Course Schedule: Fridays 10:30 am – 12:00 noon.
19 Nov.
– Lecture at Gallery – Sunset:
The end of the reign of Louis XIV, 1680-1715
26
Nov. – Lecture at Gallery – A new Dawn: Paris under the Regent Philippe
d’Orléans, 1715-1723.
3 Dec. – Visit – Hôtel de Soubise. Meet in courtyard of
60 rue des Francs Bourgeois 75003.
Métro:
Rambuteau or Hôtel de Ville.
10
Dec. – Visit – End of the Grand Style and Watteau. Musée du
Louvre. Meet near information desk
inside the pyramid with ticket in hand at 10:15.
Bibliography:
Anthony Blunt, Art and Architecture in France 1500-1700,
Pelican History of Art, Penguin (latest edition).
Anthony Sutcliffe, Paris, an Architectural History, Yale
University Press.
Antonia Fraser, Love and Louis XIV, Phoenix.
Christine
Pevitt, Philippe d’Orléans,
Regent of France Atlantic Monthly.
Louis XIV 1638 -1715
1615 – Marriage of Louis’ parents Louis XIII of France,
son of Henri IV and Marie de Medici, with Anne of Austria, Spanish princess
daughter of Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria.
1638 - Louis XIV was born
on 5 September 1638 in the Château de
Saint-Germain-en-Laye. His birth came after 23 years of his
estranged parents' childlessness, leading contemporaries to regard him as a
divine gift, and his birth, a miracle. Thus, he was named "Louis-Dieudonné"
(Louis-God-given).
1640 – Birth of Louis’ younger brother, Philippe, Duke of
Anjou, later Orléans, “Monsieur”.
1642 – Death of Louis XIII’s powerful Prime Minister,
Cardinal Richelieu.
1643 – Death of
Louis XIII on 14 May. Anne had his will annulled by the Parlement de Paris
abolished the regency council and became sole regent. She names Mazarin, a former assistant of Richelieu, Prime Minister.
1647 – Louis is seriously ill with smallpox. He recovers but remains permanently marked.
1648 - Mazarin successfully negotiates the Peace of Westphalia
bringing to an end the Thirty Years War in Germany, although war continues
between France and Spain till the Treaty of the
Pyrenees in 1659. Its terms ensured Dutch independence from Spain. Austria ceded to
France all Habsburg
lands and claims in Alsace
and acknowledged French de facto
sovereignty over the Three Bishoprics.
Outbreak of the Fronde,
a rebellion of the Paris parlementaires
(high court judges) over a taxation dispute, and later (1650) also many great
nobles (Louis’ uncle Gaston d’Orléans, his cousin the Grande Mademoiselle, and
Princes of the Blood like Condé and Conti) against the foreign Queen regent and
her Italian prime minister. Founding of the Académie des Beaux Arts.
1651 – Anne and Louis are prevented by the Parisians from
escaping Paris and are virtual prisoners in their residence, the Palais-Royal.
Louis is declared adult by a traditional Lit
de Justice.
1653 – With Louis’s coming-of-age and coronation the Fronde gradually looses steam and ends
when Mazarin returns triumphant after having fled into exile on several
occasions.
1654 – Sacre of Louis XIV in Reims.
1658 – Louis is ill with typhus. He loses his hair and
begins wearing wigs imitated by his courtiers. Begins wearing a moustache.
1659 - Treaty of the Pyrenees puts an end to war with
Spain.
1660 - Louis marries Maria Theresa eldest daughter of
Philip IV of Spain.
1661 - At Mazarin’s death in 1661, Louis declares he will govern alone without naming a Prime
Minister. Orders the arrest of Nicolas
Fouquet, the flamboyant and corrupt superintendant of finances. Birth of
the Dauphin, Louis de France.
Begins first enlargements of château
de Versailles directed by Louis Le Vau (until 1668). The gardens are laid
out by André le Nôtre.
1662 – Beginning of liaison with Louise de la Vallière.
1664 – First great celebration at Versailles - Les Plaisirs de l’Isle Enchantée.
1665 – Names Jean-Baptiste Colbert his new superintendant of finances. The death of Philip IV of Spain in 1665
precipitated the War of Devolution on the excuse that the Spanish province of
Brabant should have devolved to Louis’
Spanish Queen Maria Theresa. Bernini arrives in Paris to design new addition to the palace of
the Louvre. His plans will eventually be rejected.
1667 – Creation of the Code
Louis to modernize and justice in the Kingdom. Colbert names La Reynie
police lieutenant of Paris, bringing order into turbulent city.
1668 – At first in favor of the French, the Dutch take
fright at French successes and form the triple alliance with Sweden and England
against Louis. Beginning of liaison with Athénais
de Montespan. Le Vau begins building of great apartments, the “first envelope” at Versailles (until
1670).
