Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Volume 01 — Inside the Classic

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In Category - Modern Nations

Authors: Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy, duc de, 1675-1755 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2004 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: France -- Court and courtiers; France -- History -- Louis XIV, 1643-1715; France -- History -- Regency, 1715-1723 Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 38,669

Reading time 169 min

Text sections 4

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Source: Project Gutenberg record #3860

Saint-Simon's memoir of the 1693 campaign mixes personal anecdotes—a deaf postillion, a brigadier's toilette mid-battle—with sharp observations on court and army life, revealing tensions between catalog subjects and the memoirist's firsthand perspective.

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Disgrace of the Duc d'Orleans.--I Endeavor to Separate Him from Madame d'Argenton.--Extraordinary Reports.--My Various Colloquies with Him.--The Separation.--Conduct of Madame d'Argenton.--Death and Character of M. le Duc.--The After-suppers of the King.

Proposed Marriage of Mademoiselle.--My Intrigues to Bring It About.--The Duchesse de Bourgogne and Other Allies.--The Attack Begun.--Progress of the Intrigue.--Economy at Marly.--The Marriage Agreed Upon.--Scene at Saint-Cloud.--Horrible Reports.--The Marriage.--Madame de Saint-Simon.-- Strange Character of the Duchesse de Berry

Birth of Louis XV.--The Marechale de la Meilleraye.--Saint-Ruth's Cudgel.--The Cardinal de Bouillon's Desertion from France.--Anecdotes of His Audacity.

Imprudence of Villars.--The Danger of Truthfulness.--Military Mistakes.-- The Fortunes of Berwick.--The Son of James.--Berwick's Report on the Army.--Imprudent Saying of Villars.--"The Good Little Fellow" in a Scrape.--What Happens to Him.

Duchesse de Berry Drunk.--Operations in Spain.--Vendome Demanded by Spain.--His Affront by the Duchesse de Bourgogne.--His Arrival.-- Staremberg and Stanhope.--The Flag of Spain Leaves Madrid.--Entry of the Archduke.--Enthusiasm of the Spaniards--The King Returns.--Strategy, of Staremberg.--Affair of Brighuega.--Battle of Villavciosa.--Its Consequences to Vendome and to Spain.

State of the Country.--New Taxes.--The King's Conscience Troubled.-- Decision of the Sorbonne.--Debate in the Council.--Effect of the Royal Tithe.--Tax on Agioteurs.--Merriment at Court.--Death of a Son of Marechal Boufflers.--The Jesuits.

My Interview with Du Mont.--A Mysterious Communication. --Anger of Monseigneur against Me.--Household of the Duchesse de Berry.--Monseigneur Taken Ill of the Smallpox.--Effect of the News.--The King Goes to Meudon.--The Danger Diminishes.--Madame de Maintenon at Meudon.--The Court at Versailles.--Hopes and Fears.--The Danger Returns.--Death of Monseigneur.--Conduct of the King.

A Rumour Reaches Versailles.--Aspect of the Court.--Various Forms of Grief.--The Duc d'Orleans.--The News Confirmed at Versailles.--Behaviour of the Courtiers.--The Duc and Duchesse de Berry.--The Duc and Duchesse de Bourgogne.--Madame.--A Swiss Asleep.--Picture of a Court.--The Heir- Apparent's Night.--The King Returns to Marly.--Character of Monseigneur. --Effect of His Death.

State of the Court at Death of Monseigneur.--Conduct of the Dauphin and the Dauphine.--The Duchesse de Berry.--My Interview with the Dauphin.-- He is Reconciled with M. d'Orleans.

Warnings to the Dauphin and the Dauphine.--The Dauphine Sickens and Dies.--Illness of the Dauphin.--His Death.--Character and Manners of the Dauphine.--And of the Dauphin.

Certainty of Poison.--The Supposed Criminal.--Excitement of the People against M. d'Orleans.--The Cabal.--My Danger and Escape.--The Dauphin's Casket.

The King's Selfishness.--Defeat of the Czar.--Death of Catinat.--Last Days of Vendome.--His Body at the Escurial.--Anecdote of Harlay and the Jacobins.--Truce in Flanders.--Wolves.

Settlement of the Spanish Succession.--Renunciation of France.--Comic Failure of the Duc de Berry.--Anecdotes of M. de Chevreuse.--Father Daniel's History and Its Reward.

The Bull Unigenitus.--My Interview with Father Tellier.--Curious Inadvertence of Mine.--Peace.--Duc de la Rochefoucauld.--A Suicide in Public.--Charmel.--Two Gay Sisters.

The King of Spain a Widower.--Intrigues of Madame des Ursins.--Choice of the Princes of Parma.--The King of France Kept in the Dark.--Celebration of the Marriage.--Sudden Fall of the Princesse des Ursins.--Her Expulsion from Spain.

The King of Spain Acquiesces in the Disgrace of Madame des Ursins.--Its Origin.--Who Struck the Blow.--Her journey to Versailles.--Treatment There.--My Interview with Her.--She Retires to Genoa.--Then to Rome.-- Dies.

