On this day, Louis XIV arrives in Luxembourg, where he is lodging in the governor’s house. M de Louvois is waiting for him and all the troops present arms. The King is very pleased with them. The estates and the nobility of the country assemble to pay homage to their new sovereign. Several envoys from neighbouring princes also arrive. Afterwards, His Majesty tours the city. He is charmed and surprised by the “bizarre setting and the beauty of the fortifications.”
Commentary:
The King and his party left Versailles on 10 May. He has come to inspect the new fortifications of the capital of his new province of Luxembourg, conquered in 1684. He commissioned the fortifications from his brilliant military engineer, M de Vauban. M de Louvois is the Secretary of State for War, in other words Vauban’s boss. He is also the Sun King’s right hand man.
Pictured: A view of Luxembourg City as it appears today, with what remains of Vauban’s fortifications. Credit — By Pudelek (Marcin Szala) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25641892
The “estates” are Luxembourg’s consultative assembly, in other words the representatives of the 3 estates of which the society of the time consists: the commoners, the clergy, and the nobility. France also has various provincial estates, as well as the Estates-General at the kingdom-wide level, although they have not been convened since 1614.
The visiting princes are not named by Dangeau, but the nearest princely neighbours are the Elector of Trier and the Duke of Zweibrücken, the latter known as Deux Ponts to the French.
I take the choice of the word “bizarre” to be a reference to the cliff-top location of the capital, a kind of setting not admired in the Versailles Century.
If you have questions that I have not addressed in the commentary, please ask in the comments.