f you’ve read previous posts, you will know that I’m reading Louis XIII: The Making of a King. The author, Elizabeth Marvick, draws extensively on the journal of Louis’s physician, Jean Héroard. As the fly leaf says, it is probably the most extensive record of the development of any individual—much less of an important political figure.
I found this today: “Louis’s health continued to be imperfect: toothache disturbed his sleep for several days. To combat this an enema was administered.” Louis was ten years old. How can sticking a pipe into the rectum, and pouring liquid in, help with toothache? Maybe it can, I’m not a doctor. The strange practices of physicians of the 17th century keep on amazing me.
Louis soon contracted smallpox, and the physician administered an enema for that too, alongside other treatments. Wasn’t the young king suffering enough? Even though Louis was king, his mother, Marie de Medici, was regent. Louis received frequent whippings for disobedience, even though he was king.
I’m growing more and more sympathetic to Louis with every page. His story makes me appreciate how vital the early days and months of a child’s life are to their development. I’m not a psychologist, I will have to work very hard to do Louis justice in my future books. Marvick also wrote, Young Richelieu: A Psychoanalytical Approach to Leadership. Richelieu was Louis’s Foreign Secretary and later chief minister. I think I might need to read that too, before continuing with my series, the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. As Louis and Richelieu worked so closely together, I need to understand them both.
If you read my last post about reviews, you will appreciate that I’m not deterred by the Richelieu book’s 2 star rating. I’m reading a great book by an excellent author, and one bad rating does not deter me.