0:00:06 > 0:00:08Hello and welcome to Inside Versailles.
0:00:08 > 0:00:10We've had this gripping episode
0:00:10 > 0:00:14of conspiracy and intrigue and notes stuffed into pineapples.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16But what about Les Invalides?
0:00:16 > 0:00:17It really goes back that far?
0:00:17 > 0:00:19Yeah, I think we think of it as a Napoleonic thing, cos you
0:00:19 > 0:00:22can go for a nice day trip to Paris and go and look at his tomb.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24But actually it's Louis XIV's invention.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27It's more or less a military pensioner hospital for the soldiers
0:00:27 > 0:00:29and sailors who were injured at war.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33But also I think it's partially this system to try and deal with
0:00:33 > 0:00:36the construction workers of Versailles and the other palaces
0:00:36 > 0:00:39who have been horribly maimed and crushed beneath various
0:00:39 > 0:00:42bits of scaffolding, and they are demanding some sort of care.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44So it's both for soldiers and sailors
0:00:44 > 0:00:47and for construction workers who've basically fallen off the scaffold
0:00:47 > 0:00:50because there's no harness and it's full of dangers.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52There's no real health and safety making Versailles.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55- No.- And was it true that ten men a week were crushed?
0:00:55 > 0:00:58I think it's hard to know exact numbers, but there's 36,000 men
0:00:58 > 0:01:00working on the project, you've got 30,000 in the gardens -
0:01:00 > 0:01:03clearly, accidents are happening all the time.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06They're tired, there's no harnesses, people are going to get hurt.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09And we know, for example, there's a woman who comes in and remonstrates
0:01:09 > 0:01:12with the King and yells at him because her son has been killed,
0:01:12 > 0:01:15and he gets quite upset about this and has her whipped,
0:01:15 > 0:01:17but clearly there is tension going on.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19Well, that seems to be Louis's answer to all problems -
0:01:19 > 0:01:21"I'm just going to throw a building at it.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24"Can't control the nobles, build Versailles. Have a problem with my
0:01:24 > 0:01:26"veterans and my workers, I'm going to build Les Invalides."
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Yeah, he loves a grand spectacle, and there's nothing more grand
0:01:29 > 0:01:31than a whacking great building to impress everybody.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34But the other thing of course in this episode that's important,
0:01:34 > 0:01:37it's not just the builders on strike, we've also seen a crucial
0:01:37 > 0:01:39scene where we have Beatrice de Clermont and she is a Protestant,
0:01:39 > 0:01:41and that apparently is a problem.
0:01:41 > 0:01:43So I think we need to know more about religion -
0:01:43 > 0:01:45let's go talk to Dr Sara Barker.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48Sara, who is this strapping, handsome fella
0:01:48 > 0:01:51with the manspreading in the portrait?
0:01:51 > 0:01:54This is Henry IV, the founder of the Bourbon dynasty,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57and Louis XIV's grandfather.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01And so he presided over what we know as now as the Wars Of Religion.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03So can you tell us a bit about that?
0:02:03 > 0:02:06Yes, the Wars Of Religion are a great civil conflict
0:02:06 > 0:02:09that engulfs France for the best part of four decades
0:02:09 > 0:02:11at the end of the 16th century.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13And it's very complicated -
0:02:13 > 0:02:16essentially Henry is the person who is able to lead France
0:02:16 > 0:02:20out of that great unrest, that great maelstrom.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23And he really sets himself up as the kind of founder of a dynasty.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26He is regarded as one of France's greatest kings.
0:02:26 > 0:02:28Saviours... What religion was he?
0:02:28 > 0:02:30Well... There's a question.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34He was raised as a Protestant and then he converted to Catholicism
0:02:34 > 0:02:38at a particularly difficult point in order to save his own skin.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40But as soon as he was able to,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43he converted back to Protestantism until he actually became king
0:02:43 > 0:02:47and he realised that you couldn't be Protestant and be King of France,
0:02:47 > 0:02:49and so he converted back to Catholicism.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51- So he played for both teams? - He really did.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54He was a very shrewd and pragmatic man.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58So, Sara, what does it mean to be a Protestant in France at this time?
0:02:58 > 0:03:01Well, it's incredibly tricky and problematic.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04The Edict Of Nantes, which is the edict that Henry puts forward
0:03:04 > 0:03:08to end the Wars Of Religion, gives Protestants certain rights,
0:03:08 > 0:03:10certain towns that they're allowed to be in charge of.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14They're allowed to go to universities, hold public office,
0:03:14 > 0:03:17but they're quite restricted in where they're allowed to be,
0:03:17 > 0:03:20where they're allowed to conduct their worship.
