Louis XIV of France

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Louis XIV, King of France (1638-1715). Louis, the greatest king of France's grand siècle, was only a small boy when he succeeded his father in 1643. Because of his youth, real power passed to his mother Anne of Austria as regent and to the Italian-born first minister, Cardinal Mazarin. When Mazarin died in 1661, Louis refused to appoint another first minister and instead grasped the reins of government himself, never to relinquish them so long as he lived. During this ‘personal reign’, France exercised pre-eminent power on the continent of Europe.

Louis, who adopted the sun as his symbol to become the ‘Sun King’, displayed the splendour of his reign by constructing his opulent and vast palace at Versailles. There his dazzling court strutted and bickered, while Louis reserved real authority for himself. Louis is reputed to have claimed ‘I am the state’, and although this statement may be apocryphal, his will was, indeed, the will of the state in matters of military matters and foreign policy.

During the second half of the 17th century, French troops proved themselves virtually invincible on the battlefield. Phenomenal growth of his army multiplied its effect. French forces during the League of Augsburg war climbed above 400, 000 men on paper, and may have attained 340, 000 in reality. Administrative reforms carried out by war ministers Michel Le Tellier and his son, the Marquis de Louvois, provided a more regular provision of food, equipment, and pay, making such large forces possible.

Louis regarded being a soldier as an essential attribute of kingship, and he devoted himself very much to military affairs. During wartime, he regularly went to the field until the infirmities of age kept him from doing so, yet he never commanded in battle. He had a penchant for sieges and attended over twenty of them. In contrast to his identification with the army, Louis never harboured equal concern for his navy. Although it expanded mightily by 1690, he later allowed it to decline in order to concentrate resources on land.

As befitted the tone of the age, Louis cared much for his gloire, best translated as fame or reputation, but that does not mean that his foreign policy was vainglorious. Historians have often argued that the wars he fought during his personal reign, like those of Napoleon a century later, resulted from a desire to annex much of the continent. Yet Louis's goals were more modest and reasonable.

Early in his personal reign, the young king lusted to establish his reputation as a warrior-king by conquest. His Spanish wife had renounced her claims to the domains of her father, Philip IV, contingent upon delivery of a huge dowry which was never paid. Therefore, when Philip died in 1665, Louis insisted that parts of the Spanish Netherlands should go to, or ‘devolve’ upon, his wife, setting off the War of Devolution (1667-8). An alliance led by the Dutch imposed an end to this brief struggle, and although Louis received twelve important fortress towns, he believed himself cheated. In the Dutch war (1672-8), Louis intended to punish the Dutch and gain a free hand in the Spanish Netherlands. French armies invaded the Dutch Netherlands, but failed to impose their terms. As the alliance against Louis grew, he had to withdraw south in 1674.

At mid-course during the Dutch war, Louis gave up his dream of adding the Spanish Netherlands to his kingdom and, instead, came to associate his gloire less with conquering more territory than with protecting what he already held. Vauban, Louis's great military engineer, urged Louis to create a double line of fortresses, known as the pré carré, to seal off his northern border. But he also advocated creating a more defensible frontier to the east by seizing additional strong points. After the close of the Dutch war, which netted him more fortresses in the Netherlands plus the entire province of Franche-Comté, Louis resolved to take still other key towns, particularly Strasbourg and Luxembourg, in a series of land grabs known as the ‘Reunions’. The climax of this process was the brief and profitable war of that name (1683-4).

When Louis demanded European recognition of all his territorial gains—and did so by invading German lands to compel such recognition—he precipitated the League of Augsburg war in which he faced the ‘Grand Alliance’ of the English, Dutch, Spanish, and Austria, along with several lesser German states and Savoy. During this war Louis's army won all its major battles and enjoyed the upper hand in siege warfare, but the struggle so exhausted France that Louis sacrificed some of his earlier acquisitions to secure a peace settlement.

Louis's last great war came with the inevitability of sunset, when Charles II, the childless king of Spain, died in 1700. Before Charles's death, Louis tried to hammer out an agreement with other rulers to avoid a major war by dividing the Spanish inheritance. However, all prior arrangements dissolved when Charles stipulated on his deathbed that everything should go to Louis's grandson, Philip of Anjou. Louis really had little choice but to accept the dying declaration, but he should have avoided the series of ill-considered acts that alarmed his foes, who once again formed a Grand Alliance to oppose him in a final cataclysm, the War of the Spanish Succession. Two brilliant allied commanders, Marlborough and Prince Eugène of Savoy, won a series of battles and sieges that nearly exhausted Louis's strength. But he refused to capitulate and eventually outlasted his enemies. When Queen Anne removed Marlborough from command and British forces from the war, Louis's armies reasserted French power, defeated Eugène, and established a settlement that did not require Louis to sacrifice territory and that also left his grandson Philip on the Spanish throne.

Bibliography

• Lossky, Andrew, Louis XIV and the French Monarchy (New Brunswick, NJ, 1994).
• Lynn, John A., The Wars of Louis XIV (London, 1999).
• Wolf, John B., Louis XIV (New York, 1968)

— John A. Lynn

( b St Germain-en-Laye, 5 Sept 1638; d Versailles, 1 Sept 1715). King of France, and patron of music, he assumed the throne in 1661. Obsessively preoccupied with music and dance - partly as political instruments - from an early age he surrounded himself with distinguished composer-performers, above all Lully, to whom he granted privileges that enabled him to dominate the French musical world, but also d′Anglebert, Chambonnières, F. Couperin, Lalande and Marais. He founded the Académie de Danse (1661) and the Académie de Musique (1669). His own excellence as a dancer contributed to the popularity of the ballet de cour, and his wide tastes led to the development of many sacred and secular genres (cantatas, motets, symphonies, ballets and tragédies lyriques), notably by Lully, Lalande and Charpentier. Crucial to the development of the orchestra in the 18th century were the two ensembles Louis created as part of his vast musical establishment: the 24 Violons du Roi and the wind, brass and drums of the écurie .

Louis XIV (1638-1715) was king of France from 1643 to 1715. He brought the French monarchy to its peak of absolute power and made France the dominant power in Europe. His reign is also associated with the greatest age of French culture and art.

After the chaos of the Wars of Religion, the French monarchy had been reestablished by Louis XIV's grandfather, Henry IV. Successive rulers and ministers (Henry himself, Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu, and Cardinal Mazarin) had done all in their power to make the king absolute ruler within France and to make France, instead of the Hapsburg coalition of Spain and the empire, the dominant power in Europe. By the time Louis assumed personal control, the groundwork for final success had been laid. It was Louis who brought the work to completion, enforcing his will over France and Europe to an unprecedented extent and establishing the administrative machinery that made France a modern state.

Louis was born at Saint-Germain on Sept. 5, 1638, the son of Louis XIII and his wife, Anne of Austria. His birth was greeted with immense national rejoicing, and he was hailed as le Dieudonné, "the God-given." On May 14, 1643, his father died, and Louis became king. As he was only 4, the country was governed by his mother as regent; this meant, in effect, by Cardinal Mazarin, with whom Anne was in love. The successive rebellions known as the Fronde failed to dislodge Mazarin, although they left the boy king with a lifelong horror of rebellion and a resentment of Paris, where the uprising had started. Mazarin remained in power for the rest of his life, and only when he died, on March 9, 1661, did Louis astonish the court by announcing that hence-forward he would direct his government himself. He meant what he said. The government remained under Louis's personal control for the next 54 years.

His Character

Unlike his father, Louis enjoyed excellent health almost all his life. His appetites for food, hunting, and sex were enormous, and he had a passion, unusual in those days, for fresh air and walking. Though not tall, he was extremely impressive in appearance due to his great dignity and royal presence, particularly as he grew older and left his youthful exuberance behind. While he frequently displayed gross and even brutal selfishness, he was courteous, considerate, and good-natured, and he showed great loyalty to his friends and his servants. His concept of his royal position was undoubtedly arrogant, but he was always conscious of his duty as king and sincerely believed that he was devoting himself to the wellbeing of his subjects. He detested inefficiency, corruption, and the abuse of privilege and stamped them out wherever he encountered them. However, his own passion for personal glory led him to drag France into a series of wars, ultimately at appalling cost to his people. On his deathbed he confessed to having loved war too much, but there are no signs that he really understood what his passion had cost his country.

Louis began with a team of excellent ministers inherited from Mazarin, but only now put to full and proper use. The most important were Michel Le Tellier, in charge of military affairs (assisted, and ultimately succeeded, by his son the Marquis de Louvois), and Jean Baptiste Colbert, whose immense sphere included the navy, the royal household, religion, cultural activities, colonies, and the whole direction of the economy. Nicolas Fouquet, who as superintendent of finances had been Mazarin's most important lieutenant, was regarded by Louis as dangerous. He was charged with peculation, found guilty, and imprisoned; Louis intervened to change his sentence from banishment to imprisonment for life. This uncharacteristic act of injustice reveals Louis's fear of another Fronde.

There was no first minister. Louis had resolved to allow no minister primacy after Mazarin, and in fact he preferred to keep his ministers divided into mutually hostile groups. He himself supported his ministers without reservation if he thought them right and never yielded to pressure to get rid of them; but he never allowed them to become presumptuous. Always suspicious of any subject who might grow too powerful, he would not allow any great nobles, even his own brother, onto the council.

Military Activities

For the next 11 years Louis's primary commitment was the restoration of the French economy to health and vigor after the neglect of Mazarin's time. In 1672, however, exasperated at his failure to destroy the economic supremacy of the Dutch, he invaded their country, assisted by England whose king, Charles II, was on his payroll. Instead of the easy triumph he had expected, he found himself faced by dogged Dutch resistance, resolutely led by William of Orange and supported by a growing number of allies. The war lasted for 6 years and ended with Dutch economic ascendancy as strong as ever. France had acquired Franche-Comté from Spain and useful gains in the Spanish Netherlands, but at the cost of permanently abandoning the economic and fiscal progress made by Colbert down to 1672. For the rest of the reign the economic progress of France was first halted and then reversed.

Louis then pursued a policy of deliberate, though limited, aggression, bullying his neighbors and encroaching on their territory. This aroused increasing fear and resentment in Europe, and Louis was finally confronted by a coalition which plunged him into the War of the League of Augsburg. This war, which lasted from 1689 till 1697, left France in possession of Strasbourg, which Louis had seized in 1681, but exhausted and in no shape to meet the still greater war that was about to break out.

This was the War of the Spanish Succession. The last Spanish Hapsburg, Charles II, was certain to die without children and would leave a vast inheritance. To avoid conflict, the two claimants to the inheritance, Louis and the Emperor, had already reached an agreement to divide this inheritance between them. Just before his death, however, Charles offered to make Louis's grandson Philip his sole heir, with the stipulation that if Louis refused, the inheritance was to pass undivided to the Emperor's younger son. Louis considered that this offer made his previous agreement invalid and against the advice of his council accepted it. This inevitably meant war with Austria, but it was owing to Louis's greed and tactlessness that Britain and Holland were brought in as well. Once again France found itself facing an immense coalition, and this time it had only begun to recover from the last war.

This final war lasted from 1701 to 1714 and did France incalculable damage. Thanks to the courage and determination of Louis and his people, the fighting did not end in disaster. Philip retained the Spanish throne, and the only losses of territory France suffered were overseas. But the country had suffered years of appalling hardship; the population was sharply reduced by famine; industry and commerce were at a standstill; and the peasantry was crushed by an unprecedented load of taxation. The King's death the next year was greeted with a relief almost as great as the joy that had welcomed his birth.

Domestic Policy

Louis's religion was a rather unintelligent and bigoted Catholicism. At the same time he regarded himself as God's deputy in France and would allow no challenge to his authority, from the Pope or anyone else. As a result, he was involved in a series of unedifying quarrels with successive popes, which dragged on for years of futile stalemate and gave rise to the probably baseless suspicion that he might be contemplating a break with the Church on the lines of Henry VIII.

To reassure Catholic opinion as to his orthodoxy, Louis kept up a steady pressure against the Protestants in France. Finally, in 1685, he revoked the Edict of Nantes (by which Protestants had been granted toleration in 1598), forbade the practice of the Calvinist religion in France (he was less concerned about Lutherans), expelled all Calvinist pastors, and forbade lay Protestants, under savage penalties, to emigrate. There was great indignation abroad, even in Catholic circles, but in the intolerant atmosphere then prevailing in Catholic France, Louis's action was very popular.

At intervals throughout his reign Louis mounted a campaign against the Jansenists, a rigorist sect within the Catholic Church. He became so bitter toward them that he ended by reversing his antipapal policy in the hope of enlisting the Pope's support. This was forthcoming, and the Jansenists were condemned by the bull Unigenitus in 1713; but this interference outraged French national feeling, and the Jansenist cause gained considerably in popularity as a result.

Neither the government of France by a group of overlapping councils nor the administration of the provinces by intendants (royal agents equipped with full powers in every field) originated with Louis, but he took over these systems, making them more comprehensive and efficient, and extending the system of intendants for the first time to the whole of France. Government became much more efficient in his day, but much of this efficiency was lost after his death. It also became more bureaucratic, and this change was permanent. Increasingly, the affairs of provincial France came to be decided by the council, and local initiative was discouraged. Remembering the Fronde, Louis no doubt believed that anything was better than the semianarchy of the old days; but it can be argued that he carried the spirit of regimentation a good deal too far. Governmental overcentralization is a source of endless friction in France to this day. Louis neither initiated this centralization nor carried it to its final completion, but he certainly accelerated it.

The basic factor in the Fronde had been noble anarchy, and Louis was determined to keep the nobility in line. All through his reign he did his best to undercut the independent position of the nobles and turn them, particularly the richer and more powerful of them, into courtiers. In this he was largely successful. Versailles, which became the seat of government in 1682 (although the palace was still far from completion), became the magnet to which the nobility were attracted. No nobleman could hope for appointment to any important position without paying assiduous court at Versailles. The cult of monarchy, which Louis deliberately strengthened to the utmost of his ability, made them in any case flock to Versailles of their own free will; exclusion from the charmed circle of the court came to be regarded as social death. Louis has been criticized by some historians for turning the French nobility into gilded parasites, but it may be doubted, as the Fronde demonstrated, whether they were fit to play any more constructive role. Although he preferred to select his generals, his bishops, and (contrary to legend) his ministers from the nobility, Louis did not make the mistake of his successors and exclude the Third Estate from all the best positions. He made some of his appointments from the bourgeoisie.

