The French Monarchy

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31984, 10 May 1969, Page 4

The French Monarchy

Epitaph for Kings. By Sanehe De Gramont Hamish Hamilton. 411 pp. Bibliography and notes. Index. Historical Memoir* of the Due de Saint-Simon. A shortened version. Volume H: 1710-1715. Edited and translated by Lucy Norton. Hamish Hamilton. 502 pp. Index. Read'in conjunction, these two books form a fascinating combination —Sanehe de Gramont looking back from the present day and assessing the relevance of historical events of the eighteenth century, and describing the long decline of

the French Monarchy and the coming of the Revolution; die Due de Saint-Simon busily writing down every minutest detail of life at Court at the exact moment of happening—“instant 4 history in the making.

De Gramont covers the period from the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV (1643) until the execution of Louis XVI in 1793. These memoirs of Saint-Simon cover the years 1710-1715, the last five years of Louis XlV’s reign, during which time four heirs to the French throne died, so that when Louis XIV died at the age of 77, it was his

' 5-year-old great grandson who ’ was the heir to the throne, becoming, after the Regency of eight years, Louis XV. The Regent was the Due D’Orleans, nephew of Louis XIV, who himself lacked confidence in his reprobate nephew, calling him a “boast- • ful compendium of crimes." De Gramont, writing of the ' Regency, calls it a parenthes si* between two absolute > monarchs, a “century in eight > years,” quoting Duclos. t De Gramont often refers > to Saint-Simon’s Memoirs, for ! in them we have a day-by-day ■ picture Of life at Court which ■was so precisely regulated I that “even if you were 300 t leagues away, you had only to • look at your watch and your ! calendar to. know exactly ’ what the King was doing.” 1 Few men’s lives have been 1 recorded in such detail and • yet Louis XIV while being ■ the best-known is yet the 1 most elusive French king. He was the absolute monarch—- ■ the Sun King—able to mes- : merise an entire nation into ; gratifying his pursuit of per--1 sonal glory. He restored i internal order after a century ■ of religious wars. As Voltaire , said, “all was tranquil under his reign.” He shaped a i France where no dissonant ■ note jarred the chorus of : adulation, where everything , served to glorify his reign. Both books abound in ' excellent pen-portraits. Saint- ; Simon’s of Monseigner, the , Grand Dauphin, Louis XlV’s ! ignored son and heir to the 1 throne, is particularly reveal- , ing. Incidentally, the death > of Monseigner at the age of ■ 49, without ever coming to > the throne, was a great relief ■ to Saint-Simon for quite a number of pertinent reasons. s De Gramont portrays the t Royal Mistresses with a most ■ one of tiie earliest expres- ! sion* of French nationalism. E In a country where women > could not rule and the Queen, I for reasons of state, was : always a foreigner, the misi tress, who was always French, » was the nation’s emissary to ■ tiie monarch; moreover, she . had earned the King’s favour,

the Queen had merely acquired it”

Rank meant a great deal to the Due de Saint-Simon and many pages of his Memoirs are devoted to lengthy explanations and expostulations regarding rank and precedence and the jealousies and quarrels arising from such matters. His only wish, so he says, was “for order, justice, toleration, the good of the State and its people by honourable means.” When Louis XIV granted full rank and privileges to his bastards, causing consternation and bitter feeling at Court, SaintSimon rushed to his diary and wrote with acid pen, “in France the best birth is to be born a bastard and so have none at all.”

The terrible bubonic plague which hit Marseilles in 1720, devastating that city for nearly two years, is described in great detail by de Gramont, who notes that the memoirists of the period thbught it an event hardly worth mentioning: “SaintSimon," he says, “who could devote hundreds of pages to Court controversies like the right of royal princesses to sit on stools in front of the Queen, disposed of the plague with a few lines." Sanehe de Gramont writes as a historian, lucidly and to ! h ?..P olnt - Luc ? Norton is a brilliant translator and editor, keeping all the sparkle and life of the original memoirs which are acknowledged to be the best in any language. Each book is lavishly illustrated with excellent portraits. paintings and maps.