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Louis XIV’s Versailles: A Palace Built by the Sun King’s Vision | FULL DOCUMENTARY — Transcript

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0:01[Music]
0:13It started in a swamp.
0:17It was here in a stretch of
0:19mosquitoinfested marshland that Louie,
0:22the 27-year-old king of France, decided
0:25to construct his new palace near a small
0:28and unremarkable country town called
0:33Versailles. His courtiers were far from
0:36impressed.
0:39It was almost as though Louis had had
0:40deliberately picked the worst possible
0:42site for his magnificent palace in order
0:44to prove to the world that his will was
0:46was greater than nature.
0:56Louie had a sentimental reason for
0:58choosing
0:59Versailles. It was the site of his
1:01father's old hunting lodge and as a boy
1:04he played and hunted here.
1:12The original shadow of Louis's father
1:15was on top of a
1:17hill. The problem if you wanted to turn
1:20it into a whacking great palace was that
1:22you weren't going to be building on flat
1:24land. Louie was told this is not a great
1:27place for a big expansion of your
1:29father's shadow.
1:31As a monarch with absolute power, Louie
1:34wasn't used to being told what to do,
1:36and he didn't much like
1:38[Music]
1:48it. From the outset, Louie was thinking
1:51big. He started by hiring the greatest
1:53architect of the age, Louis, to
1:56transform the hunting lodge into the
1:58palace of his dreams.
2:00[Music]
2:03Louie was to devote much of his energy
2:05to his new project, but he was always
2:07sure to make time for his other great
2:11passion. Although married to Queen
2:13Maritz, he had numerous affairs. His
2:16current mistress was a young
2:18aristocratic beauty called Louise de
2:20Laalier.
2:36Louis's attitude towards women was one
2:38of tremendous enthusiasm. He really
2:40loved women. Um he didn't just love them
2:43um for sex. He loved their company. He
2:45loved their conversation. He loved their
2:47elegance. He loved women who who were
2:49witty and refined. Um most of all, I
2:52think he he loved women because they
2:54teased him. and they made him laugh.
3:00He had a tremendous sexual appetite. He
3:02would quite often if his mistress was
3:04too slow in taking her dress off, have a
3:05turn with her ladies maid while he was
3:07waiting or a passing servant in in the
3:10corridor of Versailles. Um he made love
3:12the way he did everything else with
3:14enormous gusto.
3:18A French king was expected to have a
3:20mistress. And it sort of symbolized the
3:23virility of the nation. And you know a
3:25100 years later poor Louis the 16th the
3:28French were furious with him because he
3:30didn't have a
3:33mistress. Louise de laalier was Louis
3:36the 14th's first official mistress. She
3:39was a lady in waiting at the court. She
3:41was uh gless, charming, daughter of a
3:45good family and she adored the king and
3:48it was irresistible because she
3:50convinced him quite genuinely that she
3:52loved him for himself and I think this
3:54is what the young king wanted to hear.
3:57I think he had a very good time.
4:02[Applause]
4:03Louise was very important to him. He did
4:06love her. They had two children
4:07together. He made her a duchess.
4:10But it was it was a young man's crush
4:13rather than a profound passion.
4:20Whatever his feelings for Louise,
4:22Louieie was always careful to fulfill
4:24all of his obligations to his
4:26wife. His marriage to Queen Mary TZ was
4:30politically vital. It had ensured peace
4:32between France and Spain for many years,
4:35and he needed to father children with
4:36her to ensure that his dynasty lived on.
4:41Louisie did feel a duty towards the
4:42queen. He he made love to her
4:44frequently. Um and she would always have
4:46a special mass said the day afterwards
4:48and everybody would nudge each other at
4:49court because she'd look very pleased as
4:51as she came into the chapel. Um he was
4:53attentive to her, polite to her. They
4:55they had children together, but she
4:58simply didn't have the looks or the
5:00education or the spirit or the charm to
5:04captivate a man like that.
5:06She accepted his infidelity as did most
5:09royal and aristocratic women of the time
5:11as being part of of of
5:15marriage. Louis mosquito-bitten
5:18courtiers also had to accept their king
5:20for what he was. Like all 17th century
5:23monarchs, Louie believed himself
5:25appointed directly by God.
5:45Nobody could tell him what to do. He was
5:47quite simply the only power in the realm
5:50and having had this consciousness since
5:52he was a very very small child. I think
5:54it meant that he was without any
5:56arrogance or or hubris um of the opinion
6:00that he was pretty much a god
6:02[Music]
6:06himself. As a kind of living god, Louie
6:09liked nothing more than being the center
6:11of everyone else's
6:13[Music]
6:15attention. Louie was brought up in a
6:18theater mad age. As a young man, he took
6:21dancing lessons which seemed to have
6:24completely transformed his
6:27self-confidence. He was actually a very
6:30accomplished dancer and he clearly
6:33enjoyed greatly taking part in these um
6:36performances which were mainly in front
6:38of a court audience.