Culture and Art

The reign of Louis XIV is often equated with the great age of French culture. In fact, this age began under Richelieu and was clearly over some years before Louis died. Nor did he do very much to help it. In the 1660s he indulged in some patronage of writers, but his benevolence was capriciously bestowed, frequently on secondrate men, and it dried up almost entirely when economic conditions worsened after 1672. Nevertheless, Jean Racine and Molière were substantially helped by Louis, and it was largely thanks to the king that Molière's plays were performed in spite of conservative opposition. The King's enthusiasm for building (Versailles, Marly, Trianon, and others), while costing the country more than it could afford, certainly furnished artists and architects with valuable commissions, and the King's love of musical spectacles offered a golden opportunity for composers. The flowering of painting, architecture, music, and landscape gardening in France at this time must be largely credited to Louis.

Personal Life

Louis was married to Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV of Spain, as part of the settlement by which Mazarin ended the Spanish war. He married her reluctantly (he was in love with Mazarin's own niece at the time) and made no pretense of being faithful to her; but he was fond of her after his fashion, and at her death observed, "This is the first sorrow she has ever caused me. " Overcharged with sexual energy practically all his life, he had a number of mistresses, whose jealousy of each other was a principal topic of court gossip. By the two bestknown, Louise de La Vallière and Athénaïs de Montespan, he had a number of illegitimate children, of whom he was very fond; his fatherly attempts to secure for them, after his death, a position above their station caused a good deal of trouble. His attention was finally caught by Françoise Scarron, who had become the governess of these children; he made her Marquise de Maintenon and settled down in domestic respectability with her. In later life he became very puritanical, and Madame de Maintenon has sometimes been blamed for this, but it seems likely that the change was inherent in Louis's own nature.

Louis did not allow the pursuit of pleasure to interfere with his professional duties; all his life he worked indefatigably at the business of government. He also fancied himself, without justification, as a soldier and derived much pleasure from conducting lengthy sieges of towns that were bound to surrender in any case and giving his generals unsought and unwelcome advice as to how to conduct their campaigns.

The King's last years were darkened not only by the successive disasters of the war and the desperate condition of his people but by a series of personal tragedies. In quick succession his son, the two grandsons still with him, and one of his two infant great-grandsons died. With them died his grandson's wife, the young Duchess of Burgundy, whom Louis adored. Only his other greatgrandson survived, to succeed him at the age of 5 as Louis XV. When Louis died, France had long been sick of him, and his funeral procession was insulted in the streets.

History can see him in a fairer perspective. He was not "Louis the Great, " as he was sycophantically hailed in his lifetime; he was a man of average intelligence and human failings who committed many blunders and several crimes. Nevertheless, he did his duty as he saw it, with a quite exceptional conscientiousness and devotion. He saw himself as responsible to God for the well-being of his people, and though his interpretation of this responsibility was often strange, it was always sincere. More than any other man except Richelieu, he was the architect of the French national state. The greatness which France achieved in his lifetime was largely his doing.

Further Reading

There is no definitive biography of Louis. John B. Wolf, Louis XIV (1968), is in general satisfactory for Louis himself but leaves gaps in its coverage of the reign. A valuable recent work, with emphasis on France rather than on Louis and with an immensely useful picture of the economic and social situation in his reign, is Pierre Goubert, Louis XIV and Twenty Million Frenchmen, translated by Anne Carter (1970). W. H. Lewis, Louis XIV: An Informal Portrait (1959), does not purport to give the whole picture but brings Louis to life as a man and is written in a delightful style. For background reading on the period, Lewis's The Splendid Century (1953) presents a series of fascinating insights into the France of Louis XIV, as well as filling out the picture of Louis himself. A more complete presentation of the entire period is in Geoffrey Treasure, Seventeenth-century France (1966).

Louis XIV (1638-1715), son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, succeeded to the throne in 1643. His coronation, delayed by the troubles of the Fronde, took place in 1654. He married Marie-Thérèse (daughter of Philip IV of Spain) in 1660, thus setting the seal on the peace between the two kingdoms signed the previous year. Louis was trained for the task of ruling by Cardinal Mazarin, and on the latter's death in 1661 took the decision to rule without a first minister. There followed a decade in which French pre-eminence in Europe was asserted by every conceivable means, from diplomatic incidents in London and Rome to the invasion of the Spanish Netherlands in pursuit of territorial claims through the queen. The next decade was dominated by a war against the Dutch Republic in which the king again campaigned in person. The period 1679-89 was one of peace, but for the rest of his reign Louis was usually in armed conflict with the emperor, the Dutch, and the British, from the War of the League of Augsburg (1689-97) to the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-13). The king's greatest successes, at a high price in men and money, were the acquisition of Franche-Comté and Strasbourg and the placing of his grandson Philippe of Anjou on the Spanish throne.

On the domestic front, Louis's reign is most often remembered for the economic policies of Colbert; for the Revocation, in 1685, of the freedom of worship for French Protestants guaranteed by the Edict of Nantes; and for the lavish royal patronage of the arts, from the building of Versailles to the pensions given to men of letters, who regularly compared the king to Alexander, Augustus, and Apollo. The young king was an enthusiast for hunting, music, plays, beautiful women (notably Mademoiselle de La Vallière and Madame de Montespan), and dancing (he made regular appearances in the ballet de cour). As gout and the fistula forced him to adopt an increasingly sedentary life-style, the king showed more interest in the visual arts. Under the influence of Madame de Maintenon (whom he married in secret soon after the death of Marie-Thérèse in 1683), Louis became increasingly devout. Throughout his reign he devoted from six to ten hours a day to the business of government.

[Peter Burke]

Bibliography

• F. Bluche, Louis XIV (1988)

Louis XIV (France) (1638–1715; ruled 1643–1715), king of France. Hailed as le Dieudonné, 'the God-given', Louis XIV was the first child of Louis XIII (1601–1643) and Anne of Austria (1601–1661), born twenty-three years into their marriage.

The Early Years (1638–1661)

Ascending the throne at the age of four, Louis XIV was educated under the tutelage of his godfather and chief minister, Jules Cardinal Mazarin (1602–1661), and under the day-to-day watch of his governor, Nicolas de Neufville, first marshal-duke de Villeroi (1644–1730). The young king received not a scholarly education in the classics, but a practical education in history, diplomacy, war, and the arts, while his preceptor Hardouin de Péréfixe guided his spiritual development under the direction of the Queen Mother Anne, imbuing in Louis a distaste for heterodoxy, and associated disorder, of any kind. His formative experiences came during the Fronde (1648–1653), when he was directly awakened to the potential instability lurking in the kingdom as other forces sought to share in the crown's sovereign powers and remove Mazarin from the government and the kingdom. The events of these years, and Louis's exposure to the wider social and economic problems of France during his military progresses, taught him to mistrust the ambitions of peers and of senior princes of the blood and bred an awareness in him of the need for far tighter regulation of the leading institutions of the kingdom. The declaration of the young king's majority, two days after his thirteenth birthday on 7 September 1651, produced some rallying of support for the crown. But it was not until 1654, the year of the coronation (7 June), that the government reestablished military control over France. For the rest of the 1650s Mazarin led the government, while Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, marshal-vîcomte de Turenne (1611–1675), trained the king in the art of war. In these years Mazarin did not involve Louis in the details of administration but did seek to keep him informed of developments, particularly on diplomatic and strategic issues, while encouraging him to establish his chivalric leadership of the kingdom.

The Reform of Government and Finances

By the time of Mazarin's death on 9 March 1661, Louis XIV had already shown himself to be an astute military commander, a skill that he would retain all the way up to his last personal campaign in 1693. He was also regarded as an excellent horseman, a noted conversationalist with an extraordinary memory for people, and, in the cultural sphere, a good musician and one of the very best dancers at court. Furthermore, he had been married to the Infanta Marie-Thérèse of Spain since June 1660 as part of the peace settlement of the Pyrenees, and she was now one month pregnant with the future dauphin (1661–1711). But Louis had little experience of governing, and it was expected that Mazarin would be succeeded as minister-favorite, most probably by Michel Le Tellier (1603–1685). What nobody anticipated was Louis's decision to assume control of the reins of government himself and his determination to maintain a grip on affairs (albeit a fluctuating grip) for the rest of his reign. Between March and September 1661 there was a minor revolution in French government during which the person of the king assumed center stage: the inner council (conseil d'en haut) was reduced in size to include only a handful of senior ministers whose advice was given candidly and accepted with almost perennial good grace. After the fall of Nicolas Fouquet (1615–1680), the surintendant of finances, there was greater transparency in financial transactions, with the king reserving to himself the right to approve every financial decision of the central government, even if successive controllers general of finance continued to dominate financial business.

Louis XIV did not favor major overhauls of the system of government that would unsettle the kingdom, but he was willing to entertain considerable administrative reforms insofar as they diminished disorder, encouraged stability, and enhanced his own regal power. Indeed, it is fair to say that some very dramatic changes occurred during his reign not through any increase in state bureaucracy but through changes in regulations and financial arrangements. Using the provincial intendants as a tool for preventing abuses and malpractice by the venal officeholders, Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–1683), as senior intendant of finances from September 1661 and then controller general from 1665 until his death in 1683, managed to bring the chaotic fiscal system of taxation and borrowing to its optimum efficacy. However, when the demands of war grew in the 1690s and 1700s and net revenue as a proportion of gross revenue declined once again to the dismal levels of the 1640s, two major reforms had to be introduced that did challenge the social basis of the country, undermining the entire system of lay privileged exemption from direct taxation. In 1695–1698 the capitation imposed a graduated poll tax upon all French subjects from the dauphin down, and this was reintroduced permanently in 1701. And then in 1710 the dixième, a tax of one-tenth of personal income regardless of status, was brought in, lasting until 1721.

The Armed Forces

In spite of setbacks in the 1700s, the reforms of finance in an era of economic stagnation enabled the crown to sustain stronger and larger armed forces than ever before during Louis XIV's "personal rule." France had almost no navy to speak of in 1661 (ten warships and twelve frigates), but Colbert was immediately given the task of working with the grand master of navigation, the duke de Beaufort, to increase the number of vessels; and by the end of 1663 he had brought the galley fleet in the Mediterranean within his own orbit. The great leap forward in the size of the fleet and in administrative and port infrastructure came in the years 1669 to 1673, and in spite of the belief that Louis XIV lacked personal interest in the navy, he gave considerable support both to Colbert and then his son Seignelay in their efforts to create and maintain by 1689 the largest battle fleet in Europe. Only during the final years of the War of the League of Augsburg (1688–1697) after 1695, and during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) after 1705, did it prove impossible to sustain such a navy. The crown was consequently forced to rely much more on privateering at sea.

Louis took a far stronger interest in the reforms of the army. With the king's close involvement, Michel Le Tellier and particularly his son, the marquis de Louvois, gradually overhauled a highly complex system of regulations and financial structures to equip France with an army that, by 1693, stood at around 330,000 men. Their sheer attention to detail prevented on occasion what would otherwise have been a series of logistical breakdowns. That the extreme difficulties of the War of the Spanish Succession did not produce a military collapse can be attributed to the earlier structural and administrative reforms that had transformed the ramshackle forces of Louis's minority into, for all its defects, the most admired and feared army on the Continent.

Foreign Policy

The developing army and navy of France were there essentially to enhance the interests of the Bourbon dynasty internationally, and French foreign policy was very much the king's own, albeit based on advice from his inner ministers. Throughout his reign Louis XIV aimed at securing for himself the most senior status among European princes in an age when the concept of an equality of sovereign states did not exist, and when most rulers pushed claims that others found outrageous at one time or another. In the first part of the "personal rule," between 1661 and 1674, Louis pursued a foreign policy of single-minded vainglory in a determined effort to facilitate further dismemberment of the Spanish Habsburg empire and, after 1668, reduce the United Provinces of the Netherlands to humble submission. But the failure to conquer the United Provinces, the entry of Emperor Leopold I (ruled 1658–1705) into the Dutch War in August 1673, a difficult winter in the Rhineland, and the subsequent French retreat into the southern Netherlands seems to have been a sobering experience for Louis, who after 1673–1674 sought to consolidate and strengthen his hold in and around Alsace while rebuilding and constructing anew a chain of fortifications on his northern and northeastern frontiers to defend against invasion. Such apparently defensive concerns were, however, not satisfied by the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678, precipitating Louis over the following six years into highly aggressive seizures of strategically vital territory based on dubious legal title—the réunions—that antagonized German princes and drove them to seek support against France from the imperial Habsburg court in Vienna.

The growing influence of the Austrian Habsburgs within the Holy Roman Empire, both in Germany and northern Italy, in turn compelled Louis to engage from the early 1680s in heavy-handed political manipulation at smaller European courts to secure Bourbon influence and indirectly to protect the gains he had made and the status he now enjoyed as head of Europe's leading dynasty. Failing to entrench his territorial gains in the brief War of the Réunions (1683–1684), Louis, encouraged by Louvois, became increasingly anxious about growing Habsburg strength. In a desperate attempt to secure greater security for Alsace, in September 1688 Louis seized the key Rhine fortress of Philippsburg in the hope that this would force the empire to negotiate a definitive settlement of Rhineland territorial issues. Instead it precipitated the greatest conflict of the reign thus far. Having subsequently forced the Dutch Republic, Spain, and Great Britain also to declare war upon him between November 1688 and May 1689, Louis's insensitive attack on the interests of the duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II, a year later earned him another theater of operations he could ill afford. The pressure of the war by June 1693 forced Louis, under the influence of increasingly moderate and chastened advisors, to abandon his excessive demands and to consider returning most of the réunion territories to their owners; to negotiate with William III about his succession in Great Britain after the Glorious Revolution; and to make huge concessions to Savoy in order to neutralize Italy. Even so, over three more years of demanding and exhausting war were required, in the context of a catastrophic famine that pushed the French population down by perhaps 10 percent, before Savoy could be bought off in the Treaty of Turin (June 1696) and a general peace signed with France's other enemies at Ryswick (September and October 1697).

