Birth and early years

Louis was born on Sunday, September 5, 1638 in the new palace of Saint-Germain-au-Laye. Prior to that, for twenty-two years, his parents' marriage was fruitless and, it seemed, will remain so in the future. Therefore, contemporaries greeted the news of the birth of the long-awaited heir with expressions of the most lively joy. The common people saw in this a sign of God's mercy and called the newborn Dauphin God-given. Very little is known about his early childhood. He hardly remembered well his father, who died in 1643, when Louis was only five years old. Queen Anne soon after left the Louvre and moved to the former Palace of Richelieu, renamed the Palais Royal. Here, in a very simple and even squalid environment, the young king spent his childhood. The Dowager Queen Anne was considered the ruler of France, but in fact, all affairs were carried out by her favorite, Cardinal Mazarin. He was very stingy and almost did not care at all about giving pleasure to the child-king, depriving him not only of games and fun, but even of essentials: the boy received only two pairs of dresses a year and was forced to wear patches, and he was noticed on the sheets huge holes.

The tumultuous events of the civil war, known in history as the Fronde, fell on Louis's childhood and adolescence. In January 1649, the royal family, accompanied by several courtiers and ministers, fled to Saint-Germain from rebellious Paris. Mazarin, against whom the discontent was mainly directed, had to seek refuge even further - in Brussels. Only in 1652, with great difficulty, was it possible to establish inner peace. But in subsequent years, until his death, Mazarin firmly held the reins of government in his hands. In foreign policy, he also achieved important successes. In November 1659, the Iberian Peace was signed with Spain, which put an end to the long-term war between the two kingdoms. The treaty was sealed by the marriage of the French king with his cousin, the Spanish Infanta Maria Theresa. This marriage turned out to be the last act of the all-powerful Mazarin. He died in March 1661. Until his death, despite the fact that the king had long been considered an adult, the cardinal remained the full ruler of the state, and Louis obediently followed his instructions in everything. But as soon as Mazarin was gone, the king hastened to free himself from any guardianship. He abolished the post of first minister and, having convened the Council of State, announced in an imperative tone that from now on he decided to be his first minister and did not want anyone to sign even the most insignificant ordinance on his behalf.

Very few at this time were familiar with the real character of Louis. This young king, who was only 22 years old, until then attracted attention only by his penchant for panache and love affairs. It seemed that he was created solely for idleness and pleasure. But it took quite a bit of time to be convinced of the opposite. As a child, Louis received a very poor upbringing - he was barely taught to read and write. However, he was naturally gifted with common sense, a remarkable ability to understand the essence of things and a strong determination to maintain his royal dignity. According to the Venetian envoy, "nature itself tried to make Louis XIV such a man who, by his personal qualities, is destined to become the king of the nation." He was tall and very handsome. In all his movements, something courageous or heroic was visible. He had a very important ability for the king to express himself briefly but clearly, and to say no more and no less than what was needed. All his life he was diligently engaged in state affairs, from which neither entertainment nor old age could take him away. "They reign through labor and for labor," Louis loved to repeat, "and to desire one without the other would be ingratitude and disrespect towards the Lord." Unfortunately, his innate greatness and industriousness served as a cover for the most shameless selfishness. Not a single French king before was distinguished by such monstrous pride and selfishness, not a European monarch so clearly exalted himself over others and smoked incense with such pleasure to his own greatness. This is clearly seen in everything that concerned Louis: in his court and public life, in his domestic and foreign policy, in his love interests and in his buildings.

All the former royal residences seemed to Louis unworthy of his person. From the first days of his reign, he was preoccupied with the idea of ​​building a new palace, more in keeping with his greatness. For a long time he did not know which of the royal castles to turn into a palace. Finally, in 1662, his choice fell on Versailles (under Louis XIII it was a small hunting castle). However, more than fifty years passed before the new magnificent palace was ready in its main parts. The construction of the ensemble cost about 400 million francs and annually absorbed 12-14% of all government spending. For two decades, while construction was underway, the royal court did not have a permanent seat: until 1666 it was located mainly in the Louvre, then, in 1666-1671. - in the Tuileries, over the next ten years - alternately in Saint-Germain-au-Laye and Versailles under construction. Finally, in 1682, Versailles became the permanent seat of the court and government. After that, until his death, Louis visited Paris only 16 times with short visits.

The complex rules of etiquette established by the king corresponded to the extraordinary splendor of the new apartments. Everything here was thought out to the smallest detail. So, if the king wanted to quench his thirst, then it took "five people and four bows" to bring him a glass of water or wine. As a rule, upon leaving his bedroom, Louis went to church (the king regularly observed church rites: every day he went to mass, and when he took medicine or was unwell, he ordered mass service in his room; he received communion on major holidays at least four times in the year and strictly observed the fasts). From the church the king went to the Council, whose meetings lasted until lunch hour. On Thursdays he gave an audience to anyone who wished to speak to him, and he always listened to the petitioners with patience and courtesy. At one o'clock, dinner was served to the king. It was always plentiful and consisted of three excellent courses. Louis ate them alone in the presence of the courtiers. Moreover, even the princes of blood and the Dauphin were not supposed to have a chair at this time. Only the king's brother, the Duke of Orleans, was given a stool on which he could sit behind Louis. The meal was usually accompanied by general silence. After dinner, Louis retired to his office and fed the hunting dogs with his own hands. This was followed by a walk. At this time, the king hunted a deer, shot at a menagerie or attended work. Sometimes he appointed walks with the ladies and picnics in the woods. In the afternoon, Louis worked alone with the secretaries of state or ministers. If he was ill, the Council met in the king's bedroom, and he presided over it while lying in bed.

The evening was devoted to pleasure. At the appointed hour, a large court society gathered at Versailles. When Louis finally settled in Versailles, he ordered the minting of a medal with the following inscription: "The Royal Palace is open for general amusement." Indeed, life at court was distinguished by festivities and outward splendor. The so-called "large apartments", that is, the salons of Abundance, Venus, Mars, Diana, Mercury and Apollo, served as a kind of hallways for the large Mirror Gallery, which was 72 meters long, 10 meters wide, 13 meters high and, according to Madame Sevigne, it was distinguished by the only royal splendor in the world. The continuation for it was, on the one hand, the salon of War, on the other hand, the salon of Peace. All of this was a splendid sight when colored marble decorations, gilded copper trophies, large mirrors, paintings by Le Brun, solid silver furniture, ladies 'and courtiers' toilets were illuminated with thousands of candelabra, girandoles and torches. In the entertainment of the courtyard, unchanging rules were established.

In winter, three times a week there was a meeting of the entire courtyard in a large apartment, lasting from seven to ten o'clock. In the halls of Plenty and Venus, sumptuous buffets were arranged. A game of billiards was taking place in Diana's hall. In the salons of Mars, Mercury and Apollo there were tables for playing landsknecht, riversie, ombre, pharaoh, portico and so on. Play became an indomitable passion both at court and in the city. "Thousands of louis were scattered on the green table," wrote Madame Sevigne, "there were no less than five, six or seven hundred louis at stake." Louis himself abandoned the big game after losing 600,000 livres in six months in 1676, but to please him, he had to risk huge sums per game. On the other three days, comedies were performed. At first, Italian comedies alternated with French ones, but the Italians indulged in such obscenities that they were removed from the court, and in 1697, when the king began to obey the rules of piety, they were expelled from the kingdom. The French comedy performed on stage plays by Corneille, Racine and especially Moliere, who has always been the royal playwright's favorite. Louis was very fond of dancing and many times performed roles in the ballets of Bencerade, Kino and Moliere. He gave up this pleasure in 1670, but they did not stop dancing at court. Shrovetide was the season of masquerades.

There was no entertainment on Sundays. During the summer months, pleasure trips to the Trianon were often arranged, where the king dined with the ladies and rode in gondolas along the canal. Sometimes Marly, Compiegne or Fonteblo were chosen as the final destination of the trip. Dinner was served at 10 o'clock. This ceremony was less prim. Children and grandchildren usually shared a meal with the king, sitting at the same table. Then, accompanied by bodyguards and courtiers, Louis went to his office. He spent the evening with his family, but only princesses and the Prince of Orleans could sit with him. At about 12 noon, the king fed the dogs, wished good night and went to his bedroom, where with many ceremonies he went to bed. On the table beside him they left sleeping food and drink for the night.

Personal life and wives of Louis XIV

In his youth, Louis was distinguished by an ardent disposition and was not very indifferent to pretty women. Despite the beauty of the young queen, he was not for one minute in love with his wife and was constantly looking for amorous entertainment on the side. In March 1661, Louis' brother, Duke of Orleans, married the daughter of King Charles 1 of England, Henrieta. At first, the king showed a keen interest in his daughter-in-law and began to visit her often in Saint-Germain, but then he became carried away by her maid of honor - seventeen-year-old Louise de la Vallière. According to contemporaries, this girl, gifted with a lively and tender heart, was very sweet, but could hardly be considered an exemplary beauty. She limped a little and was a little pockmarked, but had beautiful blue eyes and blond hair. Her love for the king was sincere and deep. According to Voltaire, she brought Louis that rare happiness that he was loved only for his own sake. However, the feelings that the king had for de la Vallière also had all the properties of true love. Numerous cases are cited to support this. Some of them seem so extraordinary that you can hardly believe in them. So one day, while walking, a thunderstorm broke out, and the king, hiding with de la Vallière under the protection of a branchy tree, stood for two hours in the rain, covering her with his hat. Louis bought the Biron Palace for La Vallière and visited her here daily. Communication with her lasted from 1661 to 1667. During this time, the favorite gave birth to four children to the king, two of whom survived. Louis legalized them under the names of the Count of Vermandois and the Maid de Blois. In 1667, he granted his mistress the ducal title and since then began to gradually move away from her.

