In the acquisition of Alsace and half of Flanders, and of all of Franche-Comté, what he really liked was the name he made for himself. [114], Line of succession to the French throne upon the death of Louis XIV in 1715. As a further example of his continued care for the capital, Louis constructed the Hôtel des Invalides, a military complex and home to this day for officers and soldiers rendered infirm either by injury or old age. He became king in 1643. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country in history. This military manoeuvre was also intended to protect his eastern provinces from Imperial invasion by depriving the enemy army of sustenance, thus explaining the preemptive scorched earth policy pursued in much of southwestern Germany (the "Devastation of the Palatinate"). Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon and secret wife of the Sun King, Louis XIV, was born in a bleak French prison in 1635, her father a condemned traitor and murderer, her mother the warden's seduced daughter. Louis is a member of the House of Bourbon, a branch of the Capetian dynasty and of the Robertians. The earliest portrayals of Louis already followed the pictorial conventions of the day in depicting the child king as the majestically royal incarnation of France. [103], Louis loved ballet and frequently danced in court ballets during the early half of his reign. In his work, Rigaud proclaims Louis' exalted royal status through his elegant stance and haughty expression, the royal regalia and throne, rich ceremonial fleur-de-lys robes, as well as the upright column in the background, which, together with the draperies, serves to frame this image of majesty. Ostentation was a distinguishing feature of daily Mass, annual celebrations, such as those of Holy Week, and special ceremonies. Although King James II was Catholic, his two Anglican daughters, Mary and Anne, ensured the English people a Protestant succession. By attaching nobles to his court at Versailles, Louis achieved increased control over the French aristocracy. He may also have acted to upstage Emperor Leopold I and regain international prestige after the latter defeated the Turks without Louis' help. Although Rigaud crafted a credible likeness of Louis, the portrait was neither meant as an exercise in realism nor to explore Louis' personal character. With the exception of the current Royal Chapel (built near the end of his reign), the palace achieved much of its current appearance after the third building campaign, which was followed by an official move of the royal court to Versailles on 6 May 1682. From that time until his death, Mazarin was in charge of foreign and financial policy without the daily supervision of Anne, who was no longer regent. He thus offered the entire empire to the Dauphin's second son Philip, Duke of Anjou, provided it remained undivided. [99] [104][105], Ballet dancing was actually used by Louis as a political tool to hold power over his state. The early part of his reign (1643-61), while Louis was young, was dominated by the chief minister Cardinal Mazarin. His elder son and successor, Joseph I, followed him in 1711. [23], Louis XIV was declared to have reached the age of majority on 7 September 1651. The members of that council were called ministers of state. The Jansenist convents of Port-Royal were closed (1709-10), and in 1713 the pope issued, at Louis's request, the anti-Jansenist bull Unigenitus.After a series of celebrated liaisons with mistresses, notably Louise de la Valliere and Madame de Montespan, Louis settled down to a more sedate life with Madame de Maintenon, whom he secretly married about 1683. Louis XIV, France's Sun King, had the longest reign in European history (1643-1715). He took delivery of an African elephant as a gift from the king of Portugal. Louis turned next against the United Provinces of the Netherlands in the third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-78). [40] Accordingly, by the late 1680s, France became increasingly isolated in Europe. He also used tapestries as a medium of exalting the monarchy. His triumphs at the Battles of Fleurus in 1690, Steenkerque in 1692, and Landen in 1693 preserved northern France from invasion.[70]. Louis generously supported the royal court of France and those who worked under him. the image of Louis XIV in the menu is taken from PC-Game "Versailles II" created by Cryo Interactive Entertainment. Held the office of. In 1910, the American historical novelist, Louis is a major character in the 1959 historical novel, A character based on Louis plays an important role in, The 15-year-old Louis XIV, as played by the Irish actor, Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre, 1638–1715, Gabrielle Angelique, Duchess of La Valette and Epernon, This page was last edited on 15 May 2021, at 01:53. [111] His body was laid to rest in Saint-Denis Basilica outside Paris. [89] It is believed that they were married secretly at Versailles on or around 10 October 1683[90] or January 1684. French society would sufficiently change by the time of his descendant, Louis XVI, to welcome tolerance in the form of the 1787 Edict of Versailles, also known as the Edict of Tolerance. Parliament