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Additional Churches supported by Louis XIII
After the ceremonial placing of the first stone in December 1629, Louis XIII provided no
further assistance to the Augustins Déchaussés, leaving the monks to fund construction of their
church and monastery. 28 By 1632 the monetary sources were exhausted, resulting in the first of
numerous interruptions in construction. A variety of reasons are often cited for the king’s
neglect of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, including a lack of funds due to frequent military
campaigns and the death of the king in 1643. 29 An additional factor suggested by Anne Le Pas
de Sécheval is Louis XIII’s preoccupation with other churches during the 1630s, preventing the
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king from financially supporting the Augustins Déchaussés. This latter reason is certainly
convincing, especially considering that between 1630 and 1638 the king committed royal funds
to the Sainte-Chapelle, the chapel of the Sorbonne, and Notre-Dame-de-Paris. Lacking from this
explanation, however, is the acknowledgement that not one of these three churches was built for
reformed religious orders. Indeed Notre-Dame-des-Victoires marks the end of a decade during
which all of Louis XIII’s patronage of religious institutions in the capital city was dedicated to
monasteries of orders focusing on reform. Since churches for these institutions continued to be
built throughout the 1630s, the lack of this type of structure cannot account for the king’s new
interest. 31
The three Parisian churches receiving royal funding during the 1630s functioned
individually as a palace chapel, a college chapel, and the cathedral of Paris. More importantly,
each represented a venerable tradition in French history emphasizing the divine right of kings
and marking the state’s privileged position in Christianity as the New Jerusalem. By shifting his
funding priorities to these buildings, Louis XIII signaled a change in his government. No longer
was he as concerned with the claims of the dévot party, so closely aligned with the reformed
religious orders and which sought to strengthen a united Catholic Europe. Instead his foremost
concern became the increasingly expanding territory of the Habsburg rulers. I argue that Louis
XIII, fearing Spanish incursion on French soil, used these churches as political tools, promoting
France’s privileged status among all Christian nations.
Sainte-Chapelle
On 26 July 1630 as some plombiers worked at the Sainte-Chapelle, a fire broke out on
the building’s roof (fig. 16). 32 After sending word to the governor of Paris requesting aid, the
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