The new passion of the king was the Marquis de Montespan. Both in appearance and in character, the marquis was the complete opposite of la Vallière: ardent, black-haired, she was very beautiful, but completely devoid of the languor and tenderness that were characteristic of her rival. With a clear and practical mind, she knew well what she needed, and was preparing to sell her caresses very dearly. For a long time, the king, blinded by his love for la Vallière, did not notice the merits of her rival. But when the old feelings lost their sharpness, the beauty of the marquise and her lively mind made the due impression on Louis. The military campaign in Belgium in 1667 brought them closer together, which turned into a pleasure trip of the court to the places of hostilities. Noticing the king's indifference, the unfortunate la Vallière once dared to reproach Louis. The angry king threw a little dog on her lap and said: "Take it, madam, that's enough for you!" - went to Madame de Montespan's room, which was nearby. Convinced that the king finally fell out of love with her, la Vallière did not interfere with the new favorite, retired to the monastery of the Carmelites and tonsured her hair there in 1675. The Marquis de Montespan, as an intelligent and highly educated woman, patronized all the writers who glorified the reign of Louis XIV, but at the same time she she did not forget about her interests for a minute: the rapprochement of the marquise with the king began with the fact that Louis gave her family 800 thousand livres to pay debts, and in addition 600 thousand to the Duke of Vivonne at his marriage. This golden shower did not become scarce in the future.

The king's relationship with the Marquise de Montespan lasted sixteen years. During this time, Louis had many other novels, more or less serious. In 1674, Princess Soubise gave birth to a son very similar to the king. Then the attention of Louis was enjoyed by Madame de Loudre, the Countess of Grammont and the damsel Guedam. But these were all fleeting hobbies. A more serious rival of the Marquis met in the person of the maiden Fontange (Louis granted her to be the Duchess), who, according to the Abbot Choisely, "was good as an angel, but extremely stupid." The king was very in love with her in 1679, but the poor thing burned her ships too quickly - she did not know how to keep the fire in the heart of the sovereign, already satiated with voluptuousness. An early pregnancy disfigured her beauty, the delivery was unhappy, and in the summer of 1681, Madame Fontange died suddenly. She was like a meteor that flashed across the court sky. The Marquis Montespan did not hide her gloating joy, but the time of her favor also came to an end.

While the king indulged in sensual pleasures, the Marquise of Montespan remained the uncrowned queen of France for many years. But when Louis began to cool off to love adventures, a woman of a completely different kind took possession of his heart. It was Madame d "Aubigne, daughter of the famous Agrippa d" Aubigne and the widow of the poet Scarron, known in history as the Marquise de Maintenon. Before becoming the king's favorite, she was a governess for a long time with his side children (from 1667 to 1681, the Marquis de Montespan gave birth to Louis eight children, of whom four reached adulthood). All of them were given to the education of Mrs. Scarron. The king, who loved his children very much, for a long time did not pay attention to their teacher, but once, talking with the little Duke of Maine, he was very pleased with his well-aimed answers. "Sovereign," the boy answered him, "do not be surprised at my reasonable words: I am brought up by a lady who can be called an incarnate mind."

This review made Louis take a closer look at his son's governess. Talking to her, he more than once had the opportunity to be convinced of the truth of the words of the Duke of Maine. Appreciating Madame Scarron according to her merits, the king in 1674 granted her the estate of Mentenon with the right to bear this name and the title of marquise. Since then, Madame Maintenon began to fight for the heart of the king and every year more and more took Louis into her hands. The king spent hours talking with the Marquis about the future of her pupils, visited her when she was ill, and soon became almost inseparable from her. From 1683, after the removal of the Marquise de Montespan and the death of Queen Maria Theresa, Madame Mentenon gained unlimited influence over the king. Their rapprochement ended in a secret marriage in January 1684. Approving all of Louis' orders, Madame de Maintenon, on occasion, gave him advice and guided him. The king had the deepest respect and confidence in the marquis; under her influence, he became very religious, abandoned all love affairs and began to lead a more moral lifestyle. However, most of his contemporaries believed that Louis went from one extreme to another and turned from debauchery to hypocrisy. Be that as it may, in his old age, the king completely abandoned noisy gatherings, holidays and performances. They were replaced by sermons, reading moral books and soul-saving conversations with Jesuits. Through this, Madame Maintenon's influence on state affairs and especially religious affairs was enormous, but not always beneficial.

The constraints to which the Huguenots were subjected from the very beginning of Louis's reign culminated in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in October 1685. Protestants were allowed to remain in France, but were forbidden to publicly perform their services and raise their children in the Calvinist faith. Four hundred thousand Huguenots chose exile over this humiliating condition. Many of them fled from military service. During the mass emigration from France, 60 million livres were exported. Trade fell into decay, and thousands of the best French sailors entered the service of the enemy fleets. The political and economic situation in France, which at the end of the 17th century was far from brilliant, deteriorated even more.

The brilliant setting of the Versailles court often made one forget how difficult the regime of that time was for the common people, and especially for the peasants, who bore the burden of state duties. Under no previous sovereign has France fought so many large-scale wars of conquest as under Louis XIV. They began with the so-called Devolutionary War. After the death of the Spanish king Philip IV, Louis, on behalf of his wife, declared a claim to part of the Spanish inheritance and tried to conquer Belgium. In 1667, the French army captured Armantier, Charleroi, Berg, Furne and the entire southern part of coastal Flanders. The besieged Lille surrendered in August. Louis showed personal courage there and encouraged everyone with his presence. To stop the offensive movement of the French, Holland in 1668 united with Sweden and England. In response, Louis moved troops to Burgundy and Franche-Comte. Besançon, Saline and Gray were taken. In May, under the terms of the Aachen Peace Treaty, the king returned Franche-Comté to the Spaniards, but retained the conquests made in Flanders.

From the age of 12, Louis XIV danced in the so-called “ballets of the Palais Royal Theater”. These events were quite in the spirit of the times, for they were held during the carnival.

Carnival of the Baroque era is not just a celebration, it is an upside-down world. For several hours the king became a jester, an artist, a buffoon (just as a jester could well afford to appear in the role of a king). In these ballets, the young Louis had a chance to play the roles of the Rising Sun (1653) and Apollo - the Sun God (1654).

Later, court ballets were staged. The roles in these ballets were assigned by the king himself or by his friend, de Saint-Aignan. In these court ballets, Louis also dances the part of the Sun. For the emergence of the nickname, another cultural event of the Baroque era is also important - about the so-called Carousel. This is a festive carnival cavalcade, a cross between a sports festival and a masquerade. In those days, the Carousel was simply called "equestrian ballet". At the Carousel in 1662, Louis XIV appeared before the people in the role of the Roman emperor with a huge shield in the shape of the Sun. This symbolized the fact that the Sun protects the king and, along with him, the whole of France.

The princes of the blood were "forced" to depict various elements, planets and other beings and phenomena subject to the Sun.



Name Françoise d "Aubigne fanned by legends. And this is not surprising: this woman had a chance to experience a lot in her life and made her way from a governess to the "black queen" of France. Black - because Louis XIV married her in secret. Françoise achieved a lot: she became the official favorite of the Sun King when she was already over 40 (!), Became his heartfelt friend and advisor, radically changed life at court, helping to abolish Versailles balls and festivals ... This modest nun was hated by many, but , most importantly, - adored Louis.

There are many conflicting opinions about the personality of Françoise d "Aubigne. Some consider her the embodiment of purity and meekness, which captivated Louis with her quiet charm, education, intelligence ... Others, on the contrary, see in her actions a cold calculation. The fate of Françoise was not easy from childhood. She was born in prison, where her parents were thrown by order of Cardinal Richelieu, and the young years after their release were in constant ordeal. Relatives did not want to raise their daughter and dreamed of having her tonsured as a nun. At the age of 12, the brave little girl decided to go to her father in Mauritius (where he was exiled after imprisonment), but along the way she fell ill with a fever, fell into a lethargic sleep and woke up only a couple of hours before her own funeral!

Two years later, her mother, Françoise, died, and the godmother, who took custody of her, hastened to marry the girl off as soon as she turned 16. The chosen one was the court poet Paul Scarron. Outwardly, he was cheerful and cheerful, the Parisian elite gathered in his house, he wrote comic poems, for which he won the favor of Anna of Austria. However, Scarron suffered from a serious illness - rheumatoid arthritis was haunted. The young wife turned into a real nurse: she looked after the poet, wrote down his poems, led the epistolary. And a few years later, Paul Scarron died, Françoise was faced with difficult months of poverty (she was not given a pension), until she was lucky enough to meet Madame de Montespan, the favorite of King Louis XIV.

Thanks to Montespan, Françoise was at court. At first, she looked after one illegitimate royal stepson, after a few years there were six children. Madame de Montespan could not shine forever at the zenith of fame, she looked ugly, and the king began to think about having a younger lady take her place. Soon a good opportunity presented itself to remove Montespan: she was accused of intending to poison the king and was exiled from Paris.
More and more young ladies found themselves in Louis's bed, but the governess of his children haunted him. Modest and obedient, she was sure that Louis should be interested in the fate of children, and therefore sent him letters in the morning with the latest news about the lives of the children. Communication with Françoise interested Louis, and now he already spent a long time with an unattractive (by his standards) woman who could easily maintain small talk about music, literature, painting, emotional experiences and serving God. Needless to say, after a few years Louis began to seek her favor, because the forbidden fruit is sweet, and, dressed in monastic dresses, she gave birth to many fantasies in a voluptuous lover.

