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with Cardinal Richelieu, who refused to confer titles of privilege upon the duc’s favorites in
exchange for Gaston’s support of the minister following Maria de’ Medici’s removal from
power. In 1632 the king’s brother joined Maria de’ Medici in the Spanish Netherlands, and with
the help of Henri II, duc de Montmorency he raised an army largely comprised of foreign
mercenaries to defeat the cardinal minister. The invasion of France on 1 September proved
disastrous for the insurgents; Montmorency was captured, tried, and executed. As for Gaston, he
was pardoned by his brother but by the end of the year had again departed for Spanish territory.
As noted by scholars, the French heir’s decision to seek shelter with an enemy of his
homeland was just one additional event contributing to the complex web of affairs making up the
Thirty Years’ War. 85 France’s position in the conflict was further convoluted by official policy
on Austria and Spain. While France wanted to prevent Emperor Ferdinand from gaining too
much authority, its greatest concern was Spain, whose territorial expansion threatened to
surround the Gallic country. 86 To counter this threat, Louis XIII and his ministers chose an
indirect tactic, opting from the early 1630s to avoid outright conflict with Spain by fighting a war
by proxy. Instead of confronting its enemy, France persuaded its Swedish allies to engage in
combat against the emperor, thus preventing Austrian forces from aiding Spanish pursuits.
Coinciding with the king’s new approach to Spain was his shift in patronage of
ecclesiastical architecture. In 1629 Louis XIII made his last act of support to a reformed
religious order by naming Notre-Dame-des-Victoires a royal foundation; following the fire at the
Sainte-Chapelle in 1630, the king began directing royal funds to churches with established
connections to the French state. In addition to the holy chapel, the Sorbonne in 1634 and Notre-
Dame-de-Paris beginning in 1636 were the beneficiaries of the sovereign’s support.
The king’s overriding concern with foreign policy is further visible in the strategy to
secure the French borders, most notably those next to the duchy of Lorraine, the strategically
located territory on France’s eastern frontier whose duke Charles IV was assisting the Austrian
emperor (fig. 25). More importantly, it separated Spanish-controlled Franche Comté from the
Spanish Netherlands, preventing the Iberian Peninsula from controlling a continuous swath of
land to the east. In addition to its strategic location making it a target of French invasion, the
duchy became the focus of Louis XIII’s ire when the king discovered that Gaston had secretly
married Princess Marguerite of Lorraine during his first flight from France. 87 The prospect of
the future king of France forming such binding alliances with the enemy was untenable to the
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