Louis XIV

Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715), also

known as Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) or the Sun King (le Roi Soleil), Louis XIV
was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72
years and 110 days is the longest of any monarch in history.[1][a] An emblem of
the age of absolutism in Europe,[3] Louis XIV's legacy includes French colonial
expansion, the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War involving the Habsburgs,
and a controlling influence on the style of fine arts and architecture in France,
including the transformation of the Palace of Versailles into a center of royal
power and politics. Louis XIV's pageantry and opulence helped define the
French Baroque style of art and architecture and promoted his image as
absolute ruler of France in the early modern period.

Louis XIV began his personal rule of France in 1661 after the death of his chief
minister Cardinal Mazarin. A believer in the divine right of kings, Louis XIV
continued Louis XIII's work of creating a centralized state governed from a
capital. Louis XIV sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism persisting in
parts of France by compelling many members of the nobility to reside at his
lavish Palace of Versailles. In doing so, he succeeded in pacifying the
aristocracy, many of whom had participated in the Fronde rebellions during his
minority. He consolidated a system of absolute monarchy in France that Portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1701
endured until the French Revolution. Louis XIV enforced uniformity of King of France (more...)
religion under the Catholic Church. His revocation of the Edict of Nantes Reign 14 May 1643 – 1 September
abolished the rights of the Huguenot Protestant minority and subjected them to 1715
a wave of dragonnades, effectively forcing Huguenots to emigrate or convert,
Coronation 7 June 1654
virtually destroying the French Protestant community. Reims Cathedral

During Louis's long reign, France emerged as the leading European power and Predecessor Louis XIII
regularly made war. A conflict with Spain marked his entire childhood, while Successor Louis XV
during his personal rule, Louis fought three major continental conflicts, each Regent Anne of Austria (1643–1651)
against powerful foreign alliances: the Franco-Dutch War, the Nine Years' War,
Chief ministers See list
and the War of the Spanish Succession. In addition, France contested shorter
wars such as the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions. Warfare Cardinal Mazarin
defined Louis's foreign policy, impelled by his personal ambition for glory and (1643–1661)
power: "a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique".[4] His wars strained France's Jean-Baptiste Colbert
resources to the utmost, while in peacetime he concentrated on preparing for (1661–1683)
the next war. He taught his diplomats that their job was to create tactical and
The Marquis of Louvois
strategic advantages for the French military.[5] Upon his death in 1715,
(1683–1691)
Louis XIV left his great-grandson and successor, Louis XV, a powerful but
war-weary kingdom, in major debt after the War of the Spanish Succession that
Born 5 September 1638
had raged on since 1701.
Château de Saint-Germain-
Some of his other notable achievements include the construction of the 240 km en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-
(150 mi) long Canal du Midi in Southern France, the patronage of artists (the Laye, France
playwrights Molière, Racine, the man of letters Boileau, the violinist and chief Died 1 September 1715 (aged 76)
musician Lully, the painter Le Brun and the landscape architect Le Nôtre, all Palace of Versailles,
contributed to the apogee of French classicism, described during his lifetime as Versailles, France
the "Grand Siècle", or even "the century of Louis XIV"), and the founding of Burial 9 September 1715
the French Academy of Sciences. Basilica of Saint-Denis
Spouses Maria Theresa of Spain
​
​(m. 1660; died 1683)​
 Françoise d'Aubigné,
Marquise de Maintenon
Early years (private)
​
​(m. 1683)​
Louis XIV was born on 5th of September 1638 in the Château de Saint-
Issue Louis, Grand Dauphin
Germain-en-Laye, to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was named Louis more... Marie Thérèse, Madame
Dieudonné (Louis the God-given)[6] and bore the traditional title of French
Royale
heirs apparent: Dauphin.[7] At the time of his birth, his parents had been
married for 23 years. His mother had experienced four stillbirths between 1619 Philippe Charles, Duke of
and 1631. Leading contemporaries thus regarded him as a divine gift and his Anjou
birth a miracle of God.[8] Illegitimate :
Marie Anne, Princess of Conti
Louis's relationship with his mother was uncommonly affectionate for the time. Louis, Count of Vermandois
Contemporaries and eyewitnesses claimed that the Queen would spend all her
Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine
time with Louis.[9] Both were greatly interested in food and theatre, and it is
highly likely that Louis developed these interests through his close relationship Louis César, Count of Vexin
with his mother. This long-lasting and loving relationship can be evidenced by Louise Françoise, Princess of
excerpts in Louis's journal entries, such as: Condé
Louise Marie Anne,
"Nature was responsible for the first knots which tied me to my Mademoiselle de Tours
mother. But attachments formed later by shared qualities of the Louise, Baroness of La
spirit are far more difficult to break than those formed merely by Queue
blood."[10]
Françoise Marie, Duchess of
Orléans
It was his mother who gave Louis his belief in the absolute and divine power of Louis Alexandre, Count of
his monarchical rule.[11] Toulouse

During his childhood, he was taken care of by the governesses Françoise de Names
Lansac and Marie-Catherine de Senecey. In 1646, Nicolas V de Villeroy Louis-Dieudonné de France
became the young king's tutor. Louis XIV became friends with Villeroy's young House Bourbon
children, particularly François de Villeroy, and divided his time between the Father Louis XIII
Palais-Royal and the nearby Hotel de Villeroy.
Mother Anne of Austria
Religion Catholicism

Minority and the Fronde Signature

Accession
Sensing imminent death in the spring of 1643, King Louis XIII decided to put
his affairs in order for his four-year-old son Louis XIV. Not trusting the judgement of his Spanish wife Queen Anne, who would
normally have become the sole regent of France, the king decreed that a regency council would rule on his son's behalf, with
Anne at its head.[12]

Louis XIII died on 14 May 1643. On 18 May[13] Queen Anne had her husband's will annulled by the Parlement de Paris, a
judicial body of nobles and high-ranking clergy,[14] and she became sole regent. She exiled her husband's ministers Chavigny and
Bouthilier and appointed the Count of Brienne as her minister of foreign affairs.[15] Anne kept the direction of religious policy
strongly in hand until her son's majority in 1661.

She appointed Cardinal Mazarin as chief minister, giving him the daily administration of policy. She continued the policies of her
late husband and Cardinal Richelieu, despite their persecution of her, in order to win absolute authority in France and victory
abroad for her son. Anne protected Mazarin by exiling her followers the Duke of Beaufort and Marie de Rohan, who conspired
against him in 1643.[16]

The best example of Anne's loyalty to France was her treatment of one of Richelieu's men, the Chancellor Pierre Séguier. Séguier
had brusquely interrogated Anne in 1637 (like a "common criminal", as she recalled) following the discovery that she was giving
military secrets to her father in Spain, and Anne was virtually under house arrest for years. By keeping the effective Séguier in his
post, Anne sacrificed her own feelings for the interests of France and her son Louis.
The Queen sought a lasting peace between Catholic nations, but only after a French
victory over her native Spain. She also gave a partial Catholic orientation to French
foreign policy. This was felt by the Netherlands, France's Protestant ally, which
negotiated a separate peace with Spain in 1648.[17]

In 1648, Anne and Mazarin successfully negotiated the Peace of Westphalia, which
ended the Thirty Years' War.[18] Its terms ensured Dutch independence from Spain,
awarded some autonomy to the various German princes of the Holy Roman Empire,
and granted Sweden seats on the Imperial Diet and territories controlling the mouths
of the Oder, Elbe, and Weser Rivers.[19] France, however, profited most from the
settlement. Austria, ruled by the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand III, ceded all Habsburg
lands and claims in Alsace to France and acknowledged her de facto sovereignty over
the Three Bishoprics of Metz, Verdun, and Toul.[20] Moreover, many petty German
states sought French protection, eager to emancipate themselves from Habsburg
domination. This anticipated the formation of the 1658 League of the Rhine, which
further diminished Imperial power.

Louis XIV as a young child, unknown

Early acts painter
As the Thirty Years' War came to an end, a civil war known as the Fronde erupted in
France. It effectively checked France's ability to exploit the Peace of Westphalia. Anne
and Mazarin had largely pursued the policies of Cardinal Richelieu, augmenting the Crown's
power at the expense of the nobility and the Parlements. Anne was more concerned with
internal policy than foreign affairs; she was a very proud queen who insisted on the divine
rights of the King of France.[21]

All this led her to advocate a forceful policy in all matters relating to the King's authority, in a
manner that was much more radical than the one proposed by Mazarin. The Cardinal depended
totally on Anne's support and had to use all his influence on the Queen to temper some of her
radical actions. Anne imprisoned any aristocrat or member of parliament who challenged her
will; her main aim was to transfer to her son an absolute authority in the matters of finance and
justice. One of the leaders of the Parlement of Paris, whom she had jailed, died in prison.[22] Baptismal certificate, 1638

The Frondeurs, political heirs of the disaffected feudal aristocracy, sought to protect
their traditional feudal privileges from the increasingly centralized royal government.
Furthermore, they believed their traditional influence and authority was being usurped
by the recently ennobled bureaucrats (the Noblesse de Robe, or "nobility of the robe"),
who administered the kingdom and on whom the monarchy increasingly began to rely.
This belief intensified the nobles' resentment.

In 1648, Anne and Mazarin attempted to tax members of the Parlement de Paris. The
members refused to comply and ordered all of the king's earlier financial edicts
burned. Buoyed by the victory of Louis, duc d'Enghien (later known as le Grand
Condé) at the Battle of Lens, Mazarin, on Queen Anne's insistence, arrested certain
members in a show of force.[23] The most important arrest, from Anne's point of view,
concerned Pierre Broussel, one of the most important leaders in the Parlement de
Paris.

