Original subtitles

- [Narrator] April 7th, 2018.

As they have done for three centuries,

regiments from all unites of the nations armies

have converged on Paris,

and they're parading on the Champs-Élysées

before their sovereign.

Louis the XXII, King of France.

(dramatic music)

At the end of the period of troubles of The Fronde,

the defeated king, Louis XIV, was forced, reluctantly,

to share his power.

Like its English neighbor,

the French Monarchy becomes Parliamentarian,

with the King having no more than a symbolic,

representative role.

Today he is the heir of an uninterrupted

thousand year line, and contributes

to the projection of the Kingdom throughout the world.

But, none of this ever happened.

In the 17th century, a terrible period of Civil War,

The Fronde, will lead to unshared rule by one monarch,

Louis XIV.

(dramatic music)

Our history is no more than a series of incredible events.

(dramatic music)

Every one of us can influence its course.

(dramatic music)

The most infinitesimal of our decisions

can influence the future of humanity.

To know the past is to foresee the future.

(dramatic music)

May 14th, 1643.

On the death of his father, Louis XIII,

the young Louis XIV, aged four, becomes King of France.

August 26th, 1648.

Mazarin, the King's First Minister

orders the immediate arrest

of three Parliamentary magistrates.

April 7th, 1652.

are on the point of capturing Louis XIV.

These three intimately connected events

are key moments in the history of France,

and will plunge the Kingdom into a Civil War, The Fronde.

May 14th, 1643.

Louis XIII, King of France, is dying.

At the sunset of his life,

the monarch can look back on his reign with relief.

The country is united,

the state is secure and well-governed.

But, more importantly, his line is guaranteed.

His son, Louis, may be only four,

but according to the fundamental laws of the Kingdom,

he will automatically become King in turn.

No other person will be in a lawful position

to claim the throne.

The country will not tear itself apart

in a war of succession.

For Louis XIII, his duty is done.

And yet, nothing was simple.

The first half of the 17th century saw war and dispute.

However, amidst the plotting, beset by enemies,

the King was able to count upon the unwavering support

of the skillful Cardinal Richelieu,

a subtle strategist with an iron fist.

The Cardinal was also a patron of the arts,

and above all a wise counselor.

Richelieu supported creativity from the earliest days,

and created the Académie française

at the same time as he was turning the Kingdom

into a first rate power.

With him, Louis XIII becomes an absolute monarch.

More importantly, he pledged total loyalty to the King.

In his eyes there was no greater honor

than to work for the glory of the French crown.

Louis XIII and Richelieu complemented each other.

One advised, the other knew how to listen and to command.

Together they were able to overcome ordeals,

foil plots, and isolate their adversaries.

Together, they laid the foundations

of a strong, modern France.

After a long life of intrigue and advice,

Cardinal Richelieu dies at the age of 57.

He leaves a final recommendation with his monarch.

He nominates a man to take over from him.

Cardinal Mazarin.

Louis XIII is intelligent enough

to bring him into his council immediately,

because the King has been sick for a long time.

He knows the end is near,

and appoints Mazarin as his son's godfather.

With this gesture he confers legitimacy upon him.

Three weeks later, after lengthy death throes,

the King dies.

For the French Kingdom, the time has come to celebrate

the accession of its new monarch, Louis XIV,

but also to see who will rule the Kingdom,

while waiting for the four year old child's majority.

- [Announcer] Welcome to the memory of humanity.

Here, we can control time, analyze and compare

billions of events and alter them

to rewrite history endlessly.

All the events in our history,

however minute they might be,

are memorized and interconnected.

It only requires one to be changed

for all the others to be shaken to the core.

The King is dead, long live the King.

In this simple sentence lies all the power

of the principle of heredity of the crown.

When a King dies he leaves an empty place.

These moments of hesitation are extremely dangerous

for a Kingdom.

If several pretenders seek to take over

the country can descend into terrible wars of succession.

For centuries, the principle of heredity

automatically hands the throne

to the first male descendant of the dead King.

At the very second that a King dies,

his son immediately becomes the new monarch,

thus avoiding any contestation.

If the child is still a minor,

a member of the family is appointed

to govern in his name until his majority.

This period is known as a regency.

In France, nobody, not even the King himself

has the power to change this law.

The mechanism appears infallible.

(dramatic music)

(gunshots firing)

(suspenseful music)

(men yelling)

(metal clashing)

(horse whinnying)

- [Narrator] Reaux Croix Battlefield, May 19th, 1643.

The Spanish army, then the most powerful in Europe,

has just been crushed by French troops

commanded by a young general of 21.

The future Prince de Condé.

This decisive victory marks a turning point

in the 30 Years War, a terrible European war

that has been tearing countries apart for years.

(dramatic music)

In France, this necomes as .

With the Spanish armies halted,

can she now finally put an end to her many,

and increasingly burdensome taxes,

designed to support the war effort?

In any case, this is what the Paris Parliament

hopes from Anne of Austria,

widow of the deceased Louis XIII.

With them, the Queen maneuvered skillfully

and succeeded in getting around the untrusting King's will,

which barred her from any political role.

The mother of the little Louis XIV,

she has become the Kingdom's Regent.

Against all expectations,

the Queen elects to appoint Mazarin as First Minister,

and even entrusts him with the education

of the young Louis XIV.

Parliament and the nobility immediately turn hostile.

Of Italian origin, he is considered the author

of all the Kingdom's ills.

Mazarin is also heir to Richelieu,

which means that he fully intends to govern

and continue the fiscal policy of his predecessor.

Now, for the members of the Parliament,

the Regency is a golden opportunity to invite themselves

to participate in royal decisions.

With a Parliamentarian seeking power

and a Regency determined to give nothing away,

confrontation is inevitable.

As one of the Parliamentary leaders states,

"The best way to serve the King

"is sometimes to disobey him."

(audience applauds)

Very quickly, events gather pace.

The Regency orders the suspension of salaries

to a large number of magistrates,

who immediately go into opposition.

Parliament defies the Regency

and attempts to impose its conditions,

in the form of a 25 article charter.

Royal power is under direct threat.

The tone rises.

The anti-establishment movement even has a name.

The Fronde.

Finally, Mazarin orders the arrest of three leaders.

To cover the operation, he uses a holiday held in Paris

to celebrate a fresh victory against the Spanish armies.

However, the news travels like wildfire,

and soon, the whole of Paris takes to the streets.

The city, galvanized by Parliamentarians

ready to push to the limit, is filled with barricades.

Mazarin is forced to give way.

He now knows that he must be wary of the Parisians.

On the night of January 5th, 1649,

the Court secretly leaves the rebel capital,

to prepare it's reposte.

From the Chateau of St. Germaine,

Mazarin drafts 10,000 soldiers to the Prince de Condé,

the shield of the Kingdom against the Spanish,

and a distant cousin of the King.

His mission, besiege Paris.

Cut off supplies to the city and stifle The Fronde.

Hurriedly, Paris forms a militia,

but it is unable to resist the King's professional soldiers.

(gunshot fires)

On March 11th, the Peace of Roi

puts an end to the Parliamentarians Fronde.

- [Announcer] The King's justice.

In the 17th century the King of France

had some special rights at his disposal.

He could, with a simple letter,

order the incarceration without trial,

or the exile of any subject of the realm.

Known as lettres de cachet,

because they bore the seal of the King,

each could equate to life imprisonment

or even death without any form of process.

Sometimes even in the greatest secrecy.

Thus, personalities like Voltaire, or Foucault,

will fall victim to arbitrary royal decisions

and end up in prison without trial

on the simple decision of the King.

In our day, in our democracies,

such a situation may appear to belong to another age,

and yet, in the name of state reasons

numerous countries have passed anti-freedom laws,

such as the American Patriot Act of 2001.

The possibility of defending oneself before

a fair system of justice is one of the

basic principles of the rights of man,

and, in a democracy, the laws must be the same for all.

- [Narrator] The greater the effort contributed,

the greater the consequent reward must be.

(dramatic music)

That is why, as recompense for his loyalty to the King

and his intervention in Paris,

the Prince de Condé demands the Ministry of the Admiralty,

and for his loyal followers,

key posts in the army and the administration.