1669 - Conclusion of the Treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle puts an end to the war.
1670 - Louis decides to demolish the northern walls of
Paris in 1670 and replace them with wide tree-lined boulevards.
1671 – The young secretary of War Le Tellier, marquis de
Louvois overtakes the 52-year old Colbert in his influence over the young King.
1672 – Beginning of Franco-Dutch War. The
rapid invasion and occupation of most of the Netherlands precipitates a coup,
toppling the stadtholder De Witt and bringing William III to power. Spain and
the Emperor join the Dutch alliance though England withdraws.
1678 - The Treaty of Nijmegen brings
war to an end. Louis returns all captured Dutch territory, but gains more
territory in the Spanish Netherlands and the province of Franche-Comté. Jules
Hardouin-Mansart begins Hall of Mirrors
and the new south (midi) and north wings of Versailles, extends the courtyard
and builds the new stables (until 1686).
1679 – Disgrace of Madame de Montespan.
1680 – Creation of the Comédie-Française.
1682 - Louis officially moves the royal court to
Versailles. Cavelier de La
Salle claims the vast Mississippi basin in America for Louis, naming
it "Louisiane".
1683 – Death of the Queen Maria Theresa.
Louis secretly marries his mistress, Madame de
Maintenon on 10 October 1683 at Versailles. Death of Colbert.
1684 – With the Truce of Ratisbon Spain,
cedes most of the conquered territories to France for a duration of 20 years.
1685 - Louis revokes the Edict of Nantes tolerating
Protestants in the kingdom of France. They now have to convert voluntarily or
forcibly. Painful removal of
Louis’ teeth removed along with part of his upper jaw.
1686 - On the advice of his secret wife, Madame de
Maintenon, Louis signed letters patent creating the “Institut de
Saint-Louis” at Saint-Cyr for “filles
pauvres de la noblesse”. Painful removal of anal fistula. Begins suffering
from gout. He shaves his moustache.
1688 - War of the League of Augsburg (1688–1697) against Spain,
Sweden, Saxony and Bavaria and later William III’s England, is caused by
dynastic hereditary quarrels and the Emperor’s continued resentment of the
spread of French territories and power.
1693 – The King stops leading his armies at the front.
1697 - The Treaty of Ryswick ends the War of the League of
Augsburg. Louis secures permanent French sovereignty
over all of Alsace, including Strasbourg, thus
guaranteeing the Rhine as the Franco-German border.
1699 – Founding of the Académie
des Sciences (first gathered by Colbert in 1666).
1701 – Death of Charles II last Hapsburg King of Spain who
leaves his domains in his will to Louis’ grandson the Duke of Anjou, who
becomes the new King with the title of Philip V. The rest of Europe turns
against Spain and France launching the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 –
1714). Death of Philippe,
“Monsieur”, Louis’ brother.
1711 - Death of the Dauphin (“Monseigneur”).
1712 – Death of Monseigneur’s son, the Duke of Burgundy
soon followed by his elder son, Louis, Duke of
Brittany.
1715 - Louis receives a Persian embassy
in Versailles. After a reign of 72 years, Louis dies of gangrene at Versailles on
1 September, 1715, four days before his 77th birthday. He is buried in the
royal basilica of St Denis. He is succeeded by his last remaining great grandson, last son of Burgundy, a
five-year old boy, the duke of Anjou, now Louis XV. Philippe d’Orléans, the
late King’s nephew has Louis’s will annulled in the Parlement de Paris after his death and makes himself sole Regent of
the kingdom.
Prinicipal
artistic and cultural figures of the end of the Reign:
André Charles Boulle
(1642 – 1732) - Ebéniste
Antoine Coypel
(1661 – 1722) - Painter
Antoine Coysevox
(1640 – 1720) – Sculptor
François Desportes
(1661 – 1743) – Animal painter
François Girardon
(1628 – 1715) - Sculptor
Jules Hardouin-Mansart
(1646 – 1708) - Architect
Pierre Denis Martin
(1663 – 1742) – Architecture painter
Charles de La
Fosse (1636 - 1716) - Painter
Nicolas de Largillière
(1656 – 1746) – Portrait painter
Charles Le Brun
(1619 - 1690) - Painter, Director of Academy of Fine Arts
Adam Franz van
der Meulen (1632-1690) – Battle painter
André Le Nôtre
(1613 – 1700) - Gardener
Pierre Mignard
(1612 - 1695) – Painter and 2nd Premier
Peintre du Roi after Le Brun
Alexandre Jean Oppenordt
(1639 – 1715) - Ebéniste
Joseph Parrocel
(1646 – 1704) – Battle painter
Jean Racine (1639-1699)
playwright
Hyacinthe Rigaud
(1659 – 1743) – Portrait painter
