ABSTRACT
In February, Louis XIII had signed letters patent placing the realm under the protection of 'the most holy and glorious' Virgin Mary. Queen Anne's childless state had given cause for concern since Louis XIII had chronically poor health. Louis XIII had been brought up abominably. His father was hearty, neglectful and sometimes brutal; his mother openly preferred Gaston; the spoiling attention of court ladies was no substitute for a systematic training. Louis’s powers were never in abeyance but they were limited, at times embarrassingly so. From the age of ten from those around him, especially from his mother, he was imbibing ideas that would have a lasting influence. The marriage of Louis XIV and the Infanta Maria Teresa was first celebrated by proxy, under the blue and gold banners of France and the red and black of Spain, on 2 June 1660, in Fuentarabia.
