File:Versailles and the court under Louis XIV (1905) (14579742697).jpg

Identifier: versaillescourtu00farm (find matches)
Title: Versailles and the court under Louis XIV
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Farmer, James Eugene, 1867-1915
Subjects: Versailles (France) -- Description France -- Court and courtiers
Publisher: New York, The Century co.
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Wellesley College Library

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palacewhich did not fall to the Swiss Guards. The superintendent of Buildings had under his chargemuch more than the royal palaces, but it is only with thelatter that we have to do. The king had long since ceasedto reside at the Louvre or the Tuileries. Meudon had beengiven to Monseigneur, and St. Cloud to Monsieur. Choisy,which became later a royal palace, was then the property of theGrande Mademoiselle, and St. Germain had been turned overtemporarily to the King and Queen of England. Louis XIV,therefore, during the last thirty years of his life, lived firstof all at Versailles, the seat of government, then at Marly,his favorite hermitage, at Trianon, at Fontainebleau, and atCompiegne. Whatever works were undertaken at these va-rious palaces, it was within the province of the superintendentof Buildings to supervise them and hasten their execution,and as His Majesty was continually constructing and de-molishing on a large scale, the post was no sinecure. 1 Saint-Simon, II, p. 337. 152
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Louis XIII crowned by Victory The Service of the King As for the Journeys, those to Compiegne and Fontaine-bleau took place at fixed times in each year: Compiegne, inthe spring; Fontainebleau, in the autumn, and the stay of thecourt at the latter residence lasted usually six weeks. Owingto the number of the courtiers and the immense retinue in at-tendance, these removals from one chateau to another werevery costly. A trip to Fontainebleau sometimes cost morethan 400,000 livres. When the kings civil household (be-tween 3000 and 4000 persons), the households of the royalfamily and of the princes of the blood, the world of courtiers,the train of lackeys and valets, the army of cooks and candle-makers, cobblers, tailors, and dealers of every description,were on the march, some 15,000 or 20,000 people in all, thecortege of the Grand Monarch advanced like an Orientalcourt; one had to take the post in advance to go anywhere. The journeys to Marly were much more frequent, twicea month at firs

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