Reference.com

Louis XIII of France

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

For the cognac, see Louis XIII de Rémy Martin.

Louis XIII (September 27, 1601 – May 14, 1643) ruled as King of France and Navarre from 1610 to 1643.

Early life

Born at the Château de Fontainebleau, Louis XIII was the eldest child of Henry IV of France (1589–1610) and Marie de' Medici. His father was the first Bourbon King of France, having succeeded his ninth cousin, Henry III of France (1574–89), in application of the Salic law. Louis XIII's paternal grandparents were Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendome and Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre; his maternal grandparents were Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Johanna, archduchess of Austria.
Louis XIII ascended to the throne in 1610, at the age of eight and a half, upon the assassination of his father. His mother acted as Regent until Louis XIII came of age at thirteen, but she clung to power unofficially until in frustration he took the reins of government into his own hands at the age of fifteen. The assassination of Concino Concini (April 24, 1617), who had greatly influenced Marie's policymaking, and Marie's own exile to Blois, removed her from power. Louis then came into his own as ruler of France. He filled his court with loyal friends and sidelined those who remained loyal to his mother. Under Louis XIII's rule, the Bourbon Dynasty sustained itself effectively on the throne that Henry IV had recently secured; but the question of freedom of religion continued to haunt the country.

The brilliant and energetic Cardinal Richelieu played a major role in Louis XIII's administration from 1624, decisively shaping the destiny of France for the next 18 years. As a result of Richelieu's work, Louis XIII became one of the first exemplars of an absolute monarch. Under Louis XIII the Hapsburgs were humiliated, the French nobility was firmly kept in line behind their King, and the political and military privileges granted to the Huguenots by his father were retracted (while their religious freedoms were maintained). Furthermore, Louis XIII had the port of Le Havre modernized and built up a powerful navy. Unfortunately time and circumstances never permitted King and Cardinal to attend to the administrative reforms (particularly of France's tax system) which were urgently needed.

The King also worked to reverse the trend of promising French artists to leave for Italy to work and study. Louis XIII commissioned the great artists Nicolas Poussin and Philippe de Champaigne to decorate the Louvre. In foreign matters, Louis XIII organized the development and administration of New France, expanding the settlement of New France westward along the Saint Lawrence River from Quebec City to Montreal.

On November 9, 1615, aged only 14, Louis XIII was married to a Hapsburg Princess, Anne of Austria (1601–66), daughter of King Philip III of Spain (1578–1621). 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 King Philip II of Spain with the French princess, Élisabeth de Valois, the daughter of King Henry II of France, in 1559 as part of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis. Their sexual relationship did not begin (other than the consummation of the wedding) until 1619 (when he was 18). The marriage, like many Bourbon-Habsburg relationships, was only briefly happy, and the King's duties often kept them apart. After 23 years of marriage and four miscarriages, Anne finally gave birth to a son in 1638. There is no evidence whether Louis had lovers, but persistent rumours insinuated that the King may have been homosexual or bisexual. Tallemant des Réaux, in his Historiettes, gives quite explicit (but second hand) descriptions of what happened in the king's bed. Though Richelieu was firmly in charge of French policies, the King's favorites left their mark on the reign. The first was the Duc de Luynes, 23 years his senior, who was the boy's closest adult friend and adviser at the outset of his reign. The last of the King's favorites (1639–42) was the much younger Marquis de Cinq-Mars, who was executed for conspiring with the Spanish enemy in time of war. Louis XIII's penitentiary in 1637 was the Jesuit Nicolas Caussin, who was, because of his rigorous stance against attrition, was exiled to Quimper by Richelieu. After Louis XIII's death in 1643, his wife Anne acted as regent for their four-year-old son, Louis XIV of France (1638–1715).

Ancestors

Louis XIII's ancestors in three generations
Louis XIII of France Father:
Henry IV of France 		Paternal Grandfather:
Antoine of Navarre 		Paternal Great-grandfather:
Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme
Paternal Great-grandmother:
Françoise d'Alençon
Paternal Grandmother:
Jeanne III of Navarre 		Paternal Great-grandfather:
Henry II of Navarre
Paternal Great-grandmother:
Marguerite de Navarre
Mother:
Marie de' Medici 		Maternal Grandfather:
Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany 		Maternal Great-grandfather:
Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Maternal Great-grandmother:
Eleonora di Toledo
Maternal Grandmother:
Johanna of Austria 		Maternal Great-grandfather:
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maternal Great-grandmother:
Anna of Bohemia and Hungary

Marriage and issue

On November 24 1615, Louis XIII married Anne of Austria (September 22 1601 – January 20 1666). They were childless for almost twenty-three years and almost hopeless when the heir to the throne, the future Louis XIV, was born. Many regarded this birth as a divine miracle and, in show of gratitude to God for the long-awaited birth of an heir to the French throne, 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 his father, Louis XIII, to the Virgin Mary, who, many believed, had interceded for the perceived miracle. However, the text of the dedication does not mention the royal pregnancy and birth as one of its reasons. Also, Louis XIII himself is said to have expressed his skepticism with regards to the miracle after his son's birth.

The couple had the following children:

Name Birth Death Notes
stillborn child December 1619 December 1619
stillborn child March 14 1622 March 14 1622
stillborn child 1626 1626
stillborn child April 1631 April 1631
Louis XIV, King of France September 5 1638 September 1 1715 Married Maria Theresa of Spain (1638 - 1683) in 1660. Had issue.
Philippe I, Duke of Orléans September 21, 1640 June 8, 1701 Married (1) Henrietta Anne, Princess of England (1644 - 1670) in 1661. Had issue. Married (2) Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine (1652 - 1722) in 1671. Had issue.

Louis XIII in fiction and film

Bibliography

  • Moote, A. Lloyd. Louis XIII, the Just. Berkeley, CA; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 1991 (paperback, ISBN 0-520-07546-3).
  • Willis, Daniel A. (comp). The Descendants of Louis XIII. Clearfield, 1999.
  • Huxley, Aldous. "The Devils of Loudun". The 1952 book tells the story of the trial of Urbain Grandier, priest of the town who was tortured and burned at the stake in 1634.

See also

External links



Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Monday March 10, 2008 at 11:41:34 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation