MBTI Type: ISTJ
When Marie first comes to court and meets Louis, she finds that he is extremely settled into his daily routine – he gets up every morning, spends time with the horses, and goes hunting, and has no intention of changing that even to accommodate her. Louis proves to be very literal, interested in only a few topics (horses, hunting, and his birds), and quite obedient to ‘how things are done,’ even though he resents being the future king. Anything he has never done before intimidates him, which is one reason he does not consummate his marriage for a long time. He’s so literal that his grandfather’s sexual illustrations and suggestions go right over his head (his grandfather shows him with a passion fruit how to make love, and Louis understands none of it, and asks if they may eat the apple now). For a long time, we do not see any of his extroverted thinking—but once he becomes king, it comes into play. Louis puts all of his grandfather’s neglected affairs into order, is decisive and easily deals with paperwork. He shines the most when France enters the war with America against England, as he strategizes on where to send his ships, creates diplomatic alliances, and anticipates the backlash from England. He’s also frank and oblivious to his wife’s emotional reactions and needs, showing his own Fi tendency to get absorbed in his own feelings and interests and neglect her. Louis does not easily include her in his thoughts, and never tells her that he loves her – he assumes that she knows this through his kind actions, which includes financial provisions and bringing her beloved pug from Austria and delivering it to her. He is much too shy and unable to articulate his feelings, leading to confusion on her behalf; he does feel bad when she tells him that she feels alone and unprotected and unsafe, and offers to be ‘her shelter’ and ‘on her side.’ But he can also be jealous and withdrawn, storming out of rooms, locking the door in her face, and refusing to talk to her if he feels uncomfortable.
Enneagram: 9w1 sp/so
Louis embodies the 9 not only in how slowly he ever gets around to doing his ‘duty’ with his wife, but in his stubbornness – the more people push him to ‘get on with things,’ the more Louis withdraws from them, ignores them, and refuses to be around them. He ranges from passive to emotionally unavailable, since he places his own need for comfort above the needs of his wife, who finds him ‘absent’ and ‘totally disinterested’ in her needs. Several times, when things get heated and/or people get upset with him, Louis simply gets up and leaves the table or the room, shutting the door on arguments, avoiding Marie when she’s being reactive or hysterical, and generally not knowing how to cope with people being upset with him. He gets truly furious only once, and then is immediately apologetic about it, after his wife fights back against him. Louis numbs himself with his favorite activities (blacksmithing, hunting, and being around horses), but also shows a devotion to doing his ‘duty,’ a desire to ‘do right,’ by people, and is stubborn about not wanting to cheat on his wife, even to learn how to please her (but he eventually caves when she insists, for the ‘good of France’ that he learn how to be sexually active). Eventually, he finds his own agency as the king of France, but has to be lead there by others – in one instance, he says he doesn’t know what decision to make, because his family wants one prime minister and his wife insists upon another, and he’s taken aback when his spymaster asks him who HE wants. Louis endures the abuse of his brother for a long time, but eventually stands up for himself and demands Provence behave and defer to him, even slamming him against a bookshelf once.
Funky MBTI 