Louis XIV

Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715), known as the "Sun King", was King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. He is the longest-reigning monarch in history, reigning for 72 years and 110 days. His reign brought a golden age in French history. France grew its French colonial empire, and French culture flourished across Europe. As an absolute monarch, Louis expanded monarchical rule and weakened the power of the nobility. He built a strong centralised state ruled from the Palace of Versailles, which lasted until the French Revolution.

Louis became king when his father, Louis XIII, died in 1643. He was too young to rule alone. His mother and regent, Anne of Austria, chose Cardinal Mazarin as chief minister, and he taught Louis about diplomacy and how to govern. When Mazarin died in 1661, Louis had grown up and chose not to appoint a new chief minister. He believed in the divine right of kings and tried to remove the remnants of feudalism that still existed in parts of France. He had many members of the nobility live at his grand Palace of Versailles. This helped calm the aristocracy, many of whom had joined the Fronde rebellions during his childhood. Louis also required everyone to follow one religion under the Catholic Church. His revocation of the Edict of Nantes took away the rights of the Huguenot Protestant minority, who were treated very badly through a wave of dragonnades. Many were forced to leave France or change their religion, which nearly destroyed the French Protestant community.

During Louis' long reign, France became the leading European power and often went to war. A conflict with Spain marked his entire childhood. As king, he fought three major wars against powerful alliances: the Franco-Dutch War, the Nine Years' War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. France also fought shorter wars, such as the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions. These wars put a great strain on France's resources. When he died, he left his great-grandson and successor, Louis XV, a powerful kingdom that was tired of war and deeply in debt.

Louis also achieved other notable things. He oversaw the building of the 240 km (150 mi) Canal du Midi in Southern France. He supported artists, including the playwrights Molière and Racine, the man of letters Boileau, the composer and dancer Lully, the painter Le Brun, and the landscape architect Le Nôtre. Their work helped create the peak of French classicism, which was called the "Grand Siècle" during his lifetime, and even "the century of Louis XIV." He also founded the French Academy of Sciences.

The names "Sun King" and "Le Roi Soleil" have other uses. You can read more at Sun King (disambiguation). "Le Roi Soleil" is also the name of a French musical about him, Le Roi Soleil (musical). For other people with this name, see Louis XIV (disambiguation).

Early years

Louis XIV was born on 5 September 1638 in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. His parents were Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was named Louis Dieudonné, which means "Louis the God-given." He held the traditional French title of heirs apparent, Dauphin. His parents had been married for 23 years when he was born. His mother had four stillbirths between 1619 and 1631. Because of this, many people saw his birth as a miracle and a gift from God.

Louis had a very loving bond with his mother. People at the time said the Queen spent all her time with him. They both enjoyed food and theatre. Louis later wrote in his journal, "Nature was responsible for the first knots which tied me to my mother." His mother taught him to believe in the absolute and divine power of the monarchy. As a child, he was looked after by the governesses Françoise de Lansac and Marie-Catherine de Senecey. In 1646, Nicolas V de Villeroy became his tutor. Louis became friends with Villeroy's children, especially François de Villeroy. He spent his time between the Palais-Royal and the nearby Hotel de Villeroy.

Minority and the Fronde

In the spring of 1643, Louis XIII believed he was dying. His son, Louis XIV, was only four years old. Louis XIII did not trust his Spanish wife, Queen Anne, so he arranged for a council to rule France instead of her. Anne would have been the only regent, but the council was to be led by her. Louis XIII died on 14 May 1643. On 18 May, the Parlement of Paris, a court of nobles and high-ranking clergy, cancelled her husband's wishes, and Anne became the sole regent. She chose the Count of Brienne as her foreign minister. She made Cardinal Mazarin her chief minister, so he ran the government day to day. Anne followed the plans of her late husband and Cardinal Richelieu, even though Richelieu had treated her badly. She wanted to make France strong at home and win victories abroad for her son. To protect Mazarin, Anne sent away the Duke of Beaufort and Marie de Rohan, who had plotted against him. She also kept the chancellor Pierre Séguier in his job, even though he had once spoken to her harshly.