All this left France ill equipped to deal with the looming issue of the Spanish succession, as the ailing Charles II moved toward his death in November 1700. To try to avert war, Louis XIV and William III signed two successive partition treaties for the Spanish empire in October 1698 and March 1700, but Charles II himself wanted instead to maintain the unity of his territories, so the dying Spanish king willed them all to the one power that might be able to hold them together: France, in the person of Philippe, duke d'Anjou, second grandson of Louis XIV. A conflict with the Austrian Habsburgs was inevitable, but the decisions to seize fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands and exclude the British from the lucrative Spanish slave trade in the early spring of 1701 ensured that any war would once again include Britain and the United Provinces among the anti-French belligerents. France was pushed out of southern Germany and lost her Bavarian ally in 1704, and Philip V of Spain faced allied campaigning on the Iberian mainland from that year on. The Bourbons were expelled from northern Italy and Naples in 1706–1707 and from the southern Netherlands in 1708, while in 1709–1710 another somewhat less disastrous but still severe famine struck France. But the tide turned in 1710–1711 with Bourbon successes in Spain, and with changes of regime in Britain and Austria that affected the geostrategic considerations of the various powers. The War of the Spanish Succession consequently ended in 1713–1714 with France securing Spain itself and her overseas colonies for Philip V, while the Austrians received most of the rest of the Spanish European possessions, and Savoy was temporarily awarded Sicily.

Territorially, France emerged considerably larger and more secure from Louis XIV's reign, acquiring most notably Roussillon (1659), Franche-Comté (1674), and Alsace (1648 and 1678), as well as establishing serious colonies and trading posts in the Americas and western Africa. It is true that Louis XIV's foreign policies had brought hundreds of thousands of deaths, but this cannot be put down to a callous disregard for the fate of his own or foreign subjects. In fact, Louis was genuinely anxious to minimize casualties in warfare. But he was the most assertive and best-resourced individual in an international and cultural system that had an inbuilt tendency to resolve differences through arms, and in which its sovereign players could not afford to show too much understanding for the legitimate economic or dynastic interests of their rivals.

The Regulation of a Status-Based Society

A similar problem afflicted domestic state management during the mid- to late-seventeenth century. The rivalries of families and the personal ambitions of individuals, articulated in social and legal terms at all levels of the propertied hierarchy, militated against an easy resolution of disputes. Colbert's determined campaign in the 1660s to emphasize that all privileges and rights stemmed from the will of the king (and could be just as easily revoked) certainly helped to encourage a sense of strong royal authority in the legal sphere. This was aided by the 1665 Grands Jours investigations into lawless nobles and bandits in the Auvergne in tandem with the Parlement of Paris, and it was carried forward after 1679 by repeated edicts against dueling and in favor of litigation before royal officials to settle disputes. But Louis XIV had come to realize full well by 1661 that the instability of France was rooted primarily in her political culture. The Fronde was not the last gasp of a feudal noble class but a struggle for political and military precedence within the upper noble elites who, in the context of a breakdown in state finances during a royal minority, had no other choice but to assert their own status claims—backed up, if necessary, by military force.

Removing the exposed figure of a chief minister after 1661 was but a partial solution to the difficulties. Louis remained well aware that his ministers had their own private interests to further, and this was as much the case with court appointments, or military commands, as it was with architectural projects, so the active balancing of ministers and great nobility required considerable effort that this king was prepared to make. Far more likely to entrench political quiescence in the long run was a remodeling of the system of patronage and clientage and a concerted effort to break the automatic link between service and expectation of reward. Even if he still relied on other people's recommendations, by 1672 Louis insisted that virtually all military, naval, and ecclesiastical commissions come from his own person. Furthermore, by maintaining multiple channels of access to his person at court for different groups, families, and individuals, he ensured that no one faction or person (including ministers) could dominate his decisions over patronage. On top of this, he expanded the amount of largesse, both monetary and honorific, disbursed by the crown, while widening the pool of potential recipients. All this contributed to a serious dilution of the patronage power of individual grandees. With the partial exception of his own brother Orléans, for the most part the dukes, peers, and senior military officers now became patronage brokers for the crown rather than direct providers of opportunities for the lesser nobility. Always concerned for the future of the monarchy, Louis allied this policy of supervising patronage distribution with closely managing the upbringing of his offspring and descendants to an extreme extent in controlling their households. And if he made extensive military use of illegitimate princes (of his own body and those of his ancestors), he was loath to trust the erstwhile Frondeur branches of the Bourbon, the Condé and Conti, whose interests he encouraged only so far as was commensurate with the interests of the wider Bourbon dynasty. The aim in all this was to prevent another Fronde from ever happening again. Only at the very end of the reign, in 1714, when he had lost his son, two of his three grandsons (the dukes of Burgundy and Berry), and one of his great-grandsons to smallpox, did Louis XIV depart from the established dynastic rules when he wrote the bastard lines of the House of France into the succession. Although there was some sense in trying to avoid future succession wars by laying down an order of precedence in the event of the disappearance of all the legitimate Bourbon branches, this was bitterly resented by the great nobility and was overturned by the regent Philippe II, duc d'Orléans, in 1717.

High Culture and the Arts

The royal urge to preserve and impose order in the political field was also manifested in the arena of high culture. The growing presence of royal patronage in the arts and sciences after 1661 is better attributed to Colbert than the king himself, with the most notable advances being the foundation of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belle-Lettres in 1663 and the reform of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture the same year, followed by the foundation of the Academy of Sciences in 1666, and three years later that of the Royal Academy of Music. Moreover, between 1667 and 1672 Colbert oversaw the building of the Paris Observatory. Yet, if Colbert was the driving instrument who encouraged intellectuals and artists to view the crown as the foremost patron, it was Louis who set the tone and the taste and was the leading collector of objets d'art of his age. The king also took a very close interest in architectural projects, in particular the transformation of Versailles after 1669 from a relatively small hunting retreat to the largest palace complex in Europe by the mid-1680s. By and large Louis favored the classical over the baroque, in sculpture, architecture, and garden design, and in spite of the growing vogue for portraits of all manner of people, the king himself set great store by religious art.

Religion and Public Morality

Louis XIV's preference for religious art was hardly surprising, for he was a devout Catholic, in spite of his several mistresses (most notably Louise de La Vallière [1644–1710] and Françoise, marquise de Montespan [1641–1707]) and the numerous bastards he fathered before 1680. Louis was sincere about protecting his subjects' souls and throughout his reign encouraged charitable giving. In 1693–1694, at the height of the famine, Pontchartrain, the controller general of finance, was ordered to organize grain imports from abroad and facilitate food transport within the country on a scale never previously attempted by France. But Louis was not just a charitable Christian prince. He was also instinctively hostile to anything that smacked of the heterodox, in particular Jansenism, which, under strong Jesuit influence, he equated with rebellion. By the early 1680s the king's increasingly devout attitude to personal morality and worship, encouraged by his second wife, Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon (1635–1719), whom he married in 1683, had become allied to his fear of religious disorder as manifested by Jansenism and the Huguenots. This combination of attitudes flowed together with a desire to live up to his title of "Eldest Son of the Church" at a time when Emperor Leopold I was pushing the Turks back in the Balkans and when relations between France and the papacy were in tatters over the régale dispute (when Louis extended the royal right to gather the revenues of vacant episcopal sees to areas of the kingdom that had previously been immune). Despite attempts by Colbert and Louvois to restrain persecution of Protestants by some intendants, Louis became increasingly convinced that forced conversions were effectual, an approach that culminated in the Edict of Fontainebleau in September 1685, which revoked all rights for Huguenots. Even when it became clear to ministers and generals by 1689 that this revocation had created a potentially dangerous fifth column inside France (which erupted in the vicious revolt of the Camisards in 1702–1705), the king's religious conscience would not allow him to restore Huguenot rights. Thus far, Louis XIV's religious policies were coherently Catholic and Gallican, zealous in defense of the temporal independence of the French church from Rome. But the repair of relations with the papacy in the 1690s, plus the resurfacing of the Jansenist controversy after 1703, pushed him into accepting ultramontane, pro-papal positions held by the Sorbonne. Eventually he solicited and accepted the 1713 papal bull Unigenitus, which condemned Jansenism but simultaneously mounted a full-scale attack on Gallican liberties, a move that did immense long-term damage to the Bourbon monarchy's image as the defender of France and French interests.

If order could be consciously pursued through state policies, Louis XIV was nevertheless also the beneficiary of changing attitudes to social and political life in the mid-seventeenth century, and in particular a growing distaste for personal violence. The need to display honnête behavior was not merely restricted to domestic social situations, but applied equally to public social behavior. The need for restraint, politeness, and self-discipline in deportment as well as language was emerging as the cornerstone of an ethical order to which one simply had to subscribe if one wished to remain a sociable being. What is more, the disorderly and chaotic Fronde, erupting just as such ideals were entering French cultural life, had the effect of reinforcing enthusiasm for obedience and decorum in both the social and the political fields. Louis XIV personally encouraged stronger discipline and self-control at court, in his armies and fleets, and in the church, so that such nostrums percolated through noble society and contributed to growing domestic stability in this period.

Conclusion

Throughout his reign, Louis XIV had placed the Bourbon dynasty, the Catholic faith, and the royal court at the center of his existence, and he had been highly mindful of the interests and outlooks of his propertied subjects. Nevertheless, compromise and cooperation had its limits, and it would be a misleading oversimplification to see this as a monarchy engaged in the revivification of feudalism in conjunction with a landed noble "class." In the first instance, the French nobility was in no sense a coherent class, andsociety as a whole was pervaded bymyriadcorporate andfamilial loyalties andinterests. Moreover, for all the king's skill in trying to harmonize his own interests with those of his propertied subjects, Louis's reign was marked with a highly authoritarian stamp that pressed the imposition of firmer discipline in the armed forces, the curtailment of judicial independence and privileges, and a demand for religious conformity and subordination that aroused hostility across Europe. On his death, on 1 September 1715, Louis XIV left a kingdom in an unprecedented state of domestic tranquillity that was to last throughout the regency for his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis XV; this can in large part be attributed to firm royal control of the military, more sophisticated poor relief strategies, and a general ethos of political obedience. But the destabilization of the credit markets wrought by the previous thirty years of unprecedented military mobilization, the unresolved issue of tax privileges, the example of baroque kingship that Louis XIV brought to its apogee as a model for rule, and the legacy of Jansenism were to bedevil his successors' governments for the rest of the eighteenth century.

Bibliography

Black, Jeremy. From Louis XIV to Napoleon: The Fate of a Great Power. London, 1999. Chapter 2 gives a clear and accurate survey of French foreign policy in this period.

Bluche, François. Louis XIV. Oxford, 1990. Translated by Mark Greengrass. A highly conservative biographical interpretation by a French scholar.

Sturdy, David J. Louis XIV. New York, 1998. A clear, thematic survey of the reign and of the problems faced by the king.

Wolf, John B. Louis XIV. New York, 1968. The best biography in any language.

—GUY ROWLANDS

A king of France in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Louis was known as the Sun King for his power and splendor. By inviting French nobles to live in luxury at his palace at Versailles, he removed them as threats and greatly increased his own power. He is known for saying, “L'état, c'est moi” (“I am the state”).

Quotes:

"There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself."

"Laws are the sovereigns of sovereigns."

"Every time I appoint someone to a vacant position, I make a hundred unhappy and one ungrateful."

"I am the state."

"Has God forgotten all I have done for Him."

"Whatever side I take, I know well that I will be blamed."

See more famous quotes by Louis XIV

"Louis XIV" and "Louis Quatorze" redirect here. For other uses, see Louis XIV (disambiguation) and Louis Quatorze (disambiguation).

"Sun King" and "Le Roi Soleil" redirect here. For the Beatles song, see Sun King (song). For the French musical, see Le Roi Soleil (musical).

Louis XIV Louis XIV (1638–1715), by Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701) King of France and Navarre Reign 14 May 1643 – 1 September 1715 Coronation 7 June 1654 Predecessor Louis XIII Successor Louis XV Spouse Maria Theresa of Spain Françoise d'Aubigné Issue Louis, le Grand Dauphin Princess Anne Élisabeth Princess Marie Anne Princess Marie Thérèse Philippe Charles, Duke of Anjou Louis François, Duke of Anjou Full name Louis-Dieudonné de France House House of Bourbon Father Louis XIII of France Mother Anne of Austria Born 5 September 1638(1638-09-05) Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France Died 1 September 1715 (aged 76) Château de Versailles, Versailles, France Burial Saint Denis Basilica, Saint-Denis, France Signature

Louis XIV (5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715), known as the Sun King (French: le Roi Soleil), was King of France and of Navarre.^[1] His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.^[2]

Louis began personally governing France in 1661 after the death of his prime minister (premier ministre), the Italian Cardinal Mazarin.^[3] An adherent of the theory of the divine right of kings, which advocates the divine origin and lack of temporal restraint of monarchical rule, Louis continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralised state governed from the capital. He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism persisting in parts of France and, by compelling the noble elite to inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles, succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many members of which had participated in the Fronde rebellion during Louis' minority.

For much of Louis's reign, France stood as the leading European power, engaging in three major wars—the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession—and two minor conflicts—the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions. He encouraged and benefited from the work of prominent political, military and cultural figures such as Mazarin, Colbert, Turenne and Vauban, as well as Molière, Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, Lully, Le Brun, Rigaud, Le Vau, Mansart, Perrault and Le Nôtre.

Upon his death at just days before his seventy-seventh birthday, Louis was succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis de France. All his intermediate heirs—his son Louis, le Grand Dauphin, the Dauphin's eldest son Louis, duc de Bourgogne, and Bourgogne's eldest son Louis, duc de Bretagne—predeceased Louis.

Contents 1 Birth and ancestry 2 Minority and the Fronde 3 Personal reign and reforms 4 Patronage of the arts 5 Early wars in the Low Countries 6 Non-European relations and the colonies 7 Height of power 8 Personal life 9 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 10 The League of Augsburg 10.1 Causes and conduct of the war 10.2 Treaty of Ryswick 11 War of the Spanish Succession 11.1 Causes and build-up to the war 11.2 Acceptance of the will and consequences 11.3 Commencement of fighting 11.4 Turning point 11.5 Road to and conclusion of peace 12 Death 13 Legacy 14 Style and arms 15 Order of Saint Louis 16 Ancestors 17 Issue 18 In fiction 19 Notes 20 Further reading 21 External links

Birth and ancestry

Louis XIV was born on 5 September, 1638 in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. As heir apparent, he bore the traditional title of Dauphin.^[4] His birth followed almost twenty-three years of his estranged parents' childlessness. Contemporaries regarded him as a divine gift, and his birth, a miracle; hence, he was named "Louis-Dieudonné" (Louis-God-given).^[5]

Louis descended from noteworthy European ruling houses. Tracing Louis's ancestry to the tenth generation, genealogist C. Carretier calculated his ancestry to be approximately 28% French, 26% Spanish, 11% Austro-German and 10% Portuguese, the rest being Italian, Slavic, English, Savoyard and Lorrainer.^[6]

His paternal grandparents were Henri IV of France and Marie de' Medici, French and Italian respectively; while both his maternal grandparents were Habsburgs, Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria. Therefore, Louis's ancestors included various historical figures, such as the Holy Roman Emperors Charles V and Frederick. A great grandson of Phillip II of Spain, and thus a descendant of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, Louis was also descended from the founder of Russia's first dynasty, Rurik the Viking, and Giovanni de' Medici, last of the great Condottieri, as well as Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and the poet Charles d'Orléans. Most importantly, he traced his paternal lineage, and hence his and his descendants' right to the throne, in the direct legitimate male line to Saint Louis, and through him, to Hugh Capet.

September 1640 saw the birth of Louis' only sibling, Philippe de France. However, doubtful of Anne's abilities as regent, Louis XIII decreed that a regency council should rule on Louis's behalf in the event of a minority, but nonetheless did name her the head of the council.

Minority and the Fronde

On 14 May 1643, upon Louis XIII's death and his young son’s accession, Anne had his will annulled by the Parlement de Paris (a judicial body comprising mostly nobles and high clergymen), abolished the regency council and became sole regent. She then entrusted power to Cardinal Mazarin.

Europe after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648

Mazarin subsequently negotiated the Peace of Westphalia successfully in 1648. It comprised the Treaties of Münster and Osnabrück and ended the Thirty Years' War, begun by Louis XIII. This Peace ensured Dutch independence from Spain, awarded some autonomy to the various German princes, and granted Sweden seats on the Reichstag and territories to control the mouths of the Oder, Elbe and Weser. However, the terms of the Peace profited France the most. Austria ceded to France all Habsburg lands and claims in Alsace and acknowledged de facto sovereignty over the Three Bishoprics. Moreover, eager to reduce Habsburg domination, petty German states sought French protection, anticipating the formation of the League of the Rhine in 1658 and leading to the further diminution of Imperial power. Nonetheless, as no peace was signed with Spain, a Franco-Spanish war would continue till 1659 with the Treaty of the Pyrenees.

As the Thirty Years' War petered out, a civil war—the Fronde—erupted. It effectively checked France's ability to exploit the Peace of Westphalia. Cardinal Mazarin had largely pursued the policies of his predecessor, Cardinal Richelieu, augmenting the Crown's power at the expense of the nobility and the Parlements. The Frondeurs, political heirs of the turbulent feudal aristocracy, originally sought to protect the traditional feudal privileges of those institutions from an increasingly centralized and centralizing royal government. Furthermore, they believed their traditional authority was being usurped by the recently ennobled (the Noblesse de Robe) who administered the Kingdom and on whom the Monarchy increasingly began to rely. This belief intensified their resentment.

In 1648, Mazarin attempted to tax members of the Parlement de Paris. The Members not only refused to comply, but also ordered all his earlier financial edicts burned. Buoyed by the victory of Louis, duc d’Enghien (later le Grand Condé) at Lens, Mazarin arrested certain Members in a show of force. Ironically, Paris erupted in rioting. A mob of angry Parisians broke into the royal palace and demanded to see their king. Led into the royal bedchamber, they gazed upon Louis, who was feigning sleep, were appeased and quietly departed. The threat to the royal family and Monarchy prompted Anne to flee Paris with the King and his courtiers. Shortly thereafter, the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia allowed Condé’s army to return to aid Louis and his court.

Portrait of Louis, the Victor of the Fronde, portrayed as Jupiter. This painting, from 1655, is currently on display at the Palace of Versailles.

The first Fronde (Fronde parlementaire, 1648-1649) was followed by the second Fronde (Fronde des princes, 1650-1653). Tales of sordid intrigue and half-hearted warfare characterised this second phase of upper-class insurrection, unlike that which preceded it. Aristocrats headed this rebellion which represented to them a protest against and a reversal of their political demotion from vassals to courtiers.

This Fronde was led by France's highest-ranking nobles, from Louis's uncle Gaston, duc d'Orléans, and first cousin, la Grande Mademoiselle; to more distantly-related princes of the Blood such as Condé, his brother Conti, and their sister the Duchess of Longueville; to dukes of legitimised royal descent, like Henri d'Orléans, and the Duke of Beaufort; and to princelings descended from foreign dynasties (known as princes étrangers), such as Monsieur de Bouillon, and his brother, the famous Marshal of France, Turenne, as well as Marie de Rohan, duchesse de Chevreuse; and scions of France's oldest families, like François de La Rochefoucauld.

With Louis’s coming of age and subsequent coronation, the Frondeurs, who could hitherto claim to act on his behalf and in his real interests against his mother and prime minister, lost their pretext for revolt. The Fronde thus gradually lost steam until it ended in 1653, when Mazarin returned triumphant after having fled into exile on several occasions.

Personal reign and reforms

Louis XIV, King of France, in 1661.

On Mazarin’s death in 1661, Louis XIV assumed personal control of the reins of government. Praising his ability to wisely choose and encourage men of talent, Chateaubriand noted that “it is the voice of genius of all kinds which sounds from the tomb of Louis”.^[7] He was able to utilise the widespread public yearning for peace, law and order, resulting from prolonged foreign war and domestic civil strife, to further consolidate central political authority at the feudal aristocracy's expense.

Concurrently, Louis commenced his personal reign with administrative and fiscal reforms. The treasury verged on bankruptcy on his coming to power. To rectify the situation, Louis chose Jean-Baptiste Colbert as Contrôleur général des Finances in 1665. In doing so, Louis had first to eliminate on charges of embezzlement Nicolas Fouquet, the Surintendant des Finances, commuting the sentence of banishment, passed by the Parlement, to life-imprisonment, and abolishing Fouquet's office. To be sure, Fouquet committed no financial indiscretions greatly dissimilar from Mazarin before him and Colbert after him. However, the opulence of his chateau at Vaux-le-Vicomte, where he lavishly entertained the King and which served as inspiration for Versailles, his perceived ambition to succeed Mazarin and Richelieu and assume power, and his indiscreet purchase and private fortification of Belle Île sealed his doom.

Divested of Fouquet, Colbert reduced the national debt through more efficient taxation. The principal taxes included the aides and douanes (both customs duties), the gabelle (a tax on salt), and the taille (a tax on land). Louis and Colbert also had wide-ranging plans to bolster French commerce and trade. Colbert's mercantilist administration established new industries and encouraged manufacturers and inventors, such as the Lyon silk manufacturers and the Manufacture des Gobelins, a producer of tapestries. He also invited manufacturers and artisans from all over Europe, like Murano glassmakers, Swedish ironworkers, and Dutch shipbuilders. In this way, he aimed to decrease foreign imports while increasing French exports, hence reducing the net outflow of precious metals from France.

Louis and his family portrayed as Roman gods in a 1670 painting by Jean Nocret. L to R: Henrietta Maria of France, Philippe d'Anjou ("Monsieur"), the Duke's daughter Marie Louise d'Orléans, and the duke's wife Henriette Anne; Louis XIV's mother Anne of Austria, three daughters of Gaston d'Orleans; Louis XIV; his son Louis; Queen Maria Theresa of Spain, and la Grande Mademoiselle.

Louis also instituted reforms in military administration through Le Tellier and, his son, Louvois. They helped to curb the independent spirit of and impose order on the nobility at court and in the army. Gone were the days when generals protracted war at the frontiers, while bickering over precedence and ignoring orders from the capital and the larger politico-diplomatic picture. No longer too were senior positions and rank the sole prerogative of the old military aristocracy (the noblesse d'épée). Louvois, in particular, pledged himself to modernizing the army, re-organizing it into a professional, disciplined and well-trained force. He was devoted to providing for the soldiers' material well-being and morale, and even tried to direct campaigns.

The law also did not escape Louis’s attention, as is reflected in the numerous Grandes Ordonnances he enacted. Pre-revolutionary France was a patchwork of legal systems, with as many coutumes as there were provinces, and two co-existing legal traditions—customary law in the northern pays de droit coutumier and Roman civil law in the southern pays de droit écrit.^[8] The Grande Ordonnance de Procédure Civile of 1667, also known as Code Louis, was a comprehensive legal code attempting a uniform regulation of civil procedure throughout legally irregular France. It prescribed inter alia baptismal, marriage and death records in the State’s registers, not the Church’s, and also strictly regulated the right to remonstrance of the Parlements.^[9] The Code Louis played an important part in French legal history as the basis for the Code Napoléon, itself the origin of many modern legal codes.

One of Louis's more infamous decrees was the Grande Ordonnance sur les Colonies of 1685, also known as Code Noir. Although it sanctioned slavery, it did humanise the practice by prohibiting the separation of families. However, in the colonies, only Roman Catholics could own slaves, and these had to be baptised.

Patronage of the arts

Painting from 1667 depicting Louis as patron of the fine arts.

The Sun King generously financed the royal court, and supported those who worked under him. He brought the Académie Française under his patronage, and became its "Protector". He allowed Classical French literature to flourish by protecting such writers as Molière, Racine and La Fontaine, whose works greatly influence to this day. Louis also patronised the visual arts by funding and commissioning various artists, such as Charles Le Brun, Pierre Mignard, Antoine Coysevox and Hyacinthe Rigaud whose works became famous throughout Europe. In music, composers and musicians, like Lully, Chambonnières and François Couperin, thrived and influenced many others.

The Cour royale and the Cour de marbre at Versailles

Louis converted a hunting lodge built by Louis XIII into the spectacular royal Palace of Versailles through four major building campaigns. Excepting the current chapel build in the last decade of the reign, the third building campaign had already given Versailles its present appearance. Louis officially moved the royal court there on 6 May 1682. Versailles was a dazzling, awe-inspiring setting for state affairs and the reception of foreign dignitaries; the King alone assumed the attention, which was not shared with the capital and people. Several reasons have been suggested from the creation of the extravagant and stately palace, as well as the relocation of the monarchy’s seat. One such is that of contemporary writer, Saint-Simon, who speculated that Louis viewed Versailles as an isolated power center where treasonous cabals could be more readily discovered and foiled.^[10] Alternatively, the Fronde caused Louis to allegedly hate Paris, which was abandoned for a country retreat; however, his many improvements, embellishments and developments of Paris, such as the establishment of a police and street-lighting^[11], lend little credence to this theory.

In Paris, Louis constructed the "Hôtel des Invalides"—a military complex and home to this day for officers and soldiers rendered infirm either by injury or age. While pharmacology was still quite rudimentary, les Invalides pioneered new treatments and set new standards for hospice treatment. The conclusion of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1669 induced Louis to demolish the northern walls of Paris in 1670 and replace them with wide tree-lined boulevards.^[12]

The Louvre and many other royal residences were also renovated and improved. Originally, Louis hired Bernini to plan additions to the Louvre. However, these plans would have meant the destruction of much of the existing structure, replacing it with an Italian summer villa in the centre of Paris. Bernini’s plans were eventually shelved in favour of Perrault’s elegant colonnade. With the relocation of the court to Versailles, the Louvre was given over to the Arts and the public.^[13]

In June 1686, on the advice of his secret wife, Madame de Maintenon, Louis signed letters patent creating the “Institut de Saint-Louis” at Saint-Cyr for “filles pauvres de la noblesse” (poor noble girls) between the ages of seven and twenty.^[14] Construction had begun two years previously. "Saint-Cyr" was at the time the only educational institution for girls in France that was not a convent. Admission of the 250 students was dependent on evidence documenting at least four generations of nobility on their father's side.^[14] Mme de Maintenon took great pleasure in this school and was finally to die there.^[14]

Royal styles of King Louis XIV Par la grâce de Dieu, Roi de France et de Navarre
Reference style	His Most Christian Majesty
Spoken style	Your Most Christian Majesty
Alternative style	Monsieur Le Roi

Early wars in the Low Countries

Main articles: War of Devolution and Franco-Dutch War

The death of Philip IV of Spain in 1665 precipitated the War of Devolution. In 1660, Louis had married Philip IV’s eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, as part of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. The marriage treaty specified that Maria Theresa was to renounce all claims to Spanish territory for herself and all her descendants. However, Mazarin and Lionne had incorporated a word (“moyennant”) making the renunciation conditional on the full payment of a Spanish dowry of 500,000 écus.^[15] This was never paid and would later play a part persuading Charles II of Spain to leave his empire to Anjou (later Philip V of Spain)—the grandson of Louis and Maria Theresa.

Notwithstanding the non-payment of the dowry, the War of Devolution had the “devolution” of lands as pretext. In Brabant, children of the first marriage traditionally were not disadvantaged by their parents’ remarriages, and still inherited property. Louis’s 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. Thus, Brabant allegedly “devolved” on Maria Theresa. This excuse led to the War of Devolution.

Internal problems of the Dutch Republic aided Louis's designs on the Spanish Netherlands. The most prominent politician in the United Provinces at the time, Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary, feared the ambition of the young William III, Prince of Orange. He feared the dispossession of supreme power and the restoration of the House of Orange to the influence it had enjoyed before the death of William II, Prince of Orange. However, shocked by the rapidity of French successes and fearful of the future, the Dutch turned on their French allies and ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War with England. Joined by Sweden, they formed a Triple Alliance in 1668. The threat of escalation and a secret treaty partitioning the Spanish succession with the Emperor, the other major claimant, induced Louis to make peace.

Louis XIV in 1673

The Triple Alliance did not last very long. In 1670, Charles II of England, bribed by France, signed the secret Treaty of Dover, allying with France. The two kingdoms, along with certain Rhineland princes, declared war on the United Provinces in 1672, sparking off the Franco-Dutch War. The rapid invasion and occupation of most of the Netherlands precipitated a coup, toppling De Witt and placing William III in power. While Spain, the Emperor and the rest of the Empire joined William III, the English withdrew from the war by the Treaty of Westminster in 1674.

Despite diplomatic reverses, the French continued to triumph against overwhelming opposing forces. A few weeks in 1674 saw the fall of the Spanish territory of Franche-Comté to French armies under Louis. Greatly outnumbered, Condé defeated William III’s coalition army, comprising Austrians, Spaniards and Dutchmen, at the Battle of Seneffe, forestalling a descent on Paris. In the 1674–1675 winter, the outnumbered Turenne, conducting a daring and brilliant campaign, beat the Imperial armies under Raimondo Montecuccoli, expelling them from Alsace across the Rhine, and recovering the province. Through a series of feints, marches and counter-marches at the close of the war, Louis besieged and captured Ghent, a critical action dissuading the English Parliament from declaring war on France. It also allowed Louis to impose peace on the allies in a very superior position. After six years, war exhausted Europe, and negotiations commenced, accomplished in 1678 with the Treaty of Nijmegen. While Louis returned all captured Dutch territory, he gained more territory in the Spanish Netherlands and retained Franche-Comté.

Silver coin of Louis XIV, dated 1674
Obverse. The Latin inscription is LVDOVICVS XIIII D[EI] GRA[TIA] ("Louis XIV, by the grace of God").	Reverse. The Latin inscription is FRAN[CIÆ] ET NAVARRÆ REX 1674 ("King of France and of Navarre, 1674").

Nijmegen further increased French influence in Europe, but did not satisfy Louis. He dismissed his foreign minister Simon Arnauld, marquis de Pomponne in 1679, viewed as timorous and as having compromised too much with the allies. Louis also maintained his army but, instead of pursuing his claims through purely military action, he utilised judicial processes to extend his territory further. The ambiguous nature of contemporary treaties allowed Louis to claim the dependencies and lands of territory ceded to him in previous treaties, but which effectively were distinct.

Louis sought cities and territories such as Luxembourg and Casale, for their strategic position on the frontier, and access to the Po river valley in the heart of northern Italy respectively. He also desired Strasbourg, an important strategic outpost through which various Imperial armies had previously crossed the Rhine into France. Strasbourg was a part of Alsace, but had not been ceded with the rest of Habsburg-ruled Alsace in the Peace of Westphalia. Louis seized these and other territories in the period leading up to and during the War of the Reunions. Infuriated by Louis’s capture of parts of the Spanish Netherlands, Spain declared war. However, abandoned by their Austrians allies and minimally supported by the Dutch, the Spanish were quickly reduced, and, by the Truce of Ratisbon in 1684, ceded most of the conquered territories to France for a duration of 20 years.^[16]

Non-European relations and the colonies

French colonies multiplied in the Americas, Asia and Africa. Descending down the Mississippi, discovered in 1673 by Jolliet and Marquette, Cavelier de La Salle claimed the vast Mississippi basin in 1682 and named it "Louisiane", after Louis.

The Persian embassy to Louis XIV in 1715.

Meanwhile, diplomatic relations were initiated with distant countries. In 1669, Suleiman Aga led an Ottoman embassy, reviving the old Franco-Ottoman alliance.^[17] Moreover, in 1682, the Sultan of Morocco, Moulay Ismail, allowed consular and commercial establishments,^[18] and Moroccan ambassador Abdallah bin Aisha was sent to the court of Louis XIV in 1699. In 1715, Louis received a Persian embassy.

Siamese embassy of King Narai to Louis XIV in 1686, led by Kosa Pan. Painting by Nicolas Larmessin.

Siam also dispatched an embassy in 1684, reciprocated by the French magnificently the next year under Chevalier de Chaumont. This, in turn, was succeeded by another Siamese embassy under Kosa Pan superbly received at Versailles in 1686. Another embassy was reciprocated in 1687 under Simon de la Loubère and French influence grew at the Siamese court, which granted France Mergui as a naval base. However, Narai’s death and the execution of his pro-French minister Phaulkon ended this era of French influence in 1688 with the Siege of Bangkok.^[19]

France also actively participated to the Jesuit China missions, as Louis XIV sent in 1685 a mission of five Jesuits "mathematicians" to China in an attempt to break the Portuguese predominance: Jean de Fontaney (1643-1710), Joachim Bouvet(1656-1730), Jean-François Gerbillon (1654-1707), Louis Le Comte (1655-1728) and Claude de Visdelou (1656-1737).^[20] While French Jesuits were found at the court of the Manchu Kangxi Emperor in China, Louis received the visit of a Chinese Jesuit, Michael Shen Fu-Tsung, by 1684.^[21] Furthermore, several years later, he had at his court a Chinese librarian and translator— Arcadio Huang.^[22][23]

Height of power

By the early 1680s, therefore, Louis had greatly augmented French influence in the world. Domestically, he successfully increased the Crown’s influence and authority over the Church and aristocracy.

Louis initially supported traditional Gallicanism, which limited papal authority in France, and convened an Assemblée du Clergé in November 1681. 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. Without royal approval, neither bishops could leave France nor appeals be made to the Pope. Moreover, government officials could not be excommunicated for acts committed in pursuance of their duties; and while the King could make ecclesiastical law, all papal regulations without royal assent were invalid in France. The Pope unsurprisingly repudiated the Declaration.^[3]

By attaching them to his court, Louis also achieved increased control over the French aristocracy. Pensions and privileges necessary to live in a style appropriate to their rank were only possible by waiting constantly on Louis.^[10] Moreover, by entertaining, impressing and domesticating them with extravagant luxury and other distractions, Louis expected them to remain under his scrutiny. This prevented them from passing time on their own estates and in their regional power-bases, from which they historically waged local wars and plotted resistance to royal authority. Louis thus compelled and seduced the old military aristocracy (the noblesse d'épée) into becoming his ceremonial courtiers, further weakening their power. Louis’s actions could find their rationale in the Fronde, which had resulted in his judging that royal power depended on commoners and relatively-newer bureaucratic aristocrats (the nobles de robe), who could be simply dismissed, filling the high executive offices, rather than a grandee of ancient lineage whose entrenched influence was more difficult to destroy.

The Doge of Genoa at Versailles on the 15 May 1685
Reparation faite à Louis XIV par le Doge de Gênes.15 mai 1685 by Claude Guy Halle, Versailles

In fact, Louis’s final victory over the nobility ensured the end of major French civil wars until the Revolution about a hundred years later. Indeed, John A. Lynn calculated that a significant reduction in years with civil war occurred after Louis.^[24]

While the 1680s would see France becoming more isolated from its former allies^[25], by 1685, Louis’s power did stand at its apogee. His policy of Reunions had brought France to its greatest extent during his reign. Furthermore, bombardment of the Barbary pirate strongholds of Algiers and Tripoli resulted in favourable treaties and the liberation of Christian slaves. Also, Genoese support of Spain in previous wars led Louis to command in 1684 the naval bombardment of Genoa. This produced Genoese submission and an official apology by the Doge at Versailles.

English pamphlet criticizing Louis XIV and Mehmed IV for their respective roles in the Siege of Vienna in 1683 ("Without the help of the Most Christian/ Against the Most Antichristian/ Monarch").

Moreover, Louis informed the Turks of his neutrality in an Austro-Turkish war and even massed troops during the Reunions on the western frontier of the Holy Roman Empire.^[26] Reassured, the Turks allowed the 20-year Austro-Turkish Peace of Vasvár to lapse and moved on the offensive.^[27] Thus began the Great Turkish War in 1683 which would last till 1699 and which greatly distracted the Emperor from French endeavours. The Ottoman Grand Vizier nearly captured Vienna before being defeated by the King of Poland and his Polish-Imperial army. Notwithstanding the end of immediate danger to Vienna, however, Leopold I was still neither in a position to reverse Louis’s gains by the Truce of Ratisbon nor able to fully concentrate on the War of the League of Augsburg later.

Personal life

Maria Theresa died in 1683. On his queen’s demise, Louis remarked that she had caused him unease on no other occasion. That she went to communion daily suggests that marital duties were performed frequently^{[citation needed]}. She gave birth to six children. Only one survived to adulthood, the eldest known as le Grand Dauphin or “Monseigneur”.

However, Louis had not remained faithful for long after their marriage in 1660. He took as mistresses Mademoiselle de La Vallière; Madame de Montespan; and Angélique de Fontanges.

Consequently, he produced many illegitimate children, most of whom were married to members of cadet branches of the royal family.

Nonetheless, Louis proved more faithful to his second wife, Madame de Maintenon, whom he secretly married probably on 10 October 1683 at Versailles.^[14] Although never announced or discussed publicly, this marriage was an open secret and would last until his death.^[28]

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

Louis XIV in 1685, the year he revoked the Edict of Nantes.

The suggestion that Madame de Maintenon caused the persecution of Protestants and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which had awarded Huguenots political and religious freedom, is now being questioned.^[29] Louis himself saw the persistence of Protestantism as a disgraceful reminder of royal powerlessness; after all, the Edict was Henri IV’s pragmatic concession to end the longstanding Wars of Religion. Moreover, since the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, the prevailing contemporary European principle to assure socio-political stability was "cuius regio, eius religio"— the religion of the ruler should be the religion of the realm.^[30]

Responding to petitions, Louis initially excluded Protestants from office, constrained the meeting of synods, closed churches outside Edict-stipulated areas, banned Protestant outdoor preachers, and prohibited domestic Protestant migration. He also disallowed Protestant-Catholic intermarriages if objections existed, encouraged missions to the Protestants and rewarded converts to Catholicism.^[31] Despite this discrimination, Protestants did not rebel, instead there occurred a steady conversion of Protestants, especially the noble elites.

However, in 1681, things changed. "cuius regio, eius religio" generally had also meant that subjects who refused to convert could emigrate. Louis banned emigration and effectively insisted all Protestants must be converted. Secondly, following René de Marillac and Louvois’s proposal, he began quartering dragoons in Protestant homes. While legal, the dragonnades inflicted on Protestants severe financial strain and atrocious abuse. Between 300 000 and 400 000 Huguenots converted as it entailed financial rewards and exemption from the dragonnades.^[32]

On 15 October 1685, citing the extensive conversion of Protestants which rendered privileges for the remainder redundant, Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes with that of Fontainebleau.^[3] Louis may have been seeking to placate the Catholic Church that chafed under his numerous restrictions, or he may have acted to regain international prestige after the defeat of the Turks without French aid, or even to end the last remaining division in French society dating to the Wars of Religion.^[33] Perhaps, he may have just been motivated by his coronation oath to eradicate heresy.^[34]

In any case, the Edict of Fontainebleau exiled pastors, demolished churches, instituted forced baptisms and banned Protestant groups. Defying royal decree, about 200 000 Huguenots (roughly 27% of the Protestant population, or 1% of the French population) fled France, taking with them their skills. Thus, some have found the Edict very injurious to France.^[35] However, others believe this an exaggeration; while many left, most of France's preeminent Protestant businessmen and industrialists converted and remained.^[36] The reaction to the Revocation was mixed. French Catholic leaders applauded, but Protestants across Europe were horrified, and even Pope Innocent XI, still arguing with Louis over Gallicanism, criticised the violence.

The League of Augsburg

Main article: War of the Grand Alliance

Causes and conduct of the war

Louis in 1690.

The War of the League of Augsburg (1688–1697) had two immediate causes with French influence in the Rhineland at stake. First, the death of Charles II, Elector Palatine in 1685 caused a succession crisis, in which Louis’s sister-in-law Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate had interests.^[37] The death of Max Henry, Archbishop of Cologne produced another succession crisis in 1688.^[38]

Moreover, growing concern about France led to the formation of the 1686 League of Augsburg by the Emperor, Spain, Sweden, Saxony and Bavaria; it intended to return France at least to its Treaty of Nijmegen borders.^[39] Conversely, the Emperor’s refusal to change Ratisbon into a permanent treaty amplified Louis’s fear that the Emperor’s Balkan victories entailed an imminent attack on the Reunions.^[40]

Lastly, the birth of James II's son and Catholic heir, James Stuart, precipitated the "Glorious Revolution". Protestant William III of Orange sailed for England with troops despite Louis’s warning that France would regard it as a casus belli. James II was deposed, and his throne appropriated by his daughter and son-in-law, Mary II and William III (now also of England). Vehemently anti-French, William III pushed his new kingdoms into war, thus transforming the League of Augsburg into the Grand Alliance. In 1688, however, this was yet unsettled. Expecting the expedition to absorb William III and his allies, Louis dispatched troops to the Rhineland to compel confirmation of Ratisbon and acceptance of his demands about the succession crises, as his ultimatum to the German princes indicated. He also sought to protect his eastern provinces from Imperial invasion by depriving the enemy army of sustenance, thus explaining the pre-emptive devastation of much of southwestern Germany (the “Devastation of the Palatinate”).^[41]

Louis XIV at the Siege of Namur (1692).

French armies were generally victorious throughout the War because of Imperial Balkan commitments, French logistical superiority which enabled a much earlier campaign start, and the quality of French generals like Condé’s famous pupil, François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Luxembourg. His triumphs at Fleurus, Steenkerque and Neerwinden preserved northern France from invasion and dubbed him "le tapissier de Notre-Dame" for the numerous captured enemy standards he sent to decorate the Cathedral.^[42]

Marshal de Luxembourg

Although the attempt to restore James II failed at the Battle of the Boyne, which led to the fall of Jacobite Ireland, France accumulated a string of victories from Flanders in the north, Germany in the east, Italy and Spain in the south, to the high seas and the colonies. Louis personally supervised the capture of Mons and the reputedly impregnable fortress of Namur; and Luxembourg’s capture of Charleroi gave France the defensive line of the Sambre. France also overran most of the Duchy of Savoy after Marsaglia and Staffarde. While naval stalemate ensued after the French victory at Beachy Head and the Allied victory at Barfleur-La Hougue, the Battle of Torroella exposed Catalonia to French invasion culminating in the capture of Barcelona. Although the Dutch captured Pondicherry, a French raid on the Spanish treasure port of Cartagena (in present-day Colombia) yielded a fortune of 10 000 000 livres.^[42]

In 1690, Sweden first offered to mediate. By 1692, both sides evidently wanted peace, and secret bilateral talks had already begun.^[43] By the Treaty of Turin in 1696, which finally hastened the end of the War, Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy separately concluded peace and switched sides. Thereafter, negotiations for a general peace began in earnest, culminating in the Treaty of Ryswick.^[44]

Treaty of Ryswick

The Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 ended the War of the League of Augsburg, and the Grand Alliance. By manipulating their rivalries and suspicions, Louis divided his enemies and broke their power.