People in France were complaining about the expansion of royal authority, the high
rate of taxation, and the reduction of the authority of the Parlement de Paris and other
regional representative entities. Paris erupted in rioting as a result, and Anne was Louis XIV, then Dauphin of France, in
forced, under intense pressure, to free Broussel. Moreover, on the night of 9–10 1642, one year before his accession to
February 1651, when Louis was twelve, a mob of angry Parisians broke into the royal the throne, by Philippe de Champaigne
palace and demanded to see their king. Led into the royal bed-chamber, they gazed
upon Louis, who was feigning sleep, were appeased, and then quietly departed.[24]
The threat to the royal family 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. Condé's family was close to Anne at that time, and
he agreed to help her attempt to restore the king's authority.[25] The queen's army,
headed by Condé, attacked the rebels in Paris; the rebels were under the political
control of Anne's old friend Marie de Rohan. Beaufort, who had escaped from the
prison where Anne had incarcerated him five years before, was the military leader in
Paris, under the nominal control of Conti. After a few battles, a political compromise
was reached; the Peace of Rueil was signed, and the court returned to Paris.

Unfortunately for Anne, her partial victory depended on Condé, who wanted to
control the queen and destroy Mazarin's influence. It was Condé's sister who pushed
him to turn against the queen. After striking a deal with her old friend Marie de
Rohan, who was able to impose the nomination of Charles de l'Aubespine, marquis de
Châteauneuf as minister of justice, Anne arrested Condé, his brother Armand de
Bourbon, Prince of Conti, and the husband of their sister Anne Genevieve de
Louis XIV in 1643, by Claude Deruet
Bourbon, duchess of Longueville. This situation did not last long, and Mazarin's
unpopularity led to the creation of a coalition headed mainly by Marie de Rohan and
the duchess of Longueville. This aristocratic coalition was strong enough to liberate
the princes, exile Mazarin, and impose a condition of virtual house arrest on Queen
Anne.

All these events were witnessed by Louis and largely explained his later distrust of
Paris and the higher aristocracy.[26] "In one sense, Louis's childhood came to an end
with the outbreak of the Fronde. It was not only that life became insecure and
unpleasant – a fate meted out to many children in all ages – but that Louis had to be
taken into the confidence of his mother and Mazarin on political and military matters
of which he could have no deep understanding".[27] "The family home became at Europe after the Peace of Westphalia in
times a near-prison when Paris had to be abandoned, not in carefree outings to other 1648
chateaux but in humiliating flights".[27] The royal family was driven out of Paris twice
in this manner, and at one point
Louis XIV and Anne were held under
virtual arrest in the royal palace in Paris.
The Fronde years planted in Louis a
hatred of Paris and a consequent
determination to move out of the ancient
capital as soon as possible, never to
return.[28]

Just as the first Fronde (the Fronde

parlementaire of 1648–1649) ended, a
second one (the Fronde des princes of
1650–1653) began. Unlike that which
preceded it, tales of sordid intrigue and
half-hearted warfare characterized this
second phase of upper-class insurrection. 1655 portrait of Louis, the Victor of the
To the aristocracy, this rebellion Fronde, portrayed as the god Jupiter
Portrait by Justus van Egmont between
the years 1649–1652. represented a protest for the reversal of
their political demotion from vassals to
courtiers. It was headed by the highest-ranking French nobles, among them Louis's
uncle Gaston, Duke of Orléans and first cousin Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, known as la Grande
Mademoiselle; Princes of the Blood such as Condé, his brother Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, and their sister the Duchess
of Longueville; dukes of legitimised royal descent, such as Henri, Duke of Longueville, and François, Duke of Beaufort; so-called
"foreign princes" such as Frédéric Maurice, Duke of Bouillon, his brother Marshal Turenne, and Marie de Rohan, Duchess of
Chevreuse; and scions of France's oldest families, such as François de La Rochefoucauld.

Queen Anne played the most important role in defeating the Fronde because she wanted to transfer absolute authority to her son.
In addition, most of the princes refused to deal with Mazarin, who went into exile for a number of years. The Frondeurs claimed
to act on Louis's behalf, and in his real interest, against his mother and Mazarin.
Queen Anne had a very close relationship with the Cardinal, and many observers believed that Mazarin became Louis XIV's
stepfather by a secret marriage to Queen Anne.[29] However, Louis's coming-of-age and subsequent coronation deprived them of
the Frondeurs ' pretext for revolt. The Fronde thus gradually lost steam and ended in 1653, when Mazarin returned triumphantly
from exile. From that time until his death, Mazarin was in charge of foreign and financial policy without the daily supervision of
Anne, who was no longer regent.[30]

During this period, Louis fell in love with Mazarin's niece Marie Mancini, but Anne and Mazarin ended the king's infatuation by
sending Mancini away from court to be married in Italy. While Mazarin might have been tempted for a short time to marry his
niece to the King of France, Queen Anne was absolutely against this; she wanted to marry her son to the daughter of her brother,
Philip IV of Spain, for both dynastic and political reasons. Mazarin soon supported the Queen's position because he knew that her
support for his power and his foreign policy depended on making peace with Spain from a strong position and on the Spanish
marriage. Additionally, Mazarin's relations with Marie Mancini were not good, and he did not trust her to support his position. All
of Louis's tears and his supplications to his mother did not make her change her mind. The Spanish marriage would be very
important both for its role in ending the war between France and Spain, because many of the claims and objectives of Louis's
foreign policy for the next 50 years would be based upon this marriage, and because it was through this marriage that the Spanish
throne would ultimately be delivered to the House of Bourbon.[31]