6:47I think all his contemporaries were
6:49extremely impressed by him. He was
6:51astonishingly handsome with his long
6:53golden hair and his almost jerubic face.
6:57He was indeed god-given as his mother an
7:00of Austria called him. Louie liked
7:03dressing up and not just for fun. It was
7:06part of his public image. He chose as
7:08his role model the Greek god Apollo
7:11represented in classical imagery as the
7:14[Music]
7:28sun. Louie was very interested in the
7:31sun as a symbol.
7:33[Music]
7:35It's a very powerful symbol because it
7:38sheds its light everywhere. It's
7:40obviously very beneficial, but it's also
7:42a symbol of uh domination because all
7:45the other elements are subordinate to
7:47the
7:48sun. He's in a sense above
7:51[Music]
7:59everything. The Sun King seems to be an
8:01appropriate title. It was one that was a
8:03piece of propaganda when he was young.
8:06But like many bits of propaganda, I
8:08think it became
8:13[Music]
8:17fat. Lavo's plans for the remodeling of
8:20Versailles were complete and ready to
8:22present to his demanding boss.
8:34Louie certainly knew that what he wanted
8:36was a building which had that shock and
8:39awe
8:40effect. There's absolutely no doubt that
8:42he wanted a building that would be
8:45sensational.
8:47Lavo's model was impressive but had a
8:50major flaw. He planned to destroy the
8:53old hunting lodge.
8:59[Music]
9:03The idea of Louis the 14 was to keep
9:05always little shadow of his father. So
9:08that was a problem for an architect
9:10because the architect prefer to destroy
9:12everything and to build a new a new
9:14building. So Louise sent the architect
9:17away and he told him I want this little
9:19shadow preserved.
9:35With Lavo sent back to the drawing
9:36board, Louie turned his attention to the
9:39landscape. He wanted to expand the
9:42existing garden, adding ornamental lakes
9:44and groves lined with dazzling
9:47fountains. But he'd picked an awful
9:50sight.
9:54There were no views. It's hemmed in by
9:56the sides of a valley. And also,
9:59Versailles wasn't naturally endowed the
10:02region with the sort of trees which
10:04Louie wanted for his garden. Louis's
10:06chief gardener was the century's most
10:08celebrated landscape designer. Andre Lon
10:11Versai would be the greatest challenge
10:13of his career.
10:19[Music]
10:21But the sun king did not want to wait
10:23for his earthly paradise or for his
10:26trees to grow from saplings.
10:28Louis the 14th wanted results and he
10:31wanted them fast. This was really a
10:34theme of the whole sort of project
10:36Versai and the solution was to uproot
10:40mature trees from other parts of France
10:43and bring them in. And a special
10:45contraption was invented, a horsedrawn
10:48contraption which would um allow these
10:50mature trees to be transported on, as
10:53you can imagine, these terribly bad
10:55roads from other provinces.
10:59[Applause]
11:02With major new building work on hold,
11:04Louie instructed Lavo to upgrade the
11:07interior of
11:08Versai. On his inspection tours, Louie
11:11was accompanied by his entourage,
11:13including mistress Louise de
11:16Lavalier. But Louise now had a
11:22rival. Adam
11:26[Music]
11:38[Music]
11:49[Music]
11:52After a while, he became quite bored
11:54with Louise, and she hung around at
11:56court, desperate to try and get his
11:57attention back. She never really did. So
11:59I I think she probably suffered quite a
12:00lot.
12:02I think the king could pick and choose.
12:04P is a great aphrodisiac and a crown
12:07even more so. So naturally I think he
12:09picked very beautiful
12:11[Music]
12:15women. Louie liked to display his power.
12:18After winning a war against Spain, he
12:21celebrated with a huge party in the
12:23gardens of Versailles.
12:28It was also a chance for the king to
12:30show off the woman who had now replaced
12:32Louise as his favorite
12:34mistress. Her name was Madame de
12:37Montispon and she was one of the most
12:39beautiful women in France.
12:54Madame Mont is such an attractive
12:57figure. I think she was a tremendous
12:59goer. She loved everything to do with
13:02pleasure. She loved jewels. She liked
13:04marvelous clothes. She liked food,
13:06flowers, gardening. And above all, she
13:09liked sex, you see. and he did too. Um
13:12so he found the absolutely the right
13:14midress on for
13:19him and she knew about having wonderful
13:21feasts and about having entertainments.
13:24So she was exactly the kind of person
13:27Louie envisaged as being
13:29suitable. At the same time she was so
13:31beautiful that ambassadors thought she
13:34contributed to the legend of the sun
13:36king.