For two years Françoise was unapproachable, but after she gave up. Under her influence, Louis changed in many ways: in Versailles, everything was silent, calm and an almost homely atmosphere reigned, the king even remembered his lawful wife Maria Theresa. Françoise became the Marquise of Mentenon, her chambers were located next to the chambers of Louis. This woman was so wise and judicious that the king demanded her presence at all important negotiations, often consulted with her on state issues.

By secret marriage, Louis and Françoise were combined after the death of Marie-Theresa. Françoise could not satisfy the passion of King Françoise, according to historians, in intimate relationships she did not differ in temperament. That is why Louis continued to change his mistresses, but he could share spiritual intimacy only with his chosen one. On the initiative of Françoise, a boarding school for girls was organized in Saint-Cyr, after the death of Louis, the "black queen" did not try to stay in, but went to Saint-Cyr and devoted the last years of her life to her pupils.

French king (from 1643), from the Bourbon dynasty, son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. His reign is the apogee of French absolutism. He fought numerous wars - the Devolutionary (1667 ... 1668), for the Spanish inheritance (1701 ... 1714), etc. By the end of his reign, France had up to 2 billion in debt, the king imposed huge taxes, which caused popular discontent. The saying is attributed to Louis XIV: "The state is me."

Louis XIV, as if by nature, was written to be the darling of fate. His very birth, after twenty years of the married life of his parents, could serve as a good sign. At the age of five, he became the heir to the fairest and most powerful of the thrones of Europe. Louis XIV was called the Sun King. A handsome man with dark curls, regular features of a blooming face, graceful manners, a stately bearing, besides, the ruler of a great country, he really made an irresistible impression. Could women not love him?

The first lesson of love to him was taught by the Queen's chief maid, Madame de Beauvais, who in her youth was a pretty whore. One day she lay in wait for the king and took him to her room. Louis XIV was fifteen years old, Madame de Beauvais was forty-two ...

All the following days, the admiring king spent with the maid. Then he wished for variety and, as the philosopher Saint-Simon said, "everyone suited him, if only there were women."

He began with the ladies who wanted his virginity, and then proceeded to the methodical conquest of the ladies-in-waiting, who lived at court under the supervision of Madame de Navaille.

Every night - alone or in the company of friends - Louis XIV went to these girls in order to taste the healthy pleasure of physical love with the very first lady-in-waiting that came to his hand.

Naturally, these nocturnal visits eventually became known to Madame de Navaille, and she ordered that bars be installed on all the windows. Louis XIV did not retreat in the face of an obstacle. Summoning the masons, he ordered one of the Mademoiselles to break through the secret door in the bedroom.

For several nights in a row, the king safely used a secret passage, which was masked by the headboard during the day. But the vigilant Madame de Navaille discovered the door and ordered to wall it up. In the evening, Louis XIV was surprised to see a smooth wall where a secret passage had been on the eve.

He returned to himself in a rage; the very next day, Madame de Navaille and her husband were informed that the king no longer needed their services and ordered them to immediately go to Guyenne.

Fifteen-year-old Louis XIV could no longer tolerate interference in his love affairs ...

Some time after all these events, the monarch made the gardener's daughter his mistress. Probably, as a token of gratitude, the girl gave birth to a child for him. The king's mother, Anne of Austria, greeted this news with great displeasure.

If at night Louis XIV had fun with the maids of honor of the Queen Mother, then during the day he was most often seen in the company of Mazarin's nieces. It was then that the king suddenly fell in love with his age-old Olympia - the second of the Mancini sisters.

The court learned about this idyll on Christmas Day 1654. Louis XIV made Olympia the queen of all the festive celebrations of the last week of the year. Naturally, rumors soon spread in Paris that Olympia would become Queen of France.

Anna of Austria got angry. She was ready to close her eyes to her son's excessive affection for Mazarin's niece, but she was offended by the very thought that this friendship could be legalized.

And the young Olympia, who had gained too much power over the king in the hope of winning the throne, was ordered to withdraw from Paris. Mazarin quickly found her a husband, and soon she became Countess of Soissons ...

In 1657, the king fell in love with Mademoiselle de la Motte d'Argencourt, the Queen's maid of honor. Mazarin reacted with annoyance to this news and told the young monarch that his chosen one was the mistress of the Duke de Richelieu, and one evening they were taken by surprise when "they made love on a stool." Louis XIV did not like the details, and he broke off all relations with the beauty, after which he went with Marshal Turenne to the northern army.

After the capture of Dunker (June 12, 1658), Louis XIV fell ill with a severe fever. He was transported to Calais, where he finally took to his bed. For two weeks, the monarch was on the verge of death, and the whole kingdom offered up prayers to God for his recovery. On June 29, he suddenly felt so bad that it was decided to send for the sacred gifts.

At this moment, Louis XIV saw the girl's face filled with tears. Seventeen-year-old Maria Mancini, another Mazarin's niece, has long loved the king without admitting this to anyone. Louis looked at her from his bed with eyes shining with heat. According to Madame de Mauteville, she was black and yellow, the fire of passion had not yet lit in her large dark eyes, and that is why they seemed dull, her mouth was too large, and if it were not for very beautiful teeth, she could pass for ugly. "

However, the king realized that he was loved, and was excited by this look. The doctor brought the patient medicine "from antimony wine infusion." This amazing mixture had a miraculous effect: Louis XIV began to recover before his eyes and expressed a desire to return to Paris in order to be next to Marie as soon as possible ...

Seeing her, he realized "by the beating of his heart and other signs" that he had fallen in love, but did not admit it, but only asked her to come with her sisters to Fontainebleau, where he decided to stay until complete recovery.

For several weeks there were amusements: boat trips accompanied by musicians: dancing until midnight, ballets under the trees of the park. Marie was the queen of all entertainment.

Then the court returned to Paris. The girl was in seventh heaven. “I discovered then,” she wrote in her Memoirs, “that the king does not harbor hostile feelings towards me, for I was already able to recognize that eloquent language that speaks more clearly than any beautiful words. The courtiers, who always spy on kings, guessed, like me, about His Majesty's love for me, demonstrating this even with excessive importunity and showing the most incredible signs of attention. "

Soon the king grew so bold that he confessed his love to Marie and made her some amazing gifts. From now on they were always seen together.

To please the one whom he already considered his bride, Louis XIV, having received a rather superficial education, began to study hard. Ashamed of his ignorance, he perfected his knowledge of French and began to study Italian, while at the same time paying a lot of attention to the ancient authors. Under the influence of this educated girl, who, according to Madame de Lafayette, was distinguished by her "extraordinary mind" and knew many verses by heart, he read Petrarch, Virgil, Homer, became passionately interested in art and discovered a new world, the existence of which he did not even suspect. while he was under the tutelage of his teachers.

Thanks to Maria Mancini, this king later was involved in the construction of Versailles, provided patronage to Moliere and financial assistance to Racine. However, she managed not only to transform the spiritual world of Louis XIV, but also to inspire him with the idea of ​​the greatness of his destiny.

“The king was twenty years old,” said one of his contemporaries, Amedey Rene, “and he still obediently obeyed his mother and Mazarin. Nothing in him foreshadowed a powerful monarch: when discussing state affairs, he was frankly bored and preferred to shift the burden of power onto others. Marie awakened a dormant pride in Louis XIV; she often talked to him about glory and extolled the happy opportunity to command. Be it vanity or calculation, but she wanted her hero to behave like a crowned person. "

Thus, it can be concluded that love gave birth to the Sun King ...

For the first time in his life, the king experienced a real feeling. He shuddered at the sound of violins, sighed on moonlit evenings and dreamed of the "sweet embrace" of a delightful Italian woman who was getting prettier from day to day.

But at the same time, at the court, talk began that the king would soon marry the Spanish Infanta Maria Theresa.

Knowing in detail about the course of negotiations with Spain, Mancini, as well versed in politics as in music and literature, suddenly realized that the passion of Louis XIV could have the most fatal consequences for the entire kingdom. And on September 3, she wrote to Mazarin that she was giving up the king.

This news plunged Louis XIV into despair.

He sent her pleading letters, but none of them received an answer. In the end, he ordered to take his beloved dog to her. The exile had the courage and determination not to thank the king for the gift, which, however, gave her excruciating joy.

Then Louis XIV signed a peace treaty with Spain and agreed to marry the Infanta. Maria Theresa was distinguished by an unusually calm disposition. Preferring silence and solitude, she spent time reading Spanish books. On the day when the festive bells rang throughout the kingdom, Marie shed bitter tears at the Brouge. “I could not think,” she wrote in her Memoirs, “that I paid dearly for the peace, which everyone was so happy about, and no one remembered that the king would hardly have married an Infanta if I had not sacrificed myself. .. "

Maria Theresa sometimes waited all night long for the return of the king, who flipped at that time from one lover to another. In the morning or the next day, his wife threw questions at Louis XIV, in response he kissed her hands and referred to state affairs.

Once at a ball at Henrietta the English king met the gaze of a charming girl and began persistently courting the maid of honor Louise de Lavalier.

Louis XIV loved Louise so much that he surrounded his relationship with her, in the words of the Abbe de Choisy, "an impenetrable mystery." They met at night in the park of Fontainebleau or in the room of the Comte de Saint-Aignan, but in public the king did not allow himself a single gesture that could reveal the "secret of his heart."

Their connection was discovered by chance. One evening, the courtiers were strolling through the park, when suddenly a heavy downpour gushed out. Fleeing from the thunderstorm, everyone took refuge under the trees. The lovers fell behind. Lavalier because of his lameness, and Louis for the simple reason that no one walks faster than his beloved.

In front of the court, the king, in the pouring rain, led the mistress into the palace, bare his head to cover her with his hat.

Naturally, such a gallant manner of dealing with the young maid of honor caused a stream of satirical couplets and epigrams of evil-speaking poets.

After a while, jealousy again forced Louis XIV to forget about his restraint.

A young courtier named Loménie de Brienne had the imprudence to court Louise de Lavaliere a little. Having met her one evening in the chambers of Henrietta of England, he invited her to pose for the artist Lefebvre in the form of the Magdalene. During the conversation, the king entered the room.

"What are you doing here, mademoiselle?"

Louise blushed as she spoke of Brienne's proposal.

"Isn't that a good idea?" He asked.

The king could not hide his displeasure: “No. She should be portrayed as Diana. She is too young to pose as a repentant sinner. "

Lavalier sometimes refused a date, citing indisposition. But the king found thousands of ways to see her. One day she volunteered to accompany Henrietta to Saint-Cloud, where she hoped to hide from him. He immediately jumped on his horse and, under the pretext that he wanted to inspect the construction work, in one day visited the Château de Vincennes, the Tuileries and Versailles.

At six o'clock in the evening he was in Saint-Cloud.

“I came to have dinner with you,” he told his brother.

After dessert, the king went up to the bedroom of Louise, the maid of honor of his brother's wife. He rode thirty-seven leagues just to spend the night with Louise, an absolutely incredible act that caused the amazement of all his contemporaries.

Despite this evidence of fervent passion, the naive girl initially hoped that the king would become more sensible in the last weeks before his wife's birth.

However, after a quarrel with Maria Theresa, the king decided to devote himself entirely to his mistress. He could not miss such an opportunity. And Louise, who thought that he could return to his true path, now spent with him almost every night, experiencing in his arms both indescribable pleasure and the strongest remorse ...

On the first of November, the queen gave birth to a son, who was named Louis. This happy event brought the crowned spouses together for a while. However, as soon as the Dauphin was baptized, the monarch returned to bed mademoiselle de Lavalier. On this bed, warmed by a hot water bottle, the favorite knew the joys that quenched the languor of the body, but at the same time brought confusion to the soul ...

Once the king asked Louise about the love affairs of Henrietta of England. The favorite, who had promised her friend to keep a secret, refused to answer. Louis XIV retired in great irritation, slamming the door and leaving Louise sobbing in his bedroom.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of their relationship, the lovers agreed that "if they happen to quarrel, then none of them will go to bed without writing a letter and making an attempt at reconciliation."

Therefore, Louise waited all night for a messenger who would knock on her door. At dawn it became clear to her that the king had not forgiven the offense. Then she, wrapped in an old cloak, in despair left the Tuileries and fled to the Chaillot monastery.

This news caused the king to be so confused that he, forgetting about propriety, jumped on his horse. The Queen, who was present at this, said that he was completely out of control.

Louis brought Louise to the Tuileries in his carriage and publicly kissed her, so that all the witnesses of this scene were amazed ...

Reaching Henrietta of England's chambers, Louis XIV "began to rise very slowly, not wanting to show that he was crying." Then he began to ask for Louise and achieved - not without difficulty - Henrietta's consent to keep her with him ... The greatest king of Europe turned into a humiliated suppliant, concerned only so that Mademoiselle de Lavalier would not shed more tears.

In the evening Louis visited Louise. Alas! The more she got pleasure, the more she suffered from remorse. "And languid sighs mingled with sincere lamentation ..."

At this time, Mademoiselle de la Mot Hudancourt, burning with passion, made a desperate attempt to lure Louis XIV into her net. But the king could not afford two connections at the same time, especially since he was too busy - he was building Versailles.

For several months now, the monarch, with the help of the architects Lebrun and Le Nôtre, has been building the most beautiful palace in the world in honor of Louise. For the twenty-four-year-old king, it was a delightful pursuit that consumed all his time.

Whenever he happened to push aside the blueprints that cluttered his desk, he began to write an affectionate letter to Louise. Once he even wrote her an exquisite couplet on a two of diamonds during a card game. And Mademoiselle de Lavaliere, with her usual wit, answered with a real little poem, where she asked to write to her on a two of hearts, for this is a more reliable suit.

When the king returned to Paris, he immediately rushed to Louise, and both lovers then experienced such joy that they completely forgot about caution.

The result was not long in coming: one evening the favorite in tears announced to the king that she was expecting a child. Louis XIV, delighted, threw away the usual restraint: from now on he began to stroll through the Louvre with his girlfriend, which he had never done before.

Several months passed. Louis XIV went to fight the Duke of Lorraine and returned at the head of a victorious army on October 15, 1663, covering himself with glory. Louise was looking forward to him. She could no longer hide her pregnancy.

On December 19, at four o'clock in the morning, Colbert received the following note from the obstetrician: “We have a boy, strong and healthy. The mother and child are doing well. Thank God. I'm waiting for orders. "

The orders were harsh for Louise. On the same day, the newborn was carried to Saint-Leu: by secret order of the king, he was recorded as Charles, son of M. Lencourt and Mademoiselle Elisabeth de Bé. "

Throughout the winter Louise hid in her house, receiving no one except the king, who was very upset by this seclusion. In the spring he brought her to Versailles, which was almost completed. Now she took the position of an officially recognized mistress, and the courtesans were currying favor with her in every possible way. However, Louise did not know how to be happy and therefore cried.

But she would cry even more bitterly if she knew that she was wearing the second little bastard, conceived the previous month, under her heart.

This child was born under the cover of the deepest secrets on January 7, 1665 and was baptized as Philip, "the son of François Derse, bourgeois, and Marguerite Bernard, his wife." Colbert, who still had to deal with the arrangement of babies, entrusted him to the care of reliable people.

In the end, Louis XIV got tired of calming his mistress, and he turned his attention to the princess of Monaco. She was young, charming, witty and extraordinarily attractive; but in the eyes of the king, her greatest virtue was that she shared a bed with Lausin, a famous seducer, and, therefore, had a rich experience.

Louis XIV began diligently courting the princess, who gladly allowed herself to be seduced.

Three weeks later, the king parted with the princess of Monaco, as he found her affection somewhat tiresome for himself, and returned to de Lavalier again.

On January 20, 1666, the regent Anna of Austria, mother of Louis XIV, died. Together with her, the last obstacle disappeared, which at least slightly kept the king within the bounds of decency. Soon everyone was convinced of this. A week later, Mademoiselle de Lavalier stood next to Marie-Theresa during Mass ...

It was then that one young lady-in-waiting of the queen tried to attract the attention of the king, who realized that circumstances were developing in her favor. She was beautiful, cunning and sharp-tongued. Her name was Françoise Athenais, for two years she had been married to the Marquis de Montespan, but at the same time she was not distinguished by impeccable marital fidelity.

Louis XIV soon fell under her spell. Without leaving Louise, who was pregnant again, he began to flutter around Athenais. The modest favorite quickly realized that from now on she was not the only one interested in the king. As always, imperceptibly released from the burden, she hid in her mansion and prepared to suffer on the sly.

But the future Sun King loved theatricality, so that everything happened in front of the audience. Therefore, he arranged a festivities in Saint-Germain called "Ballet of the Muses", where Louise and Madame de Montespan got exactly the same roles, so that it became clear to everyone that both would share his bed on equal terms.

On May 14, around noon, surprising news spread. It became known that the king had just granted the title of Duchess to Mademoiselle de Lavalier and recognized her third child, little Marie Anne, as his daughter (the first two sons died in infancy).

Madame de Montespan, pale, hurried to the queen to find out the details. Maria Theresia sobbed. Around her, the courtiers in a whisper discussed the letter of grant, already approved by parliament. There was no limit to amazement. It was said that such shamelessness had not happened since the time of Henry IV.

On October 3, Lavaliere gave birth to a son, who was immediately carried away. He was to receive the name of the Comte de Vermandois. This event brought the king closer to the gentle Lavalier, and the alarmed Montespan hurried to the sorceress Voisin. She handed her a bag of "love powder" made of charred and crushed toad bones, mole teeth, human nails, spanish fly, bat blood, dried plums and iron powder.

That same evening, the unsuspecting king of France swallowed this disgusting potion along with the soup. It was difficult to doubt the power of witchcraft, since the king left Louise de Lavalier almost immediately, returning to the arms of Madame de Montespan.

Soon, Louis XIV decided to give his mistresses an official status in order to demonstrate disregard for all kinds of moralists. In early 1669, he placed Louise and Françoise in adjoining chambers at Saint-Germain. Moreover, he demanded that both women maintain a semblance of friendship. From now on, everyone saw how they played cards, dined at the same table and strolled hand in hand in the park, chatting animatedly and graciously.

The king, however, silently waited for how the court would react to this. And soon there were verses, very disrespectful to the favorites, but restrained in relation to the king. Louis XIV realized that the game could be considered won. Every evening he went to his beloved with peace of mind and found more and more pleasure in this.

Of course, preference was almost always given to Madame de Montespan. She did not hide her delight. She really liked the caresses of the king. Louis XIV did it competently, because he read Ambroise Paré, who argued that "the sower should not invade the field of human flesh with a swoop ..." But after that it was possible to act with the courage of a husband and a king.

This approach could not fail to bear fruit. At the end of March 1669, Madame de Montespan gave birth to an adorable girl.

The king, who became more and more attached to the ardent marquis, practically ignored de Lavalier. Madame de Montespan was so favored by the king that on March 31, 1670 she gave birth to her second child - the future Duke of Manx. This time the child was born in Saint-Germain, "in the ladies' quarters," and Madame Scarron, whom the king disliked, did not dare to come there. But Lozen did everything for her. He took the child, wrapped it in his own cloak, walked quickly through the chambers of the queen, who was in ignorance, crossed the park and went to the grating, where the teacher's carriage was waiting. Two hours later, the boy had already joined his sister.

Suddenly, startling news spread: Mademoiselle de Lavaliere, having secretly left the courtyard during a ball at the Tuileries, went to the Chaillot Monastery at dawn. Louise, humiliated by Madame de Montespan, abandoned by the king, crushed by grief and tormented by remorse, decided that only in religion could she find consolation.