declared the throne vacant, and offered it to James's daughter Mary II and his son-in-law and nephew William. In September 1688, Louis sent French troops into the Palatinate, hoping to disrupt his enemies who had formed the League of Augsburg against him. . . Its terms ensured Dutch independence from Spain, awarded some autonomy to the various German princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and granted Sweden seats on the Imperial Diet and territories to control the mouths of the Oder, Elbe, and Weser rivers. They regard the political and military victories as well as numerous cultural achievements as the means by which Louis helped raise France to a preeminent position in Europe. In addition Louis's display of religious intolerance helped unite the Protestant powers of Europe against the Sun King. In 1646, Nicolas V de Villeroy became the young king's tutor. William III consented to permitting the Dauphin's new territories to become part of France when the latter succeeded to his father's throne. Louis XV was born in the Palace of Versailles on 15 February 1710 during the reign of his great-grandfather Louis XIV. This situation did not last long, and Mazarin's unpopularity led to the creation of a coalition headed mainly by Marie de Rohan and the duchess of Longueville. On Mazarin's death in 1661, Louis astounded his court by becoming his own chief minister, thereby ending the long "reign of the cardinal-ministers." As a result of the fresh British perspective on the European balance of power, Anglo-French talks began, culminating in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht between Louis, Philip V of Spain, Anne, Queen of Great Britain, and the Dutch Republic. Reform proved difficult because the taille was levied by officers of the Crown who had purchased their post at a high price: punishment of abuses necessarily lowered the value of the post. His state established or developed in rapid succession academies for painting and sculpture (1663), inscriptions (1663), French artists at Rome (1666), and science (1666), followed by the Paris Observatory (1667) and the academies of architecture (1671) and music (1672). If the Duke of Berry declined it, it would go to the Archduke Charles, then to the distantly related House of Savoy if Charles declined it.[79]. Over his lifetime, Louis commissioned numerous works of art to portray himself, among them over 300 formal portraits. The Treaty of Ryswick ended the War of the League of Augsburg and disbanded the Grand Alliance. ... That was a very hard step for him - his love was so strong, that he wanted Maria Mancini to be his wife, although he was a king. Sensing imminent death, Louis XIII decided to put his affairs in order in the spring of 1643, when Louis XIV was four years old. French diplomacy secured Bavaria, Portugal, and Savoy as Franco-Spanish allies.[83]. One of the leaders of the Parlement of Paris, whom she had jailed, died in prison. Although Fouquet's financial indiscretions were not very different from Mazarin's before him or Colbert's after him, his ambition was worrying to Louis. All these events were witnessed by Louis and largely explained his later distrust of Paris and the higher aristocracy. In peacetime he concentrated on preparing for the next war. In 1660, in the wake of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, she married Louis XIV in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Louis XIV ordered the surprise destruction of a Flemish city to divert the attention of these troops. Louis' wife was Philip IV's daughter by his first marriage, while the new king of Spain, Charles II, was his son by a subsequent marriage. The War of Devolution did not focus on the payment of the dowry; rather, the lack of payment was what Louis XIV used as a pretext for nullifying Maria Theresa's renunciation of her claims, allowing the land to "devolve" to him. The expenditure was around 18 million pounds, leaving a deficit of 8 million. Arguably, Louis also applied himself indirectly to "the alleviation of the burdens of [his] subjects." [89], When he legitimized his children by Madame de Montespan on 20 December 1673, Françoise d'Aubigné became the royal governess at Saint-Germain. Louis provided support in the 1665-1667 Second Anglo-Dutch War but used the opportunity to launch the War of Devolution in 1667. The memoirist Saint-Simon speculated that Louis viewed Versailles as an isolated power center where treasonous cabals could be more readily discovered and foiled. Anne and Mazarin had largely pursued the policies of Cardinal Richelieu, augmenting the Crown's power at the expense of the nobility and the Parlements. By 1678, mutual exhaustion led to the Treaty of Nijmegen, which was generally settled in France's favour and allowed Louis to intervene in the Scanian War. if(year > 100){ [16] The most important arrest, from Anne's point of view, concerned Pierre Broussel, one of the most important leaders in the Parlement de Paris. Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) or the Sun King (le Roi Soleil), was King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. Louis has often been criticised for his vanity. This victory over the nobility may thus have ensured the end of major civil wars in France until the French Revolution about a century later. Anjou was not in the direct line of French succession, thus his accession would not cause a Franco-Spanish union. By this time Louis had already secretly married to Madame de Maintenon. This shaped his character and he would never forgive either Paris, the nobles, or the common people. Born in 1638, Louis XIV became king at age 4 following the death of his father, Louis XIII, and remained on the throne for the next 72 years. [113] Orléans, however, had Louis' will annulled by the Parlement of Paris after his death and made himself sole regent. It was Condé's sister who pushed him to turn against the queen. His grandson became Louis XV of France Claim: King Louis XIV had a fetish for watching women give birth and required that they do so lying on their back so that he could have an unobstructed view. The Parlement found him guilty and sentenced him to exile. However, French armies held significant advantages over their opponents; an undivided command, talented generals like Turenne, Condé and Luxembourg and vastly superior logistics. A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Complete, by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. As controller general of finances, Colbert sharply reduced the annual treasury deficit by economies and more equitable, efficient taxation, although tax exemptions for the nobility, clergy, and some members of the bourgeoisie continued. More challenging skills were required to perform this dance with movements very much resembling court behaviors, as a way to remind the nobles of the king's absolute power and their own status. Conseil des dépêches ("Council of Messages", concerning notices and administrative reports from the provinces). Debatable or disputed rulers are in italics. In this way, he aimed to decrease foreign imports while increasing French exports, hence reducing the net outflow of precious metals from France. In 1673, Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette discovered the Mississippi River. The strategy failed, as Namur fell three weeks later, but harmed Louis XIV's reputation: a century later, Napoleon deemed the bombardment "as barbarous as it was useless. It had largely avoided the devastation of the Thirty Years' War. By the time of the Treaty of Ryswick, the Spanish succession had been a source of concern to European leaders for well over forty years. [45] Louis also received a Chinese Jesuit, Michael Shen Fu-Tsung, at Versailles in 1684. But attachments formed later by shared qualities of the spirit are far more difficult to break than those formed merely by blood. As Louis aged, so too did the manner in which he was depicted. The prospect of Dutch defeat led Leopold to an alliance with Brandenburg-Prussia on 23 June, followed by another with the Republic on 25th. In 1682 he moved the royal Court to the Palace of Versailles, the defining symbol of Later, the Battle of Ramillies delivered the Low Countries to the Allies, and the Battle of Turin forced Louis to evacuate Italy, leaving it open to Allied forces. Fouquet was charged with embezzlement. Louis began his personal rule of France in 1661, after the death of his chief minister, the Cardinal Mazarin. [35] Although Brandenburg was forced out of the war by the June 1673 Treaty of Vossem, in August an anti-French alliance was formed by the Dutch, Spain, Emperor Leopold and the Duke of Lorraine. [10] This action abolished the regency council and made Anne sole Regent of France. His first love was Maria Mancini. Depending on one's views of the war's inevitability, Louis acted reasonably or arrogantly. [121] Leibniz, the German Protestant philosopher, commended him as "one of the greatest kings that ever was". Impelled "by a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique," Louis sensed that war was the ideal way to enhance his glory. In the general settlement, Philip V retained Spain and its colonies, while Austria received the Spanish Netherlands and divided Spanish Italy with Savoy. [53] The wars were very expensive but defined Louis XIV's foreign policy, and his personality shaped his approach. The memoirist Saint-Simon, who claimed that Louis slighted him, criticised him thus: There was nothing he liked so much as flattery, or, to put it more plainly, adulation; the coarser and clumsier it was, the more he relished it. Another tool Louis used to control his nobility was censorship, which often involved the opening of letters to discern their author's opinion of the government and king. The English and Dutch feared that a French or Austrian-born Spanish king would threaten the balance of power and thus preferred the Bavarian Prince Joseph Ferdinand, a grandson of Leopold I through his first wife Margaret Theresa of Spain (the younger daughter of Philip IV). Louis then sent another embassy in 1687, under Simon de la Loubère, and French influence grew at the Siamese court, which granted Mergui as a naval base to France. year = year - 100; var year=datum.getYear(); Louis and his wife Maria Theresa of Spain had six children from the marriage contracted for them in 1660. Additionally, Mazarin's relations with Marie Mancini were not good, and he did not trust her to support his position. The reign of Louis XIV is often referred to as “Le Grand Siècle” (the Great Century), forever associated with the image of an absolute monarch and a strong, centralised state. Nonetheless, it is indisputable that Louis' public image in most of Europe, especially in Protestant regions, was dealt a severe blow. Thus, Brabant allegedly "devolved" to Maria Theresa, giving France a justification to attack the Spanish Netherlands. In the middle period (1661-85) Louis reigned personally and innovatively, but the last years of his personal rule (1685-1715) were beset by problems. These ceremonies led to the saying that, at a distance, one could tell what was happening at the palace merely by glancing at an almanac and a watch. In Brabant (the location of the land in dispute), children of first marriages traditionally were not disadvantaged by their parents' remarriages and still inherited property. Louis sought instead to install his own candidate, Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg, to ensure the key Rhenish state remained an ally. [76] The signatories, however, omitted to consult the ruler of these lands, and Charles II was passionately opposed to the dismemberment of his empire. [59], Historians have debated Louis' reasons for issuing the Edict of Fontainebleau. Under Louis, France was the leading European power, and most wars pivoted around its aggressiveness. [89] The king was, at first, put off by her strict religious practice, but he warmed to her through her care for his children. Enduring much pain in his last days, he finally "yielded up his soul without any effort, like a candle going out", while reciting the psalm Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina (O Lord, make haste to help me). The most famous and powerful of the ministers were Jean Baptiste Colbert in internal affairs and the marquis de Louvois in military matters.Breaking with tradition, Louis excluded from his council members of his immediate family, great princes, and others of the old military nobility (noblesse d'epee); his reliance on the newer judicial nobility (noblesse de robe) led the duc de Saint-Simon to call this, mistakenly, "the reign of the lowborn bourgeoisie." Louis' reign marked the birth and infancy of the art of medallions. He had, for example, built an opulent château at Vaux-le-Vicomte where he entertained Louis and his court ostentatiously, as if he were wealthier than the king himself. Sixteenth-century rulers had often issued medals in small numbers to commemorate the major events of their reigns. This major development in ballet played an important role in promoting French culture and ballet throughout Europe during Louis' time. Louis was a discriminating patron of the great literary and artistic figures of France's classical age, including Jean Baptiste Moliere, Charles Le Brun, Louis Le Vau, Jules Mansart, and Jean Baptiste Lully. Lorraine, which had been occupied by the French since 1670, was returned to its rightful Duke Leopold, albeit with a right of way to the French military. Defeats, famine, and mounting debt greatly weakened France. Pierre Beauchamp, his private dance instructor, was ordered by Louis to come up with a notation system to record ballet performances, which he did with great success. [108], Besides the official depiction and image of Louis, his subjects also followed a non-official discourse consisting mainly of clandestine publications, popular songs, and rumors that provided an alternative interpretation of Louis and his government. Contemporaries and eyewitnesses claimed that the Queen would spend all her time with Louis. Séguier was the person who had interrogated Anne in 1637, treating her like a "common criminal" as she described her treatment following the discovery that she was giving military secrets and information to Spain. Those Protestants who had resisted conversion were now to be baptised forcibly into the established church. He reputedly had more, but the difficulty in fully documenting all such births restricts the list only to the better-known and/or legitimised. They were among the most significant means to spread royal propaganda prior to the construction of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Acceptance of the will of Charles II and consequences. The terrible French winter of 1709 and near fiscal collapse also took their toll. The portrait also became a model for French royal and imperial portraiture down to the time of Charles X over a century later. By the early 1680s, Louis had greatly augmented French influence in the world. [75] In any case, peace in 1697 was desirable to Louis, since France was exhausted from the costs of the war. Louis maintained the strength of his army, but in his next series of territorial claims avoided using military force alone. He had many ailments: for example, symptoms of diabetes, as confirmed in reports of suppurating periostitis in 1678, dental abscesses in 1696, along with recurring boils, fainting spells, gout, dizziness, hot flushes, and headaches. However, Rigaud's intention was to glorify the monarchy. Cities and territories, such as Luxembourg and Casale, were prized for their strategic positions on the frontier and access to important waterways. She was niece of Cardinal Mazarin. During this time he brought absolute monarchy to its height, established a glittering court at Versailles, and fought most of the other European countries in four wars. Urban law enforcement was improved by creation (1667) of the office of lieutenant general of police for Paris, later imitated in other towns. After he married Marie-Therese, he devoted himself to her and a year later they had a dauphin. Louis XIV. He agreed that the entire Spanish empire should be surrendered to the Archduke Charles, and also consented to return to the frontiers of the Peace of Westphalia, giving up all the territories he had acquired over 60 years. Louis also renovated and improved the Louvre and other royal residences. However, he returned Catalonia and most of the Reunions. Louis' detractors have argued that his considerable foreign, military, and domestic expenditure impoverished and bankrupted France. Six months later, Joseph Ferdinand died. This long-lasting and loving relationship can be evidenced by excerpts in Louis' journal entries, such as: "Nature was responsible for the first knots which tied me to my mother. Before its dissolution eight months later, the Assembly had accepted the Declaration of the Clergy of France, which increased royal authority at the expense of papal power. France also overran most of the Duchy of Savoy after the battles of Marsaglia and Staffarde in 1693. [28] The Code Louis played an important part in French legal history as the basis for the Napoleonic code, from which many modern legal codes are, in turn, derived. Rigaud's original, now housed in the Louvre, was originally meant as a gift to Louis' grandson, Philip V of Spain. There is no better illustration of this than in Hyacinthe Rigaud's frequently-reproduced Portrait of Louis XIV of 1701, in which a 63-year-old Louis appears to stand on a set of unnaturally young legs. Money was lavished on buildings. Louis personally supervised the captures of Mons in 1691 and Namur in 1692. No European state exceeded it in population, and no one could match its wealth, central location, and very strong professional army. He also disallowed Protestant-Catholic intermarriages to which third parties objected, encouraged missions to the Protestants, and rewarded converts to Catholicism. He danced four parts in three of Molière's comédies-ballets, which are plays accompanied by music and dance. Louis' patriline is the line from which he is descended father to son. She shared with Louis the grief of lost battles and the successive deaths of all but two of his direct descendants. King Charles II ruled a vast empire comprising Spain, Naples, Sicily, Milan, the Spanish Netherlands, and numerous Spanish colonies. This was a step toward equality before the law and toward sound public finance, but so many concessions and exemptions were won by nobles and bourgeois that the reform lost much of its value.[26]. He may initially have been inclined to abide by the partition treaties, but the Dauphin's insistence persuaded him otherwise. They also maintain that events occurring almost 80 years after his death were not reasonably foreseeable to Louis, and that in any case, his successors had sufficient time to initiate reforms of their own.[119]. Louis XIV., 1638 – 1715 called “the Sun King” was from 1643 until his death King of France and Navarre. Louis XIV (1638 – 1715) was the longest reigning and one of the most powerful monarchs in European history. [122] And Lord Acton admired him as "by far the ablest man who was born in modern times on the steps of a throne". He judged that royal authority thrived more surely by filling high executive and administrative positions with these men because they could be more easily dismissed than nobles of ancient lineage, with entrenched influence. All the details and rules were compressed in five positions of the bodies codified by Beauchamp. Queen Anne had a very close relationship with the Cardinal, and many observers believed that Mazarin became Louis XIV's stepfather by a secret marriage to Queen Anne. At Versailles, the king alone commanded attention. [123] The historian and philosopher Voltaire wrote: "His name can never be pronounced without respect and without summoning the image of an eternally memorable age". The Edict of Fontainebleau revoked the Edict of Nantes and repealed all the privileges that arose therefrom. Tapestries could be allegorical, depicting the elements or seasons, or realist, portraying royal residences or historical events. The guiding principle of absolutism, L’État, c’est moi! Louis was willing enough to tax the nobles but was unwilling to fall under their control, and only towards the close of his reign, under extreme stress of war, was he able, for the first time in French history, to impose direct taxes on the aristocratic elements of the population. Eventually, therefore, Louis decided to accept Charles II's will. Throughout these regions Louis and Colbert embarked on an extensive program of architecture and urbanism meant to reflect the styles of Versailles and Paris and the 'gloire' of the realm.[41].