Youth
 |
| Duc de St Simon |
‘I was born on the night of
15-6 January, 1675, the son of Claude, Duc de Saint-Simon, Peer of France, and
of his second wife Charlotte de l‘Aubespine, the only child of their marriage.’[i]
Thus begins
one of the most detailed and fascinating memoirs of the court of Louis XIV;
that of the second Duc de Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy.
Claude de
Rouvroy, son of a provincial Seigneur du Plessis, had been a bosom companion of
Louis XIII and like his king addicted to hunting. Louis XIII made Claude Master
of the Hounds and First Gentleman of the Bedchamber in addition to bestowing
the dukedom of Saint-Simon upon his friend.
The young
Louis de Rouvroy, Vidame de Chartres was not an only child, having a
half-sister, the Duchesse de Brissac[ii], by his father’s first
wife. Louis XIV and his wife Marie Thérèse acted as the young Louis’
Godparents. Claude de Rouvroy was 68 when his only son was born, a tall
taciturn man, who had little in common with his small son.
The young St
Simon[iii] was educated at home and
his mother was worried that her son would dissipate his patrimony if he entered
his inheritance too young. The young boy, by his own admission did not care for
schooling
‘My dislike for learning and
the sciences did not assist her [his mother], but I had a natural love for
reading and history that made me wish to imitate the great men whom I thus
encountered, and made up for my lack of enthusiasm towards the classics.’[iv]
In the Army
St Simon
began his memoirs in June 1694, while colonel of a cavalry regiment at
Guinsheim under the command of the Maréchal-Duc de Lorges, who was to become
his father-in-law. Also serving in the army was the Duc de Chartres[v], with whom St Simon had
spent time throughout his childhood. The Duc de Chartres was the son of Louis
XIV’s only sibling, Philippe Duc d’Orléans.
Saint-Simon
had commenced his active service two years before, having joined the Grey
Musketeers under their captain Maupertius, who was a friend of his father. He
was present at the siege of Namur and at the battle of Neerwinden. Saint-Simon
was also involved in a couple of other campaigns in Louis’s war against most of
the rest of Europe[vi].
In 1702
Saint-Simon resigned his commission, having failed to get an expected promotion
following the restructuring of the army after the Peace of Ryswick. The list of
general promotions that year was one of the longest ever produced and
Saint-Simon was mortified to find himself omitted.
‘My pride was most deeply
hurt but I kept silent for fear of saying something rash in my vexation. The Maréchal
de Lorges was indignant and his brother-in-law not less so, and they both
insisted that I ought to quit the service.’[vii]
The king was
angered by Saint-Simon’s resignation and for the next three years Saint-Simon
was distressed to receive no sign of favour from Louis.
Marriage
After his
father’s death Saint-Simon had no mentor at court and his mother was concerned
at her son’s unprotected position in a court where gaining the king’s favour
meant the difference between ignominy and success. Saint-Simon was determined that
he would not marry out of his caste;
‘Yet not for millions would
I have made a misalliance; neither fashion nor financial stress would ever have
induced me to stoop so low.’[viii]
His first
offer of marriage in 1693 to one of the Duc de Beauvillier’s daughters was
turned down. This old friend of his father’s was concerned about problems
within his own family, rather than considering Saint-Simon ineligible[ix]. Marriage with one of the
daughters of the Maréchal-Duc de Lorges was mentioned at this time but not
pursued.
Marechal-Duc de Lorges
It was not
until 1695 that the suggestion of marriage with Mademoiselle de Lorges was
raised again. The Maréchal-Duc de Lorges was not a rich man and had married the
daughter of the Keeper of the King’s Jewels; a man of immense wealth. St-Simon’s
marriage on 8th April had been approved by the king.
‘That same evening the king desired
the bride to be presented to him in Madame de Maintenon’s, which my mother and
hers accordingly did. On the way there the king had joked with me, and he spoke
most graciously to them, paying them compliments and treating them with marked
distinction.’[x]
Saint-Simon
wanted a young woman he could train to be the wife he wanted and in Marie
Gabrielle he had the perfectly malleable specimen. They were both very happy
together. There were three children born of the marriage; Charlotte, Jacques
Louis and Armand Jean. Only Charlotte outlived her father. Unfortunately his
father-in-law died in 1702, leaving Saint-Simon without the support he so
clearly craved.
Life’s Work
Throughout
his adult life Saint-Simon was obsessed with the idea of forming the peers of
France into a body to advise the king. He felt that the peerage was ignored by
Louis XIV, who deliberately turned to the noblesse de robe[xi] for his ministers; men
like Colbert, Fouquet and le Tellier. Scarred in his childhood by the wars of
the Fronde, Louis used such men rather than the Princes of the Blood[xii] and established
nobility, believing that they would be more reliant on him. . 
Duchesse de Chartres
Saint-Simon
saw this as a slur on the loyalties of the nobility. He was also infuriated by
the elevation to the highest ranks of the king’s bastards. Saint-Simon was
unhappy when his friend the Duc de Chartres was forced to marry Mademoiselle de
Blois, the youngest daughter of Louis XIV’s relationship with the Marquise de
Montespan. Louis pressured his brother Philippe to agree to the marriage[xiii]. The bride’s sisters
had already been married off to Princes of the Blood. Saint-Simon placed a lot
of the blame on the king’s mistress Madame de Maintenon, whom he loathed.
