France's King Louis XIV lived an extraordinarily lavish life. But things really got interesting when he died. Little-known Elements of his bizarre and grotesque burial ritual are now on display at Versailles.
Louis XIV: The bedroom king
Certificate of death
Portrait of Europe's longest-reigning monarch
Louis XIV's 'certificate of opening'
Seat of power
Moving the remains of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
Napoleons in Les Invalides
Versailles Palace
He'd been on the throne for 72 of his 77 years. He died as he had lived - in public. And his death wasn't necessarily a sad occasion.
"During the last thirty years of Louis XIV's reign, France only had a two year respite from war," said Gérard Sabatier. The co-curator of "The King Is Dead" exhibition, now on show at Versailles Palace, has conducted three years of research into the history of royal funerals. "The French not only had to go and fight these wars, they had to pay for them, so when he died the abiding mood in France was one of relief."
Despite his illness, the "Sun King" carried on his daily rituals until two days before his death, a decision perhaps made easier by the fact that he'd always conducted a good part of France's affairs from his bedroom.
It was no ordinary bedroom, and what went on there wasn't either.
Sunrise, sunset in the Sun King's bedroom
Louis XIV's sleeping chamber was located in the exact center of the palace façade so that the view from his bed would cut straight down the middle of the magnificent, gilded entrance to the palace. It was no coincident that the path up to the residence mirrored the East-West axis of the sun.
Here, each day began with the lever du Roi when, over a period of an hour and a half, he was dressed and received visitors according to their status: He began with his brother and his son and ended with more distant courtiers and lords. By the time Louis XIV had his wig on his head and his sword fixed to his belt and was pulling on his gloves, his bedroom would be full of people.
Each day ended with the coucher du Roi, which was the exact same thing in reverse.
Three-part corpse and royal effigy
The day after the king's death, his body was cut open and divided into three parts (body, heart and entrails) and embalmed by doctors and surgeons, before being placed in a coffin made of lead, which was then placed in another coffin made of oak.
The practice of dividing dead French kings into three began with Philippe le Bel in 1314. The idea was that, instead of one, you could have three final resting places where people could pay homage to you (or, in more troubled times, desecrate the remains and pillage the metals).
Louis's double coffin stood in Versailles for eight days. In a departure from tradition, no funeral effigy was made.
Previously, following a Roman practice revived by the English, a wicker effigy of the dead king was made (in England it was wood). A wax mask and wax hands molded from the dead king's body were attached to it. The effigy was then dressed and sat up in bed where it received visits from mourners in place of the real body which, having started to reek, was safely enclosed in a coffin. The doll was even served a meal.
Instead mourners paid their respects to the remains in the coffin.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, women wore mourning white but, by the 18th century, black was firmly established as the color of mourning. With one exception - the king's heir.
The trouble of dying heirs
Louis XIV had spent much of his life feeling rather good about himself in respect to his succession. Unlike his neighbors, those poor Spanish Bourbons who had all sorts of problems making heirs, he had six children with his wife Marie-Thérèse, two of whom were boys.
But just before he died, things all started to go wrong.
His eldest son Louis, known as the Grand Dauphin, died in 1711 and, the following year, his eldest son, also called Louis, also died. The Sun King's only surviving heir was his great-grandson - naturally, also called Louis - who incidentally also went on to give his name to a type of chair.
At his great-grandfather's death in 1715, the future Louis XV, just five years old, was not allowed to visit his dead relative, take part in his funeral procession, or go to the funeral.
The king is dead, long live the king
And he didn't wear black; he wore purple. This was to signify that, although kings die, the king - if you understand -, does not.
"The death of the king, both as a man and an institution, was a key moment in the construction of the public perception of the monarchy," according to "The King is Dead" website.
Black was worn by the other mourners, who came to sprinkle holy water on dead Louis XIV's coffin. But who wore what mourning attire was strictly regulated. The higher the rank of the mourner, the longer the train he was allowed to wear. The most important people wore black trains up to five meters long.
Certain rooms in Versailles were draped in black, as were carriages. Servants wore black and so did the horses.
