Michael Hone

Louis XIII Michael Hone

This is the story of two kings, one, Louis XIII, wore a gold crown, the second, Cardinal Richelieu, a red biretta. They were the original odd couple, and would die together, two old men who would put to death perhaps the most beautiful, vibrant boy of Renaissance France, Cinq-Mars, and bury another, Louis' first lover, the man who showed Louis the way to becoming, himself, a man. Louis was a mystery to the world, and certainly even more of a mystery to himself; Richelieu put France on the road to empire and absolutism. Louis XIII was known as Louis the Just, notwithstanding the fact that he beheaded lovers he had adored, and Louis the Chaste, despite his welcoming as many boys in his bed as Don Juan did girls (and an occasional lad). He was nonetheless chaste enough concerning women, so much so that his lover Luynes had to carry him bodily to the bed of his new bride, remaining at his side while encouraging him to ''honor'' her--three years after the wedding! It took him another 20 years to produce the prodigious Louis XIV. Thanks to Richelieu and Louis, in that order, France replaced Spain as the world's greatest power, and had Napoleon not sold off half of America to pay for wars that cost the lives of a million boys, this book would most probably be in French, arguably the world's most beautiful language (while English is arguably the most dynamic).