Although Louis returned Catalonia and most of the Reunions, he secured permanent French sovereignty over all of Alsace, including Strasbourg, thus guaranteeing the Rhine as the Franco-German border to this day. Louis’s generosity to Spain despite French military superiority, which could have resulted in more advantageous terms, has been read as a concession to foster pro-French sentiment; it may ultimately have induced Charles II to name Louis's grandson, Philippe, duc d'Anjou, as heir.^[45]

Besides the return of Pondicherry and Acadia, Louis’s de facto possession of Saint-Domingue was recognised. Compensated financially, he renounced interests in the Electorate of Cologne and the Palatinate, and returned Lorraine to its duke, albeit under restrictive terms allowing unhindered French passage. The Treaty allowed the Dutch to garrison forts in the Spanish Netherlands as a protective "Barrier" against possible French aggression, and recognised William III and Mary II as joint sovereigns of the British Isles. Consequently, Louis withdrew support for James II.

The Treaty may not be as great a diplomatic defeat as it appears. Louis fulfilled many of his 1688 ultimatum aims.^[46] In any case, to him peace in 1697 was victory.^[47]

War of the Spanish Succession

Main article: War of the Spanish Succession

Europe on the eve of the War of the Spanish Succession (1700)

Causes and build-up to the war

The Spanish succession finally came to the fore after the Treaty of Ryswick. Charles II ruled a vast, much-prized empire, comprising Spain, Naples, Sicily, Milan, the Spanish Netherlands and numerous colonies. But he had no direct heirs.

The main claimants were French and Austrian, and closely linked to Charles II. The French claim was derived from Anne of Austria (Philip III of Spain’s eldest daughter) and Marie-Thérèse (Philip IV’s eldest daughter). Based on the laws of primogeniture, France had the better claim as it originated from eldest daughters in each generation. However, the princesses’ renunciations to the throne complicated matters; nevertheless, Marie-Thérèse’s renunciation was considered null and void owing to Spain’s breach of the marriage agreement.

Philip V, King of Spain

In contrast, no renunciation tainted Charles, Archduke of Austria’s claims. He descended from Maria Anna (Philip III’s youngest daughter).

The English and Dutch feared that a French or Austrian-born Spanish king would threaten the balance of power and thus preferred the Bavarian Joseph Ferdinand, Leopold I’s grandson, through his first wife Margaret Theresa of Spain (Philip IV’s younger daughter). But, to appease the parties and avoid war, the First Partition Treaty divided the Italian territories between le Grand Dauphin and the Archduke, awarding the rest of the empire to Joseph Ferdinand. Presumably, the Dauphin’s new territories would become part of France when he succeeded Louis.^[48] Passionately against his empire’s dismemberment, Charles II reiterated his 1693 will, naming Joseph Ferdinand his sole successor.^[49]

Sixth months later, the Bavarian died. Louis and William III again concluded a Partition Treaty, allocating Spain, the Low Countries and colonies to the Archduke, and Spanish lands in Italy to the Dauphin.^[50] Acknowledging that his empire could only remain undivided by bequeathing it entirely to a Frenchman or an Austrian, and pressured by his German wife, Maria Anna of Neuburg, Charles II named the Archduke Charles as sole heir.

Acceptance of the will and consequences

Louis in 1701.

On his deathbed in 1700, Charles II unexpectedly changed his will. Past French military superiority, the pro-French faction and even Pope Innocent XII convinced him that France was more likely to preserve his empire intact. He thus offered the Dauphin’s second son, Philippe de France, the entire empire, provided it remained undivided. Anjou was not in the direct line of French succession; thus his accession would not cause a Franco-Spanish union.^[50] If Anjou refused, the throne would be offered to his younger brother, Charles de France, after which, to the Archduke Charles, and lastly, to the distantly-related House of Savoy.^[51]

Louis was confronted with a difficult choice. He could agree to the partition and hopefully avoid a general war, or accept Charles II’s will and alienate others. Initially, Louis may have inclined towards abiding by the partition treaties. However, the Dauphin’s insistence persuaded Louis otherwise.^[52] Moreover, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, marquis de Torcy pointed out that war with the Emperor would almost certainly ensue even if Louis only accepted part of the Spanish inheritance. He emphasised William III’s unlikelihood to assist France in war because he “made a treaty to avoid war and did not intend to go to war to implement the treaty”.^[49] Eventually, Louis decided to accept Charles II’s will. Philippe, duc d'Anjou became Philip V, King of Spain.

Most European rulers accepted Philip V as King of Spain, though some only reluctantly. Depending on one’s views of the War as inevitable or not, Louis acted reasonably or arrogantly.^[53] He confirmed that Philip V retained his French rights despite his new Spanish position. Admittedly, he may only have been hypothesising a theoretical eventuality and not attempting a Franco-Spanish union. However, Louis also sent troops to the Spanish Netherlands, evicting the Dutch garrisons from the "Barrier" and securing Dutch recognition of Philip V. In 1701, he transferred the asiento to France, alienating English traders. He also acknowledged James Stuart, James II’s son, as king on the latter’s death, infuriating William III. These actions enraged Britain and the United Provinces.^[54] Consequently, with the Emperor and the petty German states, they formed another Grand Alliance, declaring war on France in 1702. French diplomacy, however, retained Bavaria, Portugal and Savoy as Franco-Spanish allies.^[55]

Commencement of fighting

Beginning with Imperial aggression in Italy even before war was officially declared, the War of the Spanish Succession almost lasted till Louis’s death, proving costly for him. Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy checked French initial success and broke the myth of French invincibility.

Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy’s victory at Blenheim caused Bavaria’s occupation by the Palatinate and Austria, compelling Maximilian II Emanuel to flee to the Spanish Netherlands. Portugal and Savoy defected to the Allies after Blenheim. Later, Ramillies and Oudenarde precipitated the capture of the Low Countries and an invasion of France, and the Battle of Turin forced Louis to evacuate Italy, leaving it open to Allied armies.

Defeats, famine and mounting debt greatly weakened France. By the winter of 1708-1709, Louis became willing to accept peace at nearly any cost. He agreed to surrender the entire Spanish empire to the Archduke, and even to return all that he gained over sixty years in his reign and revert to the frontiers of the Peace of Westphalia. However, he stopped short of accepting the Allies’ inflexible requirement that he attack his own grandson to force the humiliating terms on the latter. Thus, the war continued.^[56]

Turning point

The Allies could not overthrow Philip V in Spain as clearly as France could not retain the entire Spanish inheritance. The Franco-Spanish victories at Almansa, Villaviciosa and Brihuega definitively drove Allied forces from central Spain. Moreover, the Allied pyrrhic victory of Malplaquet revealed the French difficult to defeat. At 21 000 casualties, the Allies suffered double that of the French^[57], who eventually fully recovered their military pride at the decisive victory of Denain.

Map of France after the death of Louis XIV

In 1705, Leopold I died. His elder son and successor, Joseph I, followed him in 1711. The Archduke Charles subsequently inherited his brother’s Austrian lands. If the Spanish empire then fell to him, it would have resurrected a domain as vast as that of Charles V. To the Maritime Powers, this was as undesirable as the feared Franco-Spanish union.^[58]

Road to and conclusion of peace

Accordingly, Anglo-French talks began, culminating in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 between France, Spain, Britain, and the Dutch. In 1714, after losing Landau and Freiburg, the Emperor and Empire also made peace with France in the Treaty of Rastatt and that of Baden.

By the general settlement, Philip V retained Spain and the colonies, Austria received the Low Countries and divided Spanish Italy with Savoy, and Britain kept Gibraltar and Minorca. Louis agreed to withdraw his support for James Stuart, and ceded Newfoundland, Rupert's Land and Acadia in the Americas to Britain. Admittedly, Britain gained the most from the Treaty, but the final terms were very much more favourable to France than those of 1709 and 1710. France retained Île-Saint-Jean and Île Royale, and notwithstanding Allied intransigence, was returned most of the captured Continental lands, preserving its antebellum frontiers. Louis even acquired additional territory, such as the Principality of Orange, and the Ubaye Valley, which covered transalpine passes into Italy. Moreover, Louis secured the rehabilitation to pre-war status and lands of his allies, the Electors of Bavaria and of Cologne.^[59]

Death

Drugstore of Louis XIV, with details. Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris.

After a reign of 72 years, Louis died of gangrene at Versailles on 1 September, 1715, four days before his 77th birthday.

Reciting the psalm Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina (O Lord, make haste to help me), Louis "yielded up his soul without any effort, like a candle going out".^[60] His body lies in Royal Basilica of Saint Denis outside Paris.

The Dauphin had predeceased Louis in 1711, leaving three children — Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Philip V, and Berry. The eldest, Bourgogne, followed in 1712, and was himself soon followed by his elder son, Louis, Duke of Brittany. Thus, on Louis XIV’s deathbed, his heir was his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis, Duke of Anjou, Burgundy's youngest son, and Dauphin after his grandfather’s, father’s and elder brother’s deaths in short succession.

Louis XIV (seated) with his son le Grand Dauphin (to the right), his grandson Louis, Duke of Burgundy (to the left), his great-grandson Louis, Duke of Brittany, and Madame de Ventadour, Brittany's governess, who commissioned this painting; busts of Henri IV and Louis XIII in the background.

Louis foresaw a minority and sought to restrict the power of his nephew, Philippe d'Orléans, who as closest surviving legitimate relative in France would become the prospective Louis XV’s regent. Accordingly, he created a regency council as Louis XIII did in anticipation of his own minority with some power vested in his illegitimate son, Louis Auguste de Bourbon.^[61]

Orléans, however, would have Louis’s will annulled in the Parlement de Paris after his death and make himself sole Regent. He stripped Maine and his brother, Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, of the rank of "prince of the Blood", which Louis had given them, and significantly reduced Maine’s power and privileges.^[62]

Legacy

According to Philippe de Dangeau’s Journal, on his deathbed, Louis allegedly said to the future Louis XV:

"Do not follow the bad example which I have set you; I have often undertaken war too lightly and have sustained it for vanity. Do not imitate me, but be a peaceful prince, and may you apply yourself principally to the alleviation of the burdens of your subjects".^[63]

However, following the fashion of Baroque piety, Louis may have judged himself too harshly.^[63] He successfully placed a French prince on the Spanish throne, effectively ending the old Habsburg threat from across the Pyrenees; despite political instability, the Bourbons have survived and reign in Spain to this day. His foreign, military and domestic expenditure bankrupted the State and may have contributed to the Revolution, though this is questionable given that his successors had a hundred years between his death and the Revolution to initiate preventative reforms.^[64] Moreover, it was the State, not the country, which was impoverished in Louis’s time. One need only look to Lettres Persanes by the socio-political thinker-commentator Montesquieu to observe the wealth and opulence in France at the end of Louis’s reign.^[65]

Growth of France under Louis XIV (1643–1715)

The two massive famines struck France between 1693 and 1710, killing over two million people.^[66]

Whatever the case, however, Louis strengthened the Crown’s authority over the traditional feudal elites, marking the beginning of the modern State. He fought against several great European alliances, and often triumphed, presenting France ten new provinces, an overseas empire and the pre-eminent position in Europe. These political and military victories along with numerous cultural achievements earned France the admiration of Europe for its power, success, sophistication, products, values, and way of life. Louis’s reign eventually served as an example to Enlightenment Europe, and French became the lingua franca for the entire European elite, even to Romanov Russia. Indeed, as Montesquieu wrote, “[Louis] established the greatness of France by building Versailles and Marly”.^[67]

Saint-Simon, who claimed 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".

However, the anti-Bourbon Napoleon honoured Louis as “the only King of France worthy of the name” and “a great king”.^[68] Even the German Protestant philosopher Leibniz commended him as “one of the greatest kings that ever was”^[69], and Lord Acton went so far as to describe Louis as “by far the ablest man who was born in modern times on the steps of a throne.”^[70] Finally, comparing Louis to Augustus, Voltaire, the apostle of the Enlightenment, dubbed his reign “an eternally memorable age” and "le Grand Siècle" (the "Great Century").

Style and arms

Louis’s formal style was "Louis XIV, par la grâce de Dieu, roi de France et de Navarre", or "Louis XIV, by the Grace of God, King of France and of Navarre". His coat of arms were Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) impaling Gules on a chain in cross saltire and orle Or an emerald Proper (for Navarre).

Order of Saint Louis

On 5 April 1693, Louis also founded the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis (French: Ordre Royal et Militaire de Saint-Louis), a military Order of Chivalry.^[71][72] He named it after Louis IX and intended it as a reward for outstanding officers. It is notable as the first decoration that could be granted to non-nobles and is roughly the forerunner of the Légion d'honneur, with which it shares the red ribbon (though the Légion d'honneur is awarded to military personnel and civilians alike).

