7 - Succession

Summary

In the mid 1630s, as France faced an existential threat from the Spanish forces threatening from the Netherlands, Richelieu and Louis XIII turned to the Virgin Mary for protection. Having first expressed an interest in Mary in the early 1630s, by 1637 the situation was so dire that Louis began taking steps to dedicate the whole kingdom to the Queen of Heaven, formalizing this devotion in the famous Vow of 1638. That same year, Nicolas Formé published or prepared for publication three volumes of music: the famous Missa Aeternae Henrici Magni, two volumes of Musica simplex, and a set of eight Magnificats. All three works reflect a change in the devotional orientation of the court to a more Christocentric position, a position that is also reflected in paintings by Champaigne and Vouet that, though ostensibly relating to the Virgin Mary, place Louis prominently at Christ’s side. In this light, the motet added in to the mass, Ecce tu pulchra es, seems clearly to frame Louis as a new Christ, a model of kingship now more appropriate to the religious circumstances of the era.