Personal reign and reforms

Coming of age and early reforms

Louis XIV was declared to have reached the age of majority on the 7th of September 1651. On the death of
Mazarin, in March 1661, Louis personally took the reins of government and astonished his court by
declaring that he would rule without a chief minister: "Up to this moment I have been pleased to entrust the
government of my affairs to the late Cardinal. It is now time that I govern them myself. You [secretaries and
ministers] will assist me with your counsels when I ask for them. I request and order you to seal no orders
except by my command . . . I order you not to sign anything, not even a passport . . . without my command;
to render account to me personally each day and to favor no one".[32] Capitalizing on the widespread public
yearning for peace and order after decades of foreign and civil strife, the young king consolidated central
political authority at the expense of the feudal aristocracy. Praising his ability to choose and encourage men
of talent, the historian Chateaubriand noted: "it is the voice of genius of all kinds which sounds from the
tomb of Louis".[33]

Louis began his personal reign with administrative and fiscal reforms. In 1661, the treasury verged on
bankruptcy. To rectify the situation, Louis chose Jean-Baptiste Colbert as Controller-General of Finances in
1665. However, Louis first had to neutralize Nicolas Fouquet, the powerful Superintendent of Finances.
Although Fouquet's financial indiscretions were not very different from Mazarin's before him or Colbert's Royal Monogram
after him, his ambition worried Louis. He lavishly entertained the king at the opulent château of Vaux-le-
Vicomte, flaunting a wealth which could hardly have accumulated except through embezzlement of
government funds.

Fouquet appeared eager to succeed Mazarin and Richelieu in power, and he indiscreetly purchased and privately fortified the
remote island of Belle Île. These acts sealed his doom. Fouquet was charged with embezzlement; the Parlement found him guilty
and sentenced him to exile; and finally Louis altered the sentence to life imprisonment.

Fouquet's downfall gave Colbert a free hand to reduce the national debt through more
efficient taxation. The principal taxes included the aides and douanes (both customs
duties), the gabelle (salt tax), and the taille (land tax). The taille was reduced at first,
and certain tax-collection contracts were auctioned instead of being sold privately to a
favoured few. Financial officials were required to keep regular accounts, revising
inventories and removing unauthorized exemptions: up to 1661 only 10 per cent of
income from the royal domain reached the king. Reform had to overcome vested
interests: the taille was collected by officers of the Crown who had purchased their Members of the Académie des sciences
post at a high price, and punishment of abuses necessarily lowered the value of the with Louis in 1667; in the background
purchase. Nevertheless, Colbert achieved excellent results, with the deficit of 1661 appears the new Paris Observatory.
turning into a surplus by 1666, with interest on the debt decreasing from 52 million to
24 million livres. The taille was reduced to 42 million in 1661 and 35 million in 1665, while revenue from indirect taxation
progressed from 26 million to 55 million. The revenues of the royal domain were raised from 80,000 livres in 1661 to 5.5 million
in 1671. In 1661, the receipts were equivalent to 26 million British pounds, of which 10 million reached the treasury. The
expenditure was around 18 million pounds, leaving a deficit of 8 million. In 1667, the net receipts had risen to 20 million pounds
sterling, while expenditure had fallen to 11 million, leaving a surplus of 9 million pounds.

Money was the essential support of the reorganized and enlarged army, the panoply of
Versailles, and the growing civil administration. Finance had always been the
weakness of the French monarchy: tax collection was costly and inefficient; direct
taxes dwindled as they passed through the hands of many intermediate officials; and
indirect taxes were collected by private contractors called tax farmers who made a
handsome profit. The state coffers leaked at every joint.

The main weakness arose from an old bargain between the French crown and nobility:
the king might raise taxes on the nation without consent if only he exempted the
nobility. Only the "unprivileged" classes paid direct taxes, which came to mean the
peasants only, as most bourgeois finagled exemptions in one way or another. The
system laid the whole burden of state expenses on the backs of the poor and
powerless. After 1700, with the support of Louis's pious secret wife Madame de
Maintenon, the king was persuaded to change his fiscal policy. Though willing
enough to tax the nobles, Louis feared the political concessions which they would
demand in return. Only towards the close of his reign under the extreme exigency of
war, was he able, for the first time in French history, to impose direct taxes on the Engraving of Louis XIV
aristocracy. This was a step toward equality before the law and toward sound public
finance, though it was predictably diminished by concessions and exemptions won by
the insistent efforts of nobles and bourgeois.[34]

Louis and Colbert also had wide-ranging plans to grow French commerce and trade. Colbert's mercantilist administration
established new industries and encouraged manufacturers and inventors, such as the Lyon silk manufacturers and the Gobelins
tapestry manufactory. He invited manufacturers and artisans from all over Europe to France, such as Murano glassmakers,
Swedish ironworkers, and Dutch shipbuilders. He aimed to decrease imports while increasing French exports, hence reducing the
net outflow of precious metals from France.