In 1648, Anne and Mazarin worked out the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War. France had joined that war to protect its own interests. The peace treaty allowed the states of the Holy Roman Empire to keep the self-rule they had before the war. Sweden received seats on the Imperial Diet and control of the mouths of the Oder, Elbe, and Weser Rivers. France gained the most. The Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand III gave up all Habsburg lands and claims in Alsace. He also agreed that France would control the Three Bishoprics of Metz, Verdun, and Toul. Many small German states wanted French protection too, which led to the League of the Rhine in 1658.

Just as the war ended, a civil war called the Fronde broke out in France. It made it harder for France to benefit from the peace. Anne and Mazarin had mostly followed Richelieu's plan to make the king stronger than the nobles and the Parlements. Anne was a proud queen who believed the King of France had God-given power, and she punished anyone who opposed her. The nobles were upset to lose their old influence to newer officials who ran the kingdom. In 1648, Anne and Mazarin tried to tax members of the Parlement de Paris, and they arrested several of them, including Pierre Broussel. Paris erupted in protests, and Anne had to let him go. In February 1651, when Louis was twelve, an angry crowd broke into the royal palace and came into the royal bedroom, where Louis pretended to be asleep. This frightening event made Anne flee Paris with the king and his courtiers.

The fighting paused for a time after the Peace of Rueil, and the court returned to Paris. Later, Anne arrested Louis, duke of Enghien (later known as le Grand Condé), his brother Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, and their brother-in-law, the duchess of Longueville's husband. Then a group of nobles forced Mazarin into exile and kept Queen Anne almost under house arrest. Louis saw all of this happen, which later explained why he did not trust Paris or the highest nobles. Just as the first Fronde ended in 1649, a second one, the Fronde of the Princes, began. Its leaders included Gaston, Duke of Orléans, Louis's uncle, and the highest-ranking French nobles. The rebels saw it as a protest against losing their status as vassals and becoming courtiers.

Queen Anne played the most important role in defeating the Fronde, because she wanted to pass full power on to her son. The rebels claimed to act for Louis, but when he came of age and was crowned, they lost their excuse for rebellion. The Fronde slowly lost strength and ended in 1653, when Mazarin returned from exile and took charge of foreign and money matters again. During this time, Louis fell in love with Mazarin's niece Marie Mancini, but Anne sent her away to marry in Italy. Anne wanted her son to marry the daughter of her brother, Philip IV of Spain, for both family and political reasons. Mazarin agreed, because the marriage would help end the war with Spain and bring the Spanish throne to the House of Bourbon.

Personal reign and reforms

Louis XIV was said to have grown up in 1651. When Cardinal Mazarin died in 1661, Louis began ruling France himself. He told his court that he would not have a chief minister. After many years of wars at home and abroad, people wanted peace and order. The young king made the central government stronger and gave the nobles less power. The historian Chateaubriand praised Louis for his skill at choosing talented men. In 1665 Louis named Jean-Baptiste Colbert as Controller-General of Finances. Before that, Louis dealt with Nicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finances. Fouquet had shown great wealth at his château at Vaux-le-Vicomte, which was hard to explain without embezzlement. He had also bought and strengthened the island of Belle Île. Fouquet was found guilty, and his sentence was changed to life in prison.

Colbert then lowered the national debt by collecting taxes more efficiently. These included customs duties, the gabelle (salt tax), and the taille (land tax). In 1661 the government had a deficit, meaning it spent more than it earned. By 1666 it had a surplus. The money paid for the army, the palace at Versailles, and the growing government. Before 1700, most of the tax burden fell on the poor. After that, with the support of Madame de Maintenon, the king changed his tax policy. Near the end of his reign, he was able to tax the aristocracy directly for the first time. Colbert's mercantilist policies helped build new industries. These included silk makers in Lyon and the Gobelins tapestry manufactory. Colbert also invited craftspeople from Murano and other places to come to France. Michel le Tellier and his son François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, changed the army into a well-trained, professional force.

