The Story of Versailles by Francis Loring Payne
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Francis Loring Payne >> The Story of Versailles
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8 [Frontispiece: Statue of Louis XIV, the Builder of Versailles.]
The Story of Versailles
BY
FRANCIS LORING PAYNE
NEW YORK
MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY
1919
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY
MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY.
Press of
J.J. Little & Ives Co.
New York
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Chapter
I. THE BEGINNING OF VERSAILLES
II. THE MAKING OF VERSAILLES. THE LUXURIOUS CHATEAU
AND PARKLAND OF LOUIS XIV
III. THE LUXURY OF VERSAILLES
IV. THE GARDENS, THE FOUNTAINS AND THE GRAND TRIANON
V. A DAY WITH THE SUN KING
VI. GOLDEN DAYS AND RED LETTER NIGHTS
VII. THE WOMEN OF VERSAILLES
VIII. THE VERSAILLES OF LOUIS XV
IX. THE TWILIGHT OF THE BOURBON KINGS
X. THE SHRINE OF ROYAL MEMORIES, THE
SCENE OF WORLD ADJUSTMENTS
FOREWORD
THE HALL OF MIRRORS
I
If you could speak what tales your tongues could tell,
You voiceless mirrors of the storied past!
Do you remember when the curtain fell
On him who learned he was not God at last?
II
Do you still see the shadows of the great?
On powdered wigs and velvets, silks and lace;
Or dream at night a feted queen, in state,
Accepts men's homage with a haughty face?
III
A thousand names come tumbling to the mind.
Of dead who gazed upon themselves through you.
And went their way, each one his end to find
In paths that glory or red terror knew.
IV
Voltaire and Rousseau and Ben Franklin here,
You've seen hobnobbing with the highly-born;
Seen Genius smile, while, with a hint of fear,
It gave to Birth not homage but its scorn.
V
Do you remember that Teutonic jaw
Of him who crowned an emperor, that you
Might know that Bismarck was above all law
And free to do what victor vandals do?
VI
Oh, Hall of Visions, now shall come anon
A grander sight than you have ever seen;
You've mirrored kings, but you shall look upon
The mighty men whose edicts freedom mean
VII
To races and to peoples sore oppressed;
The men who mould the future for a race
That breathes a wind that's blowing from the West--
And you'll forget the Bourbon's evil face!
--EDWARD S. VAN ZILE.
_N. Y. Eve. Sun., Nov. 25_
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Builder of Versailles . . . Frontispiece
Versailles
The Hall of Mirrors
The Fountain at Versailles
INTRODUCTION
A TRAVELER'S REFLECTIONS ON VERSAILLES
From the low heights of Satory we get a complete view of the plains of
Versailles--the woods, the town and the sumptuous chateau. The palace
on its dais rules the scene. The village and ornamental environment
have been constructed to augment its majesty. Even the soil has been
"molded into new forms" at a monarch's caprice. Versailles is the
expression of monarchy, as conceived by Louis XIV. It is the only epic
produced in his reign--a reign so fertile in the other forms of poetry,
and in talent of all kinds. What epic ever chronicled the destiny of
an epoch in a manner more brilliant and complete? In this poem of
stone the manners of heroic and familiar life mingle at every step.
Besides the halls and galleries, the theaters of royal estate, there
are mysterious passages and sequestered nooks that whisper a thousand
secret histories. The palace has two voices, one grave and one gay and
trifling. It is full of truths and fictions, tears and smiles. The
personages of its drama are as various as life itself; kings, poets,
ministers, courtiers, confessors, courtesans, queens without power, and
queens with too much power; ambassadors, generals, little abbes and
great ladies; nobles, clergy, even the people. For two centuries did
this crowd continue to pass and re-pass over these marble floors and
under these gilded vaults; and every day its flood became more
impetuous, every day it gave way more and more to the whims and
passions. And the palace heard all, saw all, spied all--and has
retained all, each action in its acted hour, each word in its place.
During the two centuries of absolute monarchy, nothing took place that
Versailles did not either originate or answer. Every shot that was
fired in Flanders, Germany and Spain awakened here an echo. Richelieu
was here, the first statesman of the monarchy, and Necker, the last.
French literary history is inscribed on its walls, which received
within them the great writers of France from Moliere to Beaumarchais.
Art erected especially for Versailles the schools and systems whose
influence has been felt through the succeeding centuries. For
Versailles, Lebrun became a painter, Coysevox a sculptor, and Mansard
an architect. But it was not France alone that depended on Versailles.
Foreign nations sent their representatives to this famous center; the
choice spirits of Europe came to visit it.
The history of Versailles was for two centuries the history of
civilization. From Versailles may be seen the movement of manners,
wars, diplomacy, literature, arts and energies that agitated Europe.
On entering Versailles by the Paris avenue, we see the palace on the
summit of the horizon. The houses, scattered here and there and
concealed among the trees, appear less to form a town than to accompany
the monument raised beyond and above them. Approaching the Place
d'Armes, we distinguish the different parts of which the imposing mass
of buildings is composed. In the center is a singular bit of
architecture. In vain the neighboring masses extend their circle
around it: their great arms are unable to stifle it; but it possesses a
seriousness of character that attracts the eye more strongly than their
high white walls. This is the remains of the chateau built by Louis
XIII at Versailles. Louis XIV did not wish to bury his father's
dwelling.
THE STORY OF VERSAILLES
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNINGS OF VERSAILLES
A dreary expanse of low-lying marsh-land, dismal, gloomy and full of
quicksands, where the only objects that relieved the eye were the
crumbling walls of old farm buildings, and a lonely windmill, standing
on a roll of higher ground and stretching its gaunt arms toward the sky
as if in mute appeal against its desolate surroundings--such was
Versailles in 1624. This uninviting spot was situated eleven miles
southwest of Paris, the capital city of France, the royal city, the
seat, during a century before, of the splendid court of the brilliant
Francis I and of the stout-hearted Henry II, the scene of the masterful
rule of Catherine de Medici, of the career of the engaging and
beautiful Marguerite de Valois and of the exploits of the gallant Henry
of Navarre.
The desolate stretch of marshland, with its lonely windmill, meant
nothing then to the court nor to the busy fortune-hunting and
pleasure-seeking inhabitants of Paris. No one had reason to go to
Versailles, except perhaps the poor farmers and the owner of the
isolated mill--least of all the nobility and fashionable folk of the
glittering capital. No exercise of the imagination could then have
conjured up the picture of the splendor in store for the barren waste
of Versailles. The mention of the name in 1600 would have brought
nothing more from the lips of royalty and nobility than an indifferent
inquiry: "And what, pray, is Versailles and where may it be?" You, my
lord, who raise your eyebrows interrogatingly, and you, my lady, who
flick your fan so carelessly, will some day behold your grandchildren
paying humble and obsequious court to the reigning favorites at
Versailles--yes, out there on this very moorland where you see nothing
but marshy hollows and ruined walls, there will your lord and master,
your glorious Sun King, the Grand Monarch, Louis the Fourteenth, build
a palace home that Belshazzar might justly have envied: there will he
hold high court and set the whole world agape at his prodigal outlay
and magnificent festivities. And well may we inquire to-day: how came
this dreary waste to be the wondrous Versailles, the seat and scene of
so much in the making and the making-over of the world?
Ancient records of France indicate that in 1065 the priory of St.
Julien was established on the estates of the house of Versaliis--a
grant under royal protection. A poor farm community grew up about the
ecclesiastical retreat. Here, also, on the estates of the barony of
Versailles, was a repair of lepers, destroyed in the sixteenth century.
The origin of the name is said by some to be derived from the fact that
the plains thereabouts were exposed to such high winds that the grain
in the poor land was frequently overturned (_verses_). The lord of
these acres first named in history is Hugues (Hugo) de Versaliis, who
lived early in the eleventh century and was a contemporary of the first
kings of the Capet dynasty. A long line of nobles of this family
succeeded him. In 1561 Martial de Leomenie, Secretary of Finance under
Charles IX, became master of Versailles. The farming village being on
the route between Paris and Brittany, he obtained from the king
permission to establish here four annual fairs and a weekly market on
Thursdays. Martial perished in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew in
1572. Henry IV, as a prince, when hunting the stag with Martial often
swept across the low plains of Versailles. The rights to the lands of
the barony were acquired by Marechal de Retz from the children of
Martial de Leomenie, and inherited from the noble duke by his son,
Jean-Francois de Gondi, first archbishop of France. It was this
prelate that sold to Louis XIII in 1632, for 66,000 pounds (about
$27,400), the land and barony of Versailles, consisting, in the phrase
of the original deed, "of an old house in ruins and a farm with several
buildings."