Louis instituted reforms in military administration through Michel le Tellier and his son François-Michel le Tellier, successive
Marquis de Louvois. They helped to curb the independent spirit of the nobility, imposing order on them 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 strategic picture, with the old military aristocracy (noblesse d'épée, nobility of the sword) monopolizing
senior military positions and the higher ranks. Louvois modernized the army and reorganised it into a professional, disciplined,
well-trained force. He was devoted to the soldiers' material well-being and morale, and even tried to direct campaigns.

Relations with the major colonies

Louis's legal reforms were enacted in his numerous Great Ordinances. Prior to that, France was a patchwork of legal systems,
with as many traditional legal regimes as there were provinces, and two co-existing legal systems—customary law in the north
and Roman civil law in the south.[35] The Grande Ordonnance de Procédure Civile of 1667, the Code Louis, was a
comprehensive legal code imposing a uniform regulation of civil procedure throughout the kingdom. Among other things, it
prescribed baptismal, marriage and death records in the state's registers, not the church's, and it strictly regulated the right of the
Parlements to remonstrate.[36] The Code Louis later became the basis for the Napoleonic code, which in turn inspired many
modern legal codes.

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

Louis ruled through a number of councils:

Conseil d'en haut ("High Council", concerning the most important matters of state)—composed of the king, the
crown prince, the controller-general of finances, and the secretaries of state in charge of various departments. The
members of that council were called ministers of state.
 Conseil des dépêches ("Council of Messages", concerning notices and
administrative reports from the provinces).
Conseil de Conscience ("Council of Conscience", concerning religious
affairs and episcopal appointments).
Conseil royal des finances ("Royal Council of Finances") headed by the
"chef du conseil des finances" (an honorary post in most cases)—this was
one of the few posts in the council available to the high aristocracy.[37]

Early wars in the Low Countries

Louis and his family portrayed as Roman
gods in a 1670 painting by Jean Nocret.
L to R: Louis's aunt, Henriette-Marie; his
Spain
brother, Philippe, duc d'Orléans; the
The death of Louis's maternal uncle King Philip IV Duke's daughter, Marie Louise d'Orléans,
of Spain in 1665 precipitated the War of and wife, Henriette-Anne Stuart; the
Devolution. In 1660, Louis had married Philip IV's Queen-mother, Anne of Austria; three
daughters of Gaston d'Orléans;
eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, as one of the
Louis XIV; the Dauphin Louis; Queen
provisions of the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees.[38] Marie-Thérèse; la Grande Mademoiselle.
The marriage treaty specified that Maria Theresa
was to renounce all claims to Spanish territory for
herself and all her descendants.[38] Mazarin and
Lionne, however, made the renunciation conditional
on the full payment of a Spanish dowry of 500,000
écus.[39] The dowry was never paid and would later
Louis XIV in 1670, engraved play a part persuading his maternal first cousin
portrait by Robert Nanteuil
Charles II of Spain to leave his empire to Philip,
Duke of Anjou (later Philip V of Spain), the
grandson of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa.

The War of Devolution did not focus on the payment of the dowry; rather, the lack of
payment was what Louis XIV used as a pretext for nullifying Maria Theresa's
renunciation of her claims, allowing the land to "devolve" to him. In Brabant (the
location of the land in dispute), children of first marriages traditionally were not
disadvantaged by their parents' remarriages and still inherited property. Louis'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" to Maria
Theresa, justifying France to attack the Spanish Netherlands.
The future Philip V being introduced as
King of Spain by his grandfather, Louis
Relations with the Dutch
XIV
During the Eighty Years' War with Spain, France supported the Dutch Republic as part
of a general policy of opposing Habsburg power. Johan de Witt, Dutch Grand
Pensionary from 1653 to 1672, viewed this as crucial for Dutch security and a
counterweight against his domestic Orangist opponents. Louis provided support in the
1665-1667 Second Anglo-Dutch War but used the opportunity to launch the War of
Devolution in 1667. This captured Franche-Comté and much of the Spanish
Netherlands; French expansion in this area was a direct threat to Dutch economic
interests.[40]

The Dutch opened talks with Charles II of England on a common diplomatic front
The Battle of Tolhuis, Louis XIV crosses
against France, leading to the Triple Alliance, between England, the Dutch and
the Lower Rhine at Lobith on 12 June
Sweden. The threat of an escalation and a secret treaty to divide Spanish possessions 1672; Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
with Emperor Leopold, the other major claimant to the throne of Spain, led Louis to
relinquish many of his gains in the 1668 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.[41]

Louis placed little reliance on his agreement with Leopold and as it was now clear French and Dutch aims were in direct conflict,
he decided to first defeat the Republic, then seize the Spanish Netherlands. This required breaking up the Triple Alliance; he paid
Sweden to remain neutral and signed the 1670 Secret Treaty of Dover with Charles, an Anglo-French alliance against the Dutch
Republic. In May 1672, France invaded the Republic, supported by Münster and the Electorate of Cologne.[42]

