When asked about the Sun King, the Russian ambassador Yakov Dolgorukov’s opinion was summed up in the sentence: “Smelles like an animal.” Not terribly diplomatic of him, but a Russian contemporary, accustomed to a sauna at least once a week, did find it difficult to stand next to the symbol of French beauty and splendor. Indeed, much evidence supports this statement – despite gallons of perfume, and dozens of bundles of flowers and herbs hidden in his robes, Louis XIV’s presence was suffocated before it was even noticed. That’s because he only showered twice in his life.
The paradox of Louis XIV's health
This, at least, is the famous sentence about him, but as historians, we know for sure that between 1647 and 1711 (a period of 64 years), the king took one hot bath (1!). How do we know this? Well, we have at our disposal the “Monthly Health of the King” (Journal de Santé du Roi) which was kept by his team of doctors: Antoine Vallauret, Antoine de Aquin andGuy-Carson Pagon, and this monthly reveals a fascinating paradox – despite the fact that Louis XIV was one of the longest-lived kings (he died at the age of 77, after 72 years on the French throne), his health, inherited from a long line of sick kings, was poor.
The king suffered from fainting spells, diabetes, migraines, rheumatism, measles – and that was the relatively tolerable part. The rest of his health troubles were brought on by his passion for food and contemporary medicine. It all started with the king’s far too healthy appetite – the Duchess of Orléans writes in her memoirs
I have often seen the king eat four plates of soup of various kinds; a whole quail; a partridge, a large plate of salad, a lamb roasted in sauce and garlic, a few decent pieces of pork loin, a plate of pastries, and then some fruit and jams.
A healthy appetite was considered a blessed virtue in France, especially when it came to the king, and the courtiers were delighted to see the king devouring without stopping. This custom was preserved until his old age. Pagon describes in the Monthly, in 1679:
The variety of things the king mixes at dinner, such as several types of soups and meats, cucumber salads, lettuce and herbs, seasoned with lots of salt and pepper and very strong vinegar, in large quantities and with lots of Cheese Above all, these produce fermentation in our stomach that is very difficult to deal with.
According to all the evidence, we can conclude that the Sun King had worms, but the doctors did not treat them, they were content with administering enemas. Lots of enemas. About three hundred in an average year, almost every day.
The medical concepts of the time held that most of the dirt and decay came from food debris stuck between the teeth, so, after much persuasion, the 47-year-old Louis had almost all of his teeth extracted. Incidentally, the clumsy Dr. Daquet managed to tear off a piece of his upper palate and break his lower jaw. The jaw eventually healed, but the hole in the palate – not really, and you could often see the wine the king was drinking spilling out of his nostrils. The hole accumulated rotting food and required painful, repeated treatments to extract it. Some argue that the French's excessive fondness for soft foods, from feta to mashed potatoes – comes from the necessity of serving foods to the king's table that he would not have difficulty chewing in his deteriorating dental condition.
Louis XIV's hemorrhoid surgery makes surgery a respected profession
But the troubles with food and health also brought positive results – one of them is the transformation of surgery into a full-fledged medical profession – after all, until then, it was the occupation of scoundrels, and real doctors despised it to no end.
The thing is, after an unusual outbreak of worms, the pace of royal enemas increased, and in just six months, between 1685-86, Louis received two thousand (!) enemas, which resulted in the appearance of a huge fistula in his anus. There was no escape from surgical intervention, but the royal doctors were not prepared for the matter, and who would dare to operate on a royal ass, especially in the days when anesthesia or general anesthesia had not yet been heard of?!
https://youtu.be/YJ8qbxyFm1c
One agreed – Charles-François Félix, but he required time and material to train properly. He got both: for six months he operated on 75 prisoners with similar pistols, brought to him from all over the kingdom. The bodies were buried in the early mornings, while Paris was still asleep. Finally, Félix felt skilled enough, and the operation was scheduled for November 18, 1686.
At 7 a.m., in the presence of the royal mistress Madame de Montagnon, the Dauphin, the Prime Minister, the king's physicians, and his confessor, Felix began the operation, the details of which I will spare you, but you only need to take a look at the special dilator and scalpel built especially for this specific operation, which are now on display in Versailles.
To Louis' credit, he bravely endured all this, encouraged the surgeon along the way, and two months later returned to us (whatever that was). Felix won a lot of money, estates, and a title of nobility, and surgery was officially recognized as an equal branch of medicine. Incidentally, about 30 courtiers approached the former barber with a request to perform a similar operation on them – fistulas were becoming fashionable.
Did you like what you read? Want to read more?
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- Want to read more about the Palace of Versailles, built by Louis XIV? Ronen Sass worked there for a month and brings us the All the secrets that most tourists don't know.
Interesting, thank you.