Ancestors

Ancestors of Louis XIV of France

32. François, Count of Vendôme

16. Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme

33. Marie de Luxembourg

8. Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, King of Navarre

34. René of Alençon

17. Françoise d'Alençon, Duchess of Vendôme

35. Marguerite of Lorraine

4. Henri IV, King of France and of Navarre

36. John III of Navarre

18. Henri II d'Albret, King of Navarre

37. Catherine I of Navarre

9. Jeanne III d'Albret, Queen of Navarre

38. Charles, Count of Angoulême

19. Marguerite d'Angoulême, Queen of Navarre

39. Louise of Savoy

2. Louis XIII, King of France and of Navarre

40. Giovanni dalle Bande Nere

20. Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

41. Maria Salviati

10. Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

42. Pedro Álvarez de Toledo

21. Eleonora di Toledo, Grand Duchess of Tuscany

43. Maria Osorio Pimentel

5. Marie de' Medici, Queen of France and of Navarre

44. Philip I of Castile

22. Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria, King of Bohemia and of Hungary, Holy Roman Emperor

45. Joanna I of Castile

11. Johanna of Austria, Archduchess of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany

46. Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary

23. Anna Jagellonica of Bohemia and Hungary, Queen of Bohemia and of Hungary, Holy Roman Empress

47. Anne de Foix

1. Louis XIV, King of France and of Navarre

48. Philip I of Castile

24. Charles V, King of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor

49. Joanna I of Castile

12. Philip II/I, King of Spain and of Portugal

50. Manuel I of Portugal

25. Isabel of Portugal, Queen of Spain, Holy Roman Empress

51. Maria of Aragon

6. Philip III/II, King of Spain and of Portugal

52. Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria, King of Bohemia and of Hungary, Holy Roman Emperor

26. Maximilian II, King of Bohemia and of Hungary, Holy Roman Emperor

53. Anna Jagellonica of Bohemia and Hungary, Queen of Bohemia and of Hungary, Holy Roman Empress

13. Anna of Austria, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Spain and of Portugal

54. Charles V, King of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor

27. Maria of Spain, Infanta of Spain, Queen of Bohemia and of Hungary, Holy Roman Empress

55. Isabel of Portugal, Queen of Spain, Holy Roman Empress

3. Anne of Austria, Infanta of Spain and of Portugal, Queen of France and of Navarre

56. Philip I of Castile

28. Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria, King of Bohemia and of Hungary, Holy Roman Emperor

57. Joanna I of Castile

14. Charles II, Archduke of Austria, Archduke of Inner Austria

58. Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary

29. Anna Jagellonica of Bohemia and Hungary, Queen of Bohemia and of Hungary, Holy Roman Empress

59. Anne de Foix

7. Margarita of Austria, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Spain and of Portugal

60. William IV, Duke of Bavaria

30. Albert V, Duke of Bavaria

61. Marie of Baden-Sponheim

15. Maria Anna of Bavaria, Archduchess of Inner Austria

62. Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor

31. Anna of Austria, Duchess of Bavaria

63. Anna Jagellonica of Bohemia and Hungary, Queen of Bohemia and of Hungary, Holy Roman Empress

Issue

Legitimate Children of Louis XIV of France

Main article: Descendants of Louis XIV of France

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
By Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche, Infanta of Spain, Queen of France and of Navarre (20 September 1638 – 30 July 1683)
Louis de France, le Grand Dauphin	1 November 1661	14 April 1711	Fils de France. Dauphin of France (1661-1711). Had issue. Father of Louis, duc de Bourgogne (later Dauphin of France), Philippe, duc d'Anjou (later King of Spain) and Charles, duc de Berry. Grandfather of Louis, duc d'Anjou (later Dauphin, and then King of France)
Anne Élisabeth de France	18 November 1662	30 December, 1662	Fille de France. Died in infancy.
Marie Anne de France	16 November 1664	26 December 1664 (?)	Fille de France. Died in infancy or became Louise Marie-Therese (The Black Nun of Moret).
Marie Thérèse de France	2 January 1667	1 March, 1672	Fille de France. Known as Madame Royale and la Petite Madame
Philippe Charles de France, duc d'Anjou	5 August 1668	10 July, 1671	Fils de France.
Louis François de France, duc d'Anjou	14 June 1672	4 November, 1672	Fils de France. Died in infancy.

Illegitimate Children of Louis XIV of France

Main article: List of descendants of Louis XIV of France

Note: This is an incomplete list of Louis XIV’s illegitimate children. He reputedly had more, but the difficulty in fully documenting all such births restricts the list only to the better-known and legitimised.

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
By NN, a gardener
daughter	1660	unknown	She married N de la Queue, a sentry. [4]
By Louise-Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc, duchesse de La Vallière et de Vaujours (6 August 1644 – 6 June 1710)
Charles	19 December 1663	15 July, 1665	Not legitimised.
Philippe	7 January 1665	1666	Not legitimised.
Marie-Anne de Bourbon, Mlle de Blois, duchesse de La Vallière, princesse de Conti	2 October 1666	3 May, 1739	Legitimised on 14 May 1667. Married Louis-Armand I de Bourbon-Conti, prince de Conti.
Louis de Bourbon, comte de Vermandois	3 October 1667	18 November, 1683	Legitimised on 20 February 1669. Held the office of Admiral of France.
By Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, marquise de Montespan (5 October 1641 – 27 May 1707)
Louise Françoise de Bourbon	at the end of March, 1669	23 February 1672
Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine	31 March 1670	14 May, 1736	Legitimised on 20 December 1673. Held numerous offices, of which: Colonel-Général des Suisses et des Grisons, Governor of Languedoc, Général des Galères, and Grand-Maître de l'Artillerie. Was also duc d'Aumale, comte d'Eu and prince de Dombes. Had issue. Founder of the House of Bourbon-du Maine.
Louis-César de Bourbon, comte de Vexin, abbé de Saint-Denis et de Saint-Germain-des-Prés	20 June 1672	10 January 1683	Legitimised on 20 December 1673.
Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, Mlle de Nantes, duchesse de Bourbon, princesse de Condé	1 June 1673	16 June, 1743	Legitimised on 20 December 1673. Married Louis III de Bourbon-Condé, duc d'Enghien, (later duc de Bourbon, and then prince de Condé). Had issue.
Louise-Marie-Anne de Bourbon, Mlle de Tours	12 November 1674	15 September, 1681	Legitimised in January 1676.
Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, Mlle de Blois, duchesse d'Orléans	9 February 1677	1 February, 1749	Legitimised in November 1681. Married Philippe II d'Orléans, duc de Chartres, (later duc d'Orléans), the Regent of France under Louis XV. Had issue.
Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse	6 June 1678	1 December, 1737	Legitimised on 22 November 1681. Held numerous offices, of which: Admiral of France, Governor of Guyenne, Governor of Brittany, and Grand-Veneur de France. Was also duc de Damville, de Rambouillet et de Penthièvre. Had issue. Founder of the House of Bourbon-Toulouse.
by Claude de Vin, Mademoiselle des Oeillets (c. 1637 - 18 May 1687)
Louise de Maisonblanche	1676	12 September 1718	In 1696 she married Bernard de Prez, Baron de La Queue. [5]
by Marie Angelique de Scorailles, Duchess de Fontanges (1661 - 28 June 1681)
son	1681	1681

In fiction

Alexandre Dumas portrayed Louis in novels, first as a child in Twenty Years After, then as a young man in The Vicomte de Bragelonne, in which he is a central character. French academic Jean-Yves Tadié argued that the latter novel really revolves around the beginning of Louis’s personal rule.^[73] Dumas’s novel The Man in the Iron Mask recounts the legend that the mysterious prisoner was actually Louis’s twin brother and has spawned numerous film adaptations.

In 1910, the American historical novelist Charles Major wrote "The Little King: A Story of the Childhood of King Louis XIV". Louis is a major character in the 1959 historical novel "Angélique et le Roy" ("Angélique and the King"), part of the Angelique Series. The protagonist, a strong-willed lady at Versailles, rejects the King's advances and refuses to become his mistress. A later book, the 1961 "Angélique se révolte" ("Angélique in Revolt") details the dire consequences of her defying this powerful monarch.

A character based on Louis plays an important role in The Age of Unreason, a series of four alternate history novels written by American science fiction and fantasy author Gregory Keyes.

While The Taking of Power by Louis XIV, directed by Roberto Rossellini in 1966, shows Louis’s rise to power after the death of Cardinal Mazarin, Le Roi Danse (The King Dances), directed by Gérard Corbiau in 2000, reveals Louis through the eyes of Jean-Baptiste Lully, his court musician. Julian Sands portrayed Louis in Roland Jaffe's Vatel in 2000.

Louis features significantly in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, specifically The Confusion, the greater part of which takes place at Versailles.

Notes

1. ^ See List of Navarrese monarchs and their family tree.
2. ^ "Louis XIV". MSN Encarta. 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-11-01. http://www.webcitation.org/query?id=1257052204396412. Retrieved 2008-01-20. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Louis XIV". Catholic Encyclopedia. 2007. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09371a.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-19. 
4. ^ François Bluche (translated by Mark Greengrass (1990). Louis XIV. New York: Franklin Watts. p. 11. 
5. ^ (French)Bremond, Henri La Provence mystique au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1908. pp. 381, 382.
6. ^ (French) Carretier, Christian (1980). Les Cinq Cent Douze Quartiers de Louis XIV. Angers-Paris. )
7. ^ Dunlop, Ian. “Louis XIV”, p. xii, Pimlico London 2001.
8. ^ Merryman, John Henry. "The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Europe and Latin America", 2007 Stanford University Press.
9. ^ Antoine, Michel. “Louis XV”, p. 33, Hachette Litteratures, Paris (1997).
10. ^ ^{a b} Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon. "Historical Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon, volume 1 1691-1709: The Court of Louis XIV". http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/17stsimon.html. 
11. ^ Dunlop, Ian. “Louis XIV”, p. 242-251, Pimlico London 2001.
12. ^ Dunlop, Ian. “Louis XIV”, p. 247, Pimlico London 2001.
13. ^ Bluche, François. “Louis XIV”, p. 497, Hachette Litteratures, Paris (1986).
14. ^ ^{a b c d} Buckley, Veronica. Madame de Maintenon: The Secret Wife of Louis XIV. London: Bloomsbury, 2008
15. ^ Dunlop, Ian. “Louis XIV”, p. 54, Pimlico London 2001.
16. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York. p.161-171.
17. ^ Faroqhi, p.73 The Ottoman Empire and the World Around it
18. ^ Bluche, François. “Louis XIV”, p. 439, Hachette Litteratures, Paris (1986).
19. ^ Keay, John. “The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company”, p. 201-204, Harper Collins Publishers, London (1993).
20. ^ Eastern Magnificence and European Ingenuity: Clocks of Late Imperial China - Page 182 by Catherine Pagani (2001) [1]
21. ^ The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art Page 98 by Michael Sullivan (1989) ISBN 0520212363 [2]
22. ^ Barnes, Linda L. (2005) Needles, Herbs, Gods, and Ghosts: China, Healing, and the West to 1848 Harvard University Press ISBN 0674018729, p.85
23. ^ Mungello, David E. (2005) The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500-1800 Rowman & Littlefield ISBN 074253815X, p.125
24. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York. p.364. The number of years dropped from a high of around 50 years out of 101 between 1560 and 1660 (50%), to six years out of 55 during Louis' personal reign from 1661 to 1715 (11%), to no civil wars till the Revolution in 1789.
25. ^ Meriman, John (1996). A History of Modern Europe. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 319. 
26. ^ The Siege of Vienna by John Stoye, p.53
27. ^ The Balkans since 1453 by Leften Stavros Stavrianos, p.171
28. ^ "Morganatic and Secret Marriages in the French Royal Family". http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/morganat.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-10. : The description of the marriage as morganatic is inaccurate as French law does not define such marriages.
29. ^ For example, see Buckley, Veronica. Madame de Maintenon: The Secret Wife of Louis XIV. London: Bloomsbury, 2008
30. ^ Sturdy, David J. “Louis XIV”, St Martin’s Press , New York (1998), p. 89-99.
31. ^ Sturdy, David J. “Louis XIV”, St Martin’s Press , New York (1998), p. 92-93.
32. ^ Sturdy, David J. “Louis XIV”, St Martin’s Press , New York (1998), p. 96, citing Pillorget, “France Baroque, France Classique”, i, 935.
33. ^ Sturdy, David J. “Louis XIV”, St Martin’s Press , New York (1998), p. 96-97.
34. ^ Bluche, François. “Louis XIV”, p. 20-21, Hachette Litteratures, Paris (1986).
35. ^ Columbia Encyclopedia (2007). "Louis XIV, king of France". http://www.bartleby.com/65/lo/Louis14Fr.html. Retrieved 2008-01-19. 
36. ^ Sturdy, David J. “Louis XIV”, St Martin’s Press , New York (1998), p. 98, citing Scoville, W.C., “The Persection of Huguenots and French Economic Development, 1680-1720”, Berkeley, 1960.
37. ^ Durant, Will and Ariel. “The Story of Civilisation (Volume 8): The Age of Louis XIV”, Simon & Schuster, New York (1963), p. 691.
38. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York, p.192.
39. ^ Dunlop, Ian. “Louis XIV”, p. 313, Pimlico London 2001.
40. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York, p.189-191.
41. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York, p.192-193.
42. ^ ^{a b} Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York.
43. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York, p. 232.
44. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York, p. 253.
45. ^ Bluche, François. “Louis XIV”, p. 653, Hachette Litteratures, Paris (1986).
46. ^ Lossky, Andrew. “Louis XIV and the French Monarchy”, New Brunswick, NJ (1994), p. 255
47. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York, p. 256.
48. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York. p.267.
49. ^ ^{a b} Dunlop, Ian. “Louis XIV”, p. 353, Pimlico London 2001.
50. ^ ^{a b} Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York. p.268.
51. ^ Kamen, Henry. (2001) Philip V of Spain: The King who Reigned Twice, Yale University Press, p. 6. ISBN 0300087187.
52. ^ Dunlop, Ian. “Louis XIV”, p. 358, Pimlico London 2001.
53. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York. p.269, see footnote 1.
54. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York. p.269-270.
55. ^ Merriman, John (1996). A History of Modern Europe. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 321. 
56. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York, p. 326.
57. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York, p. 334.
58. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York, p. 342.
59. ^ Lynn, John A. (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV (1667-1714). Longman New York, p. 356-360.
60. ^ Dunlop, Ian. “Louis XIV”, p. 468, Pimlico London 2001.
61. ^ Dunlop, Ian. “Louis XIV”, p. 454-455, Pimlico London 2001.
62. ^ Antoine, Michel. “Louis XV”, p. 33-37, Hachette Litteratures, Paris (1997).
63. ^ ^{a b} Bluche, François. “Louis XIV”, p. 890, Hachette Litteratures, Paris (1986).
64. ^ Bluche, François. “Louis XIV”, p. 506 & 877-878,Hachette Litteratures, Paris (1986).
65. ^ Bluche, François. “Louis XIV”, p. 876, Hachette Litteratures, Paris (1986).
66. ^ Ó Gráda, Cormac; Chevet, Jean-Michel (2002). "Famine And Market In Ancient Régime France". The Journal of Economic History 62: 706–733. doi:10.1017/S0022050702001055.  [3]
67. ^ Dunlop, Ian. “Louis XIV”, p. 433, Pimlico London 2001.
68. ^ Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon’s Notes on English History made on the Eve of the French Revolution, illustrated from Contemporary Historians and referenced from the findings of Later Research by Henry Foljambe Hall. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1905, 258.
69. ^ Bluche, François. “Louis XIV”, p. 926, Hachette Litteratures, Paris (1986).
70. ^ Durant, Will and Ariel. “The Story of Civilisation (Volume 8): The Age of Louis XIV”, Simon & Schuster, New York (1963), p. 721.
71. ^ Hamilton, Walter. "Dated Book-plates (Ex Libris) with a Treatise on Their Origin", P37. Published 1895. A.C. Black
72. ^ Edmunds, Martha. "Piety and Politics", P274. 2002. University of Delaware Press. ISBN 0874136938
73. ^ J-Y Tadié's annotations to The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Gallimard, 1997