Louis XIV was informed of this when he was about to leave the Tuileries. After dispassionately hearing the news, he climbed into the carriage with Madame de Montespan and Mademoiselle de Montpensier, and it seemed to many that Louise's flight had left him completely indifferent. However, as soon as the carriage left for the road to Versailles, tears streamed down the king's cheeks. Seeing this, Montespan burst into tears, and Mademoiselle de Montpensier, who always cried eagerly at the opera, thought it best to join her.

On the same evening, Colbert brought Louise to Versailles by order of the king. The unhappy woman found her lover in tears and believed that he still loved her.

But after the king forced her to be the godmother of another daughter of Madame de Montespan on December 18, 1673, in the church of Saint-Sulpice, Louise made the most important decision in her life.

On June 2, at the age of thirty, she was tonsured and became a merciful sister, Louise. And this name she wore until her death, for thirty-six years.

Meanwhile, in Paris, Madame de Montespan did not sit idly by. She constantly sent love powders to Saint-Germain, which were then mixed with the king's food through bribed servants. Since these powders contained the Spaniard fly and other stimulants, Louis XIV again began to wander around the apartments of young maids of honor, and many girls acquired, thanks to this circumstance, the status of women ...

Then the beautiful de Montespan turned to the Norman sorcerers, who regularly supplied her with love drinks and stimulants for Louis XIV. This went on for many years. The potion had an ever more powerful effect on the king than Madame de Montespan would have liked. The monarch began to feel an insatiable need for sexual intercourse, as many maids of honor soon had to make sure.

The first to be noticed by the king was Anne de Rogan, Baroness de Soubise, a delightful young woman of twenty-eight who respectfully yielded to a not very respectful proposal. The monarch met her at Madame de Rochefort's apartment. Receiving endless pleasure from these dates, he tried to act as carefully as possible so that no one would see anything, for the beauty was married.

But Louis XIV was tormented in vain: de Soubise was well educated and had an agreeable character. Moreover, he was a business man. Seeing in his dishonor a source of income, he did not protest, but demanded money. “The infamous deal has been made,” the chronicler wrote, “and the noble villain, into whose baronial mantle a golden rain was poured, bought the former palace of Giz, which received the name Subiz. He made himself a million dollar fortune. "

When someone expressed admiration for his wealth, the indulgent husband replied with commendable modesty: "I have nothing to do with it, it is my wife's merit."

The lovely Anna was as greedy and insatiable as her husband. She blessed all her relatives: this family was showered with the favors of the king. From Baroness de Soubise, the favorite turned into Princess de Soubise and felt that she could now look down at Madame de Montespan.

The Marquis, who was jealous of her rival, ran to the sorceress Voisin and got hold of a new potion in order to ward off Louis XIV from Anna. It is difficult to say whether this powder became the cause of the disgrace, but the king suddenly left his young mistress and returned to Françoise's bed.

At the end of 1675, Louis XIV, having bestowed his favor at first mademoiselle de Granset, and then Princess Marie-Anne of Württenburg, fell in love with the maid Françoise. Since then, on his way to his favorite, the king invariably lingered in the hallway, doing, together with Mademoiselle de Oye, not very decent amusements.

Finding that she was being deceived, de Montespan in a rage instructed reliable friends to turn to the Auverne healers and get from them a potion stronger than Voisin's powders. Soon, mysterious vials of a cloudy liquid were delivered to her, which then ended up in the king's food.

However, the results were encouraging: Louis XIV, who could not tolerate monotony, left Mademoiselle de Hoye, and Madame de Montespan was imbued with even greater faith in the power of love drinks. She ordered to prepare other stimulants in order to again become the only mistress of the king, but achieved the opposite.

Once again, the monarch could not be satisfied with the charm of the favorite; he needed another "sweet flesh" to satisfy his desire. He became involved with Mademoiselle de Ludre, a lady-in-waiting from the queen's retinue. But this woman also showed immodesty.

The marquise, overwhelmed by jealousy, began to seek even stronger means and for two weeks fed them to the king, who, it must be admitted, had powerful health if he managed to digest preparations containing crushed toad, snake eyes, boar testicles, cat urine, fox feces, artichokes and peppers.

One day, he went to Françoise, being under the influence of a potion, and gave her an hour of pleasure. Nine months later, on May 4, 1677, the radiant marquise was relieved of the burden by her daughter, who was christened Françoise-Marie of Bourbon. Subsequently, she was recognized as the legitimate daughter of the king under the name Mademoiselle de Blois.

But Françoise did not manage to gain a foothold in her former capacity as the only mistress, for the beautiful Mademoiselle de Ludre, wishing to maintain her "position", decided to pretend that she also became pregnant by the king.

The accomplices delivered a box of gray powder to Françoise, and, by a strange coincidence, Louis XIV completely lost interest in Mademoiselle de Ludre, who ended her days in the monastery of the daughters of Saint Mary in the suburb of Saint-Germain.

However, the monarch, being overly inflamed by the Provençal drug, again escaped Françoise: in the witty expression of Madame de Sevigne, "again there was a smell of fresh meat in the country of Quanto."

Among the ladies-in-waiting, Madame Louis XIV saw a delightful blonde with gray eyes. She was eighteen years old and her name was Mademoiselle de Fontanges. It was about her that Abbot de Choisy said that "she is beautiful as an angel, and stupid as a cork."

The king was eager. One evening, unable to contain himself any longer, he left Saint-Germain, accompanied by several guards, and went to the Palais-Royal, the residence of Henrietta of England. There he knocked on the door with the agreed signal, and one of the ladies-in-waiting of the princess mademoiselle de Adre, who became an accomplice of the lovers, escorted him to the chambers of her friend.

Unfortunately, when he returned to Saint-Germain at dawn, the Parisians recognized him, and soon Madame de Montespan received comprehensive information about this love adventure. Her rage defies description. Perhaps it was then that she came up with the idea of ​​poisoning both the king and Mademoiselle de Fontanges out of revenge.

On March 12, 1679, the poisoner Voisin was arrested, to whose services de Montespan repeatedly resorted. The favorite, mad with fear, left for Paris.

A few days later, Françoise, convinced that her name had not been given, calmed down a bit and returned to Saint-Germain. However, upon arrival, she was expected to be hit: Mademoiselle de Fontanges settled in an apartment adjacent to the king's chambers.

Ever since Françoise discovered Mademoiselle de Fontanges in her place, she was determined to poison the king. At first, it occurred to her to do this with a petition saturated with strong poison. Trianon, Voisin's accomplice, "prepared a poison so strong that Louis XIV had to die as soon as he touched the paper." The delay prevented the execution of this plan: Madame de Montespan, knowing that La Rainey, after the arrest of the poisoners, redoubled her vigilance and intensely guarded the king, decided ultimately to resort to corruption, not poison.

For a while, both favorites seemed to live in good harmony. Mademoiselle de Fontanges made gifts to Françoise, and Françoise, before the evening balls, dressed Mademoiselle de Fontanges herself. Louis XIV paid attention to both of his ladies and was, it seemed, at the height of bliss ...

Fontange died on June 28, 1681, after an agony of eleven months, at the age of twenty-two. Rumors about the murder immediately spread, and the Princess Palatinate remarked: “There is no doubt that Fontange was poisoned. She herself blamed Montespan for everything, who bribed the footman, and he ruined her by adding poison to the milk. "

Of course, the king shared the court's suspicions. Fearing to find out that his mistress had committed a crime, he forbade the autopsy of the deceased.

Although the king had to behave with the marquis as if he knew nothing, he still could not play the lover as before and returned to Maria Theresa.

He entered this path not without the help of Madame Scarron, nee Françoise D'Aubigne, the widow of the famous poet, who slowly gained influence, acting in the shadows, but extremely dexterously and prudently. She raised Montespan's illegitimate children from the king.

Louis XIV saw with what love she brought up children abandoned by Madame de Montespan. He had already managed to appreciate her intelligence, honesty and directness and, not wanting to admit this to himself, more and more often sought her company.

When she bought the land of Maintenon in 1674, a few leagues from Chartres, Madame de Montespan expressed extreme displeasure: “Is that so? A castle and an estate for a bastard teacher? "

"If it is humiliating to be their teacher," replied the newly-born landowner, "then what to say about their mother?"

Then, in order to silence Madame de Montespan, the king, in the presence of the whole court, numb with amazement, called Madame Scarron by a new name - Madame de Maintenon. From that moment, and by special order of the monarch, she signed only with this name.

Years passed, and Louis XIV became attached to this woman, so unlike Madame de Montespan. After the case of the poisoners, he naturally turned his gaze to her, for his troubled soul demanded consolation.

But Madame de Maintenon was not eager to take the place of the favorite. "Strengthening the monarch in the faith," said the Duke de Noailles, "she used the feelings that she had instilled in him in order to return him to a pure family bosom and to turn on the queen those signs of attention that rightfully belonged only to her."

Maria Theresa did not believe her happiness: the king spent evenings with her and spoke with tenderness. For nearly thirty years, she had not heard a single sweet word from him.

Madame de Maintenon, stern and pious almost to the point of hypocrisy, although she spent, according to the assurances of many, a rather stormy youth, now was distinguished by amazing rationality and restraint. She treated the monarch with extreme reverence, admired him and considered herself chosen by God in order to help him become "the most Christian king."

For several months, Louis XIV met with her daily. De Maintenon gave excellent advice, skillfully and unobtrusively intervened in all matters and, ultimately, became necessary for the monarch.

Louis XIV looked at her with burning eyes and "with a certain tenderness in the expression on his face." Without a doubt, he longed to embrace this beautiful touchy, who was experiencing a brilliant sunset at forty-eight years old.

