Produced by Al Haines
[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.