Rapid French advance led to a coup that toppled De Witt and brought William III to power.
Leopold viewed French expansion into the Rhineland as an increasing threat, especially after
they seized the strategic Duchy of Lorraine in 1670. The prospect of Dutch defeat led Leopold
to an alliance with Brandenburg-Prussia on 23 June, followed by another with the Republic on
25th.[43] Although Brandenburg was forced out of the war by the June 1673 Treaty of Vossem,
in August an anti-French alliance was formed by the Dutch, Spain, Emperor Leopold and the
Duke of Lorraine.[44]

The French alliance was deeply unpopular in England, and only more so after the
disappointing battles against Michiel de Ruyter's fleet. Charles II of England made peace with
the Dutch in the February 1674 Treaty of Westminster. However, French armies held
significant advantages over their opponents; an undivided command, talented generals like
Turenne, Condé and Luxembourg and vastly superior logistics. Reforms introduced by
Louis XIV, 1670, by Claude
Lefèbvre
Louvois, the Secretary of War, helped maintain large field armies that could be mobilised
much more quickly, allowing them to mount offensives in early spring before their opponents
were ready.[45]

The French were nevertheless forced to retreat from most of the Dutch Republic, which deeply shocked Louis; he retreated to St
Germain for a time, where no one, except a few intimates, was allowed to disturb him.[46] French military advantages allowed
them however to hold their ground in Alsace and the Spanish Netherlands while retaking Franche-Comté. By 1678, mutual
exhaustion led to the Treaty of Nijmegen, which was generally settled in France's favour and allowed Louis to intervene in the
Scanian War. Despite the military defeat, his ally Sweden regained much of what it had lost under the 1679 treaties of Saint-
Germain-en-Laye, Fontainebleau and Lund imposed on Denmark–Norway and Brandenburg.[47] Yet Louis's two primary goals,
the destruction of the Dutch Republic and the conquest of the Spanish Netherlands, had failed.[48]

Louis was at the height of his power, but at the cost of uniting his opponents; this increased as he continued his expansion. In
1679, he dismissed his foreign minister Simon Arnauld, marquis de Pomponne, because he was seen as having compromised too
much with the allies. Louis maintained the strength of his army, but in his next series of territorial claims avoided using military
force alone. Rather, he combined it with legal pretexts in his efforts to augment the boundaries of his kingdom. Contemporary
treaties were intentionally phrased ambiguously. Louis established the Chambers of Reunion to determine the full extent of his
rights and obligations under those treaties.

Cities and territories, such as Luxembourg and Casale, were prized for their strategic Silver coin of Louis XIV, dated
positions on the frontier and access to important waterways. Louis also sought 1674
Strasbourg, an important strategic crossing on the left bank of the Rhine and theretofore
a Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire, annexing it and other territories in
1681. Although a part of Alsace, Strasbourg was not part of Habsburg-ruled Alsace and
was thus not ceded to France in the Peace of Westphalia.

Following these annexations, Spain declared war, precipitating the War of the Reunions.
However, the Spanish were rapidly defeated because the Emperor (distracted by the
Obverse. The Latin Reverse. The Latin
Great Turkish War) abandoned them, and the Dutch only supported them minimally. By
inscription is inscription is
the Truce of Ratisbon, in 1684, Spain was forced to acquiesce in the French occupation LVDOVICVS XIIII D[EI] FRAN[CIÆ] ET
of most of the conquered territories, for 20 years.[49] GRA[TIA] ("Louis NAVARRÆ REX 1674
XIV, by the grace of ("King of France
Louis's policy of the Réunions may have raised France to its greatest size and power
God"). and of Navarre,
during his reign, but it alienated much of Europe. This poor public opinion was 1674").
compounded by French actions off the Barbary Coast and at Genoa. First, Louis had
Algiers and Tripoli, two Barbary pirate strongholds, bombarded to obtain a favourable treaty and the liberation of Christian
slaves. Next, in 1684, a punitive mission was launched against Genoa in retaliation for its support for Spain in previous wars.
Although the Genoese submitted, and the Doge led an official mission of apology to Versailles, France gained a reputation for
brutality and arrogance. European apprehension at growing French might and the realisation of the extent of the dragonnades'
effect (discussed below) led many states to abandon their alliances with France.[50] Accordingly, by the late 1680s, France became
increasingly isolated in Europe.
Non-European relations and the colonies
French colonies multiplied in Africa, the Americas, and Asia during Louis's reign, and
French explorers made important discoveries in North America. In 1673, Louis Jolliet
and Jacques Marquette discovered the Mississippi River. In 1682, René-Robert
Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, followed the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and
claimed the vast Mississippi basin in Louis's name, calling it Louisiane. French
trading posts were also established in India, at Chandernagore and Pondicherry, and in
the Indian Ocean at Île Bourbon. Throughout these regions, Louis and Colbert
embarked on an extensive program of architecture and urbanism meant to reflect the
The Persian embassy to Louis XIV sent
styles of Versailles and Paris and the 'gloire' of the realm.[51]
by Soltan Hoseyn in 1715. Ambassade
de Perse auprès de Louis XIV, studio of
Meanwhile, diplomatic relations were
Antoine Coypel.
initiated with distant countries. In 1669,
Suleiman Aga led an Ottoman embassy to
revive the old Franco-Ottoman alliance.[52] Then, in 1682, after the reception of the
Moroccan embassy of Mohammed Tenim in France, Moulay Ismail, Sultan of
Morocco, allowed French consular and commercial establishments in his country.[53]
In 1699, Louis once again received a Moroccan ambassador, Abdallah bin Aisha, and
in 1715, he received a Persian embassy led by Mohammad Reza Beg.

