Louis XIV

King Louis as a child :

Sadly it was to late to go to the gardens, so in my next trip to Paris, I'll return to Versailles!

You will have to devote a whole day to the gardens exclusively umigon for they are so huge and there is so much to see.
I am lucky enough to live in Paris and go and see them every year during the summer and am always amazed at their beauty and magnificence ! Besides a lot of work is done by the gardeners and there frequently new things to see.
For all those who plan to visit Versailles gardens, I recommend you to do it in spring or during the summer and during the week end to see les grandes eaux (all the fountains are working) - almost magical !

You will have to devote a whole day to the gardens exclusively umigon for they are so huge and there is so much to see.
I am lucky enough to live in Paris and go and see them every year during the summer and am always amazed at their beauty and magnificence ! Besides a lot of work is done by the gardeners and there frequently new things to see.
For all those who plan to visit Versailles gardens, I recommend you to do it in spring or during the summer and during the week end to see les grandes eaux (all the fountains are working) - almost magical !

 Agneschen is right visiting the gardens during Les grandes Eaux is something spectacular..... there is also music.... Versailles is so beautiful, an dif you wait for sunset it is even more beautiful it gives a sensation of mistery.

Wonderfull exhibition at Versailles:

http://gpdhome.typepad.com/royalblognl_news_summary/2009/10/versailles-showing-off-louis-xiv.html

courtesy hja

Paris anyone? This would be worth going for!

Madame de Montespan once said that Louis XIV did not lover her, that he thought as he was King he should have the most beautiful Woman at Court as his Mistress (paraphrased) which I always found extremely interesting and shrewd of her. Interesting because She lasted so long! But I came across this about Louis XIV:

The Duchesse de Bourgogne being in the family way this spring, was much inconvenienced. The King wished to go to Fontainebleau at the commencement of the fine season, contrary to his usual custom; and had declared this wish. In the mean time he desired to pay visits to Marly. Madame de Bourgogne much amused him; he could not do without her, yet so much movement was not suitable to her state. Madame de Maintenon was uneasy, and Fagon gently intimated his opinion. This annoyed the King, accustomed to restrain himself for nothing, and spoiled by having seen his mistresses travel when big with child, or when just recovering from their confinement, and always in full dress. The hints against going to Marly bothered him, but did not make him give them up. All he would consent to was, that the journey should put off from the day after Quasimodo to the Wednesday of the following week; but nothing could make him delay his amusement, beyond that time, or induce him to allow the Princess to remain at Versailles.
On the following Saturday, as the King was taking a walk after mass, and amusing himself at the carp basin between the Chateau and the Perspective, we saw the Duchesse de Lude coming towards him on foot and all alone, which, as no lady was with the King, was a rarity in the morning. We understood that she had something important to say to him, and when he was a short distance from her, we stopped so as to allow him to join her alone. The interview was not long. She went away again, and the King came back towards us and near the carps without saying a word. Each saw clearly what was in the wind, and nobody was eager to speak. At last the King, when quite close to the basin, looked at the principal people around, and without addressing anybody, said, with an air of vexation, these few words:

"The Duchesse de Bourgogne is hurt."

M. de la Rochefoucauld at once uttered an exclamation. M. de Bouillon, the Duc de Tresmes, and Marechal de Boufflers repeated in a, low tone the words I have named; and M. de la Rochefoucauld returning to the charge, declared emphatically that it was the greatest misfortune in the world, and that as she had already wounded herself on other occasions, she might never, perhaps, have any more children.

"And if so," interrupted the King all on a sudden, with anger, "what is that to me? Has she not already a son; and if he should die, is not the Duc de Berry old enough to marry and have one? What matters it to the who succeeds me,—the one or the other? Are the not all equally my grandchildren?" And immediately, with impetuosity he added, "Thank God, she is wounded, since she was to be so; and I shall no longer be annoyed in my journeys and in everything I wish to do, by the representations of doctors, and the reasonings of matrons. I shall go and come at my pleasure, and shall be left in peace."

A silence so deep that an ant might be heard to walk, succeeded this strange outburst. All eyes were lowered; no one hardly dared to breathe. All remained stupefied. Even the domestics and the gardeners stood motionless.
This silence lasted more than a quarter of an hour. The King broke it as he leaned upon a balustrade to speak of a carp. Nobody replied. He addressed himself afterwards on the subject of these carps to domestics, who did not ordinarily join in the conversation. Nothing but carps was spoken of with them. All was languishing, and the King went away some time after. As soon as we dared look at each other—out of his sight, our eyes met and told all. Everybody there was for the moment the confidant of his neighbour. We admired—we marvelled—we grieved, we shrugged our shoulders. However distant may be that scene, it is always equally present to me. M. de la Rochefoucauld was in a fury, and this time without being wrong. The chief ecuyer was ready to faint with affright; I myself examined everybody with my eyes and ears, and was satisfied with myself for having long since thought that the King loved and cared for himself alone, and was himself his only object in life.

from Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court by Duc de Saint-Simon

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3865/pg3865.html

I think it was Antonia Fraser in 'Love and Louis XIV', who suggested that Louis was not so completely selfish as this anecdote suggests - that essentially he felt guilty about having caused the Duchesse de Bourgogne's miscarriage and this outburst was a sort of defensive outburst.  It certainly wasn't true "that the King loved and cared for himself alone, and was himself his only object in life" - he was absolutely shattered by the death of Marie Adelaide and his grandson Louis, and Saint Simon rages for chapter after chapter about his fondness for his bastard children.  It is no doubt true that he was selfish, but it's hardly surprising given that from his birth he had been treated as the centre of the universe, and very few people tended to stand up to him - for example, the Duchesse de Bourgogne in Saint Simon's story did not appear to have voiced an opinion, and Madame de Maintenon was 'uneasy' while Fagon was 'gentle'.  I can't recall that Louis XIV ever over-ruled the doctors again with regard to Marie Adelaide's health - a shame, since they managed to kill her with bleeding, emetics and the help of the measles by the time she was 26. 

I think Madame de Montespan was probably right about Louis XIV's love for her, but I'm not really sure she was in love with him either.  I've always thought Louise de La Valliere was the only woman who truly loved him for himself, insofar as she would have loved him if he wasn't the King of France.  I don't think it really proves that Louis XIV was incapable of loving, although undoubtedly he was inclined to put himself first - but he made quite tender gestures towards Madame de Maintenon for example, and as I said loved at least some of his children and certainly Marie Adelaide.

I find Louis XIV one of the most interesting of the Kings of France even with all the material I have read I am still trying to make up my mind how deeply he loved! Favored yes.....planned great marriages for.... hoped for honor and glory for his sons..but he inspired an element of fear with that majesty! I note that Saint- Simon refers to the Duc du Maine as that dear son. But it almost seemed as if Madame Maintenon loved them and plotted for them and their titles much more even than the King.

For some time past Madame de Maintenon, even more than the King, had thought of nothing else than how to raise the remaining illegitimate children, and wished to marry Mademoiselle de Blois (second daughter of the King and of Madame de Montespan) to Monsieur the Duc de Chartres. The Duc de Chartres was the sole nephew of the King, and was much above the Princes of the blood by his rank of Grandson of France, and by the Court that Monsieur his father kept up.

 With his Mistresses he could seem to capitulate at their tears but he could be absolutely ruthless also. As he got older he seemed to get more sentimental. I am in the process now as to evaluating his feeling for Madame Maintenon and hers for him.
As I said a very interesting King!

Saint Simon mentions (and he revered Louis XIV) that in his anger Louis XIV did this after The Duc de Maine disgraced himself in letting the Enemy slip away through indecision:   

All our army was in despair, and officers and soldiers made no scruple of expressing their anger and contempt. M. de Villeroy, more outraged than anybody else, was yet too good a courtier to excuse himself at the expense of M. du Maine. He simply wrote to the King, that he had been deceived in those hopes of success which appeared certain the day before, entered into no further details, and resigned himself to all that might happen. The King, who had counted the hours until news of a great and decisive victory should reach him, was very much surprised when this letter came: he saw at once that something strange had happened of which no intelligence had been sent: he searched the gazettes of Holland; in one he read of a great action said to have been fought, and in which M. du Maine had been grievously wounded; in the next the news of the action was contradicted, and M. du Maine was declared to have received no wounds at all. In order to learn what had really taken place, the King sent for Lavienne, a man he was in the habit of consulting when he wanted to learn things no one else dared to tell him.

