Louis XIII of France

Louis XIII of France, called the Just (Fontainebleau, September 27, 1601-Saint-Germain-en-Laye, May 14, 1643), was King of France and Navarre (1610-1643) and Co-Prince of Andorra (1610-1643). He was the son of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici and was the father of Louis XIV, the so-called Sun King.

Childhood

Portrait of Louis XIII in 1611 by Frans Pourbus el Joven (Palacio Pitti).

Louis XIII's childhood is known thanks to the protocol left by his personal doctor, who not only wrote down the details of his patient's health, but also wrote asides about his intimate life.

Louis XIII grew up with his brothers in the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He was raised alongside his father's bastard sons, in an atmosphere that seems to have been somewhat dissolute. An Italian diplomat would write in 1608 that he had not seen a disorder greater than that at the court of France. The future king conceived a great dislike for disorder and depravity. The dauphin did not leave Saint-Germain until 1609, when he left to live in the Louvre with his father to learn about his future role as king.

The young king receives a cursory education from his tutor, Gilles de Souvré. Little interested in Latin and letters, the young king is interested more than anything in hunting and music. Louis XIII is also a good draftsman and a good gentleman, thanks to the teachings of his subruler, Antoine de Pluvinel, but since he confesses to his stuttering, he is shy and lacks self-confidence. Many of his biographers attribute a violent, nervous, restless, aggressive character to him. Some testimonies refer to the mistreatment to which the dauphin was subjected by his father Enrique IV to shape his personality and give him the virility he believed he lacked.

In 1610, when Henry IV was assassinated, Louis XIII acceded to the throne at just nine years old. Power is then secured by his mother, Maria de' Medici, who assumes the regency in the kingdom. The king's coming of age is proclaimed in 1614, but Maria declares that Louis is too weak in body and soul to assume the duties of his office, removes him from the council and lets his favorites Concino Concini and Leonora Dori rule, who monopolize the royalties. highest and most important positions in the kingdom.

Traumatized by the brutal death of his father, the little king did not have a very happy childhood. First, he could not find any substitute for paternal love next to his mother who did not consider him at all and always showed special treatment for his youngest son, Gastón. Luis, after the death of Marguerite de Valois, the last of the royal branch of the Valois lineage and the first wife of his father, quickly withdrew into himself since she did take him into consideration during her childhood. Also, his hatred of his mother's Italian favorites increases his sadness. As Luis grows up, he becomes a taciturn and distrustful person.

For all his faults, Luis had the instincts of a worthy king like his father. He was outraged to see Concino Concini, a foreigner incapable, according to him, of usurping the government of his kingdom, while he was left in a corner of the Louvre. The king also suffered from jealousy for his brother Gaston, who had been named Duke of Anjou and Orleans, and who was the favorite of the regent.

The regency of Marie de' Medici was catastrophic. The queen's terrible management of affairs creates trouble in the kingdom, and generates a great feeling of bitterness in the little king. In 1615, Maria married her son to Ana of Austria, Infanta of Spain on November 21 in the city of Bordeaux. For Luis it is nothing more than another humiliation, because according to his father's memory, Luis sees Ana as a simple Spaniard and therefore an enemy. The king, who was only 14 years old, did not consummate his marriage, and it was necessary to wait four years for the king, pushed by the Duke of Luynes, to share his chambers with the queen.

Kingdom conflicts

Silver shield with the effigy of Louis XIII.

Thanks to a coup, on April 24, 1617, Louis XIII came to power, ordering the death of his mother's favorite, Concino Concini. He has his mother exiled to Blois in order to be able to occupy the throne. In reality, Louis XIII replaces Concini with his own favourite, the Duc de Luynes. Luynes accumulates titles and fortune, which creates a feeling of discord among some, since the king's favorite is also a lousy statesman.

Estatua de Luis XIII en la plaza de los Vosgos, en el barrio de Le Marais de Paris.

Luis's campaigns against the Hugonotes (1621-1622).

In 1619 the queen mother escapes from the castle of Blois and raises an army against her son, who decides to reconcile with her by signing the treaty of Angoulême, in which Louis cedes the cities of Angers and Chinon to him, but forbids him from go back to the council. In 1620, Maria provoked a civil war that ended with her total defeat at the Battle of Ponts-de-Cé in August 1620. Fearing that his mother would continue to plot to overthrow him, the king decided to accept his return. to the court of France.

Shortly after peace was concluded, the king traveled to Pau in Béarn, to re-establish Catholic worship, prohibited by Protestants for more than half a century. Since then, Louis XIII wanted to put an end to the political privileges that Protestants had benefited from since the religious wars. From there the Huguenot rebellions began without interruption from 1621 to 1629.

