Who hasn’t dreamed of being born a prince, living in a palace and spoiled at every turn? Well, that’s not quite what many kings knew as children. Take the French royal family, for example: if you had been born into it, your odds of a rosy childhood could have been a lot worse. Just ask Louis XIII (r. 1610-1643).
17th-century-style sex education
We know quite a lot about the childhood of Louis XIII thanks to a meticulous diary kept by his doctor, Jean Héroard, from the year of his birth in 1601 until 1628. Like many kings of the period, Louis lived at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, separated from his mother and father, and was raised by a nanny he called “Maman Ga.” By the age of 16 months he was already required to take part in the royal “Lever,” the formal ceremony of getting out of bed, during which he received ambassadors and princes and had to converse with them according to the strict rules of court etiquette.
You could say that Louis XIII’s childhood might have counted as reasonably happy, if not for two things. The first was the assassination of his father, Henri IV (r. 1589-1610), which took place in 1610 when Louis was nine years old. The second was the troubling “sex education” he received from the adults around him. As you probably know, one of a king’s most important duties is to produce an heir. Louis XIII’s father decided this particular matter was too important to wait for adulthood, and did something that today would land a person in prison for years. One day, when young Louis was brought in for a visit, Henri IV pulled down his own pants in front of the boy, waved his penis and told him, “Remember, my child, this is the scepter with which you will one day rule France.” As if that weren’t enough, the boy’s sexual development became public knowledge rather than a private matter. In his diary from 1609, Jean Héroard recorded: “Today Louis fondled his nanny and had an erection, which rose and fell like a castle’s drawbridge.” At age 14, Louis XIII married Anne of Austria, but even his wedding night offered no privacy. His mother took him to the marital bed herself and later reported in detail that he returned to her an hour later with a red, swollen member.
It’s hardly surprising, then, that Louis XIII grew to dislike the company of women and preferred that of men, among them the duc de Luynes and the marquis de Cinq-Mars. It’s even less surprising that after some 20 years of marriage the couple had no children, and that when their first son was finally born, it was considered a miracle. (You can read about the circumstances of that son’s birth, the future Louis XIV, and the sexual education he in turn received, here.)
To close on a lighter note: Louis XIII’s upbringing stands in sharp contrast with the happy, carefree childhoods most of us remember, and it was nothing like the ordinary childhood most people hope to give their own kids. It’s a far cry, too, from the childhoods of most kings of France.