Louis also made legal reforms through his Great Ordinances. The 1667 ordinance, called the Code Louis, created one set of rules for civil procedure across the whole kingdom. Before this, the north and south had different systems: customary law in the north and Roman civil law in the south. The Code Louis later became the basis for the Napoleonic Code. In 1685 the Code Noir allowed slavery in the colonies. It also tried to limit it by forbidding the separation of families.

Early wars in the Low Countries

Main articles: War of Devolution and Franco-Dutch War

The death of Louis's uncle, King Philip IV of Spain, in 1665 started the War of Devolution. Louis had married Philip IV's oldest daughter, Maria Theresa, in 1660. This was part of the Treaty of the Pyrenees from 1659. She had agreed to give up her claims to Spanish land. However, Mazarin and Lionne made this agreement depend on Spain paying a dowry of 500,000 écus. The dowry was never paid. Louis used this as a reason to say that Maria Theresa's claims still stood. He wanted the land in Brabant to come to him. France then attacked the Spanish Netherlands.

France had long supported the Dutch Republic in its fight with Spain during the Eighty Years' War. The Dutch leader Johan de Witt, who served as Grand Pensionary, saw this support as important for the safety of the Dutch. Louis's growing power threatened Dutch trade. So the Dutch joined with England and Sweden in the Triple Alliance. Louis agreed to give up many of his gains in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668.

Louis then secretly planned to defeat the Dutch and take the Spanish Netherlands. In 1670, he made the Secret Treaty of Dover with Charles II of England. France invaded the Dutch Republic in May 1672. After that, a coup brought William III to power. Many other countries joined the fight against France. The war ended in the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678.

Louis then used legal claims through the Chambers of Reunion to take more land. In 1681, he seized Strasbourg and other territories. This led to the War of the Reunions. The Truce of Ratisbon in 1684 let France keep most of its conquests for 20 years. Many countries grew worried about France. By the late 1680s, France was becoming alone in Europe.

Further information: French colonial empire and Orientalism in early modern France

During Louis's reign, French colonies grew in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. In 1673, Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette discovered the Mississippi River. In 1682, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, followed the river to the Gulf of Mexico. He claimed the land in Louis's name and called it Louisiane. French trading posts were also set up at Chandernagore and Pondicherry in India, and at Île Bourbon in the Indian Ocean.

Louis also started diplomatic contact with distant countries. In 1669, Suleiman Aga led an Ottoman embassy to renew the Franco-Ottoman alliance. In 1682, Moulay Ismail, Sultan of Morocco, allowed French trading offices in his country. This came after the Moroccan embassy of Mohammed Tenim visited France. In 1699, Louis received Abdallah bin Aisha as a Moroccan ambassador. In 1715, he received a Persian embassy led by Mohammad Reza Beg.

Siam dispatched an embassy to France in 1684. The French returned it the next year with Alexandre, Chevalier de Chaumont. Siam then sent another embassy under Kosa Pan. Louis sent Simon de la Loubère in 1687. French influence grew at the Siamese court. This gave Mergui to France as a naval base. However, the death of Narai, King of Ayutthaya, the execution of his pro-French minister Constantine Phaulkon, and the siege of Bangkok in 1688 ended this French influence.

France also tried to join Jesuit missions to China, to break Portuguese dominance there. In 1685, Louis sent Jesuit missionaries Jean de Fontaney, Joachim Bouvet, Jean-François Gerbillon, Louis Le Comte, and Claude de Visdelou to the court of the Kangxi Emperor. Louis also received a Chinese Jesuit, Michael Shen Fu-Tsung, at Versailles in 1684.

Height of power

By the early 1680s, Louis had greatly increased French influence in the world. At home, he made the crown stronger than the church and the nobles, which helped make France an absolute monarchy. At first he supported the traditional Gallicanism, which limited papal power in France. In November 1681 he called an Assembly of the French clergy. Before it ended eight months later, the assembly accepted the Declaration of the Clergy of France, which gave the king more power than the pope. The Pope rejected it. Louis also invited the nobles to his court at Versailles, where they had to wait on him to receive money and favours. He kept a close watch on them, even reading their letters. He also received an African elephant as a gift from the king of Portugal.

