Louis XIII, the Just

3. KING, ESTATES, AND STATE

KING, ESTATES, AND STATE hat is it like to be thirteen and legally responsible for a country 's destiny? For KingLouis XIII in September 1614, it meant a considerably increased involvement in state affairs, although not enough to make him content. From the moment of Louis's majority, Marie de' Medici ruled his state not as duly authorized regent but only at his continued "pleasure" as "head ofcouncil." This meant that the legality of all state acts depended on Louis's validation, however automatic that was for this dutiful son. Henceforth, official communications were directed to him, the royal council met in his presence, and the affairs of his state were conducted in his name. Marie signaled the change by sending instructions to France's ambassadors, telling them to address all future official correspondence to the king.1 Beyond these mechanical changes, Louis was introduced to ruling in a way that very few monarchs have experienced on coming to power. On 27 October 1614, barely one month after his majority, some 474representatives of the realm's three estates assembled for the formal opening of the Estates General. They continued to meet until 23 February 1615, giving the teenage king a dramatic and graphic view of his state. Heretofore he had been virtually restricted to influences from his immediate entourage and the royal court. Now he heard speeches by orators from each estate, listened to delegations tell him both sides of disputes between the estates, and received their grievance lists, or cahiers dedoleances, at the assembly's conclusion. All this took place in a highly charged political atmosphere that included 61 3 w 62 The Formation of a King personal duels and political beatings, the printing of some twohundred pamphlets urging a variety of state reforms on the king and delegates , and numerous handwritten proposals addressed to Louis by both sages and cranks. On the surface, the Estates General of 1614-15 was neither a good nor a powerful influence on the teenage king. It has gone down in history as an ineffectual gathering devoid of purpose and rent by internal divisions. Hence, historians have been content with twoconclusions : on the one hand, that it was so weak yet so bothersome to Marie de' Medici that no ruler called another meeting of the estates until the beginning of the French Revolution 175years later, and on the other, that it was useful only in allowing a cleverMarie de' Medici to secure the delegates' approval of her past policies and the indefinite prolongation of her rule.2 An undercurrent to these two views even suggests that the failure of the Estates General in 1614-15 "ensured the triumph of royal absolutism in France."3 If we look at the France of 1614-15 as its contemporaries saw it, we get a rather different picture. What historians call absolutemonarchy was anything but a foregoneconclusion at the end of the Estates General in 1615.4 Louis XIII, during his personal rule after 1617, would need all the emotional energy and principled determination he could summon to impose substantial controls on the three estates and the political society they represented. Nevertheless, and in a far more personal way than historical specialists have noted, the Estates General of 1614-15 did pave the way for the future, by providing Louis XIII with powerful political lessons. In effect, the estates' meetings and the political climate in which they were held completed the formation of the king that had begun while he was dauphin and then was accelerated during the four years of his royalminority. Looking back on this encounter between king and estates, we can see no less than five ways in which it shaped the monarch. First, it revealed to Louis the social foundations of his state. Second, the squabbles that divided the three estates told him a great deal about the fractiousness he would have to deal with when he seized the reins of power from his mother two years later. A third influence came in speeches to Louisby the most discerning leaders of the estates, which laid down guidelines for the impressionable young king and hinted that he should be more vigorous in his rule than his mother had been during his minority. This moralizing was accompanied by a fourth factor, namely specific proposals by the three estates for the reform of Louis's state. These reforms were to remain a hidden agenda for [3.133.131.168] Project MUSE (2024-04-24 22:04...