Louis XIII, the Just

Of the two books that I recently purchased on Louis XIII of France, this book was the easier to read. Having never studied the reign of Louis Xiii before. I needed a book that would tell me about all the events of the period without merely alluding to the nickname that has become associated with the particular event, i.e. "Day of the Dupes" and the "War of the Mother and the Son". This is the book that helped me in this regard. The book also had a reason for being written.The author, A. Lloyd Moote, writes that his mentor in graduate school in the had told him that Louis XIII had a reputation to not come in out of the rain, but that in recent years Louis XIII had "become intelligent enough" to do that and "could be expected to become even brighter in the future." Thus, Moote forthrightly states that his goal in the book is to show how much of the decision making in his own reign was actually Louis XIII and how much was Cardinal Richelieu's influence over him. Toward this end I found the book to be quite successful in arguing that Louis XIII had many differences with Cardinal Richelieu on many issues. Significantly, Louis XIII was drastically opposed to dueling among his subjects and harshly punished those who engaged in dueling, while Richelieu tended to be more tolerant of dueling. Ironically, Louis XIII may have been more religious than the Cardinal. Louis XIII's simple approach to religion started as a child and stuck with him all his life. Thus, he was rigorous in his attempts to defeat the Huguenots "state within the state" condition in France even before 1624 when Richelieu became his chief minister.After pointing to the differences between Richelieu and Louis XIII, Moote tries to take on a more important question of which person --Louis XIII or Richelieu--had the larger impact on changing France into a centralized state with a strong monarchy. Without engaging in the "great man" theory of history Moote says that events were inclined toward the centralization and strengthening of the government of France and both Richelieu and Louis XIII independently recognized this trend in history and contributed to it. This quite different from the "Three Musketeers view" of Louis XIII as being the puppet of the evil Machiavellian Cardinal Richelieu. Thus, I found this book a very good and important book to add to my library.

Great work. Llyod Moote certainly gives us the person behind an underestimated king.The biography is very good, the academic ‘guesses’ are minimal and quite relevant; it is quite an enjoyable reading. I would love to have been given more opportunities to understand the greater context in which Louis XIII lived, fought and loved.

This book is a great biography. A. Lloyd Moote does a very good job of describing Louis XIII's life. He sets out to methodically and objectively analyze the sources pertaining to Louis XIII and his rule. Moote clearly states at the beginning of the book how he will analyze the sources, and what he hopes to achieve by doing so. Basically, his goal is to shed light on a king who has been alternatively portrayed as either incompetent or cruel, and sometimes both.One of my favorite aspects of this book is Moote's description of Louis' relationships. He does a great job describing Louis's relationships with his father, mother, advisors, court favorites, and wife. He illustrates how those people influenced him. But at the same time, the author points out that Louis was not the puppet of other individuals, but rather the creation of his environment, of which the relationships were one part of. In my opinion, this is the strongest aspect of this book, and alone makes it a valuable read.The book also did a very good job of making sense out of the early modern French court and society, clearly illustrating how it influenced Louis XIII and how Louis influenced them in return. Even though I found the book dry at times, it is extremely well written. It flows well, and I enjoyed reading it. The book also includes very helpful maps and a good selection of portraits of the main people discussed in the book.One downside that I found with the book was its lack of discussion regarding European affairs and the political situation in France. This is more of a personal preference of mine, rather than a serious lacking in the book. The author does mention other countries and how France interacted with them, but I would have liked to see more. I also would have liked to see more written about the political situation in France. The estates general convened for the last time before the French revolution early in Louis XIII's monarchy. It would have been interesting to see more about how that affected France, the make up of the estates general and other political discussions. With the text of this book under 300 pages, these things could have easily been added without making the book too long.Despite my few qualms with this book, the good parts far outweigh the bad. I recommend the book if you are interested in French history or early modern European history.

This proves to be an excellent biography on Louis XIII who usually don't get too much attention by historians since he was often totally overshadowed by Cardinal Richelieu or by his heir, Louis XIV. But this well written and easy to read biography, the author showed the Louis XIII was an equal if not a controlling element of a partnership that grew between him and Cardinal Richelieu. Through both men, France grew and became the next European super power. People of France suffered for that growth and men like Richelieu were often damned by later history as villians and monsters (Three Musketeers book for example). What was so interesting about this biography was the author make it so clear how politically and personally acute Louis XIII was in the first place. His support of Richelieu, during good times and bad, revealed a highly focus and mature mind. While his personality wasn't anything to bragged about, his quirks and eccentic behavior can be overlooked as long as he had his eye on the ball and kept on going. A book written with great insight, understanding and nicely researched, I am sure it will be a bit before this book will be surpassed.

Given the vast amount of material about the reign of Louis XIV, it is surprising just how little one finds about his father's time. So, kudos for Lloyd Moote for writing this book. I did feel that this biography could have been slightly more exciting, had the writer focused less on proving his thesis ('Louis XIII was not just doing what Richelieu told him, he was very much his own man') and more on captivating storytelling. After all, here we have someone who as a 15 year old had his mother's favorite murdered, dragged the country to war with the mighty habsburgs and maintained extramarital relationships with both men and women while being highly religious - sufficient material for an absolute pageturner which this biography was not, at least in my humble opinion. Then again, if one has a serious interest in Louis XIII and his times then this book is highly recommended.

A book in excellent condition -informative, just the info I needed.

Just rec'd the book - am in the process of reading it -- Am a great fan of Louis XIII and love the way the Author describes the period and the future King. One feels like you are in that period of time.Excellent!! Recommend it highly.