The monarch considered it indecent to make a mistress out of a woman who had raised his children so well. However, the dignified behavior and restraint of Françoise de Maintenon excluded any thought of adultery. She was not one of those ladies who could be easily carried away to the first bed she came to.

There was only one way out: to marry her in secret. Louis, making up his mind, sent one morning his confessor, Father de Lachaise, to propose to Françoise.

The marriage was concluded in 1684 or 1685 (no one knows the exact date) in the king's office, where the newlyweds were blessed by Monsignor Arles de Chanvallon in the presence of Father de Lachaise.

Many then began to guess about the secret marriage of the king with Françoise. But this did not come to the surface, for everyone tried to keep a secret. Only Madame de Sevigne, whose pen was as unstoppable as her tongue, wrote to her daughter: "The situation of Madame de Maintenon is unique, this has never been and never will be ..."

Under the influence of Madame de Maintenon, who, moving her knees and pursing her lips, continued the work of "cleansing" morals, Versailles turned into such a boring place that, as they said at the time, "even Calvinists would howl here with melancholy."

At court, all playful expressions were forbidden, men and women no longer dared to speak openly to each other, and beauties, burned by an inner fire, were forced to hide longing under a mask of piety.

On May 27, 1707, Madame de Montespan died on the waters in Bourbon-l'Archambaut. Louis XIV, having learned about the death of his former mistress, said with complete indifference: "She died too long for me for me to mourn her today."

On August 31, 1715, Louis XIV fell into a coma and on September 1, at a quarter past nine in the morning, he let out his last breath.

In four days he was to be seventy-seven years old. His reign lasted seventy-two years.

Muromov I.A. 100 great lovers. - M .: Veche, 2002.

and for 22 years, the marriage of Louis's parents was fruitless, and therefore the birth of an heir was perceived by the people as a miracle. After the death of his father, young Louis with his mother moved to the Palais Royal, the former palace of Cardinal Richelieu. Here the little king was brought up in a very simple and sometimes squalid environment. His mother was considered the regent of France, but the real power was in the hands of her favorite, Cardinal Mazarin. He was very stingy and did not care at all not only about giving pleasure to the child king, but even about having basic necessities.

The early years of Louis' formal rule saw the events of the civil war known as the Fronde. In January 1649, an uprising broke out in Paris against Mazarin. The king and the ministers had to flee to Saint-Germain, and Mazarin - generally to Brussels. Peace was restored only in 1652, and power returned to the hands of the cardinal. Despite the fact that the king was already considered an adult, Mazarin ruled France until his death. In 1659, peace was signed with. The contract was sealed by the marriage of Louis with Marie Theresa, who was his cousin.

When Mazarin died in 1661, Louis, having received freedom, hastened to get rid of any guardianship over himself. He abolished the post of first minister, announcing to the Council of State that from now on he would be the first minister himself, and no even the most insignificant decree should be signed by anyone on his behalf.

Sun King Emblem

Louis was poorly educated, barely able to read and write, but had common sense and a firm determination to maintain his royal dignity. He was tall, handsome, had a noble bearing, and strove to express himself briefly and clearly. Unfortunately, he was overly selfish, like no other European monarch was distinguished by monstrous pride and selfishness. All the former royal residences seemed to Louis unworthy of his greatness. After some deliberation, in 1662 he decided to turn the small hunting castle of Versailles into a royal palace. It took 50 years and 400 million francs. Until 1666, the king had to live in the Louvre, from 1666 to 1671 - in the Tuileries, from 1671 to 1681, alternately in the under construction Versailles and Saint-Germain-Aux-l'E. Finally, in 1682, Versailles became the permanent residence of the royal court and government From now on, Louis visited Paris only on visits. The new palace of the king was distinguished by extraordinary splendor. The so-called "large apartments" - six salons named after ancient deities - served as hallways for the Mirror Gallery 72 meters long, 10 meters wide and 16 meters high. In the salons, buffets were arranged, guests played billiards and cards.In general, the card game became an indomitable passion at court. Bets reached several thousand livres at stake, and Louis himself stopped playing only after in 1676 he lost 600 thousand livres in six months.

Also, comedies were staged in the palace, first by Italian and then by French authors: Corneille, Racine, and especially often Moliere. In addition, Louis loved to dance, and repeatedly took part in ballet productions at the court. The complex rules of etiquette established by Louis also corresponded to the splendor of the palace. Any performance was accompanied by a whole set of elaborate ceremonies. Meals, going to bed, even the elementary quenching of thirst during the day - everything was turned into complex rituals.

From a young age, Louis was very passionate and partial to pretty women. Despite the fact that the young Queen Maria Theresa was beautiful, Louis was constantly looking for entertainment on the side. The first favorite of the king was 17-year-old Louise de La Vallière, the maid of honor of the wife of his brother Louis. Louise was not an impeccable beauty and limped a little, but she was very sweet and gentle. The feelings that Louis felt for her could be called true love. From 1661 to 1667, she gave birth to four children to the king and received the ducal title. After that, the king began to grow cold towards her, and in 1675 Louise was forced to leave for the Carmelite monastery.

The new hobby of the king was the Marquis de Montespan, who was the complete opposite of Louise de La Vallière. The bright and ardent marquise had a calculating mind. She knew perfectly well what she could get from the king in exchange for her love. In the first year of his acquaintance with the Marquis, Louis gave her family 800 thousand livres to pay off debts. The golden rain did not become scarce in the future. At the same time, Montespan actively patronized many writers and other people of art. The Marquise was the uncrowned queen of France for 15 years. However, since 1674 she had to fight for the heart of the king with Madame d "Aubigne, the widow of the poet Scarron, who was raising the children of Louis. Madame d" Aubigne was granted the Mantenon estate and the title of marquise. After the death of Queen Maria Theresa in 1683 and the removal of the Marquise de Montespan, she gained a very strong influence over Louis. The king appreciated her intelligence and listened to her advice. Under her influence, he became very religious, stopped organizing noisy festivals, replacing them with soul-saving conversations with the Jesuits.

Under no king has France fought so many large-scale wars of conquest as under Louis XIV. After death in 1667-1668 Flanders was captured. In 1672, war began with Holland and those who came to her aid, and. However, the coalition, called the Great Alliance, was defeated, and France acquired Alsace, Lorraine, Franche-Comté and several other lands in Belgium. The peace, however, did not last long. In 1681, Louis captured Strasbourg and Casale, and a little later Luxembourg, Kehl and a number of environs.

However, from 1688, Louis' affairs began to go worse. Through efforts, the anti-French Augsburg League was created, which included Holland and several German principalities. At first, Louis managed to capture the Palatinate, Worms and a number of other German cities, but in 1689 he became king of England and directed the resources of this country against France. In 1692, the Anglo-Dutch fleet defeated the French in Cherbourg harbor and began to dominate the sea. On land, the successes of the French were more noticeable. was defeated near Steinkerke and on the Neerwinden Plain. Meanwhile, in the south, Savoy, Girona and Barcelona were taken. However, a war on several fronts demanded a huge amount of money from Louis. During the ten years of the war, 700 million livres were spent. In 1690, the royal solid silver furniture and various small utensils were melted down. Along with this, taxes grew, which hit peasant families especially hard. Louis asked for peace. In 1696 it was returned to the rightful duke. Then Louis was forced to recognize the king of England and refuse all support of the Stuarts. The lands beyond the Rhine were returned to the German emperor. returned Luxembourg and Catalonia. Lorraine regained its independence. Thus, the bloody war ended with the acquisition of only Strasbourg.

However, the most terrible for Louis was the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1700, the childless king of Spain died, bequeathing the throne to Louis' grandson, with the condition, however, that the Spanish possessions never join the French crown. The condition was accepted, but the rights to the French throne were retained. In addition, the French army invaded Belgium. The Great Union was immediately restored, including Holland, and in 1701 the war began. The Austrian prince Eugene invaded, which belonged both to the king of Spain. At first, the French were doing well, but in 1702, due to the treachery of the Duke, the advantage went over to the side of the Austrians. At the same time, the English army of the Duke of Marlborough landed in Belgium. Taking advantage of the fact that they joined the coalition, another British army invaded. The French tried to counterstrike and moved on Vienna, but in 1704, at Hochstedt, troops under the command of Prince Eugene of Savoy and Duke John Churchill of Marlborough defeated the Franco-Bavarian army under the command of the Bavarian Elector and the French marshals Marsen and Tallard.

Soon Louis had to leave Belgium and Italy. In 1707, the 40,000-strong Allied army even crossed the Alps, invading France, and besieging Toulon, but to no avail. There was no end in sight to the war. The people of France were suffering from hunger and poverty. All the golden dishes were melted down, and even on Madame de Maintenon's table, black bread was served instead of white. However, the forces of the allies were not unlimited. In Spain, they managed to turn the tide of the war in their favor, after which the British began to lean towards peace. In 1713, a peace treaty was signed in Utrecht, and a year later in Rishtadt - with. France lost almost nothing, but lost all of its European possessions outside the Iberian Peninsula. In addition, he was forced to abandon claims for the French crown.

Foreign policy problems of Louis were aggravated by family problems. In 1711, the king's son, the great Dauphin Louis, died of smallpox. A year later, the wife of the younger Dauphin, Maria-Adelaide, died from a measles epidemic. After her death, her correspondence with the heads of hostile states was opened, in which many state secrets of France were revealed. A few days after the death of his wife, the younger Dauphin Louis also died. Three more weeks passed, and five-year-old Louis of Breton, the son of the younger Dauphin and heir to the throne, died of the same illness. The title of heir passed to his younger brother, who was still an infant at the time. Soon he fell ill with some kind of rash. Doctors were waiting for his death from day to day, but a miracle happened and the child recovered. Finally, in 1714, Charles of Berry, the third grandson of Louis, suddenly died.

After the deaths of the heirs, Louis became sad and gloomy. He practically did not get out of bed. All attempts to stir him up did not lead to anything. Soon Louis XIV, dancing at the ball, stepped on a rusty nail. On August 24, 1715, the first signs of gangrene appeared on his leg, on August 27, he made his last suicide orders, and on September 1, he died. His 72-year reign became one of the longest among all monarchs.

The birth of this child was all the more long-awaited since King Louis XIII of France and Anne of Austria had no children for 22 years after their marriage in 1615.

On September 5, 1638, the queen finally had an heir. It was such an event that the famous philosopher, monk of the Dominican order Tomaso Campanella was invited to predict the future to the royal infant, and Cardinal Mazarin himself became his godfather.

The future king was taught horseback riding, fencing, spinet, lute and guitar. Like Peter I, Louis built a fortress in the Palais Royal, where he disappeared every day, arranging "amusing" battles. For several years he did not experience any serious health problems, but at the age of nine he faced a real test.

On November 11, 1647, Louis suddenly felt acute pain in his lower back and lower spine. The first physician of the king, François Voltier, was called to the child. The next day was marked by a fever, which, according to the custom of the time, was treated with bloodletting from the cubital vein. The bloodletting was repeated on November 13, and on the same day the diagnosis became clear: the child's body was covered with smallpox pustules.

On November 14, 1647, a council of Doctors Voltier, Geno and Vallot and the first doctors of the Queen, the uncle and nephew of the Segenes gathered at the patient's bedside. The venerable Areopagus prescribed observation and mythical cardiac remedies, while the child was developing a fever and delirium. Within 10 days, he underwent four venesections, which had little effect on the course of the disease - the number of rashes "increased a hundredfold."

Dr. Vallo insisted on the use of a laxative, proceeding from the medieval medical postulate "Give a klystyr, then bleed, then purify (use an emetic)." The nine-year-old majesty is given calomel and an infusion of the Alexandrian leaf. The child behaved courageously, since he endured these painful, unpleasant and bloody manipulations. And it wasn't over yet.

The life of Louis surprisingly resembles the biography of Peter I: he is fighting the noble Front, fighting the Spaniards, the Holy Empire, the Dutch, and at the same time creates the General Hospital in Paris, the Royal House of Invalids, the national tapestry manufactory, academies, an observatory, rebuilds the Louvre Palace, builds the gates of Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin, the Royal Bridge, the Place Vendôme ensemble, etc.

At the height of hostilities, on June 29, 1658, the king fell seriously ill. He was transported to Calais in a very serious condition. For two weeks everyone was sure that the monarch would die. Dr. Antoine Vallot, who ten years ago treated the king's smallpox, believed that the reasons for his illness were unfavorable air, polluted water, overwork, a cold on the legs and refusal to prevent bloodletting and intestinal lavages.

The illness began with fever, general lethargy, severe headache, and loss of strength. The king hid his condition, walked, although he already had a fever. On July 1, in Calais, in order to free the body from the "poison" "accumulated in it, poisoning bodily fluids and disturbing their proportions," the king is given an enema, then bloodletting and heart remedies.

The fever, which doctors determine by touch, by the pulse and changes in the nervous system, does not subside, so Louis is bled again and the intestines are washed several times. Then they do two bloodletting, several enemas and heart remedies. On July 5, the doctors' fantasy dries up - the crown bearer is given an emetic and an abscess plaster is applied.

On July 7 and 8, the venesection is repeated and heart remedies are given, then Antoine Vallot mixes a few ounces of emetic wine with a few ounces of antimony salt (the most powerful laxative of the time) and gives the king a third of the mixture to drink. It worked very well: the king was carried 22 times and vomited twice four to five hours after taking this potion.

Then he was bled three more times and given enemas. In the second week of treatment, the fever subsided, only weakness remained. Most likely, the king this time suffered from typhus or relapsing fever - one of the frequent companions of crowding of people during hostilities ("military typhus").

At that time, during protracted positional combat operations, sporadic cases often occurred, and more often - epidemic outbreaks of "camp" or "military" fever, the losses from which were many times greater than from bullets or cannonballs. During his illness, Louis also received a lesson in statesmanship: not believing in his recovery, the courtiers began to openly show affection for his brother, who was the heir to the throne.

Having recovered from his illness (or from treatment?), Louis travels around France, concludes the Iberian Peace, marries the Spanish Infanta Maria Theresa, changes favorites and favorites, but most importantly, after the death of Cardinal Mazarin, in April 1661, he becomes the sovereign king.

Seeking the unity of France, he creates an absolute monarchy. With the help of Colbert (the French version of Menshikov), he is reforming public administration, finance, the army, building a fleet more powerful than the English one.

An extraordinary flourishing of culture and science is not complete without his participation: Louis patronizes the writers Perrot, Corneille, La Fontaine, Boileau, Racine, Moliere, and lures Christian Huygens to France. Under him, the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Dance, Arts, Literature and Inscriptions, the Royal Garden of Rare Plants were founded, the "Newspaper of Scientists" began to appear, which is still being published.

It was at this time that the French ministers of science carried out the first successful blood transfusion from animal to animal. The king donates the Louvre Palace to the nation - soon it became the most famous collection of works of art in Europe. Louis was an avid collector.

Under him, the baroque was replaced by classicism, and Jean-Baptiste Molière laid the foundations for the "Comedie Francaise". Pampered, adoring ballet, Louis is seriously engaged in the reform of the army and is the first to begin to assign military ranks. Pierre de Montesquieu D "Artagnan (1645-1725) became Marshal of France at this very time. And the king is seriously ill ...

Unlike many other heads of state (and Russia first of all), the state of health of the first person in France was not elevated to the level of state secrets. The king's doctors did not hide from anyone that every month, and then every three weeks, Louis was prescribed laxatives and enemas.

In those days, it was generally a rare occurrence for the gastrointestinal tract to work normally: people walked too little and ate not enough vegetables. The king, having fallen from his horse in 1683 and dislocated his arm at the same time, began to go hunting for hounds in a light carriage, which he drove himself.

From 1681, Louis XIV began to suffer from gout. Vivid clinical symptoms: acute arthritis of the first metatarsophalangeal joint, appearing after meals abundantly flavored with wine, prodrome - "rustle of gout", acute pain attack in the middle of the night, "under the crowing of a rooster" - were already too well known to doctors, but they did not know how to treat gout , but about empirically applied colchicine has already been forgotten.

The sufferer was offered the same enemas, bloodletting, vomiting ... Six years later, the pain in his legs became so intense that the king began to move around the Versailles castle in a chair with wheels. Even to meetings with diplomats, he rode in a chair pushed by huge servants. But in 1686 another problem appeared - hemorrhoids.

The king was not at all good for the numerous enemas and the use of laxatives. Frequent exacerbations of hemorrhoids ended with the formation of an anal fistula. In February 1686, the king developed a tumor on the buttock, and the doctors without hesitation took up the lancets. The court surgeon, Carl Felix de Tassi, cut open the tumor and cauterized it to widen the wound. Suffering from this painful wound and from gout, Louis could not only ride a horse, but also be in public for a long time.

There were rumors that the king was about to die or had already died. In March of the same year, a new "small" incision was made and a new useless moxibustion, on April 20 - another moxibustion, after which Louis went to bed for three days. Then he went to the Barezh resort for treatment with mineral water, but this did not help much.

The king held his ground until November 1686 and finally ventured into a "big" operation. C. de Tassi, already mentioned, in the presence of Bessières, "the most famous surgeon of Paris", the beloved minister of King François-Michel Letelier, the Marquis de Louvois, who held the king's hand during the operation, and the old favorite of the king Madame de Maintenon without anesthesia is operating on the king.

Surgical intervention ends with profuse bloodletting. On December 7, the doctors saw that the wound was "in a bad condition" and "hardenings that impeded healing" had formed in it. A new operation followed, the calcifications were removed, but the pain experienced by the king was unbearable.

The incisions were repeated on December 8 and 9, 1686, but a month passed before the king finally recovered. Just think, France could have lost the "sun king" due to banal hemorrhoids! As a sign of solidarity with the monarch, Philippe de Coursillon, the Marquis da Danjot in 1687, Louis-Joseph, Duke of Vendome in 1691 underwent the same operation.

It remains only to marvel at the courage of the spoiled and pampered king! I will mention the chief physicians of Louis XIV: Jacques Cousinot (1587-1646), Francois Voltier (1580-1652), Antoine Vallot (1594-1671), Antoine d "Aken (1620-1696), Guy-Chrissant Fagon (1638-1718).

Can Louis's life be called happy? Probably it is possible: he did a lot, saw great France, was loved and loved, remained in history forever ... But, as often happens, the end of this long life was darkened.

In less than a year - from April 14, 1711 to March 8, 1712 - death took away the son of Louis Monsigneur, the king's daughter-in-law, the Duchess of Bourbon, the Princess of Savoy, his grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, the second heir, and a few days later the eldest of his great-grandchildren, the Duke of Breton, third heir.

In 1713 the Duke of Alencon, the king's great-grandson, died, in 1741 his grandson, the Duke of Berry. The king's son died from smallpox, his daughter-in-law and grandson from measles. The deaths of all the princes in a row plunged France into horror. They assumed poisoning and blamed everything on Philip II of Orleans, the future regent of the throne, whom each death brought closer to the crown.

The king was holding on with all his might, buying time for his minor heir. For a long time he really amazed everyone with the strength of his health: back in 1706 he slept with the windows open, was not afraid of “neither heat nor cold,” continued to use the services of his favorites. But in 1715, on August 10, at Versailles, the king suddenly felt unwell and with great difficulty walked from his study to his prayer bench.