13:38The Sun King's festivities were about
13:40more than pleasure. They had real
13:43political
13:44significance. Louie was slowly turning
13:46his new palace into the most important
13:49and the most fashionable seat of power
13:51in
13:55Europe. The parties at Valsai um they've
13:59been described as pagan masses.
14:04fireworks, rides along the canal in
14:06gondelas, balls for 3,000 people under
14:09the stars, um plays, ballets with a
14:12hundred dancers by Luli, everything you
14:15could possibly imagine all at once in in
14:17this tremendous circus of celebration
14:20for the king.
14:24The great parties were intended to show
14:26the nobility and the rest of of Europe
14:29how powerful the king of France was,
14:31what wonderful artists he had, what
14:32wonderful musicians, how superior his
14:35court and his culture were to every
14:37other court and culture in
14:43Europe. The king's former mistress,
14:45Louise, eventually gave up trying to win
14:48him back. After years of neglect, she
14:51decided to enter a convent, leaving
14:53behind the children she'd had with
15:00Louie. I don't think she felt guilt
15:02about leaving them behind because she
15:04knew that they were going to be very
15:06well
15:07treated. So, I don't think she felt that
15:10kind of guilt because I think her big
15:12guilt she wanted to expel with penance
15:14and fasting and all that in the convent.
15:16And when she finally got away, I think
15:18she was much
15:21happier. She became a very hardline nun,
15:25you know, hair cut, hair shirt, um,
15:28praying and repentance and generally
15:31ended her life more or less in the odor
15:33of sanctity.
15:35Because Louie was spending more and more
15:37time at Versailles, he decided to move
15:39his entire government there. To
15:42accommodate the new officials, Lavo
15:44suggested a brand new idea, keeping the
15:47old hunting lodge, but enclosing it with
15:50massive new buildings on three
15:53sides. The design was known as the
16:00envelope. The shadow was preserved, but
16:03it was enveloped in this new building in
16:06a completely different style, which
16:07looked like a palace.
16:11What he also did with Lavo was to build
16:14pavilions for his ministers. Now this
16:16was very important. What this meant was
16:18that for the first time Versailles could
16:21function as a seat of monarchy, a place
16:24from which the king could govern.
16:31Building the envelope was a massive task
16:34requiring thousands of workers.
16:39the largest number of workers were
16:4140,000 people at the same
16:44time. It was a very dangerous place also
16:47because the the work to be done was not
16:50done in a secure way. Of course, it was
16:53uh with accidents and people dying.
17:01Louie was impatient to get the job done
17:03quickly. Work went on day and night.
17:09There was no health and safety regime
17:12and the workers who were most at risk
17:14were the ones who were working high up.
17:17So for instance the roofers, the
17:19carpenters.
17:21[Music]
17:23We do know that there were a lot of
17:25accidents on site.
17:31[Music]
17:39And there were times when the um death
17:42rate, the mortality rate was high and in
17:45order not to demoralize the workforce,
17:48the corpses would be removed at night.
17:55[Music]
18:03Louis mistress Madame de Montispon was
18:06already married, but that didn't stop
18:08her spending most of her time with the
18:09king, and he made sure she got the VIP
18:13treatment. She had a suite of 20 rooms,
18:16whereas the queen had to make do with
18:1811. Um, they were gorgeously appointed,
18:22and he spent a lot of time in them. They
18:23included um a bathroom most unusual for
18:26the time in which apparently he and
18:28Madame de Montispon spent uh many happy
18:34hours. Despite her elevated status,
18:37Montpon found it hard to share Louie
18:40even with his own wife.
18:45[Music]
18:53[Music]
19:03I don't think she was really jealous of
19:05the queen because after all, she had
19:08everything of Louis real love and she
19:10knew it. But I think she made scenes
19:13about the other mistresses when they
19:15came along as the years passed. And I
19:18think there are some men, possibly Louie
19:20among them, who rather like it if a
19:22woman is jealous and shows signs of
19:24caring. You know, she certainly
19:26complained like mad if she felt he was
19:29straying from what was in fact an
19:31illegitimate relationship.
19:33[Music]
19:37[Applause]
19:39Louie kept a close eye on the building
19:41works,
19:43but one inspection visit brought a nasty
19:45surprise.
19:48A mother angry at the death of her son
19:50killed on the site was waiting for him.
19:57[Music]
20:08We're told that she just let fly at
20:11Louis the 14th.
20:20I mean, he was very surprised. He said,
20:22"What is that me?
20:36This was a courageous thing for this
20:38mother to have done because there were
20:40guards everywhere. And of course, as
20:43soon as she had said this, she was very
20:45quickly uh hustled away for her
20:48punishment.
20:59administration.
21:15[Music]
21:25Lenotra's ambitious plans were finally
21:27taking shape and Louis's dream of
21:30creating the most spectacular palace in
21:32Europe was slowly becoming a reality.
21:37Louis's great gardener, his real gift
21:40was for rearranging the landscape
21:42basically and dividing it up on a grid.
21:45And then you treat the units within the
21:48grid essentially as outdoor
21:51rooms. And then you would bring in all
21:53sorts of other people, water engineers,
21:56sculptors, architects essentially to
21:59furnish these rooms.
22:11[Music]
22:19[Music]
22:21The envelope around the old hunting
22:23lodge was complete. Louis ministers were
22:25installed in their new apartments and
22:28the king began governing from
22:29Versailles.
22:31[Music]
22:35Now Louie decided he would make the
22:36palace his permanent home and insisted
22:39that leading French nobles come and live
22:41there too.
22:44[Music]
22:51side of France.
22:55There's no question that for Louisie,
22:57the nobility, particularly the great
22:58court nobility, were an essential aspect
23:01of his kingship. They surrounded him
23:03with glory and status.
23:05[Music]
23:07This is a state where the ultimate
23:10decider on granting favor or refusing
23:12favor is in the hands of the king. If
23:15you were looking for a military command,
23:18if you were looking for favors for many
23:20of your clients, supporters, and family,
23:23then the way to achieve this was by
23:24getting access to Louie and to a lesser
23:27extent by gaining access to the
23:29ministers around Louisie.
23:31But housing all the nobles would mean
23:34yet more building work. Louis finance
23:37minister Jean Batist Colbear worried
23:39about the
23:41cost. Forever.
24:05[Music]
24:09Louie wanted the nobility at fair side
24:11in order that he could keep an eye on
24:14them. The message he wanted to give to
24:16his nobles was this. You don't need to
24:19rebel to get what you want. What you
24:22have to do is come and pay your court to
24:30[Music]
24:35me.
24:39[Music]
24:41Original architect Lu Lavo died before
24:45his project was complete. His
24:47replacement Jeul Mansar had ideas of his
24:50own.
24:54Mans had the great idea to have big
24:57wings each side of the envelope to make
25:01some accommodations for the princes and
25:03the court. So it was a huge design and I
25:06think he he had a great idea of what
25:09would be a great palace for a great
25:11king.
25:20Mans's most ambitious proposal was to
25:23build a fabulous gallery lined with
25:28mirrors.
25:35[Music]
25:48for mercy.
25:54However magnificent the plans, Louis
25:56experience with his builders was a
25:58familiar one. Everything took much
26:00longer and cost far more than the
26:02estimates and they made a terrible mess.
26:06Nothing is more false than these
26:08gracious pictures of beai. It shows this
26:10stately place with everything perfect,
26:13you know, everybody gliding about.
26:14Actually, it was a huge building
26:18site. All the court ladies complained
26:20about it. The workman starting at 6:00
26:23a.m. My dear, the dust and the smell of
26:25wet plaster which got it to their hair.
26:27It's exactly like today, exactly like
26:29what we feel on a tiny scale when our
26:31neighbors go
26:38building must have been an amazing
26:41sight. I mean the first day in at
26:43Versail,
26:46everybody stopped jostling, jostling,
26:48jostling for bigger rooms and better
26:50rooms and a better position. In the
26:52meantime, the lesser folk, you know,
26:54they were trying to get down from the
26:56attics, get better rooms, always to get
26:59as near as possible to the king.
27:14At night there was this sort of great
27:16unrolling of mattresses all over the
27:18palace as servants and soldiers, guards
27:21would um you know they'd go to sleep on
27:24the
27:25floor. The lavatory arrangements were
27:28pretty kind of basic. Servants would
27:31think nothing of relieving themselves in
27:33the corridors of fair. So you have this
27:36extraordinary attention on outward
27:38appearances and magnificent clothes. But
27:42alongside you have all these smells. I
27:44mean, you could have been in a farmyard.
27:52Hello.
27:53I think many of the nobility would have
27:55resented the chaos and lack of order and
27:57Alice complained about this at length,
27:59but I think one shouldn't underestimate
28:01the compulsive desire of most of the
28:04great nobility to attend at court, to be
28:07around the king.
28:12Louisie's desire for magnificence
28:14extended to every aspect of his life,
28:16especially his
28:18wardrobe. He dressed in the finest cloth
28:21and expected his courtiers to do
28:24likewise. And when his hair began to
28:26recede, he adopted the fashion for
28:28elaborate wigs.
28:32a half inch of lace on a cuff, a gold or
28:35a silver button, whether your pearl was
28:36here on your collar or here, these could
28:38mean life and death to the cortis.
