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Scholarship shows that the reasons for the delay stemmed from domestic problems plaguing the
king throughout the first half of his reign, troubles centering on familial conflicts and religious
divisions. Upon resolving these issues, the king turned his attention to the growing danger posed
by Habsburg Spain and Austria, a threat which I will demonstrate altered the king’s support of
ecclesiastical architecture.
Indeed the French government’s new stance against expanding Habsburg forces occurred
in 1633, shortly after the fire at the Sainte-Chapelle and the same time at which Louis XIII
shifted his patronage priorities from churches for religious orders to those connected to the state.
My contention is that it was the fear of increasing Habsburg power that drove the king to support
the churches he did in the 1630s. By choosing ecclesiastical buildings with established histories
with the French Kingdom, Louis XIII signaled a move away from concerns with internal
divisions to focusing on presenting a united front. Instead of using churches as a tool to promote
his authority over religious groups seeking to subordinate royal power to the will of the pope, he
focused on buildings that could advance the country’s privileged status among all Christian
nations. An investigation of the timeline and events leading up to France’s entry into the war
will clarify Louis XIII’s decision to support churches with venerable French traditions.
Scholars agree that Louis XIII initially backed the empire during the Thirty Years’ War,
but by 1624 his policy had switched to an anti-Habsburg one. 77 Starting as a civil conflict, the
war pitted the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand of Austria against his Protestant subjects in
Bohemia and Hungary. As a fellow Catholic ruler facing his own troubles with the Huguenots,
Louis XIII felt inclined to support the emperor even though he knew that the authority Ferdinand
stood to gain upon defeating the heretics was a threat to the Bourbon dynasty. 78 Despite this
concern, in December 1619 the king’s confessor convinced Louis to send aid to the empire,
followed a year later with mediators, who settled a truce.
Believing that the lands to the east of his border were at peace, Louis turned his attention
to concerns on the home front, specifically reintegrating his mother into court life and embarking
on annual campaigns against the Protestants in the south of France. Over the next several years,
however, Spanish expansion became part of the Thirty Years’ War, threatening France and
leading Louis XIII to mark definitively his aggression towards Habsburg interests. The specific
event was the crisis of the alpine pass at Val Tellina, where Spain aided by papal troops
overthrew the Protestant Grisons, giving the Iberian government easy passage from its territories
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