In 1624, Louis XIII, who had hunted in the vicinity of Versailles since
childhood and in later life had sought relief there from ennui and
melancholy, often slept in a low inn or in the hill-top windmill after
long hunts in the forest of St. Leger. It occurred to him that it
would be convenient for him to have a pavilion or hunting-lodge in this
unattractive place, and accordingly he ordered one erected at
Versailles, on the road that led to the forest of St. Leger. In 1627,
concluding that in no other domain of its limited acreage could he find
so great variety of land over which to hunt on foot and horse-back, he
bought a small piece of property at Versailles. Immediately
afterwards he caused to be erected what Saint-Simon called "a little
house of cards" on the isolated hill that rolled up in the heart of the
valley, where the windmill had stood.
Louis' architect was Philbert Le Roy, and the new villa was about two
hundred feet from the lodge first constructed. Its form was a complete
square, each corner being terminated by a tower. The building was of
brick, ornamented with columns and gilded balustrades; it was
surrounded by a park adorned with statues sculptured after designs by
the artist Poussin. Ambitious addition! A villa on the old mill site,
decorated by the favorite court artist of the day, Nicolas Poussin!
The court resented the enterprise, the nobility despised it. It was
the King's fancy; nothing else excused it. A noble of the court,
Bassompierre, exclaimed that "it was a wretched chateau in the
construction of which no private gentleman could be vain."
Scarcely was his new chateau finished (1630) when the King took up his
residence there for the hunt. In this place were terminated in
November, 1630, the autocratic services of Cardinal Richelieu to the
King--the first of many significant historical events to take place
there.
The King's sojourns at Versailles during the hunting season, however,
had their effect. Many of the royal intimates were influenced to build
on land given to them by the sovereign. So before Louis XIII died his
chateau was surrounded by many charming country houses. On April 8,
1632, Louis came into possession of the feudal dwelling of
Jean-Francois de Gondi and its lands. Versailles then began to acquire
distinction. It was the King's resort. Could any one afford to
question its character, or location, or the standing of those that, at
the King's behest, took up their residence there? Not we surely, who
can now view Versailles in the light of history. All aside from its
splendid court life and its magnificent festivities, we know it as the
scene of three epoch-making events in the world's history. During and
shortly after the American Revolution, Versailles was the scene of
treaty negotiations in which France, England and America were the
active parties. About a century later, in 1871, the treaty was
consummated there that ended the Franco-Prussian War, by which France
lost Alsace and Lorraine and was forced to pay to Germany
$1,000,000,000. And now, in our day, the most superb irony of history
has brought about a treaty in the same Hall of Mirrors by which Germany
repays, and the map of Europe undergoes radical changes.
CHAPTER II
THE MAKING OF VERSAILLES
The Luxurious Chateau and Parkland of Louis XIV
At the death of Louis XIII, in 1643, the little chateau of Versailles was
abandoned as a dwelling. Then followed a fall in values at Versailles
and a great flutter of uncertainty among those that had followed the King
there. This feeling of doubt lasted for seven years. The faces of the
court favorites were turned back toward Paris, and individual fortunes
were speculatively weighed in the balance with the possibilities of the
new King's whims and fancies. But when the twelve-year-old Louis XIV
came to hunt in the vicinity of Versailles for the first time, he found
the suburban dwelling of his father attractive from the start. The
Gazette noted this visit, in 1651, and described the supper that the
royal boy shared with the officials of the chateau. Two months later the
King supped again at Versailles, and was so delighted with the estate and
the hunting to be had thereabouts that, thereafter, he made it a yearly
custom to visit Versailles once or twice in the hunting season, sometimes
with his brother, sometimes with his prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin.
Returning in 1652 from an interview at Corbeil with Charles II of
England, then seeking refuge in France, Louis XIV dined at Versailles
with his mother, Anne of Austria. In October, 1660, four months after
his marriage to Maria Theresa of Spain, he brought his young queen there.
The future of Versailles was assured. The King had decided to set his
star and make his palace home where his father had established a hunting
lodge.
The year 1661 was one of the most important in the history of the
monarch. On March fifteenth, eight days after the death of Mazarin, the
great Colbert was named Superintendent of Finances. It was he who was to
give to the reign of Louis XIV its definite direction; his name was to be
lastingly associated with the founding of the greater Versailles, and
with the construction of the Louvre, the Tuileries, Fontainebleau and
Saint-Germain. But Colbert's task in the enlargement of Versailles was
no easy one, nor did he approve of it. He opposed the young King's
purpose obstinately and expressed himself on the subject without reserve.