28:40Fashion was hugely important and it was
28:43a very important way for the aristocracy
28:44to distinguish themselves from the
28:46ordinary
28:49people. Louie influenced fashion to some
28:51extent. When he was a young man, he
28:54dressed quite flamboyantly, lots of
28:56cavalier silks and laces and ribbons.
28:59He was a bit on the short side. So he
29:01introduced a fashion for high heeled
29:04shoes. His mistresses perhaps were were
29:06more influential on fashion. Madame
29:08Deontisbar invented various outfits
29:11including one um the glorious dabbier
29:14which was a sort of tunic worn over
29:16trousers and she invented this because
29:18it was very easy to take off. Um
29:20normally a lady's dress required two
29:22women to stand behind her to undo the
29:24strings. And of course Louis was an
29:25impatient man. He couldn't be bothered
29:27waiting. So she invented this outfit so
29:29that he could undress her discreetly and
29:30easily in
29:32[Music]
29:37private. With so many courters now
29:40craving his attention, Louie kept them
29:42busy by turning his daily activities
29:45into public
29:48rituals. When he gets up in the morning,
29:51that's the royal l with a great queue of
29:54great nobles who hand him different
29:56articles of
29:58clothing. At night, it's all reversed.
30:01It's the royal cushe and he takes things
30:03off and gives them to
30:05nobles. Great nobles would quarrel with
30:08one another as to which of them had the
30:10right to hand him his shirt because it
30:12had to be the person of highest rank in
30:14the room.
30:18They couldn't go off to the country on
30:19their estate and start raising armies,
30:22meddling. It meant that they had to stay
30:24there quarreling about whose turn it was
30:26to give the king his
30:28napkin. Even the king's meal times
30:30turned into a performance where the
30:33nobles stood and watched the king eat,
30:35waiting for him to speak to them.
30:40One of the phenomena of Versailles was
30:42the site of leading nobles adopting
30:46these very differential poses. This was
30:49actually a very very powerful signal
30:51that the monarchy was back in charge
30:55for the courtiers. Flattery became a way
30:57of life. For instance, one courtier, a
31:01great nobleman in his province, Louie
31:03says to him, "When is your wife's baby
31:06due?" And this nobleman says, "When your
31:09majesty wishes it."
31:17As well as accommodating thousands of
31:19courtiers and officials, Versai was also
31:22used by the king to promote France
31:24itself.
31:27There was a deliberate intention to
31:29create a showcase for French
31:33manufacturers and to rival or outdo
31:37Italy above all which was the great
31:39source of taste in the 17th
31:44century. The magnificence of the
31:46interior of course it was all about the
31:47splendor of the monarchy and the
31:49splendor of Louis the 14th. Louisie
31:51personally loved rich materials and fine
31:55craftsmanship, but it was also a careful
31:58orchestration of Louis the 14th's
32:00France's claim to lead Europe in terms
32:04of taste and the arts.
32:11As building progressed, Louie
32:13commissioned hundreds of paintings,
32:14sculptures, and other decorations, many
32:17containing images of himself as the
32:19embodiment of French glory. This was no
32:24accident. If you compare Louie with
32:26rulers before, it is remarkable how he
32:29had professional advice. So, he's not
32:33presenting his image by himself. There
32:35was a whole backup team of
32:38intellectuals, writers. This is a real
32:40innovation that there should be a small
32:43committee of people who are simply
32:45working on how to present the king's
32:48image in the most grand manner possible.
32:53The great French painter Charlbran was
32:55recruited to the cause.
33:05[Music]
33:20Louis image makers liked art that
33:22presented him as a conquering hero,
33:24drawing on figures from ancient
33:26mythology like Jupiter and his favorite,
33:29Apollo.
33:33The association with the images of very
33:36powerful men of the past uh were part of
33:39the strategy uh of being the best king
33:42and the most powerful and most important
33:44king of the the time.
33:49Louis public image may have included a
33:52fair amount of 17th century hype but he
33:55was certainly a remarkable man. He goes
33:59hunting three times a day. He goes to
34:01council meetings three times a day. He's
34:03a very hard worker. He makes love three
34:06times a day. Uh we must conclude the man
34:08had amazing energies.
34:13[Music]
34:26Louis restless pursuit of glory and
34:29magnificence found expression in the
34:30gardens of
34:32Versailles. But even the king could not
34:34change the geography of a region that
34:36was critically short of running water to
34:38power the hundreds of new fountains that
34:40Lenote had installed.
34:44And so when the king took a stroll, his
34:46gardeners had to turn the fountains on
34:48as he
34:51approached and then off again once he
34:54had walked past.
34:58[Music]
35:21The problem of getting supplies of fast
35:24running high pressure water were never
35:26adequately
35:28solved. Various attempts were made to
35:30find alternative sources from quite far
35:32away from Versailles. the celebrated
35:35machine of Mali, a series of vast water
35:37wheels which were intended to bring
35:39water up from the Sen and deliver it to
35:42the palace of
35:43Versailles. This provided water but not
35:46enough. The great and final scheme
35:50involved building a full-scale
35:51Romanstyle aqueduct.
35:55This was abandoned as being too
35:57expensive and the result of course was
35:59that the great gardens of Versailles
36:01never had enough water to drive all the
36:03fountains simultaneously.
36:05[Music]
36:14Fortunately, there was enough glass to
36:17furnish the palace's most ambitious
36:19development. The result of 6 years
36:22intense work. This was Mansar and
36:25Lebron's most stunning
36:27achievement.
36:29Versailles Hall of Mirrors
36:35[Music]
37:09gallery.
37:12[Music]
37:14I think the effect of the gallery is
37:16more a
37:19dream. Wonderful light given by the
37:21mirrors and it's I think it's it's very
37:24impressive and
37:25and astonishing.
37:31Vessai is undoubtedly one of the great
37:33palaces.
37:36Louie would have wanted us to think of
37:38the shadow as an integrated hole, not to
37:40focus on specific items whether the hall
37:43of mirrors or the great canal. And as an
37:46integrated unit, it completely outshines
37:49I think almost every other palace ever
37:50conceived or
38:00built.
38:02[Music]
38:16for Louisie said of his house
38:20sim was Versail. He was his house. If we
38:24understand one, we understand the other.
38:27[Music]
38:30The king wishes to assert his authority
38:32and maintain his position. He has to do
38:34it through
38:36display. Versailles is an ideal theater
38:38set on which he can act out what he
38:41regards as his royal duties. Versailles
38:44from this point of view fulfills those
38:45requirements better than almost any
38:47other building that could be imagined.
38:53Louis's love affair with his palace
38:55lasted longer than any of his human
38:58relationships. After 14 years, nine
39:01pregnancies, and seven children,
39:03Montespawn was beginning to lose her
39:05looks and her hold on the king.
39:08Madame de Montispan began to fall out of
39:10favor because inevitably after nine
39:13pregnancies, her figure wasn't quite
39:14what it was. She became rather blousy.
39:17uh she drank too much, she gambled too
39:19much, she made a nuisance of herself
39:21with her tantrums. And I think as
39:24happens to a lot of women, the more she
39:25felt her man slipping away from her, the
39:27more needy and clingy she became. And
39:30the more needy and clingy she became,
39:31the more she drove him away.
39:44But I think Louisie was also undergoing
39:46quite a significant personal
39:47transformation. He was becoming much
39:49more religious. Madame Deontispon was a
39:52married woman. Um committing adultery
39:54with an unmarried woman was one thing
39:56but double adultery was sacrilege. It
39:59was a tremendous scandal and he was
40:01becoming conscious of the fact that his
40:04way of life was was really compromising
40:07the state and compromising his
40:11kingship. Louie turned to a very
40:13different
40:15woman, Madame de Manongon, governness to
40:18his illegitimate children.
40:21Mantinong was pious, quiet, and
40:24intelligent. Qualities that a
40:25middle-aged Louie had come to
40:27[Music]
40:31admire. Poor Madame Dementino had to do
40:33everything. She had to act as a cook, a
40:35plumber, a gardener, as well as a
40:36teacher and a nursemaid. It was
40:38exhausting. And she did this so well
40:41that Louisie began to pay attention to
40:43her. He noticed this this intelligent
40:45woman, this calm presence.
40:50Slowly slowly Madame Dementin began to
40:52seduce the king.
40:57Rejected mistress Montespon was
40:59distraught.
41:16I think it was the rise of Monteneau in
41:18the first place which really riled her
41:20because she found she'd made a mistake.
41:22She'd underestimated another woman.
41:25Mantel was poor and a widow and
41:28innocuous and very pleasant and
41:30intelligent and she didn't spot that
41:32Louie might actually fall in love with a
41:35woman like that, you know, and it might
41:37be a very seductive thing to him in
41:39quite a different way from her own
41:41seductive powers. And I think for a
41:43couple of years at least, she was
41:45extremely
41:47angry. When Louis's long-suffering
41:49queen, Mary TZ, died, he was free to
41:53marry again, and he turned to the quiet
41:56governness. She'd not only won his
41:58heart, she'd convinced him she could
42:00help save his
42:02soul. The 17th century mentality was
42:05very different. The attention paid to
42:08salvation, dying in a state of grace so
42:10you didn't go to hell, was enormous. And
42:12Louie, who in some ways was quite
42:14simple, took this very, very seriously.
42:17And I think Monteneor persuaded him that
42:20she could help him towards his
42:22salvation.
42:24As Mantinor was a commoner, the king
42:26could only marry her behind closed
42:28doors.
42:34He did need a secret church wedding, a
42:36morganatic wedding as they're called,
42:39uh, in the presence of clergy and
42:41witnesses. After that, he's all right
42:44with God and the church. He can go to
42:45communion. It's all perfectly
42:47[Music]
42:51okay. And it's interesting that Louie
42:54never declared the marriage because she
42:56wasn't a princess. He had his own
42:58values. That is he would have his
43:00private life, but in public he was
43:02solitary.
43:04[Music]
43:13In public, Louieie concentrated on
43:15running his
43:17palace and his court life at Versailles
43:20became ever more
43:23formalized. I think the establishment of
43:25the full court of Versailles really
43:28turned it into the great social,
43:30political, powerbroking center of of
43:33France.
43:37Versail was exciting if you thought like
43:40a French nobleman because Louis the 14th
43:43was your host.
43:45You would spend the evening in the
43:48physical presence of the king of France.
43:51You would be admitted to his gaming
43:53table.
43:55You would be invited to dance in front
43:58of the king. Now for nobles this was an
44:01enormously prestigious and enormously
44:04flattering thing.
44:06[Music]
44:29The court of Versailles could be seen as
44:31a cross perhaps between Royal Ascot and
44:34the dealing floor of a futures exchange.
44:37A combination of a very socially elite
44:41group who already know each other and
44:43can interact with each other and at the
44:45same time a group of hardened
44:47professionals who have their own
44:49language and their own codes who know
44:51how to strike deals and to extract the
44:53best possible advantages from a
44:55particular situation.
44:57[Music]
45:00Versail was the original hotbed of
45:02scandal. The phrase with which everyone
45:04began their conversation was on. it's
45:07being said, they're saying this, they're
45:09saying that. All day these whispers of
45:11of rumor would travel about the palace
45:13and people would send each other little
45:15bulletins by sedan chair to report on
45:17what was going on in in the different
45:19rooms. And that of course made it a
45:21tremendously claustrophobic place to
45:22live. You couldn't do anything without
45:25everybody knowing about it.
45:27[Music]
45:31It was this extraordinary networking
45:34center. Everyone who was anyone in
45:36France was now at their side. So to be
45:39excluded was disastrous for a French
45:42nobleman.
45:44The worst thing that a courtier could
45:46hear from the king was, "He's a man I
45:49never see." People would spend literally
45:52years trying to hear one word or have a
45:55gesture from the king.
45:58[Music]
46:04With the nobility now so dependent on
46:06him, Louie could fully immerse himself
46:08in the role he was born to play.
46:13He emerges as this absolutely consumate
46:17performer.
46:20The whole regime at Versailles hinged on
46:23your having this extraordinarily
46:25charismatic figure who could perform in
46:28all the right ways for this enormous
46:30audience which he had assembled around
46:33him.
46:37But Louisie was only human. And after
46:40years of good health, he began to suffer
46:42from a serious medical problem, an anal
46:44fistula.
47:05This was an extremely serious condition
47:07in the context of the 17th century. The
47:10risk of it becoming gangranous that the
47:12pus would seep into the rest of the body
47:14and infect was very great indeed.
47:17untreated, it would almost certainly
47:19have killed the
47:23king. The only way that it was likely to
47:25be cured was through invasive surgery.
47:27Uh, such surgery had had a very poor
47:29success rate.
47:31But Louie instructed his doctors to go
47:35ahead. His senior physician devised a
47:37new instrument especially for the
47:39operation.
47:44The doctors involved in the operation
47:46practiced on a number of others who had
47:48anal fistulas beforehand, but it was
47:50nonetheless still a very risky
47:53operation. In the 17th century, the
47:55doctors were much more likely to kill
47:56you than cure
47:57you. Huge effort was made at Fairside to
48:01keep the details of this secret because
48:03it was felt so likely that the king
48:05wouldn't survive, that the diplomatic
48:07repercussions of this would sweep
48:09through Europe.
48:12[Music]
48:34Majesty. What you
48:41[Music]
48:48He was so stalwart during the operation.
48:51He never spoke at all. Imagine the pain.
48:54No
49:00anesthetic. This extraordinary
49:02self-control he had.
49:05He just gritted his teeth and conducted
49:08himself with great dignity.
49:28And that night he took a council
49:30meeting. Extraordinary,
49:33very pale with a sort of sheen of sweat,
49:35but he made
49:41[Music]
49:44it. Louie recovered his health, but
49:47other troubles were
49:48looming. His fame and success had earned
49:51him many enemies. Two years after his
49:54operation, France began a costly war
49:56against Spain, England, and
49:58[Music]
50:01Sweden. As the fighting dragged on, some
50:03of Versailles silver was quietly removed
50:06and melted down to pay the king's
50:08[Music]
50:11soldiers. Unable to win the war, Louie
50:14signed an unfavorable peace treaty,
50:17conceding territory to his enemies.