As night set in on September 8, 1715, Louis XIV's funeral procession set out from Versailles for the basilica at St. Denis Cathedral, the ancient burial place of French kings. The basilica contains the remains of all but three of the 70-odd kings that ruled France starting with Clovis in the 5th century.
Funeral march fit for Hollywood
We don't know why they chose to slowly march for 12 hours at night. Perhaps it was the influence of Spain, where they'd developed a taste for night-time religious ritual. The effect, in any case, would have been dramatic.
The procession included 2,500 people. Many of them were king's guards, mounted and on foot around the king's three-meter high funeral carriage, which was topped with a large silver cross. At the front were 400 poor people, carrying candles, who were paid and dressed for the occasion in black cloaks with black hoods.
As they walked through the streets, with drummers keeping the slow, funereal beat, some in the crowds shouted insults as Louis's funeral coach rolled by. Many people in France were glad to see the back of France's longest-serving monarch.
Sun King's organs discovered at Notre Dame
The procession arrived at dawn at St. Denis Cathedral for the funeral, where musicians played a funeral march composed by André Philidor.
The five meter-long, ermine-lined cloak of blue velvet and gold fleurs de lys, his crown, and the sword that had belonged to Charlemagne were placed upon Louis' coffin. Inside were models of his shield, his spurs, and his scepter known as his "hand of justice" to symbolize authority.
The body was buried at St. Denis Cathedral. Decades later, in 1793, where it was dug up at the beginning of The Terror, a period at the start of the French Revolution marked by violence and executions, and scattered along with the remains of other kings. The copper plaque identifying his coffin was pillaged and turned into a saucepan. Straightened out again, it is on display in the "The King is Dead" exhibition.
Louis's heart was put in the Jesuits' church in the rue St. Antoine, where looters also came during the French Revolution and took the gold that encased it. Though his heart was destroyed, the exhibition contains three other royal hearts set in gold in the same way.
Only the Sun King's embalmed innards remained undesecrated by the anti-royalist Jacobins. A recent discovery allowed the identification of the exact location of the barrels containing the entrails of Louis XIV and his father at the foot of the steps to the sanctuary of Notre Dame Cathedral. Over the decades, millions of tourists to the famous Paris church had no idea what they were stepping over.
"The King is Dead" exhibition runs through February 21, 2016, at the Versailles Palace in Paris.
Fonte: Deutsche Welle (27.10.2015)
"During the last thirty years of Louis XIV's reign, France only had a two year respite from war," said Gérard Sabatier. The co-curator of "The King Is Dead" exhibition, now on show at Versailles Palace, has conducted three years of research into the history of royal funerals. "The French not only had to go and fight these wars, they had to pay for them, so when he died the abiding mood in France was one of relief."
Despite his illness, the "Sun King" carried on his daily rituals until two days before his death, a decision perhaps made easier by the fact that he'd always conducted a good part of France's affairs from his bedroom.
It was no ordinary bedroom, and what went on there wasn't either.
Sunrise, sunset in the Sun King's bedroom
Louis XIV's sleeping chamber was located in the exact center of the palace façade so that the view from his bed would cut straight down the middle of the magnificent, gilded entrance to the palace. It was no coincident that the path up to the residence mirrored the East-West axis of the sun.
Here, each day began with the lever du Roi when, over a period of an hour and a half, he was dressed and received visitors according to their status: He began with his brother and his son and ended with more distant courtiers and lords. By the time Louis XIV had his wig on his head and his sword fixed to his belt and was pulling on his gloves, his bedroom would be full of people.
Each day ended with the coucher du Roi, which was the exact same thing in reverse.
Three-part corpse and royal effigy
The day after the king's death, his body was cut open and divided into three parts (body, heart and entrails) and embalmed by doctors and surgeons, before being placed in a coffin made of lead, which was then placed in another coffin made of oak.
The practice of dividing dead French kings into three began with Philippe le Bel in 1314. The idea was that, instead of one, you could have three final resting places where people could pay homage to you (or, in more troubled times, desecrate the remains and pillage the metals).
Louis's double coffin stood in Versailles for eight days. In a departure from tradition, no funeral effigy was made.
Previously, following a Roman practice revived by the English, a wicker effigy of the dead king was made (in England it was wood). A wax mask and wax hands molded from the dead king's body were attached to it. The effigy was then dressed and sat up in bed where it received visits from mourners in place of the real body which, having started to reek, was safely enclosed in a coffin. The doll was even served a meal.
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| Versailles was designed according to carefully planned geographic principles |
Versailles was designed according to carefully planned geographic principles
These effigies also played an important role in the funeral processions: They were placed on top of the kings' funeral carriages and paraded through the streets of Paris, where the people would flock to see them. However, Louis XIV's father Louis XIII put an end to this practice, which he considered unacceptably pagan.Instead mourners paid their respects to the remains in the coffin.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, women wore mourning white but, by the 18th century, black was firmly established as the color of mourning. With one exception - the king's heir.
The trouble of dying heirs
Louis XIV had spent much of his life feeling rather good about himself in respect to his succession. Unlike his neighbors, those poor Spanish Bourbons who had all sorts of problems making heirs, he had six children with his wife Marie-Thérèse, two of whom were boys.
But just before he died, things all started to go wrong.
His eldest son Louis, known as the Grand Dauphin, died in 1711 and, the following year, his eldest son, also called Louis, also died. The Sun King's only surviving heir was his great-grandson - naturally, also called Louis - who incidentally also went on to give his name to a type of chair.
At his great-grandfather's death in 1715, the future Louis XV, just five years old, was not allowed to visit his dead relative, take part in his funeral procession, or go to the funeral.
The king is dead, long live the king
And he didn't wear black; he wore purple. This was to signify that, although kings die, the king - if you understand -, does not.
"The death of the king, both as a man and an institution, was a key moment in the construction of the public perception of the monarchy," according to "The King is Dead" website.
Black was worn by the other mourners, who came to sprinkle holy water on dead Louis XIV's coffin. But who wore what mourning attire was strictly regulated. The higher the rank of the mourner, the longer the train he was allowed to wear. The most important people wore black trains up to five meters long.
Certain rooms in Versailles were draped in black, as were carriages. Servants wore black and so did the horses.
As night set in on September 8, 1715, Louis XIV's funeral procession set out from Versailles for the basilica at St. Denis Cathedral, the ancient burial place of French kings. The basilica contains the remains of all but three of the 70-odd kings that ruled France starting with Clovis in the 5th century.
Funeral march fit for Hollywood
We don't know why they chose to slowly march for 12 hours at night. Perhaps it was the influence of Spain, where they'd developed a taste for night-time religious ritual. The effect, in any case, would have been dramatic.
The procession included 2,500 people. Many of them were king's guards, mounted and on foot around the king's three-meter high funeral carriage, which was topped with a large silver cross. At the front were 400 poor people, carrying candles, who were paid and dressed for the occasion in black cloaks with black hoods.
As they walked through the streets, with drummers keeping the slow, funereal beat, some in the crowds shouted insults as Louis's funeral coach rolled by. Many people in France were glad to see the back of France's longest-serving monarch.
Sun King's organs discovered at Notre Dame
The procession arrived at dawn at St. Denis Cathedral for the funeral, where musicians played a funeral march composed by André Philidor.
The body was buried at St. Denis Cathedral. Decades later, in 1793, where it was dug up at the beginning of The Terror, a period at the start of the French Revolution marked by violence and executions, and scattered along with the remains of other kings. The copper plaque identifying his coffin was pillaged and turned into a saucepan. Straightened out again, it is on display in the "The King is Dead" exhibition.
Louis's heart was put in the Jesuits' church in the rue St. Antoine, where looters also came during the French Revolution and took the gold that encased it. Though his heart was destroyed, the exhibition contains three other royal hearts set in gold in the same way.
Only the Sun King's embalmed innards remained undesecrated by the anti-royalist Jacobins. A recent discovery allowed the identification of the exact location of the barrels containing the entrails of Louis XIV and his father at the foot of the steps to the sanctuary of Notre Dame Cathedral. Over the decades, millions of tourists to the famous Paris church had no idea what they were stepping over.
"The King is Dead" exhibition runs through February 21, 2016, at the Versailles Palace in Paris.
Fonte: Deutsche Welle (27.10.2015)
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