Louis XIII
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Louis XIII (27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) reigned as King of France and Navarre from 1610 to 1643.
Sexuality
There is no evidence that Louis had mistresses (consequently earning the title of 'Louis the Chaste'), but persistent rumours insinuated that he may have been homosexual or at least bisexual. Tallemant des Réaux, drawing from rumours told to him by a critic of the king (the marquise de Rambouillet), explicitly speculated in his Historiettes what happened in the King's bed. A liaison with an equerry, François de Baradas, ended when the latter lost favour fighting a duel after duelling had been forbidden by royal decree. He was also allegedly captivated by Marquis de Cinq-Mars, who was later executed for conspiring with the Spanish enemy in time of war. Tallemant described how on a Royal journey, the King "sent M. le Grand [de Cinq-Mars] to undress, who returned, adorned like a bride. 'To bed, to bed' he said to him impatiently... and the mignon was not in before the King was already kissing his hands."
See also
- Absolute monarchy in France
- Charles de Lorme, personal medical doctor to Louis XIII
- French monarchs family tree
- Lords, Marquesses and Dukes of Elbeuf Charles II of Guise-Lorraine, Duke of Elbeuf
- St. John Eudes and contemporary promotion of the popular medieval mystical devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus a necessary spiritual remediation for the excesses of secular Absolutism of the cavalier age.
