Louis XIV. John S. C. Abbott

THE PALAIS ROYAL 31 PALACE OF THE LUXEMBOURG 52 THE TUILERIES 74 THE CASTLE OF VINCENNES 79 PALACE OF CHANTILLY 98 VIEW OF FONTAINEBLEAU 103 ISLE OF PHEASANTS 129 THE LOUVRE AND THE TUILERIES 139 PALACE OF FONTAINEBLEAU 145 CHATEAU MAZARIN 157 CHATEAU DE VAUX 176 CONVENT OF VAL DE GRACE 198 THE PALACE OF ST. CLOUD 201 INTERIOR OF ST. DENIS 208 ST. DENIS 236 PORTE ST. DENIS 254 MADAME DE MAINTENON 273 PALACE OF VERSAILLES 297 PARTERRE OF VERSAILLES 324 RACINE AND BOILEAU 339 THE TRIANON 351 MARLY 354 LOUIS XIV. DIRECTING THE SIEGE 362 FRONT VIEW OF ST. GERMAIN 376 ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 409

LOUIS XIV.

      Chapter I.

      Birth and Childhood.

       Table of Contents

1615-1650

       Table of Contents

      Marriage of Louis XIII.

      Louis XIII. of France married Anne of Austria on the 25th of November, 1615. The marriage ceremony was performed with great splendor in the Cathedral of Bordeaux. The bride was exceedingly beautiful, tall, and of exquisite proportions. She possessed the whitest and most delicate hand that ever made an imperious gesture. Her eyes were of matchless beauty, easily dilated, and of extraordinary transparency. Her small and ruddy mouth looked like an opening rose-bud. Long and silky hair, of a lovely shade of auburn, gave to the face it surrounded the sparkling complexion of a blonde, and the animation of a brunette.[A]

      Character of Louis XIII.

      The marriage was not a happy one. Louis XIII. was not a man of any mental or physical attractions. He was cruel, petulant, and jealous. The king had a younger brother, Gaston, duke of Anjou. He was a young man of joyous spirits, social, frank, a universal favorite. His moody, taciturn brother did not love him. Anne did. She could not but enjoy his society. Wounded by the coldness and neglect of her husband, it is said that she was not unwilling, by rather a free exhibition of the fascinations of her person and her mind, to win the admiration of Gaston. She hoped thus to inspire the king with a more just appreciation of her merits.

      Louis XIII., at the time of his marriage, was a mere boy fourteen years of age. His father had died when he was nine years old. He was left under the care of his mother, Mary de Medicis, as regent. Anne of Austria was a maturely developed and precocious child of eleven years when she gave her hand to the boy-king of France. Not much discretion could have been expected of two such children, exposed to the idleness, the splendors, and the corruption of a court.

      Character of Anne of Austria.

      Anne was vain of her beauty, naturally coquettish, and very romantic in her views of life. It is said that the queen dowager, wishing to prevent Anne from gaining much influence over the mind of the king, did all she could to lure her into flirtations and gallantries, which alienated her from her husband. For this purpose she placed near her person Madame Chevreuse, an intriguing woman, alike renowned for wit, beauty, and unscrupulousness.

      Quite a desperate flirtation arose between Anne and little Gaston, who was but nine years of age. Gaston, whom the folly of the times entitled Duke of Anjou, hated Louis, and delighted to excite his jealousy and anger by his open and secret manifestation of love for the beautiful Anne. The king's health failed. He became increasingly languid, morose, emaciate. Anne, young as she was, was physically a fully developed woman of voluptuous beauty. The undisguised alienation which existed between her and the king encouraged other courtiers of eminent rank to court her smiles.

      Cardinal Richelieu.

      Cardinal Richelieu, notwithstanding his ecclesiastical vows, became not only the admirer, but the lover of the queen, addressing her in the most impassioned words of endearment. Thus years of intrigue and domestic wretchedness passed away until 1624. The queen had then been married nine years, and was twenty years of age. She had no children.

      The Duke of Buckingham.