No more, no less.

Mazarin immediately sees the danger.

On January 18th, 1650, he arrests Condé,

his brother, Conti, and the Duc du Longueville,

and imprisons them at Vincent.

At once, all their supporters rise up in rebellion.

This new Fronde has a name.

The Princes Fronde.

In hoping to be finished with the troubles,

Mazarin has just thrown the Kingdom

into a Civil War that will bring

even more powerful forces into play.

In a Kingdom torn apart, the game of alliances

will bring armies face to face in major battles,

create spectacular reversals of situations,

and above all, be the scene of a drama

where the actors switch from one camp to another

in a tumult of fantastic betrayals

and heroic acts of daring.

From the outset, the Parliamentarians

who were defeated a year earlier

join in The Princes Fronde.

Gaston d'Orleans, uncle of the King,

joins a Union and demands the release of the prisoners.

Mazarin again flees Paris.

Marshall Turenne, a brilliant military commander,

moves to the rebel camp.

Condé is finally released and immediately takes up arms.

Louis XIV, a Major at 13, has him accused of treason

and the crime of lèse-majesté.

Gaston d'Orleans changes sides again.

Louis XIV recalls Mazarin.

Turenne rejoins the King.

Paris, in the total confusion,

doesn't know which foot to lead on.

Each Parliamentarian is now dancing to his own tune.

Everything moves very fast.

Sides are switching allegiances

and very soon one has difficulty in knowing where one is.

It is against the background of a small village in Burgundy

that the main scene is played out.

Condé, at the head of his troops,

is pressuring the royal armies.

The Prince is about to capture the King when,

playing the last royal card,

Turenne launches what remains of his troops

in a desperate counter-attack.

His majesty's soldiers break the encirclement,

and rescue the King.

Condé has just allowed his chance

to slip through his fingers.

- [Announcer] We have just reached a turning point.

A turning point is a key event,

a crossroads in our history where the world swings one way

or the other.

The Prince de Condé has just failed to capture the King.

If Turenne had not tempted fate,

Louis XIV and his court

would have fallen into the hands of the rebels.

The course of events could then have taken

a totally different direction.

Condé would immediately have gotten rid of Mazarin,

would certainly have presented himself

as the liberator of the King,

and assured him of his protection,

in reality, a golden cage.

The Prince, having become Prime Minister,

would then have exercised the real power.

Once the war was won, he would have eclipsed The Sun King.

Under pressure from his Parliamentary allies,

the monarchy would've evolved in the same way as in England.

Over the centuries the role of the King

would've become symbolic.

The French Revolution would never have happened.

Today, France would be a Parliamentary Monarchy,

headed by a Prime Minister.

The King would only be there for symbolic duties,

such as reviewing the armies on the national holiday.

April 7, and not July 14 would be celebrated

as the day that the Kingdom of France toppled.

- [Narrator] Paris, April 11th, 1652.

No cheering from the crowd.

The bells are silent.

Condé no longer represents the invincible military chief,

the hero of The Fronde.

Although some nobles remain at his side,

the Parliamentarians are divided.

The royal army is at his heels,

and the dice appear to be cast.

The Prince nearly succeeds in getting

what remains of his army back to the capital

and avoids disaster.

But, the situation is not ideal.

The loyalists are in the stronger position.

One after another, the rebels abandon the ship.

To ease resentment and foster a peaceful outcome,

Mazarin again goes into exile.

Too much hatred is associated with his name.

He's afraid he may harm the King.

On October 21st, Louis XIV makes a

triumphant entry into Paris,

and sets up his court in the Louvre Palace.

The vice is tightening.

The next day the King proclaims a general amnesty.

As Mazarin desired, there will be no blood

on the royal crown.

However, precautions are taken.

Parliamentarians are banned from meeting

without being invited to do so by the King,

or to meddle, closely or distantly, in matters of state.

After years of the Regency,

Louis XIV is no longer four years old.

He ceases to be a toy in the hands of the grown ups.

He is the King.

The King of France.

He is only accountable to God.

He recalls Mazarin to his side.

