Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What did King Louis XIV of France eat and How did the Sun King dine?
Zippy Facts ^ | Karen Hill

Posted on 08/12/2018 5:03:55 PM PDT by SamAdams76

From the moment the Sun King arose from his sumptuous gold bed, aligned with the rising sun at the centerpiece of his beloved Versailles, the château was alive with activity.

The life of every courtier, minister, lovely lady, doctor, and cook was finely tuned to the rituals of the King, his dressing, shaving, dining, meetings, and evening comedie, dancing or appartement when the halls were flooded with light and the courtiers played billiards, gambled, and ate sweets.

Living under a pretense of usefulness to Louis XIV and the government of France, the courtiers were largely a source of amusement to the King, whose favors and beneficence were vital to their well-being. “L’etat c’est moi,” said Louis with solemn conviction, and Versailles was a convincing illustration.

Louis XIV’s taste for massive architecture, yawning vistas, and spacious gardens was reflected in the realm of gastronomy, for his appetite was equally huge. “He had never known hunger,” reported the Duc de Saint-Simon, who lived in Versailles for 20 years, but “I heard him say several times that his appetite was whetted with the first spoonfuls of soup, and he ate so prodigiously, so substantially, and so equably morning and evening that one never tired of watching him.”

The King arose at about 8 or 9 A.M. and, after attending mass and meeting with some ministers, sat down for the first feast. At 2 P.M. a procession of dishes arrived and was served in his bedroom, where he sat gazing out on the gardens and the public, who wandered freely through the grounds and many of the chambers.

“I have often seen him,” said Mme. Maintenon, his second wife, “eat four plates of soup, a whole pheasant, a partridge, a large plate of salad, mutton au jus or a l’ail, two big slices of ham, a whole plateful of pastry, and, besides these, fruit and hard-boiled eggs.” She further commented that if she were to consume half this amount she would be dead in a week. The King devoured oysters by the dozen, supplied by his own private park, overseen by a man named Hyacinth Ox. He ate all sorts of fish, despite the fact it was transported over great distances and was not always in a state we would relish today. For a fresh supply of citrus, he maintained a grove of over 1,000 rare orange trees, planted in silver tubs.

“Everything (the King) ate,” recalled Saint-Simon, “was at least twice as highly spiced and pungent as is customary. Fagon (the doctor) was against sweets and spices and when he saw the King eat them he made very amusing faces. Yet he dared not say anything except from time to time to Livry and Benoist (the cooks) who replied it was their job to feed the King and his job to purge him.” Indeed, the King suffered from dyspepsia and later from gout. Others at court succumbed to gastric ulcers and frequent dyspepsia; they, unlike the King, also gorged on pastries, preserved fruits, cider, and lemonade between the lavish meals.

The King supped at 10 P.M., occasionally in public. On such occasions hordes drove from Paris, past peasants who during the famine of 1705-1708 lay dying by the road with only weeds and tree bark to eat, to file before the King and behold the spectacle of his feast. The courtiers competed for the honor of serving him, which entitled them to eat the leftovers but demanded that they sample each dish before it entered the King’s mouth.

For the second time in a day, there were boundless quantities of soup, meats, fish, salad, ripe fruit, and the inevitable hard-boiled eggs. Some 61 dishes-8 courses with 8 choices each—were prepared and passed before the King, from which he selected about 20. To the long, often fruitless hours of preparation must be added time spent bringing the meals to Versailles. In those days the château had no kitchens (or bathrooms): the food was prepared outside the château in the village and carried to the King, by which point it was all cold and either served that way or reheated on special burners. One can well imagine the resentment of the servants in the dead of winter, or of the hungry peasants who smelled the gastronomic delights as they passed by, and marvel that such an order was possible and would persist for decades to come.

Day after day Mme. Maintenon sat with the King, dressed in his habitual brown robes and undercoat studded with precious gems, as he waded through his gargantuan meals, hardly uttering a word. “It seemed,” she later remarked, “as if he had limited himself to a fixed number of words in his lifetime and was afraid of exceeding the limit.”

Whatever finery he wore, the King always ate with his fingers, and Saint-Simon marveled at his ability to eat chicken stew without spilling a drop. Individual forks had come into use only a century before in Italy and most European countries had not yet adopted them. Individual knives and spoons were now often supplied, whereas before the 16th century a communal spoon sufficed and one might bring one’s own knife. Louis resisted the fork, however, forbidding the Duke of Burgundy and his brothers from using it at his court, although they had been taught to do so.

When Louis XIV died in 1715 and the customary autopsy was performed, all were stunned at the size of his stomach and intestines, which was twice that of a normal man’s. It was discovered, too, that his enormous gut contained an enormous tapeworm.

This, however, was not responsible for his voracious appetite. If anything, tapeworms can cause a loss of appetite. Who knows what might have transpired had the King ever been hungry.


