France Under the Sun King
In the 17th century, France emerged from years of chaos into a new golden age
Onstage at Lantern Theater Company September 7 through October 8, 2023, Molière’s comic masterpiece Tartuffe was written in the 1660s during the reign of Louis XIV, and the plot hinges on the sovereign’s divine power and judgment. So, too, did France. Amidst the political infighting and jockeying for power among factions of French society, Louis XIV likened himself to the sun around which his nation orbited, and he turned France into the center of culture that we know today while consolidating power and suppressing opposition.
In 1622, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, later known as Molière, was born in Paris. Two years later, Cardinal de Richelieu became King Louis XIII’s chief minister, a role he would serve in until 1642. During his tenure, Richelieu worked to limit the power of the nobility and of the judiciary, stirring dissatisfaction and unrest among those groups. Aristocrats from old families resented the rising power of the wealthy commoner, and conflicts over whether France should be a Catholic or a Protestant country were still simmering. Richelieu’s move to concentrate power with the crown rather than dispersing it among the nobility was unpopular.
King Louis XIV was born into this uneasy time in 1638. Just four years later, he became king when his father died, beginning a 72-year reign that remains the longest in European history. Though his mother would rule as Regent until he came of age, Louis XIV’s coronation began the Grand Siècle, or Grand Century, an age that would come to be characterized by France’s strong central government and the advancement of French art and literature. One year later, in 1643, the young Poquelin took his stage name of Molière and set out to make a life in the theater, just as his country prepared to make a new life under a new ruler.
But there were national growing pains. France was under financial and military pressure as a combatant in both the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) and the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659). Cardinal Mazarin, who succeeded Richeleu and continued his policies, sought to raise money through taxing the nobility. In 1648, just as the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years’ War, civil conflict broke out in France over the power of the monarchy to collect that money and the power of the nobility and judiciary (the Parlement) to refuse him.
The 10-year-old King Louis XIV was humiliated and frightened by what followed: five years of civil conflict known as the Fronde, in which the nobility and the Parlement fought to act as a check on the monarchy and royal decrees. While they at first had the support of the people, the nobility eventually succumbed to infighting and personal ambition, and in 1653 the monarchy won so decisively that it would not be truly challenged again until the French Revolution in 1789.
Though his side won, Louis XIV would not forget the Fronde. Beginning in 1661, when Mazarin died and Louis took personal control of his government, he pursued and enforced an absolute monarchy — a system in which the king is chosen by God and answerable to God alone, and in which his decrees may not be challenged. Louis XIV chose for himself the royal emblem of the sun, as it rises and sets over everything in the kingdom — and acts as its gravitational center. He put policies into place to keep the nobility and the bourgeoisie alike in check. He frequently granted titles, demonstrating that those who were loyal could rise through the ranks, and he instituted a complex series of court etiquette rules to keep the nobility too busy to rebel. Under Louis XIV, France also became the dominant military power of Europe.
Louis XIV consolidated his power, ruling without a chief minister, and instructed his other ministers to act only with his approval. He also enforced Catholicism as the national religion, reinvigorating the religious tensions that would lead to Tartuffe being banned by the Church in 1664. In 1681, he all but severed France’s connection with Rome, placing himself as God’s anointed leader of the French Catholic Church and effectively outlawing Protestantism in the country.
But it wasn’t all politics and power. During his long reign, the Sun King would also become a major supporter of the arts, enjoying music, theater, dancing, and more, and hosting theatrical presentations at his palaces. French painting, literature, and architecture flourished under his reign, catapulting France to the forefront of European culture and furthering Louis XIV’s goal to cement France as a leader on the world stage. He also began renovations on his father’s old hunting chateau, turning a relatively humble vacation destination into the Palace of Versailles we know today. In 1681, Louis XIV officially moved the court to Versailles and compelled his courtiers to live there, centralizing his control further.
It was at this palace that he enjoyed a performance of Molière’s Tartuffe in 1664, and it was under his protection that Molière continued writing through the play’s controversy and ban. The Sun King’s light was warm for those it shone on.
More great reading: See other recent articles and interviews on the Lantern Searchlight blog
Lantern Theater Company’s production of Molière’s Tartuffe, translated into English verse by Richard Wilbur, is onstage September 7 through October 8, 2023, at St. Stephen’s Theater. Visit our website for tickets and information.