Condé and Conti, the two rebel brothers,

cannot bring themselves to accept the amnesty.

They are once again found guilty

of the crime of lèse-majesté.

The man they once called The Great Condé,

and who one day dared challenge the King,

is forced into exile.

In 1654, a judgment by the Parliament condemns him to death.

The Fronde is over.

The hour belongs to the King.

- [Announcer] Learning to become King.

During The Fronde, Louis XIV, a very young King,

will be forced to flee in the night

to escape the Paris mob, be held hostage,

see one of his close friends die of his wounds,

witness terrible battles.

Events will lead him to order arbitrary arrests,

and take crucial decisions.

The Fronde is a real school in monarchy for the young King,

and all he has to do is observe.

Mazarin for the art of negotiation,

Condé for the approach to command.

The many changes of side and betrayals implant

a tenacious mistrust of the nobility in him.

He learns to surround himself

with loyal and competent servants,

often from the lower middle classes.

There is no doubt that without The Fronde

Louis XIV would have been a different man,

and therefore, a different sovereign.

- [Narrator] Versailles.

September 1st, 1715.

In his vast palace, built to reflect his own stature,

Louis XIV, whom all of Europe knew as The Sun King

is in his death throes.

At the end of an incredible 72 year reign,

the monarch presented France with its Grand Century,

and turned the Kingdom into Europe's foremost power.

Louis XIV is the King, the King of an unshared monarchy,

of the absolute monarchy.

He embodies the perfect image of the King

in all his power and his majesty.

For on the day after The Fronde,

Louis XIV, then a young adult, learned a capital lesson.

The state is the King, and nobody else.

In 1661 on the death of his precious

First Minister, Mazarin, the monarch, aged 22,

announces to his council that he will,

henceforth, govern alone.

As early as 1663 he strips the Parliament of all real power

and demands strict obedience from all his subjects.

Surrounded by excellent counselors,

Louis XIV consults, listens, but decides alone.

Under his directives, outstanding ministers,

such as Colbert and Louvois,

undertake profound, and necessary fiscal reforms.

He gives the brilliant Bourbonne the mission of

erecting a belt of modern fortresses around the realm.

To architects Le Vau and Hardouin-Mansart,

he entrusts the building of a chateau

equal to the dimensions of his reign,

immense and absolute.

Versailles.

The landscape gardener, Andre Le Nôtre,

is given responsibility for the gardens.

The lines are geometric and symmetrical.

Nature is mastered, tamed, subject to the King.

Pharaonic works bring huge,

sumptuous buildings from the earth.

Complex hydraulic systems feed the many fountains.

Although the works drive the

Controller General of Finance to despair,

it soon becomes the ultimate symbol of absolute monarchy.

In May, 1682, the King moves in with his court.

Royal family, princes, upper nobility, ministers,

and secretaries of state, all are gathered there,

in this vast estate of 20,000 acres.

All under the King's eye.

From the Hall of Mirrors,

The Sun King looks out at his only competitor.

The French Monarchy seems unshakeable.

And yet, on July 14th, 1789,

the people of Paris, starving, and at bay,

will take up arms.

It's the beginning of the revolution.

Three years later, King Louis XVII will be decapitated.

But that is another story.

- [Announcer] Union is strength.

The Fronde rebels did not attack the King,

but his power.

They were not united around a common, unifying aim,

apart from, perhaps, their hatred of Mazarin.

Each group fought for its own interests,

its own glory, and its own enrichment.

In the heart of the storm,

Mazarin and Anne of Austria remained firmly united,

fought on all sides against all corners,

and skillfully managed to gain time

until the King was old enough to govern.

Although of Italian and Spanish origins respectively,

their loyalty to the crown and the good of the French state

proved to be flawless, their devotion, absolute.

There is a temptation to compare The Fronde

to The French Revolution of 1789.

But The Fronde rebels were not revolutionaries.

At no time was that ever a question.

The Revolution was carried along by a unifying vision,

that of a more egalitarian, less unfair society.

The citizens who drafted

The Declaration of Rights of Man

did not do so to obtain more privileges or more power.

They did it out of an ideal of liberty and equality.