Tuileries Garden - The Garden of Louis XIII

The Garden of Louis XIII

In 1610, at the death of his father, Louis XIII, age nine became the new owner of the Tuileries Gardens. It became his enormous playground - he used it for hunting, and he kept a menagerie of animals. On the north side of the gardens, Marie de Medicis established a school of riding, stables, and a covered manege for exercising horses.

When the King and court were absent from Paris, the gardens were turned into a pleasure spot for the nobility. In 1630 a former rabbit warren and kennel at the west rampart of the garden were made into a flower-lined promenade and cabaret. The daughter of Gaston d'Orleans and the niece of Louis XIII, known as La Grande Mademoiselle, held a sort of court in the cabaret, and the "Garden Neuf" of Henry IV (the present day Carousel) became known as the Parterre de Mademoiselle." In 1652 "La Grande Mademoiselle was expelled from the chateau and garden in 1652 for having supported an uprising, the Fronde, against her cousin, the young Louis XIV