Under Louis, France was the strongest power in Europe, and many wars were fought because of its ambitions. Its army was very strong, but its money system had trouble paying for the wars, and most other countries often joined together against it. France fought three major wars during his reign: the Franco-Dutch War, the Nine Years' War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. It also fought two smaller conflicts, the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions. By 1695, France had lost control of the seas to England and Holland, and most countries were allied against it. Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, France's leading military expert, advised Louis to attack enemy merchant ships with privateers instead of relying only on his navy.

Edict of Fontainebleau

Main article: Edict of Fontainebleau

Louis decided to go after Protestants and cancel the 1598 Edict of Nantes. That edict had given Huguenots political and religious freedom. He saw Protestantism as a sign of royal weakness, even though his grandfather Henry IV had made the Edict to help end the long French Wars of Religion. Louis also followed an idea from Europe called cuius regio, eius religio ("whose realm, his religion"). It was first confirmed in central Europe by the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. At first, he kept Protestants out of government jobs, limited their synods, closed churches outside the areas the Edict allowed, and banned outdoor Protestant preachers. Many Protestants changed their religion, especially among the nobility. In 1681, Louis made the persecution much worse. He banned leaving the country and insisted that all Protestants become Catholic. He sent dragoons to stay in Protestant homes, a practice called the dragonnades. This was legal, but it caused great hardship, and people were treated very badly.

On 15 October 1685, Louis issued the Edict of Fontainebleau. It cancelled the Edict of Nantes and all the rights that came from it. Protestant churches were to be torn down, and pastors had to leave the country or stop their work. Protestants who still refused to convert were to be forced to join the official church. Historians still discuss why he did this. He may have wanted to win favour with Pope Innocent XI, whose help was needed in a dispute over leadership in the Electorate of Cologne. He may have wanted to outshine Emperor Leopold I, who had defeated the Turks without Louis's help. He may also have wanted to keep his coronation promise to remove heresy. Many historians say the Edict greatly harmed France, because many skilled Huguenots fled to Protestant countries. Others think this was exaggerated, since most leading Protestant business people changed their religion and stayed. The reaction was mixed. French Catholic leaders celebrated, but Protestants across Europe were shocked, and Louis's image was badly damaged. Later, Louis faced new trouble with the Camisards of south-central France. Even so, he may have helped his successor face fewer religious disturbances. By 1787, under Louis XVI, the Edict of Versailles, also known as the Edict of Tolerance, gave non-Catholics back their civil rights and the freedom to worship openly. When the French Revolution began in 1789, Protestants gained equal rights with Roman Catholics.

Nine Years' War

Main article: Nine Years' War

The Nine Years' War lasted from 1688 to 1697. It was a time when Louis's power and his standing with other countries began to weaken. It started with two events in the Rhineland. In 1685, the Elector Palatine Charles II died. Only his sister-in-law Elizabeth Charlotte was left in his close family. Louis pressed her claims to land and belongings. In 1688, Maximilian Henry of Bavaria, Archbishop of Cologne, who was an ally of France, also died. The Wittelsbachs of Bavaria had usually held that post. However, the Bavarian candidate, Prince Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, was only 17 and was not yet ordained. Louis wanted his own candidate, Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg, to keep this important state as an ally.

Many countries in Europe were worried by Louis's actions. In 1686, the League of Augsburg was formed by the Holy Roman Emperor, Spain, Sweden, Saxony, and Bavaria. England's Glorious Revolution of 1688 was another worry. Although James II was Catholic, his two Anglican daughters, Mary and Anne, were next in line to the throne and were Protestant. When his son James Francis Edward Stuart was born, it seemed the throne would pass to Catholic kings. Protestant lords asked the Dutch Prince William III of Orange, grandson of Charles I of England, for help, and James II left England. William then led England into the war. This turned the League of Augsburg into the Grand Alliance.

Louis sent troops to the Rhineland. His scorched earth policy in southwestern Germany, known as the "Devastation of the Palatinate," was part of this plan.

French armies won most of the war's battles, helped by their supplies and by skilled generals such as François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Luxembourg, a famous pupil of Condé. Luxembourg won at Fleurus in 1690, Steenkerque in 1692, and Landen in 1693, but these battles had little lasting effect. An attempt to restore James II failed at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Louis personally oversaw the capture of Mons in 1691 and Namur in 1692. Luxembourg took Charleroi in 1693, which gave France the defensive line of the Sambre.

France also took most of the Duchy of Savoy after the battles of Marsaglia and Staffarde in 1693. At sea, a French win at the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690 was followed by an Allied win at Barfleur-La Hougue in 1692, and neither side gained much. The Battle of Torroella in 1694 opened Catalonia to French invasion, and the French then captured Barcelona. The Dutch captured Pondichéry in 1693. A French raid in 1697 on the Spanish port of Cartagena, Spain, brought France a large fortune.

In July 1695, the city of Namur, which the French had held for three years, was besieged by an allied army led by William III. To draw these troops away, Louis XIV ordered a surprise attack on a Flemish city. This led to the bombardment of Brussels, which destroyed many buildings, including the city centre. The plan failed because Namur fell three weeks later, and it harmed Louis XIV's reputation. A century later, Napoleon called the bombardment "as barbarous as it was useless."

Sweden first proposed peace in 1690, and by 1692 both sides wanted peace, but secret talks failed. Louis then dealt with his opponents one at a time and succeeded in 1696, when the Savoyards agreed to the Treaty of Turin and switched sides. The other members of the League of Augsburg then rushed to the peace table. Talks for a general peace led to the Peace of Ryswick in 1697.

Main article: Peace of Ryswick

The Peace of Ryswick ended the War of the League of Augsburg and broke up the Grand Alliance. Louis gained permanent French control over all of Alsace, including Strasbourg. The Rhine became the Franco-German border, as it still is today. Acadia and Pondichéry were returned to France, and France's control of Saint-Domingue was recognised as lawful. However, Louis gave back Catalonia and most of the Reunions. France was worn out by the costs of the war, so peace was welcome to Louis.

Louis's generosity to Spain over Catalonia may have helped lead King Charles II to name Louis's grandson Philip, Duke of Anjou as heir to the Spanish throne. Lorraine, which France had occupied since 1670, was returned to its rightful Duke Leopold, though French armies kept a right of way through it. William and Mary were recognised as joint rulers of the British Isles, and Louis withdrew his support for James II.

Main article: War of the Spanish Succession

The War of the Spanish Succession was fought over who would rule Spain after King Charles II died. Charles II ruled a huge empire that included Spain, Naples, Sicily, Milan, the Spanish Netherlands, and many Spanish colonies. He had no children, so he had no direct heirs.

The main claims came from the ruling families of France and Austria. France's claim came through Louis XIV's mother, Anne of Austria, who was the older sister of Philip IV of Spain. It also came through Louis's wife, Maria Theresa, Philip IV's eldest daughter. Under the rules of primogeniture, France had the better claim, but renunciations of succession rights made things complicated. Emperor Leopold I's son, Charles, Archduke of Austria, had no renunciations against his claim. He was a grandson of the youngest daughter of Philip III, Maria Anna.

The English and Dutch feared that a French or Austrian-born Spanish king would threaten the balance of power. So they preferred the Bavarian Prince Joseph Ferdinand, a grandson of Leopold I through his first wife, Margaret Theresa of Spain. Louis and William III of England signed the Treaty of the Hague in 1698 to try to avoid war. But Charles II opposed splitting his empire and kept Joseph Ferdinand as his heir. When Joseph Ferdinand died in 1700, Louis and William III made the Treaty of London. Charles II, under pressure from his German wife, Maria Anna of Neuburg, named Archduke Charles as his sole heir.