"Your majesty knows," he wrote to the King, "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 that 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! And there is always this misfortune to fear."
But the King, like many another great monarch, had dreamed a dream. He
was not satisfied with Paris as a residence. So he told Colbert to make
his dream of Versailles come true--and Colbert had to find some way to
pay the cost.
An irritating cause of the King's purpose lay in the fact that he was
incited by the splendors of the chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, built by his
ill-fated minister, Fouquet. Louis determined to surpass that mansion by
one so much more elaborate as to crush it into insignificance. Nicholas
Fouquet had employed the most renowned masters of this period--among them
Louis Le Vau, the architect, Andre Le Notre, the landscape gardener, and
Charles Lebrun, the decorator. These were the men the King summoned to
transform the modest hunting villa of his father. At the truly gorgeous
chateau of his minister, he had witnessed the full measure of their
genius. On August 17, 1661, Fouquet gave an elaborate fete to celebrate
the completion of the chateau, which the King attended. Within three
weeks the host was a prisoner of State, accused of peculation in office.
Acting immediately upon his resolution to out-do the glories of
Vaux-le-Vicomte, Louis engaged Le Notre to plan gardens and Le Vau to
submit proposals for the enlargement and decoration of the chateau. One
of the first apartments completed was the chamber of the infant
Dauphin--heir to the throne, who was born in November, 1661. Colbert
reported in September, 1663, that in two years he had spent 1,500,000
pounds, and a good part of this sum was for the construction of the
gardens. Builders and decorators suggested one elaborate project after
another, without regard to the cost, despite the protest of Colbert to
the King that they were exceeding all estimates and provisions. It was a
paradise period for profiteers.
Versailles became a favorite retreat of the extravagant young sovereign.
He frequently drove out from Paris, and on sundry occasions gave splendid
balls and dinners.
For periods of increasing frequency the King was in residence at
Versailles. He urged on the builders who had in hand the construction of
the living-rooms, kitchens, stables; he supervised the placing of
pictures and other decorative works in various parts of the expanded
chateau; impatiently he chided the superintendents for delay and
feverishly they strove to meet his demands for greater haste. And though
every hour of haste cost the King of France a substantial sum, he cared
for nothing but the fulfillment of his luxurious plans. Hundreds of
laborers were engaged in laying out the orangery, the grand terrace, the
fruit and vegetable gardens. The original entrance court was greatly
enlarged. Long wings terminated by pavilions bordered it. On the right
were the kitchens, with quarters for the domestics; on the left, the
stables, where there were stalls for fifty-four horses. At the main
entrance to the court were pavilions used by the musketeers as
guard-houses. Those were bustling times at Versailles, and every day
disclosed a new development and opened the way to new miracles of
construction.
And the miracles were wrought, one after another--all by order of the
King. On the site of the park a great terrace was bordered by a parterre
in the shape of a half-moon, where a waterfall was later installed. A
long promenade, now called the Allee Royale, extended to a vast basin
named the Lake of Apollo. Streamlets were diverted to feed fountains.
Twelve hundred and fifty orange trees were transported from the fallen
estate of Vaux to fill the long arcades of the orangery.
In the midst of the activities of masons, carpenters, gardeners, the King
was dominant, directing minute details--the laying of floors, the hanging
of draperies, the installation of art works in the chapel. The restive
master of the estate was impatient to enjoy his creation, and to invite
his Court there to celebrate its completion with fetes both brilliant and
costly. Colbert wrote in a letter dated September, 1663, of the beauty
of the chateau's adornments--its Chinese filigree of gold and silver.
"Never," he swore, "had China itself seen so many examples of this work
together--nor had all Italy seen so many flowers." Colbert suffered, but
the King found royal satisfaction. The splendid scene of the Sun King
must be set--the people had to pay. It was Colbert's affair to finance
it.
The King commanded a series of fetes to be arranged. For eight days
every diversion appropriate to the autumn season was enjoyed by the royal
family and all the Court. Every day there were balls, ballets, comedies,
concerts, promenades, hunts. Moliere and his troupe were commanded to
appear in a new piece called "_Impromptu de Versailles_."
Colbert regretted the absorption of his sovereign in Versailles, "to the
neglect of the Louvre--assuredly the most superb palace in the world."
Louis tolerantly gave ear and inspected the Louvre, but to the building
of Versailles he devoted all his enthusiasm.
The appearance of the villa erected by Louis XIII had been vastly altered
as to its roofs, chimneys, facades. In 1665 the court was ornamented by
the placing of the pedestals and busts that still surround it. In
addition to the main edifice, the King gave orders for the building of
small dwellings to be occupied by favorites of his entourage, and by
musicians, actors and cooks. Three broad tree-lined avenues were laid
out and the highway to Paris--the Cours-la-Reine--commenced. Already
Versailles took on a more imposing aspect than ancient Fontainebleau.
Workmen were constantly busy with the building of reservoirs, the laying
of sod, the planting of labyrinths, hedges, secret paths and bosky
retreats, with the setting out of hundreds of trees brought from
Normandy, and the seeding of flower gardens of surpassing beauty. Ponds,
fountains, grottoes, waterfalls and straying brooks came into being at
the command of the ambitious young ruler. At some distance from the
chateau courts and cages were constructed to shelter rare birds and
animals. It was designed that this should be "the most splendid palace
of animals in the world." The King decided the details of building and
decoration and supervised the installation of the furred and feathered
tenants of the palatial menagerie. This was the enclosure so greatly
admired by La Fontaine, Racine and Boileau, during a visit to Versailles
in 1668.
The first epoch of the construction of Louis XIV coincided with the first
sculptural decoration of Versailles. A great number of works of art were
ordered for the adornment of the walks and gardens. Many statues and
busts of mythological subjects that were made at Rome to the order of
Fouquet, after models by Nicolas Poussin, were removed from Vaux to
Versailles. That was a thriving period for sculptors of France and
adjacent countries. Records faithfully kept by Colbert detail
expenditures of thousands of pounds of the nation's money for bronze
vases, stone figures of nymphs and dryads and dancing fauns that were
placed among the trees and fountains of Versailles. Much of the
ornamental sculpture ordered at this time disappeared from the royal
domain, as Louis XIV constantly demanded the work of the newest artists
and all the novelties of the moment.
By the year 1668 Versailles apparently approached completion. It had
then been seven years in building. But in 1669 the general character of
the chateau was again changed. In the embellishments proposed by Le Vau,
the architect, the royal domain became the scene of renewed activity,
engendered by the King, then just turned thirty years of age, and eager
to achieve still greater improvements at Versailles to mark the
increasing prosperity of his reign. Half-finished buildings were
demolished and begun anew. Immense structures arose, and once again
artists flocked to Versailles. Inside the palace and in the park they
wrought an elaborate scheme of decoration that made this the most
sumptuous dwelling of the monarchy. In the words of Madame Scudery, an
annalist of that epoch, Versailles, under the new orders of the King,
became "incomparably more beautiful." Another Versailles was born; at
the same time there was created a town on the vast acres purchased by the
King, in the midst of which three great avenues were built, converging
toward the chateau. In addition to the enlargement and improvement of
the palace, the King ordered the erection of houses for the use of
Colbert, now superintendent of the royal buildings, and for the officers
of the Chancellery. From this time he interested himself particularly in
the advancement of the infant town; he bought the village of "Old
Versailles" and made liberal grants of land to individuals who agreed to
build houses there. Opposite the chateau arose the mansions of
illustrious nobles of the Court.
As the King remained obstinate in his determination that the "little
chateau" of his father should not be removed to make room for a structure
more in harmony with the surrounding ostentation, Le Vau covered over the
moats and built around the lodge of Louis XIII with imposing effect. The
new buildings containing the state apartments of the King and Queen and
public salons were separated by great courts from the insignificant
beginning of all this mounting splendor. Le Vau did not live to see the
completion of the palace. He died in 1670. The work of reconstruction,
in which the King maintained a lively interest whether at home or abroad,
was continued by the architect's pupils at a cost of thousands of pounds.
Eagerly Louis read plans and listened to reports. With still greater
interest he attended the proposals of the great Mansard--nephew of the
designer and builder who in 1650 revived the use of the "Mansard roof."
When he succeeded as "first architect," Jules Mansard (or Mansart) first
undertook the erection of quarters for the Bourbon princes. In the same
year (1679) that he began the immense south wing for their use, he gave
instructions for the building of the now historic Hall of Mirrors between
two pavilions named--most appropriately in the light of after events--the
Salon of Peace and the Salon of War. From the high arched windows of
this glittering Grand Gallery great personages of past and present epochs
have surveyed the gardens, fountains and broad walks that are the
crowning glory of Versailles.
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