de Montespan) or
of the Marechal de Villeroy.
It was here that the Grand Dauphin was born, in 1661. Here, also, it was
that Mme. de Maintenon first appeared at the councils, and that the king
publicly asked her advice as to whether he should accept the throne of
Spain for the Duc d' Anjou. Here, also, in 1685, he signed the revocation
of the edict of Nantes. The great Conde died in the palace. Louis XV. was
married here to Marie Leczinska in 1725; and here the Dauphin, his son,
died in 1765. Louis XIV. delighted in Fontainebleau for its hunting
facilities.
After the Revolution, Napoleon I. restored the chateau and prepared it for
Pius VII. who came to France to crown him, and was here (January 25, 1813)
induced to sign the famous Concordat de Fontainebleau, by which he abjured
his temporal sovereignty. The chateau which witnessed the abdication of
the Pope, also saw that of Napoleon I., who made his touching farewell to
the soldiers of the Vielle-Garde in the Cour du Cheval-Blanc, before
setting off for Elba.... The Cour du Cheval-Blanc, the largest of the five
courts of the palace, took its name from a plaster copy of the horse of
Marcus Aurelius at Rome, destroyed 1626.
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