Chronologie de la vie de Louis XIV, December 1660

A while ago, November 2017, I asked on Twitter if my followers would fancy a account that tweets whatever Louis XIV did, if it is known, on specific days of a specific year. As year to start with, I suggested 1660, since the following 1661 was a rather interesting year in the reign of Louis XIV. A lot of people said oui and so, @LouisXIVtoday was born. This account tweets whatever the King was up to, with nice pictures, and if I have specific times for when he was doing what, it even tweets it at the fitting hour (Paris time).

How do I know what he was doing? I have a handful of books with various timelines in various languages on the Sun King’s life and for the more general stuff, I use the French Wikipedia entries, which are mostly quite detailed. So, I sit down every few weeks and put it all together, schedule it on Tweetdeck and smile to myself whenever it is something utterly interesting. It is not always that interesting though, a lot of stuff circles around Louis XIV going to mass, hearing sermons, meeting envoys and such things… but then there are weddings, fires, treaties, ballets and all that fun stuff. After doing that for a couple of months, I thought it would be nice to have it all on here too and asked my followers again if they would enjoy it too. Oui was the answer again and here we are. The list of what Louis did, is far from complete and mostly based on what was reported in the Gazette or other newspapers of the time. If there are days, on which, according to the list, he did nothing, you can presume he was busy with his daily kingly duties, which of course were not reported in detail in these newspapers unless it involved something of public interest. (If you happen to have info on his movements on those days, let me know.) If I have time and find something, I will update the posts. I might also add everything pre December 1600 in the future. For now, the post of the current month will be posted at the end of that month and I recommend you to follow @LouisXIVtoday for the full experience.

 

2 December, returning from the chase, the King receives Johann Franz von Wicka, envoy of the Archduke of Innsbruck.

5 December, Louis XIV and Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche attend the sermon of Abbé de Tonnerre in the chapel of the Louvre.

6 December, the King receives Monsieur Pierre de Bonzy, envoy of the Grand-Duc of Tuscany, before his departure from court.

6 December, the King receives the Comte de Soissons, who has just returned from a diplomatic visit to England concerning the wish of Monsieur, the King’s brother, to marry.

8 December, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the King attends the sermon of Abbé de Tonnerre, and the vesper, at the Louvre in the afternoon.

9 December, the actors of the royal troupe perform an allegorical and pastoral piece with the topic of peace, whose author is Monsieur Philippe Quinault, in front of the King and Queen.

12 December, the King grants an audience to Wolfgang von Forstner, envoy of Eberhard III, Duc de Wurtemberg.

13 December, the King visits Cardinal Mazarin, who is bedridden, in his Louvre apartment, in order to inform the Cardinal of his wish of a resolution to extirpate Jansenism.

15 December, the King entertains the princesses and ladies of the court with a ball in his apartment. It is accompanied by a ballet and snacks.

19 December, the King, his wife and his mother as well as all of the court is present at the chapel of the Louvre for the sermon of Abbé de Tonnerre.

21 December, the King and Queen receive Monsieur le Prince Alexandre Farnése, brother of the Duc de Parme, who had arrived incognito in Paris a few days ago.

22 December, the King receives the Dutch ambassadors, M. de Beunigen, M. van Gent van Oosterweide and M. de Heybert.

22 December, Monsieur le Duc de Longueville comes to visit the King and Queen with his two sons, Jean-Louis Charles and Charles-Paris d’Orléans.

24 December, on the occasion of the last day of novena, the King and Queen visit the Théatins at the church of Sainte-Anne-la-Royale, participate in the vesper and receive the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

24 December, the King and Queen hear the midnight-mass at the chapel of the Louvre and afterwards attend the three Christmas Masses said by Abbé Le Tellier.

25 December, the King and Queen visit the chapel of the Louvre in the morning to hear the grand`messe, celebrated by Bishop de Saint-Brieuc.

25 December, at noon, the King and Queen travel to the church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois to hear the preaching of Abbé Biroart and participate in the vesper.

25 December, after mass at Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, the King and Queen travel to Val-de-Grâce, where they meet with the Queen-Mother.

27 December, the King enjoys the chase in the surroundings of Paris.