Further reading

• Acton, J. E. E., 1st Baron. (1906). Lectures on Modern History. London: Macmillan and Co.
• Beik, William. "The Absolutism of Louis XIV as Social Collaboration: Review Article", Past and Present, no. 188 (August 2005), pp. 195–224.
• Bluche, François, Louis XIV, Paris: Hachette Littératures, 1986. (English translation by Mark Greengrass; published in 1990 by Franklin Watts.)
• Buckley, Veronica. Madame de Maintenon: The Secret Wife of Louis XIV. London: Bloomsbury, 2008
• Burke, Peter En kung blir till (Swedish translation of The fabrication of a king, 1992)
• Cambridge Modern History vol 5 The Age of Louis XIV (1908)]
• Carretier, Christian, "Les cinq cent douze quartiers de Louis XIV", Angers-Paris, 1980
• Chaline, Olivier, Le règne de Louis XIV (Paris: Flammarion, 2005)
• Church, William F. (ed.). The Greatness of Louis XIV. London: D.C. Heath and Company, 1972.
• Cronin, Vincent. Louis XIV. London: HarperCollins, 1996 (ISBN 0002720728)
• Dunlop, Ian. Louis XIV. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000 (hardcover, ISBN 0312261969)
• Erlanger, Philippe, Louis XIV, Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris 1965, reprinted by Librairie Académique Perrin, Paris, 1978, (French).
• Erlanger, Philippe, Louis XIV, translated from the French by Stephen Cox, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1970, (English).
• Fraser, Antonia. Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-297-82997-1); New York: Nan A. Talese, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0385509847)
• Goyau, G. (1910). "Louis XIV". The Catholic Encyclopedia. (Volume IX). New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Holt, Mack P., "Louis XIV." The New Book of Knowledge. Scholastic Library Publishing, 2005.
• Jordan, David. The King's Trial: Louis XVI vs. the French Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004 (paperback, ISBN 0520236971)
• Lynn, John A., "The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667-1714", New York: Longman, 1999
• Rubin, David Lee, ed. Sun King: The Ascendancy of French Culture during the Reign of Louis XIV. Washington: Folger Books and Cranbury: Associated University Presses, 1992.
• Steingrad, E. (2004). "Louis XIV."
• Thompson, Ian. The Sun King's Garden: Louis XIV, André Le Nôtre And the Creation of the Gardens of Versailles. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 1582346313).
• Wolf, J. B. (1968). Louis XIV. New York: Norton.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Louis XIV of France

• Chronology Louis XIV
• Full text of marriage contract (PDF), France National Archives transcription (French)
• "Le siècle de Louis XIV" by Voltaire, 1751
• List of films dedicated to Louis XIV and period ("Louis XIV - the Sun King: Louis XIV - the Sun King". Louis-xiv.de. http://www.louis-xiv.de/index.php?t=films&a=films. Retrieved August 31, 2008. ) Of particular interest: Documentary on Versailles—The Visit.

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Louis XIV of France House of Bourbon Cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty Born: 5 September 1638 Died: 1 September 1715
Regnal titles
Preceded by Louis XIII	King of France and Navarre 14 May 1643 – 1 September, 1715	Succeeded by Louis XV
French royalty
Preceded by Louis XIII	Dauphin of France 5 September 1638 – 14 May, 1643	Succeeded by Louis "le Grand Dauphin"
Preceded by Gaston, Duke of Orléans	Heir to the Throne as Heir apparent 5 September 1638 — 14 May 1643	Succeeded by Philippe I, Duke of Orléans

v • d • e Dauphins of France and their Dauphine The generations indicate descent form Henry IV of France, founder of the Royal Bourbon line in France. 1st Generation none 2nd Generation Louis, 18th Dauphin* (1601-1610) 3rd Generation Louis, 19th Dauphin* (1638-1643) 4th Generation Louis, 20th Dauphin (1661-1711) - Duchess Maria Anna of Bavaria  · 5th Generation Louis, 21st Dauphin (1711-1712) - Princess Maria Adelaide of Savoy 6th Generation Louis, 22nd Dauphin (1712)  · Louis, 23rd Dauphin* (1712-1715) 7th Generation Louis-Ferdinand, 24th Dauphin (1729–1765) - Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain - Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony 8th Generation Louis Auguste, 25th Dauphin* (1765-1770) - Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria 9th Generation Louis Joseph, 26th Dauphin (1781-1789)  · Louis Charles, 27th Dauphin* (1789-1791)  · Louis Antoine, 28th Dauphin - Princess Marie Thérèse Charlotte of France *later succeeded as King of France and Navarre

v • d • e Princes of France The first generation are the children of Henri IV; these males held the rank of Son of France or Grand son of France; 1st Generation Louis XIII  · Nicolas Henri, Duke of Orléans*  · Gaston, Duke of Orléans* 2nd Generation Louis XIV  · Philippe, Duke of Orléans  · Jean Gaston, Duke of Valois* 3rd Generation Louis, Dauphin of France  · Philippe Charles, Duke of Anjou*  · Louis François, Duke of Anjou*  · Philippe Charles, Duke of Valois*  · Alexandre Louis, Duke of Valois*  · Philippe, Duke of Orléans 4th Generation Louis, Duke of Burgundy  · King Felipe of Spain  · Charles, Duke of Berry* 5th Generation Louis, Duke of Brittany*  · Louis, Duke of Brittany*  · Louis XV 6th Generation Louis, Dauphin of France  · Philippe, Duke of Anjou* 7th Generation Louis, Duke of Burgundy*  · Xavier, Duke of Aquitaine*  · Louis XVII*  · Louis XVIII*  · Charles X 8th Generation Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France*  · Louis XVII*  · Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême*  · Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry *died without surviving issue

v • d • e House of Bourbon   Henry IV of France Spouse(s) HH Marguerite de Valois  · Lady Marie de' Medici Children Louis XIII  · Elisabeth, Queen of Spain  · Christine Marie, Duchess of Savoy  · Nicolas Henri, Duke of Orléans  · Gaston, Duke of Orléans  · Henriette Marie, Queen of England, Ireland and Scotland Siblings Henri, Duke of Beaumont (1551–1553)  · Louis, Count of Marle (1555–1557)  · Madeleine (1556)  · Catherine, Duchess of Lorraine Illegitimate Children César, Duke of Vendôme  · Catherine Henriette, Duchess of Elbeuf  · Alexandre, Chevalier de Vendôme  · Henri, Duke of Verneuil  · Gabrielle Angelique, Duchess of La Valette and Epernon  · Antoine, Count of Moret · Jeanne Baptiste, Abess of Fontevraud  · Marie Henriette, Abess of Chelles Grandchildren Anne Marie Louise, Duchess of Montpensier  · Marguerite Louise, Grand Duchess of Tuscany  · Élisabeth Marguerite, Duchess of Alençon and Angoulême  · Françoise Madeleine, Duchess of Savoy  · Princess Marie Anne  · Gaston, Duke of Valois  · Louis XIV of France  · Philippe, Duke of Orléans   Louis XIII of France Spouse(s) HRH Infanta Ana Maria Mauricia of Spain*** Children Louis XIV of France  · Philippe I, Duke of Orléans Grandchildren Louis, Dauphin of France  · Princess Anne Élisabeth  · Princess Marie Anne  · Princess Marie Therèse, Madame Royale  · Philippe Charles, Duke of Anjou · Louis François, Duke of Anjou  · Marie Louise, Queen of Spain  · Philippe Charles, Duke of Valois  · Anne Marie, Queen of Sardinia  · Alexandre Louis, Duke of Valois  · Philippe Charles, Duke of Orléans  · Élisabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Lorraine Great grandchildren Louis, Duke of Burgundy  · King Felipe of Spain  · Charles, Duke of Berry  · Louis, Duke of Orléans   Louis XIV of France Spouse(s) HRH Infanta María Teresa of Spain***  · Françoise d'Aubigné, Madame de Maintenon Children Louis, Dauphin of France  · Princess Anne Élisabeth  · Princess Marie Anne  · Princess Marie Therèse, Madame Royale  · Philippe Charles, Duke of Anjou · Louis François, Duke of Anjou Illegitimate Children Charles de Bourbon  · Philippe de Bourbon  · Marie Anne, Princess of Conti  · Louis, Count of Vermandois  · Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine  · Louis César, Count of Vexin  · Louise Françoise, Princess of Condé  · Louise Marie Anne, Mademoiselle de Tours  · Françoise Marie, Duchess of Orléans  · Louis Alexandre, Count of Toulouse  · Louise, Baroness of La Queue Grandchildren Louis, Duke of Burgundy  · King Felipe of Spain+  · Charles, Duke of Berry  · Louis Auguste, Prince of Dombes  · Louis Charles, Count of Eu  · Louise Françoise, Mademoiselle du Maine  · Louis Jean Marie, Duke of Penthièvre Great grandchildren Louis, Duke of Brittany  · Louis, Duke of Brittany  · Louis XV of France  · Louis I of Spain*  · Felipe of Spain*  · Felipe of Spain*  · Ferdinand VI of Spain*  · Charles III of Spain*  · Francisco of Spain*  · Mariana Víctoria, Queen of Portugal*  · Philip, Duke of Parma*  · Maria Teresa Rafaela, Dauphine of France*  · Luis, Count of Chinchón*  · Maria Antonietta, Queen of Sardinia*  · X d'Alençon  · Charles, Duke of Alençon  · Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Alençon  · Louis Alexandre, Prince of Lamballe   Louis XV of France Spouse(s) Maria Carolina Sophia Felicity Leszczyńska Children Marie Louise Élisabeth, Duchess of Parma  · Princess Henriette Anne  · Princess Marie Louise  · Louis, Dauphin of France  · Philippe, Duke of Anjou  · Marie Adélaïde, Duchess of Louvois  · Princess Victoire  · Sophie Philippine, Duchess of Louvois  · Princess Félicité  · Princess Louise Marie Grandchildren Princess Marie Therèse, Madame Royale  · Princess Marie Zéphyrine  · Louis, Duke of Burgundy  · Xavier, Duke of Aquitaine  · Louis XVI of France  · Louis XVIII of France  · Charles X of France  · Clothilde, Queen of Sardinia  · Princess Élisabeth Illegitimate children included Charles de Vintimille  · Agathe Louise de Saint-Antoine  · Philippe, Duke of Narbonne-Lara  · Louis, Count of Narbonne-Lara   Louis XVI of France Spouse(s) HI&RH Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria** Children Marie Thérèse, Duchess of Angoulême  · Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France  · Louis XVII of France  · Princess Sophie Hélène   Louis XVII of France Note Louis had no children; he died aged 10 in 1795. His uncle, future Louis XVIII of France proclaimed himself regent but both titles were disputed. See Bourbon Restoration.   Louis XVIII of France Spouse(s) HRH Princess Marie Josephine Louise of Savoy   Charles X of France Spouse(s) HRH Princess Maria Teresa of Savoy Children Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême  · Sophie, Mademoiselle  · Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry  · Marie Thérèse, Mademoiselle d'Angoulême Grandchildren Princess Louise Élisabeth  · Prince Louis  · Louise Marie Thérèse, Duchess of Parma  · Henri, Count of Chambord *also an Infante or Infanta of Spain **also an Archduchess of Austria ***both +Philip was the first Bourbon king of Spain, the country's present ruling house

v • d • e List of French monarchs Carolingians (843–888, 898–922, 936–987) Pepin (751–768) • Carloman I (768–771) • Charlemagne (768–814) • Louis I (814–840) • Charles I (843–877) • Louis II (877–879) • Louis III (879–882) • Carloman II (879–884) • Charles II (885–888) • Charles III (898–922) • Louis IV (936–954) • Lothair (954–986) • Louis V (986–987) Robertians (888–898, 922–923) Odo of Paris (888–898) • Robert I (922–923) Bosonids (923–936) Rudolph (923–936) House of Capet (987–1328) Hugh (987–996) • Robert II (996–1031) • Henry I (1031–1060) • Philip I (1060–1108) • Louis VI (1108–1137) • Louis VII (1137–1180) • Philip II (1180–1223) • Louis VIII (1223–1226) • Louis IX (1226–1270) • Philip III (1270–1285) • Philip IV (1285–1314) • Louis X (1314–1316) • John I (1316) • Philip V (1316–1322) • Charles IV (1322–1328) House of Valois (1328–1498) Philip VI (1328–1350) • John II (1350–1364) • Charles V (1364–1380) • Charles VI (1380–1422) • Charles VII (1422–1461) • Louis XI (1461–1483) • Charles VIII (1483–1498) House of Lancaster (1422–1453) Henry VI of England (1422–1453) (disputed) House of Valois-Orléans (1498–1515) Louis XII (1498–1515) House of Valois-Angoulême (1515–1589) Francis I (1515–1547) • Henry II (1547–1559) • Francis II (1559–1560) • Charles IX (1560–1574) • Henry III (1574–1589) House of Bourbon (1589–1792) Henry IV (1589–1610) • Louis XIII (1610–1643) • Louis XIV (1643–1715) • Louis XV (1715–1774) • Louis XVI (1774–1792) • Louis XVII (claimant, 1792–1795) House of Bonaparte First Empire (1804–1814, 1815) Napoleon I (1804–1814, 1815) • Napoleon II (1815) House of Bourbon Bourbon Restoration (1814, 1815–1830) Louis XVIII (1814–1815, 1815–1824) • Charles X (1824–1830) • Louis XIX (1830) (disputed) • Henry V (1830) (disputed) House of Orléans July Monarchy (1830–1848) Louis Philippe I (1830–1848) House of Bonaparte Second Empire (1852–1870) Napoleon III (1852–1870)

Persondata
NAME	Louis XIV of France
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	The Sun King, Louis the Great
SHORT DESCRIPTION	King of France and of Navarre
DATE OF BIRTH	5 September 1638(1638-09-05)
PLACE OF BIRTH	Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
DATE OF DEATH	1 September 1715
PLACE OF DEATH	Château de Versailles, Versailles, France

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