The next day, he still held a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, gave an audience, but on August 12, the king had severe pain in his leg. Guy-Cressan Fagon makes a diagnosis, which in the modern interpretation sounds like sciatica, and prescribes routine treatment. The king still leads his usual way of life, but on August 13, the pain intensifies so much that the monarch asks to be transferred to the church in an armchair, although at the subsequent reception of the Persian ambassador he stood on his feet throughout the ceremony.

History has not preserved the progress of the diagnostic search for doctors, but they were mistaken from the very beginning and kept their diagnosis like a flag. Note that the flag turned out to be black ...

On August 14, pain in the foot, lower leg and hip no longer allowed the king to walk, he was everywhere worn in an armchair. Only then did G. Fagon show the first signs of anxiety. He himself, the attending physician Boudin, the pharmacist Biot, the first surgeon Georges Marechal stay overnight in the king's chambers, so that they can be at hand at the right moment.

Louis spent a bad, very restless night, tormented by pain and forebodings. On August 15, he receives visitors lying down, sleeps badly at night, he is tormented by pain in his leg and thirst. On August 17th, a tremendous chill joined the pain, and - an amazing thing! - Fagon does not change the diagnosis.

The doctors are completely at a loss. Now we cannot imagine life without a medical thermometer, and then doctors did not know this simple tool. Fever was determined by putting a hand to the patient's forehead or by the quality of the pulse, because only a few doctors had a “pulse clock” (a prototype of a stopwatch) invented by D. Floyer.

Bottles of mineral water are brought to Louis and he is even given a massage. On August 21, a council was convened at the king's bedside, which probably seemed ominous to the patient: the doctors of that time wore black robes, like the priests, and a priest's visit in such cases did not mean anything good ...

Completely bewildered, venerable doctors give Louis a mixture of cassia and a laxative, then add quinine with water, donkey milk to the treatment, and finally bandage a leg, which was in a terrible state: "all covered with black grooves, which looked very much like gangrene."

The king suffered until August 25, his name day, when in the evening unbearable pain pierced his body and terrible convulsions began. Louis lost consciousness and his pulse disappeared. Having regained consciousness, the king demanded the communion of the Holy Mysteries ... The surgeons came to him to make an unnecessary dressing. On August 26, at about 10 am, doctors bandaged the leg and made several cuts to the bone. They saw that gangrene affected the muscles of the lower leg to the full thickness and realized that no medicine would help the king.

But Louis was not destined to calmly retreat to a better world: on August 27, a certain Monsieur Brenne appeared in Versailles, who brought with him "the most effective elixir" capable of overcoming gangrene, even "internal". The doctors, already resigned to their helplessness, took the medicine from the charlatan, put 10 drops in three tablespoons of Alicante wine and gave the king to drink this drug, which had a disgusting smell.

Louis dutifully poured this abomination into himself, saying: "I am obliged to obey the doctors." Disgusting swill began to be given regularly to the dying man, but the gangrene "progressed very strongly", and the king, who was in a semi-conscious state, said that he was "disappearing."

On August 30, Louis fell into stupor (he still reacted to the calls), but, waking up, he still found the strength to read Ave Maria and Credo with the prelates ... Four days before his 77th birthday, Louis “gave God his soul without the slightest effort, like a candle that goes out "...

History knows at least two episodes similar to the case of Louis XIV, who, undoubtedly, suffered from obliterating atherosclerosis, the level of the lesion being the iliac artery. This is the disease of JB Tito and F. Franco. They could not be helped even 250 years later.

Epicurus once said: "The ability to live well and die well is one and the same science," but Z. Freud corrected him: "Physiology is fate." Both aphorisms seem to be quite applicable to Louis XIV. He lived, of course, sinfully, but beautifully, and died terribly.

But the history of the king's illness is not interesting at all. On the one hand, it demonstrates the level of medicine at that time. It would seem that William Harvey (1578-1657) has already made his discovery - by the way, it was the French doctors who greeted him most hostilely, very soon a revolutionary in diagnostics L. Auenbrugger will be born, and French doctors are in dogmatic captivity of medieval scholasticism and alchemy.

Louis XIII, the father of Louis XIV, was subjected to 47 bloodletting within 10 months, after which he died. Contrary to the popular version about the death of the great Italian artist Rafael Santi at the age of 37 from an excess of love for his beloved Fornarina, he most likely died from an excessive amount of bloodletting, which was prescribed to him as an "antiphlogistic" remedy for an unknown febrile illness.

From an excess of bloodletting died: the famous French philosopher, mathematician and physicist R. Descartes; the French philosopher and physician J. Lametrie, who considered the human body as a self-winding watch; the first US President D. Washington (however, there is another version - diphtheria).

Moscow doctors (already in the middle of the 19th century) completely bled Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. It is not clear why doctors so stubbornly held on to the humoral theory of the origin of all diseases, the theory of "spoilage of juices and liquids", which are the basis of life. It seems that even simple everyday common sense contradicted this.

After all, they saw that a bullet wound, or a thrust with a sword, or a blow with a sword did not immediately lead a person to death, and the picture of the disease was always the same: inflammation of the wound, fever, blurred consciousness of the patient and death. After all, he healed wounds with an infusion of hot oil and bandages Ambroise Paré. He did not think that this would somehow change the movement and quality of the body's juices!

But this method was used by Avicenna, whose works were considered classical in Europe. No, everything went along some shamanic path.

The case of Louis XIV is also interesting in that he, no doubt, suffered from a lesion of the venous system (he probably also had varicose veins), a particular case of which is hemorrhoids, and atherosclerosis of the arteries of the lower extremities. As for hemorrhoids, in general, everything is clear: the rectum is located the lowest in any position of the body, which, all other things being equal, the difficulty of blood circulation added the influence of gravity.

Stagnation of blood also develops due to the pressure of the contents of the intestine, and the king, as already mentioned, suffered from constipation. Hemorrhoids have always been a dubious "property" of scientists, officials and musicians, that is, people leading a predominantly sedentary lifestyle.

And besides, the king, who was sitting all the time on a soft (even the throne was upholstered with velvet), had a warming compress in the rectum all the time! And this leads to chronic expansion of her veins. Although hemorrhoids can not only "incubate", but also "insist" and "find", Louis just incubated him.

However, at the time of Louis, doctors still adhered to the theory of Hippocrates, who considered hemorrhoids to be a tumor of the vessels of the rectum. Hence the barbaric operation that Louis had to endure. But the most interesting thing is that bloodletting in cases of venous plethora relieves the patient's condition, and here the doctors hit the spot.

In a very short time, leeches, which France bought from Russia in millions of pieces, will come to the place of bloodletting. "Bloodletting and leeches shed more blood than Napoleon's wars," says a well-known aphorism. A curious thing is how the French doctors liked to portray doctors.

J.-B. Moliere, a talented contemporary of the "sun king", doctors look shameless and limited charlatans, Maupassant portrayed them as helpless but bloodthirsty vultures, "contemplators of death." They look prettier in O. de Balzac's, but their appearance as a whole council at the patient's bedside - in black robes, with gloomy-focused faces - did not promise the patient anything good. One can only imagine what Louis XIV felt when he saw them!

As for the king's second disease, gangrene, it was undoubtedly caused by atherosclerosis. Doctors of that time, no doubt, knew the aphorism of K. Galen, an outstanding Roman doctor of the times of gladiatorial battles: “Many channels, scattered throughout all parts of the body, transmit blood to these parts, just as the channels of a garden transmit moisture, and the gaps separating these channels are so amazingly disposed by nature that they never lack the blood they need to absorb, and are never overwhelmed with blood. "

W. Harvey, an English physician, showed what kind of canals they are, and it would seem that it should be clear that if you block the canal, there will be no more moisture in the garden (blood in the tissue). The average life expectancy of ordinary French people in those days was small, but of course there were old people, and doctors could not ignore the changes in their arteries.

“A person is as old as his arteries,” doctors say. But this has always been the case. The quality of the arterial wall is inherited and depends on the harmfulness to which a person has exposed it during his life.

The king, no doubt, did not move much, and ate well and abundantly. There is a well-known aphorism of D. Cheyne, who lost weight from 160 kg to the norm: “Every prudent person over fifty should at least reduce the amount of his food, and if he wants to continue to avoid important and dangerous diseases and keep his feelings to the end and ability, then every seven years he must gradually and sensitively moderate his appetite and finally leave life the same way he entered it, even if he had to switch to a child's diet. "

Of course, Louis did not plan to change anything in his lifestyle, but gout acted much worse than the diet on his vessels.

A long time ago, doctors noticed that in patients with gout, blood vessels are affected, often angina pectoris and other signs of atherosclerotic vascular lesions. Toxins of impaired metabolism can cause degenerative changes in the middle and outer membranes of the arteries, doctors believed not so long ago

Gout leads to kidney damage, which causes hypertension and secondary atherosclerosis, we say now. But still there is more reason to think that Louis had the so-called. "Senile arteriosclerosis": large arteries are dilated and tortuous and have thin and stubborn walls, while small arteries become stubborn tubes.

It is in such arteries that atherosclerotic plaques and blood clots form, one of which, probably, killed Louis XIV.

I am convinced that Louis did not have a prior intermittent claudication. The king hardly walked, so what happened was a bolt from the blue. He could be saved only by a "guillotine", one-step amputation of the (high) thigh, but without pain medications and anesthesia, this would be a death sentence.

And the bloodletting in this case only intensified the anemization of the already exsanguinated limb. Louis XIV was able to build a lot, but even the "sun king" could not transfer modern medicine for a century ahead, at the time of Larrey or N. I. Pirogov ...

Nikolay Larinsky, 2001-2013

Louis XIV de Bourbon, who received the name Louis-Dieudonne at birth ("God-given",