Le deuil (?) d’Anne d’Autriche : Perdre un époux, gagner la Régence

Abstract

On 14 May 1643, Louis XIII died of Crohn’s disease (or intestinal tuberculosis). Louis XIV (who became automatically king upon his father’s death) was only five years old. His mother, Anne of Austria (1601-1666) had to assume the Regency and look after her son’s interests, which were threatened by the ambitions of his uncle, Gaston de France (1608-1660), known as d’Orléans. He long had his eye on the throne and had hatched several plots against his brother while the latter was alive. In spite of her genuine sorrow at the loss of a cherished spouse (contrarily to popular beliefs and to the wellknown coldness of the king towards his wife), Anne has to quash her personal feelings and take measures to ensure her son’s reign. On 18 May 1643, she had at a “lit de justice” Loujs XIII’s will annulled, as it granted her only the presidency of the Regency Council, and was proclaimed (in her son’s name) absolute Regent. Anne combined extreme piety with an energetic, even inflexible political authority; she made herself respected as well as the authority she exercised in the name of the king, with Mazarin’s help. In 1651 Louis XIV was declared of age. Anne’s Regency ended. She had traversed a number of extremely difficult periods, both economical and especially political, with the Fronde (1648-1653). Slowly succumbing to a cancer which her physicians proved to be powerless to treat, she died on Wednesday 20 January 1666. The words of her son Louis XIV well summarise what Anne of Austria had done for France: he said his mother had not only been a great queen, but she also deserved to be ranked with the greatest kings.