From farther afield, Siam dispatched an embassy in 1684, reciprocated by the French
magnificently the next year under Alexandre, Chevalier de Chaumont. This, in turn,
Siamese embassy of King Narai to Louis was succeeded by another Siamese embassy under Kosa Pan, superbly received at
XIV in 1686, led by Kosa Pan. Engraving Versailles in 1686. Louis then sent another embassy in 1687, under Simon de la
by Nicolas Larmessin. Loubère, and French influence grew at the Siamese court, which granted Mergui as a
naval base to France. However, the death of Narai, King of Ayutthaya, the execution
of his pro-French minister Constantine Phaulkon, and the siege of Bangkok in 1688
ended this era of French influence.[54]

France also attempted to participate actively in Jesuit missions to China. To break the Portuguese dominance there, Louis sent
Jesuit missionaries to the court of the Kangxi Emperor in 1685: Jean de Fontaney, Joachim Bouvet, Jean-François Gerbillon,
Louis Le Comte, and Claude de Visdelou.[55] Louis also received a Chinese Jesuit, Michael Shen Fu-Tsung, at Versailles in
1684.[56] Furthermore, Louis's librarian and translator Arcadio Huang was Chinese.[57][58]

Height of power

Centralisation of power
By the early 1680s, Louis had greatly augmented French influence in the world. Domestically, he successfully increased the
influence of the crown and its authority over the church and aristocracy, thus consolidating absolute monarchy in France.

Louis initially supported traditional Gallicanism, which limited papal authority in France, and convened an Assembly of the
French clergy 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, bishops could not leave
France, and appeals could not be made to the pope. Additionally, government officials could not be excommunicated for acts
committed in pursuance of their duties. Although the king could not make ecclesiastical law, all papal regulations without royal
assent were invalid in France. Unsurprisingly, the Pope repudiated the Declaration.[59]

By attaching nobles to his court at Versailles, Louis achieved increased control over the French aristocracy. According to historian
Philip Mansel, the king turned the palace into:

an irresistible combination of marriage market, employment agency and entertainment capital of aristocratic
Europe, boasting the best theatre, opera, music, gambling, sex and (most important) hunting.[60]

Apartments were built to house those willing to pay court to the king.[61] However, the pensions and privileges necessary to live
in a style appropriate to their rank were only possible by waiting constantly on Louis.[62] For this purpose, an elaborate court
ritual was created wherein the king became the centre of attention and was observed throughout the day by the public. With his
 excellent memory, Louis could then see
who attended him at court and who was
absent, facilitating the subsequent
distribution of favours and positions.
Another tool Louis used to control his
nobility was censorship, which often
involved the opening of letters to discern
their author's opinion of the government Louis receiving the Doge of Genoa at
and king.[61] Moreover, by entertaining, Versailles on 15 May 1685, following the
impressing, and domesticating them with Bombardment of Genoa. (Reparation
faite à Louis XIV par le Doge de Gênes.
extravagant luxury and other distractions,
15 mai 1685 by Claude Guy Halle,
Louis not only cultivated public opinion
Versailles.)
of him, but he also ensured the aristocracy
remained under his scrutiny.

Louis's extravagance at Versailles extended far beyond the scope of elaborate court
Portrait of Louis XIV (gray pastel on rituals. He took delivery of an African elephant as a gift from the king of Portugal.[63]
paper by Charles Le Brun, 1667, Louvre He encouraged leading nobles to live at Versailles. This, along with the prohibition of
Museum) private armies, 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 "nobility of the sword") into becoming his ceremonial courtiers, further weakening their power. In their place, he
raised commoners or the more recently ennobled bureaucratic aristocracy (the "nobility of the robe"). He judged that royal
authority thrived more surely by filling high executive and administrative positions with these men because they could be more
easily dismissed than nobles of ancient lineage and entrenched influence. It is believed that Louis's policies were rooted in his
experiences during the Fronde, when men of high birth readily took up the rebel cause against their king, who was actually the
kinsman of some. This victory over the nobility may thus have ensured the end of major civil wars in France until the French
Revolution about a century later.

France as the pivot of warfare

Under Louis, France was the leading European power, and most wars pivoted around
its aggressiveness. No European state exceeded it in population, and no one could
match its wealth, central location, and very strong professional army. It had largely
avoided the devastation of the Thirty Years' War. Its weaknesses included an
inefficient financial system that was hard-pressed to pay for its military adventures,
and the tendency of most other powers to gang up against it.

