Crossing the Rue de Rivoli in the vicinity of the Louvre, we come to another palace—the Palais-Royal—of less ancient origin than the Louvre or the Tuileries, and never, strictly speaking, a royal palace. Built in the earlier years of the seventeenth century by Louis XIII’s powerful statesman, Cardinal Richelieu, it was known until 1643 as the Palais-Cardinal. Richelieu had lived at 20 and 23 of the Place-Royale, now Place des Vosges, and at the mansion known as the Petit Luxembourg, Rue de Vaugirard. The great man determined to erect for himself a more splendid residence, and made choice of the triangular site formed by the Rue des Bons-Enfants, Rue St-Honoré and the city wall of Charles V, whereon to build. Several big mansions encumbered the spot. Richelieu bought them all, had their walls razed, gave the work of construction into the hands of Jacques de Merrier. That was in the year 1629. The central mansion was ready for habitation four years later; additions were made, more hôtels bought and razed during succeeding years. Not content with mere courts and gardens around his palace, the Cardinal acquired yet another mansion, the hôtel Sillery, in order to make upon its site a fine square in front of his sumptuous dwelling. He did not live to see its walls knocked down. A few days after the completion of this purchase the famous statesman lay dead. It was then—a month or two later—that the Palais-Cardinal became the Palais-Royal. By his will, Richelieu bequeathed his palace to his King, Louis XIII, who died a few months later. Anne d’Autriche, mother of the young Louis XIV, was living at the Louvre which, in a continual state of reparation and enlargement, was not a comfortable home. Richelieu’s fine new mansion tempted her. It was truly of royal aspect and dimensions, and was fitted with all “the modern conveniences and comforts” of that day. To quote the words of a versifier of the time:
“Non, l’Univers ne peut rien voir d’égal.
Aux superbes dehors du Palais Cardinal.
Toute une ville entière avec pompe bâtie;
Semble d’un vieux fossé par miracle sortie.
Et nous fait présumer à ses superbes toits
Que tous ses habitants sont des Dieux ou des Rois.”
PALAIS-ROYAL
In 1643 the Queen moved across to it with her family. When the King left it in 1652, Henriette of England, widow of Charles I, lived there for a time. In 1672 Louis XIV made it over to his brother the duc d’Orléans, who did some rebuilding, but the most drastic changes were made in the vast construction close upon Revolutionary days. Then, in 1784, Philippe-Égalité, finding himself in an impecunious condition, conceived a fine plan for making money. Round three sides of the extensive garden of his palace he built galleries lined with premises to let—shops, etc.—and opened out around them three public thoroughfares: Rue de Valois, Rue Beaujolais, Rue Montpensier. The garden thus truncated is the Jardin du Palais-Royal as we know it to-day. It was even in those days semi-public. Parisians from all time have loved a fine garden, and the population of the city resented this curtailment. They resented more especially the mercantile spirit which had prompted it.
It was in the year 1787 that the theatre known subsequently as the Comédie Française, more familiarly the “Français,” was built. The artistes of the Variétés Amusantes played there then, and for several succeeding years. The theatre Palais-Royal had already been built, bore many successive different names and became for a time the Théâtre Montansier, later Théâtre de la Montagne. The fourth side of the palace had been left unfinished. The duc d’Orléans had planned its completion in magnificent style. The outbreak of the Revolution put a stop to all such plans. Temporary wooden galleries had been built in 1784. They were burnt down in 1828 and replaced by the Galerie d’Orléans, now let out in flats.
Richelieu was titular Superintendent-General of the Marine: some of the friezes and bas-reliefs illustrative of this office, decorating the Galerie des Proues, are still to be seen there. But of the great statesman’s original palace comparatively little remains. The duc d’Orléans, Regent for Louis XV, razed a great part of Richelieu’s construction; many of the walls of the palace as we know it date from his time—1702-23. Disastrous fires wrought havoc in 1763 and 1781. The financially inspired transformations of Philippe-Égalité made in 1786, and finally the incendiary work of the Commune in 1871, changed the whole aspect of the palace. It went through many phases also during the Revolution. Seized as national property, it was known for a time as Palais-Égalité. Revolutionary meetings took place in its gardens. Revolutionary clubs were organized in its galleries. The statue of Camille Desmoulins, set up in recent years—1905—records that decisive day, July 12th, 1789, when Desmoulins, haranguing the crowd, hoisted a green cocarde in sign of hope. That garden was thenceforth through many years the meeting-place of successive political agitators. In our own day the Camelots du Roi met and agitated there.
Under Napoléon as Premier Consul, the Tribunat was established there in a hall since razed. The Bourse de Commerce succeeded the Tribunat. Then the Orléans regained possession of the palace and Prince Louis-Philippe went thence to the hôtel de Ville, to return Roi des Français.
The galleries and the façade of the portico of the second court date from the first half of the nineteenth century. The upheaval of 1848 and the reign of Napoléon III resulted in further changes for the Palais-Royal. It became for a time Palais-National, and was subsequently put to military uses. Then King Jérôme took up his abode there, and was succeeded by his son Prince Napoléon. The little Gothic Chapel where Princess Clothilde was wont to pray serves now as a lumberroom. Prince Victor, the husband of Princess Clémentine of Belgium, was born at the Palais-Royal in 1862.