In 1621 he carried out his first campaign against the Protestants, which allowed the capture of Saint-Jean-d'Angély, but he lost to Montauban largely thanks to the incompetence of Luynes. The latter died of scarlet fever during the siege of Monheurt. His passing left a great power vacuum; that the king handed over state management to a gerontocracy, lacking a new energetic favourite, who administered the country with little skill for the next two years. Louis XIII decided to participate actively in the affairs of the state and be attached to a single minister: he ruled with the chancellor Brûlart de Sillery and his son, the Marquis de Puisieux, as well as with La Vieuville, who quickly fell out of favor due to their incompetence. The court was then divided into three rival groups: that of the chancellor, that of the queen mother and that of Condé, first prince of the blood, representative of feudal interests and the ultra-Catholic party. The party of elders lacking true statesmen headed by Brûlart de Sillery dominated the government until early 1624. Condé, dissatisfied with the policies of his enemies the Brûlarts, went on a pilgrimage to Italy and by the time he returned to France had lost all noteworthy influence. The country, which he had adopted a philo-Catholic position at the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, found itself diplomatically isolated: the Netherlands, the German Protestant princes and the Swiss rejected the French attitude, while the improvement in relations with the German and Spanish Habsburgs was unstable and not enough to hide tensions and conflicting interests. Inside, the country was plunged into a new civil war, the government was fragile and finances were exhausted, as they had been throughout Louis's reign.

Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu victorious at the siege of La Rochelle.

In 1624, Marie de' Medici managed to get Cardinal Richelieu to join the king's council, a prelate who had been the representative of the clergy in the states general of 1614 and minister to Governor Concini. Most historians highlight the closeness of the relations between Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, who wrote: «Je soumets cette pensée comme toutes les autres à votre majesté» («I submit this thought like all others to his majesty"), to tell the king that he would never try to rule in his place.

The two men share the same conception of the greatness of France and the priorities that prevail in the political domain. Richelieu's political program manifested itself in various ways: the rationalization of the administrative system, the fight against the House of Habsburg abroad, and the submission of the great feudal lords.

It has often been said that Richelieu had fought the Protestants in the interior, in a planned way. This affirmation is erroneous, since all the wars against the Huguenots were provoked by the uprisings of one of their leaders: the Duke of Rohan and Prince of Soubise. Even the siege of La Rochelle was not started until Rohan started hostilities.

The surrender of the latter city, after a long siege that ended in 1628, is followed by the promulgation of the edict of grace of Alès (June 28, 1629), which prohibited political assemblies and suppressed Protestant strongholds, but maintained freedom of worship throughout the kingdom, except in Paris.

Louis XIII must face the hostility of a part of the royal family towards Richelieu. The day of the deceived (November 10, 1630), during which the court pays attention to the cardinal (who had been fired) after a violent altercation between the king and the queen mother, which ends with the queen's exile in Moulins (the king would never see her again), the prison of Chancellor Michel de Marillac and the execution of his brother, Marshal de Marillac, for false reasons.

Wanting to humiliate the pride of the kingdom's greats, the king is adamant on several occasions after the execution of Count François de Montmorency-Bouteville for violating the ban on dueling and after the execution of the Duke of Montmorency for rebellion. The legend that made Louis a puppet subjected to Richelieu originates from the rejection of numerous contemporaries who do not accept that the king was satisfied with the numerous executions that took place under his reign.

Louis XIII must put down several revolts organized by Gaston of Orleans and have several of his half-brothers locked up, such as the Duke of Vendôme. Aware of the dilemmas that agitated the king, Pierre Corneille dedicates several replicas of the Cid to him. The king's attention from 1631 is clouded by the Thirty Years' War. After the death of his father, the war against Spain had been postponed each time. The straightening out of France made by Richelieu led to the growth of Franco-Spanish tensions. For several years, the two countries experienced a small cold war (passage of the Susa Pass and the liberation of Mantua). The year 1635 marks a real change: France declares open war on Spain. Thereafter, until the end of his reign, the king engages in a terrible war during which, on several occasions, he personally commands his army (Corbie siege). After some difficult years, the French army gradually defeated the Spanish army.

Political work

Louis XIII by Philippe de Champaigne.

Louis XIII was a king who was concerned about the well-being of his people, it was he who imposed the obligation of the bishops to give remuneration to the officials of the cult. He also helped Saint Vincent de Paul found a religious congregation that sought to help the poorest and conferred the title of Royal Almoner. He completed the construction of the Neuf (new) bridge, had the Briare canal dug, and created the first census office for the unemployed and disabled.

It also allows the return of the schools of the Clermont Jesuits in Paris, schools that were opened to the children of the bourgeoisie. It is Luis XIII who creates the body of Intendants, who replaced the bailios and seneschals in the administration of the territory; also under his reign the first gold louis was minted.

Difficulties encountered in 1638, as well as his pious temperament, led him to place France under the protection of the Virgin Mary. He also writes with his confessor, Father Nicolás Caussin, a prayer book.

