Episode 6 Inside Versailles

Hello and welcome to Inside Versailles.

We've had this gripping episode

of conspiracy and intrigue and notes stuffed into pineapples.

But what about Les Invalides?

It really goes back that far?

Yeah, I think we think of it as a Napoleonic thing, cos you

can go for a nice day trip to Paris and go and look at his tomb.

But actually it's Louis XIV's invention.

It's more or less a military pensioner hospital for the soldiers

and sailors who were injured at war.

But also I think it's partially this system to try and deal with

the construction workers of Versailles and the other palaces

who have been horribly maimed and crushed beneath various

bits of scaffolding, and they are demanding some sort of care.

So it's both for soldiers and sailors

and for construction workers who've basically fallen off the scaffold

because there's no harness and it's full of dangers.

There's no real health and safety making Versailles.

-No.

-And was it true that ten men a week were crushed?

I think it's hard to know exact numbers, but there's 36,000 men

working on the project, you've got 30,000 in the gardens -

clearly, accidents are happening all the time.

They're tired, there's no harnesses, people are going to get hurt.

And we know, for example, there's a woman who comes in and remonstrates

with the King and yells at him because her son has been killed,

and he gets quite upset about this and has her whipped,

but clearly there is tension going on.

Well, that seems to be Louis's answer to all problems -

"I'm just going to throw a building at it.

"Can't control the nobles, build Versailles. Have a problem with my

"veterans and my workers, I'm going to build Les Invalides."

Yeah, he loves a grand spectacle, and there's nothing more grand

than a whacking great building to impress everybody.

But the other thing of course in this episode that's important,

it's not just the builders on strike, we've also seen a crucial

scene where we have Beatrice de Clermont and she is a Protestant,

and that apparently is a problem.

So I think we need to know more about religion -

let's go talk to Dr Sara Barker.

Sara, who is this strapping, handsome fella

with the manspreading in the portrait?

This is Henry IV, the founder of the Bourbon dynasty,

and Louis XIV's grandfather.

And so he presided over what we know as now as the Wars Of Religion.

So can you tell us a bit about that?

Yes, the Wars Of Religion are a great civil conflict

that engulfs France for the best part of four decades

at the end of the 16th century.

And it's very complicated -

essentially Henry is the person who is able to lead France

out of that great unrest, that great maelstrom.

And he really sets himself up as the kind of founder of a dynasty.

He is regarded as one of France's greatest kings.

Saviours... What religion was he?

Well... There's a question.

He was raised as a Protestant and then he converted to Catholicism

at a particularly difficult point in order to save his own skin.

But as soon as he was able to,

he converted back to Protestantism until he actually became king

and he realised that you couldn't be Protestant and be King of France,

and so he converted back to Catholicism.

-So he played for both teams?

-He really did.

He was a very shrewd and pragmatic man.

So, Sara, what does it mean to be a Protestant in France at this time?

Well, it's incredibly tricky and problematic.

The Edict Of Nantes, which is the edict that Henry puts forward

to end the Wars Of Religion, gives Protestants certain rights,

certain towns that they're allowed to be in charge of.

They're allowed to go to universities, hold public office,

but they're quite restricted in where they're allowed to be,

where they're allowed to conduct their worship.

And gradually these rights get stripped away

over the course of the 17th century.

And Louis is a very religious man, Louis XIV is a great Catholic,

he only misses mass - his daily mass - once or twice.

So there's no way that if Mme de Clermont really existed

and was a Protestant, that her daughter would get anywhere near

close to being mistress, which of course is Clermont's basic ambition.

Well, it's very tricky.

There had been quite a few noble families who had been

Protestant, but because Protestants' rights are gradually eroded,

people realise it's not going to help you get on

to be a loud, prominent Protestant.

Best to be a Catholic.

Yes, best to fall in. It's just...

It's not illegal, but it's very uncomfortable to be a Protestant.

So obviously there's a sense of some pragmatism going on here -

families are choosing to embrace the right religion

to make sure they get on. But of course we're talking here

about decades where there's been really brutal violence,

people killed on the streets - thousands killed on the streets -

and Henry himself assassinated.

So religion is a tinderbox conversation,

it's combustible stuff.

It really matters.

Absolutely. It's not just a case of people making decisions

because it's going to be useful or pay off well for them in the end -

it is a question of people's eternal souls, as well.

It really matters what you believe, how you worship, how you pray.

But we know that Louis was particularly pious,

it's noted by his courtiers.

At the start of his reign he is devout,

but not particularly austere,

but that does change over the course of his reign -

he becomes increasingly pious as time goes on.

And what about the fact that he behaves in a way that

sets him at complete odds with the Catholic Church,

and that's with all the mistresses?

Yes, that is a bit of a tricky thing to reconcile.

I think it's something that Louis understands

as almost acting in a kingly way.

I mean, Henry, his grandfather, is well known for his love of women,

pretty mistresses - his nickname is le vert galant, the Green Gallant.

So it's the kind of thing that I think Louis picks up on,

that that is how a king should act.

That's how a King should act -

he's the sun, so everyone should be the stars around him.

But the Catholic Church... It's really putting the mistresses

and the Catholic Church on a big collision course.

Yes, and it's not an easy thing for him to reconcile.

This is the great period of the counterreformation in France.

This is when we have great evangelising missions -

the Jesuits have really got Louis's ear at court, as well,

so it is quite a tense situation.

And it isn't easy for Louis to always act

in the way that he might instinctively want to.

It seems to me that it's the mistresses who get blamed,

it's the mistresses who aren't allowed to go to mass,

it's the mistresses who get criticised by the Church

because you can't criticise the King.

Well, no. The religious situation of the mistresses

is one that is quite delicate.

We know that Louise herself ends up asking to go to a convent.

Serious stuff. Well, unfortunately we've run out of time,

so thank you so much for joining us.

Next week we'll be having all sorts of lovely conspiracies

and I'm pretty sure that Beatrice de Clermont is shifty,

so keep an eye on her.

But that's all we have time for,

-so thanks for watching, and bonsoir.

-Bonsoir.