4 - The Penitent King

Summary

While the image of David’s military prowess was ubiquitous, the figure of David as penitent also provided a model for Louis’s kingship. This chapter explores a number of musical settings of centonized psalm texts composed for the singers of the chambre in the difficult circumstances surrounding his early reign that engage with the idea of a penitent king, a king responding to adversity through an intensification of personal devotion. As part of this process, Psalm 19, Exaudiat te Dominus came into particular focus, being appended to the celebration of Mass at the chapelle royale from the 1580s, and gradually becoming part of the wider liturgy of the French church. But although this psalm would later become associated with the chapelle royale of Louis XIV, it is clear that from the very earliest times it was heard as a prayer for the king in times of adversity or when he was under military threat.