0:03:20 > 0:03:22And gradually these rights get stripped away
0:03:22 > 0:03:24over the course of the 17th century.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27And Louis is a very religious man, Louis XIV is a great Catholic,
0:03:27 > 0:03:30he only misses mass - his daily mass - once or twice.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33So there's no way that if Mme de Clermont really existed
0:03:33 > 0:03:36and was a Protestant, that her daughter would get anywhere near
0:03:36 > 0:03:40close to being mistress, which of course is Clermont's basic ambition.
0:03:40 > 0:03:41Well, it's very tricky.
0:03:41 > 0:03:43There had been quite a few noble families who had been
0:03:43 > 0:03:47Protestant, but because Protestants' rights are gradually eroded,
0:03:47 > 0:03:51people realise it's not going to help you get on
0:03:51 > 0:03:54to be a loud, prominent Protestant.
0:03:54 > 0:03:55Best to be a Catholic.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58Yes, best to fall in. It's just...
0:03:58 > 0:04:00It's not illegal, but it's very uncomfortable to be a Protestant.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03So obviously there's a sense of some pragmatism going on here -
0:04:03 > 0:04:06families are choosing to embrace the right religion
0:04:06 > 0:04:09to make sure they get on. But of course we're talking here
0:04:09 > 0:04:11about decades where there's been really brutal violence,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14people killed on the streets - thousands killed on the streets -
0:04:14 > 0:04:16and Henry himself assassinated.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19So religion is a tinderbox conversation,
0:04:19 > 0:04:21it's combustible stuff.
0:04:21 > 0:04:22It really matters.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26Absolutely. It's not just a case of people making decisions
0:04:26 > 0:04:30because it's going to be useful or pay off well for them in the end -
0:04:30 > 0:04:33it is a question of people's eternal souls, as well.
0:04:33 > 0:04:38It really matters what you believe, how you worship, how you pray.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41But we know that Louis was particularly pious,
0:04:41 > 0:04:42it's noted by his courtiers.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45At the start of his reign he is devout,
0:04:45 > 0:04:47but not particularly austere,
0:04:47 > 0:04:49but that does change over the course of his reign -
0:04:49 > 0:04:52he becomes increasingly pious as time goes on.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55And what about the fact that he behaves in a way that
0:04:55 > 0:04:57sets him at complete odds with the Catholic Church,
0:04:57 > 0:04:59and that's with all the mistresses?
0:04:59 > 0:05:01Yes, that is a bit of a tricky thing to reconcile.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04I think it's something that Louis understands
0:05:04 > 0:05:06as almost acting in a kingly way.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10I mean, Henry, his grandfather, is well known for his love of women,
0:05:10 > 0:05:14pretty mistresses - his nickname is le vert galant, the Green Gallant.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17So it's the kind of thing that I think Louis picks up on,
0:05:17 > 0:05:19that that is how a king should act.
0:05:19 > 0:05:20That's how a King should act -
0:05:20 > 0:05:23he's the sun, so everyone should be the stars around him.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26But the Catholic Church... It's really putting the mistresses
0:05:26 > 0:05:29and the Catholic Church on a big collision course.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32Yes, and it's not an easy thing for him to reconcile.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35This is the great period of the counterreformation in France.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38This is when we have great evangelising missions -
0:05:38 > 0:05:43the Jesuits have really got Louis's ear at court, as well,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47so it is quite a tense situation.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50And it isn't easy for Louis to always act
0:05:50 > 0:05:53in the way that he might instinctively want to.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56It seems to me that it's the mistresses who get blamed,
0:05:56 > 0:05:58it's the mistresses who aren't allowed to go to mass,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01it's the mistresses who get criticised by the Church
0:06:01 > 0:06:02because you can't criticise the King.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05Well, no. The religious situation of the mistresses
0:06:05 > 0:06:07is one that is quite delicate.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11We know that Louise herself ends up asking to go to a convent.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14Serious stuff. Well, unfortunately we've run out of time,
0:06:14 > 0:06:16so thank you so much for joining us.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19Next week we'll be having all sorts of lovely conspiracies
0:06:19 > 0:06:22and I'm pretty sure that Beatrice de Clermont is shifty,
0:06:22 > 0:06:23so keep an eye on her.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25But that's all we have time for,
0:06:25 > 0:06:27- so thanks for watching, and bonsoir.- Bonsoir.