How Anne of Austria Gave Louis XIV One Sort of Advice and Monsieur Fouquet Gave Him Another

Spoiler Warning: This analysis covers the events of Chapter 47 in full. If you haven’t read the chapter yet, proceed carefully.

Summary

The chapter opens late at night at the Louvre, where the young Louis XIV has just returned from the wedding festivities and news of Cardinal Mazarin’s grave illness. Courtiers who had long ignored the king now swarm his apartments, sensing that power may shift away from the dying minister. Alone in his study, Louis erupts in bitter frustration: he rages at his own impotence, watching from a window as idle onlookers pay him no more attention than a curiosity. He laments that even his guards are at the Palais Royal, where Mazarin holds the true wealth and influence.

Queen Anne of Austria overhears his complaint and enters. She offers consoling but pointed advice—gold is the only real power, and those who possess it are the true kings. She suggests that the cardinal’s death will free Louis, and that mortality eventually strips all men of their riches. Their conversation is interrupted by an usher delivering a message from Mazarin. Before Louis can read it, a tremendous commotion in the courtyard announces the arrival of Superintendent Fouquet, whose retinue and horses draw the kind of public clamor the king himself failed to receive. Anne whispers bitterly that Fouquet is not a rival king, merely a wealthy man.

Fouquet pays courtly deference, explaining that he raced from his estate at Vaux in an hour and a half thanks to a relay of English horses. When he offers the horses to the king as a tribute, Anne objects that subjects do not give such presents; Fouquet counters that true luxury befits a monarch’s divinity. Louis politely declines, citing his own lack of funds.

He then opens Mazarin’s letter and finds a deed of gift: the cardinal, on his sickbed, bequeaths his entire forty-million-livre fortune to the crown. Anne is overjoyed, seeing a chance both to restore the treasury and silence rumors. She urges Louis to accept immediately and thank Mazarin. Fouquet, however, advises the opposite: he insists that a king dishonors himself by accepting a subject’s fortune, especially wealth that was gathered without scrupulous methods. When Anne scolds him for lecturing the king, Fouquet vows that Louis can have the same sum whenever he wishes, implying he will supply it through proper royal finance rather than a tainted bequest. The chapter closes with Louis refusing to decide; he will think on it, dismissing both counselors while keeping his own counsel.

Key Events

Courtiers flock to Louis XIV at the Louvre, correctly sensing that Mazarin’s illness may transfer power.
Alone in his study, the king suffers a burst of wounded pride, seeing himself as a phantom ruler whose guards serve elsewhere.
Anne of Austria finds him and delivers the lesson that “gold is the only power,” hinting that Mazarin’s death will change everything.
A letter from Mazarin arrives; just then, Superintendent Fouquet makes a spectacular entrance, outshining the king.
Fouquet offers a gift of English racehorses; Anne objects, and the king refuses them, citing poverty.
Louis reads Mazarin’s letter aloud: the cardinal bequeaths his entire forty-million-livre fortune to the king.
Anne advises Louis to accept and publicly thank Mazarin; Fouquet counsels refusal, arguing a king cannot accept a subject’s wealth without dishonor.
The chapter ends with Louis saying he will think about it, leaving the conflict unresolved.

Character Development

Louis XIV moves from a petulant, mirror-arguing boy-king toward a ruler who plays rival advisors against each other. The chapter shows his awakening self-awareness of being a figurehead, but also his growing discipline: he controls his rage and, for the first time, refuses to be pushed into a decision by either his mother or his chief minister. The “I’ll think about it” is a small but vital step toward exercising his own will.
Anne of Austria reveals the pragmatic, even cynical side of her regency. Her maxim that wealth equals power, and her eagerness to accept Mazarin’s bequest, show a mother who equips her son with realpolitik. Yet her personal pain—possibly a reference to the cancer already afflicting her—adds a layer of fatalism to her counsel.
Fouquet shines here as both the supremely confident minister of plenty and the careful guardian of royal dignity. His entry, his lavish horses, and his smooth speeches about luxury and divinity present him as a man who already inhabits a king’s aura. At the same time, his refusal to let Louis accept a fortune collected through extortion frames him as a principled counselor. Their exchange leaves a reader uncertain whether his motives are genuinely ethical or whether he fears a rival source of wealth and influence.
Cardinal Mazarin never appears, but his shadow stretches over every line. The bequest is his final gambit—a deathbed stroke that throws the court into a fresh dispute over loyalty, money, and legitimacy.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Wealth as Power: Anne’s opening maxim (“Gold is the only power…”) becomes the chapter’s thesis. The struggle over the forty-million bequest is really a struggle over who will control the king: his mother, his finance minister, or the ghost of Mazarin.
Mortality and Legacy: Anne reminds Louis that no one carries grandeur into the grave; the young reap what the old have sown. Mazarin’s bequest literalizes that idea, and the chapter questions what kind of “harvest” a dying minister leaves his monarch.
The Two Kings: Louis’s complaint that there are “two kings in France” is visually underscored by Fouquet’s grand arrival. The motif of the double king appears in the horses (fit only for a sovereign, yet bought by a subject), in the court’s shifting allegiance, and in the contrast between Louis’s hollow entourage and Fouquet’s magnetic presence.
Luxury and Etiquette: The gift of horses becomes a test case for royal decorum. Anne’s strict insistence that subjects do not present such gifts collides with Fouquet’s argument that luxury is a king’s virtue. The debate forces Louis to weigh the protocols of monarchy against the realities of an empty treasury.
Counsel and Conscience: The chapter sets two sorts of advice in direct opposition—maternal pragmatism versus ministerial principle. Louis’s decision to listen, thank both, and then think for himself signals the arrival of conscience as a political force.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 47 is a turning point in Louis XIV’s maturation. For the first time, he is presented with a concrete, high-stakes choice that will define his relationship with money, his mother, and his ministers. The scene exposes the architecture of power in the twilight of Mazarin’s reign: the cardinal may be dying, but his fortune hangs over the court, and everyone scrambles to control its fate.

The chapter also dramatizes the central conflict of the novel’s second half—the struggle between Fouquet and the crown. Fouquet’s glittering arrival and his principled refusal of the bequest reveal a man who can outshine the king and lecture him in the same breath. Louis’s silent observation and final deferral mark the beginning of his education in distrust. The “I’ll think about it” will resonate through the following chapters as Louis quietly gathers the resolve to become the sole sun in his kingdom.

Study Questions and Answers

Why does Louis XIV refer to himself as a “phantom” at the start of the chapter? Louis feels that, despite his title, he holds no real authority. The courtiers, guards, and public attention all gravitate toward Mazarin at the Palais Royal. His rage is the frustration of a monarch who commands in name only while someone else commands the gold and therefore the power.
What is the core difference between Anne of Austria’s advice and Fouquet’s advice regarding the cardinal’s bequest? Anne sees the forty million livres as a practical windfall that will fill the treasury and vindicate Mazarin’s loyalty. She urges Louis to accept and thank him. Fouquet argues that a king must never accept a subject’s gift, especially a fortune acquired through dubious means, because to do so would dishonor the crown and make the monarch a dependent.
How does Fouquet’s grand entrance serve the chapter’s themes? Fouquet’s arrival with a relay of thoroughbreds and a crowd of admirers mimics the procession of a true king, starkly contrasting with Louis’s unnoticed return. This visual juxtaposition reinforces the “two kings” motif and demonstrates that wealth can create a rival magnetism that undermines royal authority—exactly the danger that Fouquet’s own advice is meant to warn against.

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