On the territorial plan, France extends considerably under his kingdom. The Kingdom of Navarra (Lower Navarra; Ultraports) (including Bearn) was incorporated into the crown, while the Protestants stopped claiming a state within the state. Catalonia, which was in revolt against the rest of Spain, is temporarily annexed to France (1640-1652), as well as Savoy and Piedmont. The city of Pinerolo suffered the same fate in 1630. Perpignan and the county of Roussillon were definitively annexed to France, in the Peace of the Pyrenees, already reigning his son Louis XIV. 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 subsidizes Samuel de Champlain's expeditions to Canada and favors the development of New France.

Her relationship with Richelieu was complicated, and no doubt evolved over time into a genuine affection. Upon the cardinal's death, the king decides to reconcile with some of the former conspirators, such as his half-brother César de Vendôme and his sons, the duke of Mercoeur and the duke of Beaufort, although he does not name him prime minister and continues the policy carried out. Cape by Richelieu. Before dying, however, the king appointed Mazarin as chief minister, Richelieu's workmanship and successor, who would continue his policy in the following reign, in which Louis XIV's absolutist tendency would culminate.

Personality

Louis XIII was a soldier king like his father. Since he was little he was fascinated by horses and weapons. He was an excellent knight, he often fought on the battlefield. In times of peace, hunting was his favorite pastime.

He was a very pious man and deeply Catholic. If he respected the Protestants it was only out of respect for the pacifying work that his father did. Her mother, Maria de' Medici, always ensured that her son received a strict Catholic education, to the point that Louis XIII felt a horror of sin. The rejection of his vanities led him to have a great distrust of his courtiers and he was always investigating possible conspiracies against him, being inflexible with the rebellious nobility; but he distrusted women above all, whom he considered frivolous and vicious, perhaps because of the suffocating power that his mother had exercised over him.

The king's misogyny spread some rumors about his possible homosexuality. Louis XIII had a number of favorites (in order: Duc de Luynes, Marquis de Toiras, Baradat, Duc de Saint-Simon, and Marquis de Cinq-Mars) although his contemporaries seem to have seen no evidence of his male friendships. homosexuality. Some historians have examined the theory of the possible homosexuality of Louis XIII, although none have managed to provide tangible evidence to corroborate the theory.

The King's Succession

Louis XIII, his wife Anna of Austria and little Dolphin Luis making offerings during the Christmas of 1639.

Louis XIII's greatest concern during his reign was the absence of a male heir. In mediocre health and shaken by severe illnesses, the king was on the verge of death on several occasions. The fact that the king could have died suddenly without leaving an heir raised great hope among the pretenders to the throne, who included his brother, his half-siblings, and his nephews. In addition, the difficult relationship between the king and the queen made the hope of the princes increase, hoping that the king would not have an heir.

In 1626, the queen, pushed by the duchess of Chevreuse, participates in the plot of the count of Chalais to assassinate the king. As of the date, the couple lives separately. After France enters the Thirty Years' War, Anne of Habsburg tries to secretly inform the Spanish about French military and political arrangements. Once the betrayal was discovered, there was talk of divorce and repudiation, but the matter was finally put down by the king himself.

At the same time, the king is in a difficult position internationally as he is in conflict with two Habsburg sovereigns: Ferdinand III of the Holy Roman Empire and Philip IV of Spain. It is in this context in 1638, and after 23 years of marriage, was born:

• Luis-Dieudonné (1638-1715), called "the child of the miracle» and successor of his father with the name Louis XIV.

In 1640 the kings had a second son:

• Felipe (1640-1701), the future Duke of Orleans and founder of the collateral House of Orleans.

Death

Louis XIII died in Paris on May 14, 1643, exactly the day of the 33rd anniversary of the death of his father Henry IV of France, after spending six weeks with colic and vomiting. According to biographer A. Lloyd Mooty, "His intestines were inflamed and ulcerated, making digestion virtually impossible." In addition, tuberculosis had affected his lungs and made him cough frequently," not to mention his psychological weakening due to all the problems he had faced; later Crohn's disease is suggested. The remedies of his doctors could also be added, both enemas and bloodletting, which they practiced until his death.

His body was taken to the Basilica of Saint-Denis, without any ceremony according to the wishes of the king, who did not want to burden his people with excessive and useless spending.

Ancestors

Titles

Predecessor: Henry III and IV of France	King of Navarre and Co-Prince of Andorra 1610-1620	Successed by: - annexation to the French Crown -
	King of France and Navarre Copríncipe de Andorra 1610 - 1643	Successor: Louis XIV
Successed by: Philip IV of Spain	Barcelona rival count (in war with Felipe IV of Spain) 1640-1643
Predecessor: Francis of France	Dolphin of France 1601-1610	Successor: Luis de France

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