‘She [Madam, the Duchesse
d’Orléans] was marching about handkerchief in hand, weeping unrestrainedly,
speaking quite loudly, gesticulating……Everyone left the stage clear for her out
of respect……No-one ever looked more shame-faced than Monsieur[xiv]….…Monsieur
de Chartres seemed miserable and his intended acutely distressed and
uncomfortable.’[xv]
Thus did
Saint-Simon depict the effect of the king’s announcement of the marriage to the
court. His one-sided battle against the bastards consumed much of his emotional
energies.
On 29th
July 1714 Louis XIV made his bastards Princes of the Blood, possibly pressured
by Madame de Maintenon. Saint-Simon was taken aback by the promotion of the
king’s illegitimate children, but was not overcome with the fury at their
previous promotion, placing them above the nobility at an ‘intermediate’ level.
Saint-Simon immediately went to visit the Duc du Maine, the king’s favourite child
‘The doors flew open when my
name was mentioned, and I found a man as delighted at my visit as he was
astonished; lame as he was, he seemed rather to fly than to walk as he advanced
to meet me. I told him this time I came to congratulate him, and very
sincerely; we did not pretend to any rivalry with the Princes of the Blood, all
we had ever claimed was merely our just due.’[xvi]
The Regency
When Louis
XIV died on 1st September 1715, he left his throne to his young
great-grandson, the former Duc d’Anjou. His will left the regency to both his
nephew, the Duc d’Orléans[xvii] and his legitimised son
the Duc du Maine. The Duc d’Orléans had the Paris parliament annul the will,
making the Duke sole Regent.
Duc d'Orleans and Louis XV
As a
life-long friend of the new Regent’s Saint-Simon might have been well-placed to
profit from the new regime. He was given a place on the Regency council, but
the Regent was uninterested in Saint-Simon’s proposals to use the nobility as a
resource.
In 1721
Saint-Simon was appointed ambassador extraordinary to Spain to negotiate the
marriage of Louis XV and the Infanta Mariana Victoria. The ambassadorship almost
bankrupted Saint-Simon and the negotiations failed to lead to any agreement.
Cardinal Dubois
Saint-Simon’s
relationship with the Regent was made problematical by Guillaime Dubois, who
was made a cardinal in the same year. Dubois had joined the Duc de Chartres’
household in 1683 as a deputy preceptor. He had gained the favour of Louis XIV
by persuading his charge to agree to marry his cousin. Joining the Regency
council, he drew much of its power into his hands.
The Duc d’ Orléans,
whilst clever, was also an indolent man and Saint-Simon had frequently had cause
to bemoan his patron’s habit of letting Dubois take over. This did not endear
Saint-Simon to either man.
A Short-Lived Dukedom
Saint-Simon’s
wife died in 1743; an event that crushed him so much he failed to put pen to
paper for six months.
‘I desire that no matter
where I may die, my body shall be brought into the crypt of the parish church
of la Ferté and buried there beside the body of my beloved wife.’[xviii]
His rooms
were draped with black and he had mountainous debts, much of which dated back
to his abortive embassy in Spain. His sons both pre-deceased him without having
sired children; one dying in 1746 and the other in 1754; Saint-Simon’s beloved
dukedom died with him. Charlotte died in 1763.
Saint-Simon
himself died on 2nd March 1755. The three cases of notes and memoirs that
Saint-Simon left in the care of his lawyer for safe-keeping were seized by the
state in 1760. It was not until 1819 that the Marquis de Saint-Simon was given
permission to have his ancestor’s notes released.
Bibliography
A Woman’s
Life at the Court of the Sun King – Elborg Forster, John Hopkins Paperbacks
1997
Memoirs Duc
de Saint-Simon Vol 1 & 3 Edited Lucy Norton, Prion Books 2000 & 2001
Memoirs Duc
de Saint-Simon Vol 2 Francis Arkwright, Stanley Paul & Co 1915
Louis XIV –
John B Wolf, Panther History 1970
En.wikipedia.org
[i]
Memoirs, Vol 1 - Norton
[ii]
The Duchesse de Brissac died when St Simon was 9
[iii]
He would not inherit this title until he was 18
[iv]
Memoirs, Vol 1 - Norton
[v]
Later the Duc d’Orléans and Regent of France
[vi]
The Nine Years War, or the War of the League of Augsburg
[vii]
Memoirs, Vol 1 - Norton
[viii]
Ibid
[ix]
The daughter concerned was determined to become a nun
[x]
Memoirs, Vol 1 - Norton
[xi]
Professionals from the bourgeoisie, as opposed to the nobility (Noblesse de
l’épée) and the church (Noblesse de l’eglise).
[xii]
A person legitimately directly descended from the monarch
[xiii]
Louis made Philippe’s lover, the Chevalier de Lorraine, a member of the highly
coveted Order de l’Esprit as payment for services rendered.
[xiv]
The title used for the king’s brother, the Duc d’Orléans, at court
[xv]
Memoirs, Vol 1 - Norton
[xvi]
Memoirs, Vol 2 - Arkwright
[xvii]
His father died in 1701
[xviii]
Memoirs, Vol 3 - Norton
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