Louis XIII of France - in Fiction and Film

In Fiction and Film

• Louis XIII, his wife Anne, and Cardinal Richelieu all became central figures in Alexandre Dumas, père's novel The Three Musketeers and subsequent film adaptations. The book depicts Louis as a man willing to have Richelieu as a powerful advisor but aware of his scheming; he is depicted as a bored and sour man, dwarfed by Richelieu's intellect. Films such as the 1948 version or the 1973 version tend to treat Louis XIII as a comical character by depicting him as bumbling and incompetent. He is also a major character in the French television cartoon Albert the Fifth Musketeer, where he is depicted as childish, unintelligent, and indifferent to his authority.
• Louis XIII, his wife Anne, Cardinal Richelieu, Cardinal Mazarin and members of the Royal family are mentioned throughout the course of the 1632 Series.
• Louis XIII also appears in novels of Robert Merle's Fortune de France series.
• Ken Russell directed the film The Devils, in which Louis XIII is a significant character, albeit one with no resemblance to the real man. Louis XIII is portrayed as an effeminate homosexual who amuses himself by shooting Protestants dressed up as birds. The film was based on Aldous Huxley's book The Devils of Loudun.
• Louis XIII also appears in the Doctor Who audio drama The Church and the Crown.