Even to contemporaries Louis XIII was an enigma, for he seemed to be the very embodiment of opposites. For example, when he overthrew his mother's Regency government in 1617, he claimed she had treated him as a child not as a son, yet the moment his 'coup' was successful he did not attempt to consolidate his authority, but sat on the floor "playing the child" he now claimed his mother had never allowed him to be. Further, he demanded the obedience of his nobility, yet continued to do things which elicited their scorn rather than their respect. After all, he fawned over court favorites, spoke with a stutter and seemed to enjoy his toy canons as much as he did the royal army he now ostensibly controlled. The purpose of this work is to show not only that Louis was a King without majesty, even though he was addressed as 'Your Majesty', but how he gradually came to acquire that majesty under the tutelage of Cardinal Richelieu. It does this first by drawing on the thought of Jean Bodin, the sixteenth century jurist, who showed that majesty flowed from sovereignty, and sovereignty meant that a ruler must not be subject to another in anything. Second, it applies this definition of sovereignty and majesty to Louis XIII, showing in detail how he did not even have control over his own life, much less over his court, country and coasts. It was Richelieu who gave him this control, making his rule unquestioned both in practice and in theory, separating him even from the scrutiny of the Catholic Church by making that Church subordinate to the state. Even more, Richelieu taught Louis how to carry himself like a King. Most of all, however, he taught Louis that the essence of majesty did not lie in demanding obedience but in exuding an authority that commanded it.

Louis XIII's reign has long garnered historians' and popular interest. The king of Cardinal Richelieu and the three musketeers, Louis is traditionally viewed as having presided over the development of the French state and facilitated the rise of absolutism. Yet his court has received comparatively little attention. Traditionally understood as the reflection of its master, Louis XIII's court has been assumed to be backwards and inconsequential. On the contrary, this thesis contends that Louis's court experienced substantial institutional development and expansion over the course of his rule. Neither Louis nor Richelieu was the principal instigator of this growth. The main drivers were the courtiers themselves who sought to expand their prerogatives and to find new ways of profiting from their offices. The changes that were initiated from the top down were not determined by a broad, sweeping agenda held by Louis or his minister-favourites but rather by immediate needs and contingencies. Cardinal Richelieu, nonetheless, recognised that Louis's court really mattered for high politics in this period: the royal households produced key players for the governance of the realm, either gravitating from court office to broader governmental office, or holding both simultaneously. Furthermore, Louis's court helped to bind the realm together, not just because it acted as a hub attracting people from the provinces but also because of the time it spent in the provinces. Richelieu, however, struggled to control this court — so vital to the direction of the French monarchy in this period — because its members were so active and vibrant. They shaped the cultural and social environment surrounding and associated with the court because they were heavily invested in the court as an institution. Indeed, the court did not only serve the needs of the monarch: courts could only operate because a large group of people had a stake in ensuring that they functioned. By establishing the importance of Louis XIII's court for the direction of the French monarchy, and his courtiers' role in moulding it, this thesis seeks to throw light on humans' fundamental relationship with power.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal