Antoine Vallot (born in

Arles Arles (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Arle ; Classical la, Arelate) is a coastal city and commune in the South of France, a subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the former province ...

in 1594 or 1595; died on 9 August 1671 at the Royal Garden in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

) was a French doctor. He was First Physician to King

Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...

. Antoine Vallot had succeeded François Vautier, or Vaultier, as the king's first physician.

Antoine d'Aquin Antoine d'Aquin (''Antonius Aquinas'') born in 1629 in Paris and died on 17 May 1696 in Vichy was a French physician. In April 1672, he became the king's first doctor in the service of Louis XIV. He was Lord and Count de Jouy-en-Josas. The begi ...

succeeded him in 1672.

Biography

Doctor in Paris

Vallot was a doctor of the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier. Very active and bold in the practice of medicine, he moved to settle in Paris and quickly became a sought-after doctor for the great figures of the time. Vallot became the physician of Queen Anne of Austria. In 1647 King

was treated of smallpox which marked the beginning of his career in the Royal Garden. He was then considered the most skillful court physician. When Vautier (or Vaultier) died on July 4, 1652, he was appointed to replace him in the office of first physician to the king.

First physician to the king

Vallot tells in the ''King's Health Journal'' his appointment as first physician to the king: "On Sunday, the eighth of July, one thousand six hundred and fifty-two, the king being at Saint-Denis with his army, did me the favor, after the death of M. Vaultier, to receive me in charge of first physician, having sent for me two days before from Paris, to serve his Majesty in this dignity. My letters were dispatched on the eighth of the same month, and the next day I took an oath of fidelity between the hands of His said Majesty, with a protest to employ all the lights that God has given me, all the experiences that I have acquired by long work and continual application to medicine for the space of twenty-eight years, and my own life for the preservation of such a precious life. Having received this honor by the grace of God". Guy Patin accused Antoine Vallot of obtaining this appointment by paying 3,000

livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 g ...

Cardinal Mazarin Cardinal Jules Mazarin (, also , , ; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino () or Mazarini, was an Italian cardinal, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis X ...

. In 1658, he had the opportunity to treat the king's illness in

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

, where his qualities as a medical practitioner shone and where he cured the king by prescribing

emetic Vomiting (also known as emesis and throwing up) is the involuntary, forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Vomiting can be the result of ailments like food poisoning, gastroenteritis ...

wine, an antimony preparation. Vallot, like Vaultier and the doctors of the faculty of Montpellier, was in favor of chemical medicine, while Guy Patin and the doctors of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris were in favor of galenic medicine. He was blamed for the death of Henriette-Marie de France in 1669, wife of King Charles I and daughter of

Henri IV Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...

Superintendent of the King's Garden

As first physician to the king, Vallot was in charge of the Jardin du Roi, in

. But it happened that when Vaultier died, the imbroglio of superintendent of the King's Garden had not yet been settled.

Publications

Vallot, d'Aquin, Fagon - ''Health journal of King Louis XIV from the year 1647 to the year 1711, with introduction, notes, critical reflections and supporting documents by JA Le Roi'' - Paris - Auguste Durand, editor - 1862

External links

* National Archives - King's Garden - Superintendents: Antoine Vallot *Persée: François Lebrun - Doctors and empirics at the court of Louis XIV - History, economy and society - 1984 - Volume 3

References

{{Authority control 1590s births 1671 deaths 17th-century French physicians People from Arles Court physicians