On his deathbed in 1700, Charles II changed his will again. He believed France was more likely to keep his empire whole. This was partly because of the pro-French group at the Spanish court and Pope Innocent XII. He offered the entire empire to Louis's grandson Philip, Duke of Anjou, on the condition that it stay undivided. If Anjou refused, it would go to Charles, Duke of Berry, then to Archduke Charles, and then to the House of Savoy. Louis chose to accept the will, even though his foreign minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, marquis de Torcy, had warned that war was likely either way. Philip became Philip V, King of Spain.

Most European rulers accepted Philip as king, some reluctantly. Louis confirmed that Philip kept his French rights. He also sent troops to the Spanish Netherlands to remove Dutch garrisons. In 1701, Philip gave France the asiento, a special trade agreement with the Spanish colonies. Louis also agreed to recognise James Stuart as king of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which angered William III.

Britain and the Dutch Republic formed another Grand Alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor and the German states. They declared war on France in 1702. Fighting had already begun in Italy. The war began with French victories. But John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and Eugene of Savoy won at the Battle of Blenheim, which showed that France could be beaten. Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, had to flee to the Spanish Netherlands. Marlborough and Eugene later won at the Battle of Ramillies, the Battle of Turin, and the Battle of Oudenarde.

France also made contact with Francis II Rákóczi and promised support for his cause of Hungarian independence. Defeats, hunger, and debt weakened France badly. In 1704, Louis ordered an invasion of the English island of Guernsey, which failed.

By 1708–09, Louis was willing to accept almost any peace. He agreed to give the whole Spanish empire to Archduke Charles and to return to the borders of the Peace of Westphalia. However, he could not promise that Philip V would accept these terms. Louis also refused the Allies' demand that he attack his own grandson.

In 1710, the Franco-Spanish victories at the Battles of Villaviciosa and Brihuega forced the Allies out of central Spain. The Allies won a Pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Malplaquet, at a great cost to their own army. In 1712, France regained its military pride with a decisive victory at Denain.

In Austria, Emperor Leopold I died in 1705. His son Joseph I followed him in 1711. Joseph I's heir was Archduke Charles, who would have ruled a domain as large as that of Charles V in the 16th century if he also inherited Spain. Britain and the Dutch Republic did not want this, just as they did not want a Franco-Spanish union.

This led to the 1713 Peace of Utrecht between Louis, Philip V of Spain, Anne of Great Britain, and the Dutch Republic. In 1714, the Holy Roman Emperor also made peace with France through the Treaties of Rastatt and Baden, after losing Landau and Freiburg.

Philip V kept Spain and its colonies. Austria received the Spanish Netherlands and shared Spanish Italy with Savoy. Britain kept Gibraltar and Menorca. Louis agreed to stop supporting James Stuart. He gave Newfoundland, Rupert's Land, and Acadia in the Americas to Anne. France kept Île-Saint-Jean and Île Royale, and gained a few small European areas, including the Principality of Orange and the Ubaye Valley.

Personal life

See also: Louis XIV style

Louis married Maria Theresa of Spain in 1660. They had six children, but only the eldest, Louis le Grand Dauphin, known as Monseigneur, lived to become an adult. Louis also spent time with several other women, including Louise de La Vallière, Bonne de Pons d'Heudicourt, Catherine Charlotte de Gramont, Françoise-Athénaïs, Marquise de Montespan, Anne de Rohan-Chabot, Claude de Vin des Œillets, Isabelle de Ludres, and Marie Angélique de Scorailles. Many of his children born outside of marriage were married into cadet branches of the royal family. He was more loyal to his second wife, Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon. He first met her through her care for his children, including Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine. It is believed that they married secretly, and the marriage was an open secret that lasted until he died. Louis was a devout king who saw himself as the head and protector of the Catholic Church in France. He followed the liturgical calendar and banned opera and comedy performances during Lent. His religious centre was usually the Chapelle Royale at Versailles, and his daily Mass and celebrations, such as those of Holy Week, were very grand. He set up the Paris Foreign Missions Society. However, his informal alliance with the Ottoman Empire was criticised for weakening Christendom.

Louis supported French artists and writers. He became the "Protector" of the Académie Française and looked after writers such as Molière, Racine, and La Fontaine. He paid for the work of artists like Charles Le Brun, Pierre Mignard, Antoine Coysevox, and Hyacinthe Rigaud, and musicians such as Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, and François Couperin. In 1683, Michel-Richard de Lalande became deputy master of the Royal Chapel. He founded the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661 and the Académie d'Opéra in 1669. He also supported André Charles Boulle, who created "Boulle work" using marquetry and inlay. Over four building projects, Louis turned a hunting lodge into the Palace of Versailles. The royal court moved there on 6 May 1682. The memoirist Saint-Simon suggested that Louis saw Versailles as a place where he could more easily learn about plans against him. Louis also built the Hôtel des Invalides as a home for officers and soldiers who were hurt or old. After the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668, he replaced Paris's northern walls with tree-lined boulevards in 1670. At the Louvre, Gian Lorenzo Bernini's plans for an Italian summer villa were set aside in favour of the Louvre Colonnade, designed by Louis Le Vau, Charles Le Brun, and Claude Perrault. Bernini also made a portrait bust of the king.

Image and depiction

Louis built an image as the Sun King (le Roi Soleil), the centre of the universe "without equal." He used court ceremonies and the arts to support his rule over France. He was mostly shown as powerful and majestic, or as a leader in war, especially against Spain. Artists showed him in paintings, sculptures, plays, dances, music, and almanacs. Louis ordered more than 300 formal portraits. Early portraits followed the styles of the time. Later works did not show the marks left by the smallpox he caught in 1647. In the 1660s, he was sometimes shown as a Roman emperor, as the god Apollo, or as Alexander the Great. Many of these works were made by Charles Le Brun. The 1701 Portrait of Louis XIV by Hyacinthe Rigaud shows a 63-year-old king standing on very young-looking legs. Rigaud wanted to make the monarchy look glorious, not to show what Louis was really like. The original painting is now in the Louvre. It was first meant as a gift to Philip V of Spain, but Louis kept it and had copies made. It became a model for royal portraits up to the time of Charles X.

Louis also ordered at least 20 statues of himself in the 1680s. He had "war artists" follow his military campaigns and record them. He built permanent triumphal arches in Paris and in the provinces, something not done since the decline of the Roman Empire. He had more than 300 bronze medals made to celebrate his reign. He also used tapestries to spread royal messages. Louis loved ballet. In the early part of his reign, he danced 80 roles in 40 major ballets. He danced in plays by Molière, and in 1661 he started the Royal Academy of Dance. His dance teacher, Pierre Beauchamp, created a notation system for writing down ballet. Feuillet published it in 1700.

Alongside this official image, people shared rumours, popular songs, and secret writings that gave a different view of Louis and his government. Later, Alexandre Dumas wrote Louis into sequels of The Three Musketeers. Louis has also appeared in many other novels, films, and television series.

Health and death

Louis wanted to show the world a healthy and strong king, but his health was not very good. He had many illnesses, including signs of diabetes, which was confirmed in reports of periostitis in 1678 and dental abscesses in 1696. He also had repeated boils, fainting spells, gout, dizziness, hot flushes, and headaches. From 1647 to 1711, his three main doctors, Antoine Vallot, Antoine d'Aquin, and Guy-Crescent Fagon, wrote down his health problems every day in the Journal de Santé du Roi (Journal of the King's Health). In 1686, Louis had a painful operation for an anal fistula. The surgeon Charles-François Félix de Tassy performed it using a specially shaped curved scalpel. The wound took more than two months to heal.

Louis died of gangrene at Versailles on 1 September 1715. He was four days away from his 77th birthday, and he had been king for 72 years. In his last days he was in a lot of pain. It is said that he died while reciting the psalm Deus, in adjutorium me festina (O Lord, make haste to help me). He was buried in the Basilica of Saint-Denis outside Paris. He rested there for about 80 years, until revolutionaries exhumed and destroyed all of the remains found in the Basilica. In 1848, a piece of Louis's heart, which had been preserved and kept in a silver locket by Lord Harcourt, Archbishop of York, was shown at Nuneham House to the Dean of Westminster, William Buckland. It is reported that part of his heart and part of the heart of Louis XIII were used to make mummy-brown paint for Martin Drolling. Cardinal Armand Gaston Maximilien de Rohan gave Last Rites (confession, viaticum, and unction) to Louis XIV.

