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a childless marriage for Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. 73 Because the conception of the heir to
the French throne took place shortly after the drafting of the vow, the public saw the arrival of
Louis XIV as a sign of divine appreciation for dedicating France to the Virgin Mary.
The second event was the kingdom’s growing involvement in a war against the
Habsburgs. 74 In the vow to the Virgin Mary, Louis XIII claimed that “the greatest enemy forces
of this crown” were rallying to conspire the ruin of France. 75 Considering that the Gallic
kingdom was at that moment heavily engaged in the Thirty Years’ War, the said enemy must be
Spain, which posed the most significant threat to France. The vow also stated that a divine hand
forcefully supported the justice of Louis XIII’s cause, suggesting that God sanctioned France’s
aggressive tactics against Spanish troops. 76 I propose that by using the vow as a means to justify
his war with Spain, while in the same oath promising to build a new high altar to glorify Notre-
Dame-de-Paris, Louis XIII delineated his approach to ecclesiastical architecture during the
1630s. As structures symbolizing the French monarchy, the churches would be used as tools
against growing external threats.
The king’s support of Notre-Dame-de-Paris drew attention to the divine right of French
kings. By connecting his acts of patronage to the Virgin Mary’s delivery of prosperity and
military victories to France, Louis XIII reinforced the central place of the cathedral within the
kingdom. The favor that the Queen of Heaven showed towards France combined with Notre-
Dame-de-Paris’s close associations with the monarchy made the cathedral a testament to the
direct line of power from God to sovereign. In a similar manner, the support Louis gave to the
two other churches during the 1630s emphasized additional important aspects of the French
monarchy, justifying attacks against fellow Catholic rulers during the Thirty Years’ War. While
his prompt attention to repairing the Sainte-Chapelle signaled the building’s continued role as a
symbol of France’s position as the New Jerusalem, his contribution to the Sorbonne chapel
facilitated its position as a symbol of royal authority.
France and Spain
The Thirty Years War began in 1618, just one year after Louis XIII assumed personal
control of his government. Despite several French attacks against Iberian forces during the
1620s, more than fifteen years elapsed before France officially declared war against Spain.
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