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as a double feast. 100 The king’s regard for his faith made him well aware of the bonds between
the French crown and its Catholic traditions, which he would employ as part of his political
strategy.
Despite the king’s religiosity and adherence to Catholic beliefs, Louis XIII spent the
better part of ten years trying to control the conservative faction of his faith. Embodied by the
dévots, this group abhorred the king’s tolerance of the Protestants, arguing that the sect should
have no religious rights. In addition to thinking that France should form alliances with other
Catholic states, specifically Spain, the conservatives tended to consider papal authority as
superseding that of the king. 101 Adding to Louis’s problems with this group was Maria de’
Medici’s close association with a number of dévots, an association that during the regency had
allowed many conservatives to gain power within the government. After his mother’s return to
court in 1621, Louis recognized the continued bonds maintained by Maria and the dévots and
their common quest for renewed authority.
Although the king’s precise stance on the rights of the Gallican Church remains
undocumented, his actions attest to a natural bias towards the moderate side of his faith. 102 In
contrast to the conservatives, this faction of French Catholicism sought to put matters of state
before religion. It viewed the expansion of other Catholic states as an attempt at universal
monarchy, and to prevent foreign encroachment into French territory the moderates avoided
making alliances with Austrian and Spanish forces. 103 To show that such a policy did not
conflict with their faith, the moderates emphasized their king’s devout character and reminded
people of his connections to Saint Louis. As for Louis XIII, he debated in favor of the need for
royal authority and refused to have an ecclesiastic or confessor confer on his political
decisions. 104 Like his moderate subjects, Louis XIII’s primary concern was protection of the
Gallic kingdom, even at the expense of a united Catholic France.
The final threat to Louis’s reign came from Habsburg power, which threatened to encircle
France. To protect the autonomy of his state, Louis developed a foreign policy that was in
opposition to Habsburg Spain and Austria. The strategy developed slowly at first because the
king was conflicted over the idea of fighting another Catholic state at the same time he was
waging war against the Huguenots. 105 He knew that he could join forces with the Holy Roman
Emperor Ferdinand III of Habsburg, who was battling Protestant subjects in Bohemia and
Hungary, and forcefully subdue the current uprisings by the Huguenots in his own country. By
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