Asserting Royal Power in Early Seventeenth-Century Paris

This study examines early seventeenth-century Parisian churches supported by French monarchs, concentrating on the manner in which the buildings illuminate the political goals of the patrons. Specifically it focuses on the reign of King Louis XIII (1610-1643), a period during which the king's mother Queen Maria de' Medici ruled as regent from 1610 to 1617. During the king's reign twenty-one new places of worship were constructed in Paris, making it one of the most active phases of church building in the entire history of the French capital. Of the twenty-one churches built during this period, ten received support from the current monarch. Scholars traditionally attribute the volume of construction to the impact of the Catholic Reformation and the subsequent establishment of numerous reformed religious groups in Paris. While the religious renewal that swept France in the early seventeenth century certainly fueled the construction of churches, the factors prompting Louis XIII and Maria de' Medici to support such a high number of buildings remains unexplored in the literature. By investigating the architecture, painting, and sculpture of these churches in tandem with the historical and political context of the period, the buildings reveal how they took on additional meaning beyond reflecting the devout Catholic state. Instead of Maria de' Medici and Louis XIII only using the churches as symbols of their religious beliefs, they supported them as a means of pursuing their political objectives, goals that varied depending upon who was in control of the throne. Specifically, Maria de' Medici became a patron of ecclesiastical institutions to promote her authority while demonstrating her support of the Catholic faith, its institutions, and its allies. In contrast, Louis XIII advocated the sovereignty of the state, contributing to churches that honored French kingship and the monarch's divine right to rule through their architecture, painting, and sculpture.