Sudden Illness of the Duc de Berry--Suspicious Symptoms.--The Duchess Prevented from Seeing Him.--His Death.--Character.--Manners of the Duchesse de Berry.

Maisons Seeks My Acquaintance.--His Mysterious Manner.--Increase of the Intimacy.--Extraordinary News.--The Bastards Declared Princes of the Blood.--Rage of Maisons and Noailles.--Opinion of the Court and Country.

The King Unhappy and Ill at Ease.--Court Paid to Him.--A New Scheme to Rule Him.--He Yields.--New Annoyance.--His Will.--Anecdotes Concerning It.--Opinions of the Court.--M. du Maine

A New Visit from Maisons.--His Violent Project.--My Objections.--He Persists.--His Death and That of His Wife. --Death of the Duc de Beauvilliers.--His Character.--Of the Cardinal d'Estrees.--Anecdotes.-- Death of Fenelon.

Character and Position of the Duc d'Orleans--His Manners, Talents, and Virtues.--His Weakness.--Anecdote Illustrative Thereof.-- The "Debonnaire"--Adventure of the Grand Prieur in England.--Education of the Duc d'Orleans.--Character of Dubois.--His Pernicious Influence.-- The Duke's Emptiness.--His Deceit.--His Love of Painting.--The Fairies at His Birth.--The Duke's Timidity.--An Instance of His Mistrustfulness.

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Saint-Simon opens his account of the 1693 campaign not with a grand strategic overview but with the mundane misery of soldiers carrying corn through dreadful weather. This volume of memoirs, cataloged under France—Court and courtiers and France—History—Louis XIV, 1643-1715, quickly shows that the author's attention is as much on the behavior of nobles under pressure as on military outcomes. The excerpts reveal a writer who records a brigadier's mid-battle toilette with the same care as the enemy's losses, and who presents his own clever ruse to secure horses as a natural part of the narrative.

The Memoirist's Eye for Detail

The excerpts show Saint-Simon's preference for concrete, often surprising details over abstract analysis. He notes that during the siege of Namur, gentlemen were forced to carry corn on their backs, and that the monks of Marlaigne provided unexpected aid. At Neerwinden, after twelve hours of fighting, his people produced a leg of mutton and a bottle of wine saved from the previous evening—a detail that grounds the grand victory in personal relief. The brigadier Quoadt is killed before his eyes, yet the replacement, the Duc de Feuillade, returns from making his toilette in a fine red surcoat embroidered with silver. These observations do not fit neatly into the catalog subject of 'France—History—Louis XIV'; they belong to the memoirist's own world of rank, appearance, and survival.

Court and Army: Overlapping Spheres

The catalog subjects separate court from military history, but Saint-Simon's narrative merges them. The King arrives at Versailles with the ladies on June 25, while the army is still smarting from a controversial retreat. Courtiers are ashamed to be at Versailles; the enemy is surprised and joyful. Later, the author returns to Paris to find a change at Court that surprises him—the fall of Daquin, first doctor and creature of Madame de Montespan. The memoir treats the army's morale and the court's intrigues as parts of a single story. The Prince of Orange's exclamation—'Oh, the insolent nation!'—is set beside the author's own encounter with a deaf and dumb postillion who stuck him fast in the mud. The reader sees how a nobleman's experience of war includes both the battlefield and the struggle for horses at a posting station.

The Limits of the Catalog: What the Excerpts Omit

The catalog subjects promise coverage of the Regency (1715-1723), but the excerpts from Volume 01 focus almost entirely on the 1690s. The table of contents lists chapters on the marriage of the Duc de Chartres, the death of the author's father, and the trial for precedence of M. de Luxembourg, but the provided text does not include these episodes. The catalog also lists 'France—Court and courtiers,' yet the excerpts show Saint-Simon more interested in the army than in Versailles. The reader should not assume that this volume delivers a comprehensive portrait of Louis XIV's court; it is a memoir of a young nobleman's military service, with court events appearing only as they intersect with his own life. The catalog's broad subjects may overstate the scope of this particular volume.

Readers approaching this volume as a straightforward history of Louis XIV's reign will find instead a personal narrative that values the specific over the general. Saint-Simon's voice—sometimes wry, sometimes indignant—shapes every episode. Pay attention to what he chooses to include: the condition of the roads, the behavior of his superiors, the small victories and frustrations of a campaign. These details reveal as much about the memoirist's world as any official record could.

There’s something about Saint-Simon noticing that brigadier mid-toilette, unbothered by the chaos around him—the way he files it away alongside the deaf postillion, as if both mattered equally. It reminds me of those old British Committees, Commissions, and Councils of Trade and Plantations, 1622-1675 — Text and Context, where the grand machinery of empire grinds on, and yet the surviving notes keep the smallest human frayed edges. We never quite get all of it, but we get enough to feel the distance.