This Lavienne had been a bath-keeper much in vogue in Paris, and had become bath-keeper to the King at the time of his amours. He had pleased by his drugs, which had frequently put the King in a state to enjoy himself more, and this road had led Lavienne to become one of the four chief valets de chambre. He was a very honest man, but coarse, rough, and free-spoken; it was this last quality which made him useful in the manner I have before mentioned. From Lavienne the King, but not without difficulty, learned the truth: it threw him into despair. The other illegitimate children were favourites with him, but it was upon M. du Maine that all his hopes were placed. They now fell to the ground, and the grief of the King was insupportable: he felt deeply for that dear son whose troops had become the laughing stock of the army; he felt the railleries that, as the gazettes showed him, foreigners were heaping upon his forces; and his vexation was inconceivable.

This Prince, so equal in his manners, so thoroughly master of his lightest movements, even upon the gravest occasions, succumbed under this event. On rising from the table at Marly he saw a servant who, while taking away the dessert, helped himself to a biscuit, which he put in his pocket. On the instant, the King forgets his dignity, and cane in hand runs to this valet (who little suspected what was in store for him), strikes him; abuses him, and breaks the cane upon his body! The truth is, 'twas only a reed, and snapped easily. However, the stump in his hand, he walked away like a man quite beside himself, continuing to abuse this valet, and entered Madame de Maintenon's room, where he remained nearly an hour. Upon coming out he met Father la Chaise. "My father," said the King to him, in a very loud voice, "I have beaten a knave and broken my cane over his shoulders, but I do not think I have offended God." Everybody around trembled at this public confession, and the poor priest muttered a semblance of approval between his teeth, to avoid irritating the King more. The noise that the affair made and the terror it inspired may be imagined; for nobody could divine for some time the cause; and everybody easily understood that that which had appeared could not be the real one. To finish with this matter, once for all, let us add here the saying of M. d'Elboeuf. Courtier though he was, the upward flight of the illegitimate children weighed upon his heart. As the campaign was at its close and the Princes were about to depart, he begged M. du Maine before everybody to say where he expected to serve during the next campaign, because wherever it might be he should like to be there also.

I think pride had a lot to do with the titling and marriages of his illegitimate Children as well as the need to control the Princes of the Blood and the Peerage.  from Volume I same link

The Marechal de Boufflers, who had defended Namur, was made Duke, and those who had served under him were variously rewarded. This gave occasion for the Prince of Orange to say, that the King recompensed more liberally the loss of a place than he could the conquest of one. The army retired into winter-quarters at the end of October, and the Generals went to Paris.

As to Louise de la Valliere I agree with you. I think She truly loved the King I only wish She had entered the Convent a little sooner the second time for her own sake.

Saint Simon was a brilliant memorialist but not an especially good interpreter of Louis XIV or indeed Madame de Maintenon, the latter of course being coloured by Saint Simon's extreme hatred of her invidious position and her promotion of Louis XIV's bastards.  There is in fact a very good reason why Louis XIV promoted his illigitimate children and intermarried them with the princes of the blood, and that was that Louis only had a single legitimate son and a few nieces to marry dynastically.  He was well aware of the problems of the Fronde and the need to keep the nobility under his thumb - Versailles was an instrument for doing just that as well.  He could not marry his illigitimate children into foreign royal families - he got a very dusty answer from William of Orange when he tried - but he could bribe the Condes and the Contis and the Orleans into these marriages.  Such near alliances gave them a much stronger cause to support the throne, and indeed the medieval Dukes of Burgandy had done exactly the same with their illegitimate offspring for precisely the same reasons.   Madame de Maintenon no doubt loved them (or at least the Duc du Maine) and promoted their interests but she would not have got very far if Louis had not had the same idea and a very good political need.  Saint Simon could not see beyond the fact that he was 'polluting' the royal blood lines with bastardy, and that the rights of the French dukes were being imposed upon, and he interpreted this as Madame de Maintenon's perverted love of Louis' bastards and her evil plotting to somehow pull the wool over his eyes.  But any studies of Madame de Maintenon show that although she did influence Louis XIV, it was hard work and he was no pushover.  If he wanted to promote his illigitimate children he did not do so because of his wife's 'plotting' but because he felt he had good reasons for it which were not to do with sentiment.  And possibly because he was fond of them, although as Mari says it's difficult to know how deeply he loved people.