Louis outlived most of his close family. His last surviving legitimate son, Louis, Dauphin of France, died of smallpox in 1711. Barely a year later, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, the Dauphin's eldest son and Louis's heir, died of measles. Burgundy's elder son, Louis, Duke of Brittany, died of the same illness a few weeks later. So, on his deathbed, Louis's heir was his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis, Duke of Anjou. Louis thought his successor would be too young to rule. He wanted to limit the power of his nephew Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who would probably become regent for the future Louis XV. The king set up a regency council, and gave some power to his illegitimate son Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, Duke of Maine. After Louis died, however, Orléans had the will cancelled by the Parlement of Paris and made himself the only regent. He took away the rank of Prince of the Blood that Louis had given to Maine and his brother, Louis-Alexandre, Count of Toulouse. He also greatly reduced Maine's power and privileges.

Line of succession in 1715

Below is the line of succession to the French throne at the time of Louis XIV's death in 1715. Louis XIV's only surviving legitimate grandson, Philip V, is not included, because he had given up the French throne after the war of the Spanish Succession. That was a 13-year conflict that followed the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700.

• Louis XIII (1601–1643) - Louis XIV (1638–1715)
  • Louis, Grand Dauphin (1661–1711)
    • Louis, Duke of Burgundy (1682–1712)
      • Louis, Duke of Brittany (1707–1712)
      • (1) Louis, Duke of Anjou (1710–1774)
    • Philip V of Spain (1683–1746)
    • Charles, Duke of Berry (1686–1714) - Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (1640–1701)
  • (2) Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1674–1723)
    • (3) Louis, Duke of Chartres (1703–1752)

Further down the French line of succession in 1715 was the House of Condé, followed by the House of Conti, a cadet branch of the House of Condé. Both of these royal houses were descended in the male line from Henri II, Prince of Condé. Henri II was a second cousin of French King Louis XIII, the father of Louis XIV, in the male line.

Legacy

Historians judge Louis XIV in different ways. On his deathbed, he told his heir, as Philippe de Courcillon recorded, not to copy his bad example. He said he had often gone to war too easily and out of vanity. He asked his heir to be a peaceful prince who eased the burdens of his people. Some historians say it was common at the time to exaggerate one's sins, so they focus more on his military and diplomatic successes, such as placing a French prince on the Spanish throne. They also note that his wars expanded France's borders and made its edges easier to defend. Others say he helped his people in indirect ways, by supporting the arts, industry, trade, and an overseas empire. They add that his control over powerful nobles reduced civil wars and rebellions. Louis's critics blame his spending on wars and government for leaving France poor. His supporters argue that the state was poor but France was not, pointing to Montesquieu's Persian Letters.

Louis has often been criticised for his vanity. Saint-Simon wrote that he loved flattery, and Voltaire believed he wanted glory more than the conquests themselves. Even so, he was also praised. Napoleon called him "a great king," Leibniz called him "one of the greatest kings that ever was," and Lord Acton admired him as the ablest man born in modern times on a throne. Voltaire's book The Age of Louis XIV named his reign the greatest of four ages in which reason and culture flourished. Many quotes are attributed to Louis by legend. One is "I am the state" ("L'État, c'est moi"). It was repeated widely but later denounced as untrue. He is also recorded as saying on his deathbed, "I depart, but the State shall always remain."

Arms

Order of Saint Louis

On 5 April 1693, Louis founded the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis, a military order of chivalry. He named it after Louis IX and meant it as a reward for excellent officers. It was the first award that could be given to people who were not nobles.

The order came before the Légion d'honneur, and both use a red ribbon. However, the Légion d'honneur is given to both military people and civilians.

Family

Main article: Descendants of Louis XIV of France

This list is not complete. Louis XIV had more children than are shown here, including some born outside of his marriage. Many of these births were never recorded, so the list includes only the better-known children and those who were later recognized as legitimate.