TOPICS: Food; History
KEYWORDS: abbeyroad; dietandcuisine; france; godsgravesglyphs; louisxiv; sunking
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-36 next last

1 posted on 08/12/2018 5:03:55 PM PDT by SamAdams76
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

How come he never looked fat in his portraits? The tapeworm?


2 posted on 08/12/2018 5:10:01 PM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Vox populi, vox dei)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

Does this series eventually devolve to your own (promoted, proprietary) diet?


3 posted on 08/12/2018 5:10:40 PM PDT by Paladin2 (no spelchek, no problem...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

Ugh, I could never eat that much. Eating a lot knocks me out for days. Drinking though.....heh heh


4 posted on 08/12/2018 5:11:18 PM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Vox populi, vox dei)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

I thought The Sun King was what inspired that song by John Lennon on Abby Road. I think it’s on Side Two, just before Golden Slumbers.


5 posted on 08/12/2018 5:11:56 PM PDT by lee martell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Paladin2

In a sincere effort to lose weight I have reluctantly adopted a new diet. I’m going from a cow a day to a hog a day.


6 posted on 08/12/2018 5:15:44 PM PDT by BipolarBob (In other news Satan is opening a Skating Rink in downtown Hell.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76
Ah, yes, the Sun King. You might think this diet might cause a dental problem, especially considering the hygiene of the time, and his did. What his doctors, the best of the time, did about it you don't want to know, but it resulted in a permanent, cauterized hole all the way up into his Majesty's sinus, and oh, I forgot to mention, there was no such thing as an anesthetic back then. When I'm asked if I'd like to time travel back I usually answer, "Not before novocaine. Nope."
7 posted on 08/12/2018 5:16:40 PM PDT by Billthedrill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BipolarBob

Whatta Bout a chicken in every pot?


8 posted on 08/12/2018 5:18:14 PM PDT by Paladin2 (no spelchek, no problem...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: GrandJediMasterYoda

Maybe the portraitist valued his job or his life.


9 posted on 08/12/2018 5:18:27 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Fill in my standard rant.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

People traveled from near and far, just to watch the King eat his dinner. Maybe he liked to be watched by the poor people, and they were ordered to come watch him live it up.


10 posted on 08/12/2018 5:20:17 PM PDT by lee martell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

11 posted on 08/12/2018 5:21:46 PM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

*It’s dinner night in ancient cultures at FR ping*


12 posted on 08/12/2018 5:29:11 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj ("It's Slappin' Time !")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

no wonder they were pi$$ed


13 posted on 08/12/2018 5:32:02 PM PDT by A strike (Academia is almost as racist as Madison Avenue.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

For later.

L


14 posted on 08/12/2018 5:36:20 PM PDT by Lurker (President Trump isn't our last chance. President Trump is THEIR last chance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

As a boy he was terrified and forever affected when a mob nearly overran the palace where he and his family were living. It is said that he firmly believed the throne and privileges were his divine right and had little regard for the common man. More importantly the aristocrats who surrounded him and patronized him learned quickly not to support or publicly sympathize with any thinkers who might have advanced French political culture. When the revolution did come, it was rather severe. France never really recovered from the turmoil.


15 posted on 08/12/2018 5:39:43 PM PDT by allendale (.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Billthedrill

When I had my wisdom teeth extracted 14 years ago, it resulted in a hole from my mouth into my sinus cavity. Fortunately, after a month, it closed up, but it was a bitch to eat and drink in the interim. I was instructed the same day of the surgery to rinse my mouth with water and salt. I drank it and within a few seconds of swishing, to my shock, it disappeared from my mouth... but I hadn’t swallowed a drop ! A few seconds after that, it all came cascading out my left nostril all over the sink. =8-0>


16 posted on 08/12/2018 5:42:21 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj ("It's Slappin' Time !")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: lee martell

People traveled from near and far, just to watch the King eat his dinner.

Thankfully, TV was invented between then and now.


17 posted on 08/12/2018 5:42:39 PM PDT by Flick Lives (Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: allendale
It is said that he firmly believed the throne and privileges were his divine right and had little regard for the common man.

Sounds like your typical Democrat.

18 posted on 08/12/2018 5:47:58 PM PDT by MuttTheHoople (GOP- 65 House and 12 Senate seat pickups in November)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: GrandJediMasterYoda

I agree, he ate like a glutton but all his portraits don’t indicate him being overweight, obese. Interesting.


19 posted on 08/12/2018 6:01:24 PM PDT by RooRoobird20 ("Democrats haven't been this angry since Republicans freed the slaves.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Tax-chick

Dressed in that regalia old king Louie would fit right in with a gay pride parade. Nice leggin’s oh pampered one.


20 posted on 08/12/2018 6:06:36 PM PDT by tflabo (Varmints)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-36 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson