chronicler very hostile to Richelieu. A few historians have examined the thesis of the possible bisexuality of Louis XIII, but none have provided tangible proof to corroborate this thesis, the accounts of Tallemant des Réaux being essentially made up of second or even third-hand testimonies, what the author does not hide from.
In addition, we know of the king two female liaisons, both platonic:one with Marie de Hautefort, future Duchess of Halluin, the other with Louise de La Fayette, with whom he wanted to retire to Versailles.
The king's succession
The major concern of Louis XIII during his reign was the very long absence of a male heir. In poor health and shaken by violent illnesses, the king repeatedly failed to die. The fact that the king could suddenly die without an heir raised great hopes among the pretenders to the throne (Gaston d'Orléans, the Count of Soissons, the Count of Moret...). The very difficult relationship between the king and the queen increased the hopes of these princes, who always involved in plots, hoped that the king would never have heirs.
Most historians and novelists who support the thesis of the non-consummation of the marriage of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria before the birth of Louis XIV forget that the queen had three miscarriages, one of which was accidental.
In 1626, the queen, encouraged by the Duchess of Chevreuse, participated in the conspiracy of the Comte de Chalais, with the aim of assassinating the king. From this date, the couple lives apart. From the start of France's involvement in the Thirty Years' War, Anne of Austria attempted to secretly inform Spain of French military and political dispositions (although she was kept out of all decisions of the King). The betrayal is discovered and there is talk for a moment of divorce and repudiation, but the affair is finally hushed up by the king himself who is too pious to think about it seriously.
At the same time, the king was in a delicate position at the international level, since he found himself in conflict with two Catholic kings:Ferdinand III of the Holy Empire and Philip IV of Spain and ally of the Protestant Gustave II Adolphe of Sweden.
In this difficult context, the dolphin, future Louis XIV, born in 1638 after 23 years of marriage, when the king was 37 and the queen 36, was nicknamed "the child of the miracle". The memorialists differ on the attitude of the king towards his heir:Tallemant des Réaux tells us that the king regarded his son with a cold eye, then retired. All the other memorialists, including the Venetian ambassador Contarini who was present, tell us that the king fell on his knees before his son and kissed him.
Louis XIII and Anne of Austria even had a second son in 1640, Philippe, the future Duke of Orléans. However, just before dying, Louis XIII drafted a will aimed at limiting the prerogatives of his wife, whose law required her to be appointed Regent upon her death. Anne of Austria did not take this into account and had this will annulled as soon as she became aware of it.
After six weeks of terrible colic and vomiting, Louis XIII died on May 14, 1643, at the age of 42, from an illness now identified as Crohn's disease. However, it is likely that this chronic illness only weakened him and that the coup de grace was given to him by his doctor, Bouvard, who left the balance sheet of thirty-four bleedings, one thousand two hundred enemas and two hundred and fifty purges performed on the king in the last two years of his life.
His body is carried to the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Saint-Denis without any ceremony, according to his own desire:indeed, he did not want to burden his people with an excessive and useless expense.