The brilliant success of Richelieu’s policy was evident when the peace of Westphalia left France with an Eastern frontier bordering on the Rhine. The Frankish kingdom of Charles the Great, for which France had been struggling for centuries, was secured. In 1661, after the death of Mazarin, Louis found that he could carry the policy of centralization one step further. As he himself put it, “In future, gentlemen, I shall be my own Prime Minister.”
PIERRE PUGET
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
Church of St. Philip of Neri, Genoa
One of Louis’ first acts as a complete autocrat was to commence building the Palace at Versailles. The place lay ten miles out of Paris, and the king had visited it in 1651 when a lad of thirteen. The Château evidently engaged his fancy, for between 1662 and 1669 he did much to adorn the parks. At the end of this time he started to build in real earnest. The magnitude of the work can be realized from the fact that 36,000 men were still at work in the palace and park when the Court moved in on May 6, 1682. Some twenty million pounds sterling were spent in twenty years. But expense, after all, was a small consideration. The palace at Versailles was not a luxury but a necessity. It was to Louis XIV. what Fontainebleau had been to Francis I.
The first impulse of the courtly party had been to make the Louvre the headquarters of Louis. Colbert, Louis’ financial adviser at the time, was an ardent advocate of the Louvre. So much importance did he attach to the scheme that in 1665 the great Bernini was summoned from Italy to advise as to extension of the Louvre. Louis’ judgment was sounder than that of Colbert’s in this matter. He saw that a Court in the centre of Paris was out of the question. The nobles composing it would have been far too easily influenced by intrigues started amongst the restless bourgeoisie of the French capital. Moreover, apart from this political objection, there was the practical difficulty caused by the absence of sufficient space. Room for a great palace was not the only requirement. If the nobility were to be permanently settled around the king, a small township was essential. The hotels de Richelieu, de Condé, de Soissons, de Noailles, du Plessis, de Guise, and de Saint Simon, which eventually arose at Versailles, had to be provided for.
Yet Colbert, who realized the difficulty of meeting the heavy expenditure, was very insistent. In a last effort to dissuade Louis from the enterprise he wrote:
“Your Majesty knows that, apart from brilliant actions in war, nothing marks better the grandeur and genius of princes than their buildings, and that posterity measures them by the standard of the superb edifices which they erect during their lives. Oh, what a pity that the greatest King, and the most virtuous, should be measured by the standard of Versailles.”
Louis, however, had his way, and Colbert was forced to find the necessary funds.