Versailles is known the world around as the City of the Sun King, where Louis XIV’s magnificent royal palace attracts nearly 10 million visitors annually. Few, however, know that Louis XIV also had special ties to Poitiers.
In 1651, at age thirteen, Louis spent no less than three months in Poitiers – more time than he spent in any city other than Paris, Versailles, and his native Saint-Germain. This stay was driven by the ongoing troubles in Paris of La Fronde, the nobility’s attempt to scale back the power of the Bourbon Kings and the then-Prime Minister, Mazarin. He and his mother, Anne of Austria took refuge in the safety of distant Poitiers. They would have stayed at the palace of the Dukes of Aquitaine, itself built on the site of what was once a royal palace. Three years later Poitiers rejoiced at his official coronation, and a state bonfire was held on the Place of the Marché Vieux (today’s Place du Marechal Leclerc). 1658 was a fateful year: in July, at the siege of Dunkirk, Louis fell ill, with high fever and hallucinations. He had caught Typhoid, an as-yet unidentified illness, and the court prepared for his imminent death. Physicians had few ideas, other than bloodletting, but his mother knew what to do: Anne of Austria prayed to Sainte Radegonde, and lo and behold Louis recovered. Not only did he recover, but he would now live another half-century, and become the longest-reigning King in European history.
The grateful Queen gave to Radegonde’s church in Poitiers a statue of herself (depicted as Sainte Radegonde), and a lamp to be kept burning day and night. The next year Louis himself came to Poitiers, on his way to marry the Infanta of Spain, and stopped again on his way back – laying then with great pomp the corner stone of a new Carmelite Convent. He never built a palace here, but no doubt Poitiers kept a special place in the Sun King’s memory. It was fitting in some ways, as Louis was the 14th of his name to reign. The first Louis to hold the name and reign, Louis the First, was after all born all of five miles from Poitiers: christened Ludowicus, known more as “the Pious” or “the Debonair” than as the “First,” Louis I was the son of Charlemagne. Who for all of Louis XIV’s grandeur, had a far bigger kingdom than the Sun King himself.