50:22The Sun King was finally in decline. And
50:24although he continued to make small
50:26improvements to his great palace, he
50:28lost much of his enthusiasm.
51:03After just 4 years of peace, a new
51:06crisis threatened.
51:09The Spanish king died, leaving his
51:11empire to Louis's grandson. If Louie
51:14accepted on the boy's behalf, he knew
51:16the other European powers would try to
51:19stop him. But if he refused, the
51:21territories would go to France's rivals
51:23in
51:25Austria. He was in an impossible
51:29situation. Louisie was damned if he did,
51:31damned if he didn't.
51:33Faced with an issue which concerns the
51:35honor of his dynasty. It's perhaps not
51:37surprising that he opts for the
51:40acceptance of the Spanish
51:42[Music]
51:43offer but inevitably therefore provokes
51:47war with the other major European
51:48powers.
51:51This the most gruelling war of Louis
51:54reign lasted for 12 years and brought
51:57France to the brink of
51:58[Music]
52:01ruin. As Louisie grew old and frail, he
52:05fell ever more under the influence of
52:06his devout wife and now shunned the
52:09lavish amusements that had once filled
52:11his beloved
52:14palace. I think Versailles became a
52:17chilly, tedious place in many respects.
52:20Once Damanton got Louis into her
52:24grip, it became this sort of rather
52:26dreary world where whatever the king of
52:29France was doing, you could set your
52:30watch by. You could look at a clock at
52:32any hour of the day and know exactly
52:34where Louisie was. And his whole life
52:37became this this endless choreography of
52:39etiquette and ritual with Madame
52:41Deontanol sitting there in the corner
52:43like some sort of holy spider watching
52:46it all.
52:53[Music]
52:54[Applause]
53:06Mantino was a comfort to Louie when he
53:08needed it the most. Illness took the
53:11life of many members of his family,
53:13including a son and grandson, and he was
53:16haunted by the legacy of his wars.
53:19I think Louie was a tragic figure in his
53:22final days. I think the tragedy began
53:24with the sudden deaths of so many of his
53:26nearest and
53:29dearest. Louisie had Montor by his side,
53:31but she said about him that sometimes he
53:34would be alone with her. He shut the
53:36doors and then he would just weep about
53:38the way things had gone. I think it was
53:40a very sad old age, you know, outliving
53:43his descendants and having led France
53:45into these wars which seemed so
53:47wonderful when he was winning them and
53:48became so ghastly when he wasn't.
54:00Aged 76 and after 72 years on the
54:03throne, Louie was once again taken
54:06seriously ill.
54:11No one expected Louis the 14th to live
54:13as long as he did. When Louisie finally
54:17weakens in the last year of his life,
54:20it's the result of a gangrous infection
54:22which gradually spreads from his leg to
54:24the rest of the left side of his body.
54:28Even Louis's own death became a public
54:30performance.
54:36[Music]
54:52In spite of their long intimacy,
54:54Montanor wasn't actually at the king's
54:56side when he died. And that was not the
54:59practice. By her own wish, she went off
55:02to a convent to be among ladies who
55:04would sucker her and sympathize with her
55:07and leaving him to priest and ultimately
55:10to God.
55:16He died rather slowly and so she came
55:18back once, I think twice, um to be with
55:22him again, but ultimately it was time
55:24for her to
55:26[Music]
55:33go. The heir to the throne was a really
55:36tiny child, the little 5-year-old boy,
55:38and he's brought in to see his
55:40grandfather, and his grandfather sort of
55:44tells him to be a good king, but says,
55:45"I have loved war too much." Very sad
55:48dying words from Louis the 14th.
55:50Certainly true.
55:52[Music]
56:04[Applause]
56:05[Music]
56:16Throughout his long reign, Louise sought
56:18to bring glory to himself and his
56:21country.
56:23That lifelong devotion expressed in the
56:26extraordinary palace he built at
56:28Versailles is the reason he's become
56:30part of the very essence of
56:32[Music]
56:37France. He didn't just leave glorious
56:40monuments, beautiful buildings, fabulous
56:42paintings. He left a sense of identity
56:45which has endured until today.
56:49Louie certainly embodies I think the
56:51idea of the greatness of France.
56:55He was the king and you were the subject
56:58and there was never any doubt about
57:01that. He imposed his will on the world
57:05so splendidly in in every
57:08[Music]
57:09respect. He wanted to impress everybody
57:12and he I think he succeeded.
57:15The scale of the vision is
57:20breathtaking. No one did it like Louie.
57:29[Music]

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