During Louis's reign, France fought three major wars: the Franco-Dutch War, the Nine
Years' War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. There were also two lesser
conflicts: the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions.[64] The wars were very
expensive but defined Louis XIV's foreign policy, and his personality shaped his
approach. Impelled "by a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique", Louis sensed that
war was the ideal way to enhance his glory. In peacetime, he concentrated on
preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats that their job was to create tactical
and strategic advantages for the French military.[5] By 1695, France retained much of
its dominance but had lost control of the seas to England and Holland, and most
countries, both Protestant and Catholic, were in alliance against it. Sébastien Le
Prestre de Vauban, France's leading military strategist, warned Louis in 1689 that a
hostile "Alliance" was too powerful at sea. He recommended that France fight back by
licensing French merchant ships to privateer and seize enemy merchant ships while
avoiding its navies: Louis XIV

France has its declared enemies Germany and all the states that it
embraces; Spain with all its dependencies in Europe, Asia, Africa and America; the Duke of Savoy [in Italy],
England, Scotland, Ireland, and all their colonies in the East and West Indies; and Holland with all its
possessions in the four corners of the world where it has great establishments. France has ... undeclared
enemies, indirectly hostile, hostile, and envious of its greatness, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Portugal, Venice,
 Genoa, and part of the Swiss Confederation, all of which states secretly aid France's enemies by the troops that
they hire to them, the money they lend them and by protecting and covering their trade.[65]

Vauban was pessimistic about France's so-called friends and allies:

For lukewarm, useless, or impotent friends, France has the Pope, who is indifferent; the King of England
[James II] expelled from his country; the Grand Duke of Tuscany; the Dukes of Mantua, Modena, and Parma [all
in Italy]; and the other faction of the Swiss. Some of these are sunk in the softness that comes of years of
peace, the others are cool in their affections....The English and Dutch are the main pillars of the Alliance; they
support it by making war against us in concert with the other powers, and they keep it going by means of the
money that they pay every year to... Allies.... We must therefore fall back on privateering as the method of
conducting war which is most feasible, simple, cheap, and safe, and which will cost least to the state, the more
so since any losses will not be felt by the King, who risks virtually nothing....It will enrich the country, train many
good officers for the King, and in a short time force his enemies to sue for peace.[66]

Edict of Fontainebleau
Louis decided to persecute Protestants and revoke the 1598 Edict of Nantes, which
awarded Huguenots political and religious freedom. He saw the persistence of
Protestantism as a disgraceful reminder of royal powerlessness. After all, the Edict
was the pragmatic concession of his grandfather Henry IV to end the longstanding
French Wars of Religion. An additional factor in Louis's thinking was the prevailing
contemporary European principle to assure socio-political stability, cuius regio, eius
religio ("whose realm, his religion"), the idea that the religion of the ruler should be
the religion of the realm (as originally confirmed in central Europe in the Peace of
Augsburg of 1555).[67]

Responding to petitions, Louis initially excluded Protestants from office, constrained

the meeting of synods, closed churches outside of Edict-stipulated areas, banned
Protestant outdoor preachers, and prohibited domestic Protestant migration. He also
disallowed Protestant-Catholic intermarriages to which third parties objected,
encouraged missions to the Protestants, and rewarded converts to Catholicism.[68]
This discrimination did not encounter much Protestant resistance, and a steady
conversion of Protestants occurred, especially among the noble elites.

In 1681, Louis dramatically increased his persecution of Protestants. The principle of

cuius regio, eius religio generally also meant that subjects who refused to convert
Louis XIV in 1685, the year he revoked
the Edict of Nantes
could emigrate, but Louis banned emigration and effectively insisted that all
Protestants must be converted. Secondly, following the proposal of René de Marillac
and the Marquis of Louvois, he began quartering dragoons in Protestant homes.
Although this was within his legal rights, the dragonnades inflicted severe financial strain on Protestants and atrocious abuse.
Between 300,000 and 400,000 Huguenots converted, as this entailed financial rewards and exemption from the dragonnades.[69]

On 15 October 1685, Louis issued the Edict of Fontainebleau, which cited the redundancy of privileges for Protestants given their
scarcity after the extensive conversions. The Edict of Fontainebleau revoked the Edict of Nantes and repealed all the privileges
that arose therefrom.[59] By his edict, Louis no longer tolerated the existence of Protestant groups, pastors, or churches in France.
No further churches were to be constructed, and those already existing were to be demolished. Pastors could choose either exile or
secular life. Those Protestants who had resisted conversion were now to be baptised forcibly into the established church.[70]

Historians have debated Louis's reasons for issuing the Edict of Fontainebleau. He may have been seeking to placate Pope
Innocent XI, with whom relations were tense and whose aid was necessary to determine the outcome of a succession crisis in the
Electorate of Cologne. He may also have acted to upstage Emperor Leopold I and regain international prestige after the latter
defeated the Turks without Louis's help. Otherwise, he may simply have desired to end the remaining divisions in French society
dating to the Wars of Religion by fulfilling his coronation oath to eradicate heresy.[71][72]

Many historians have condemned the Edict of Fontainebleau as gravely harmful to France.[73] In support, they cite the emigration
of about 200,000 highly skilled Huguenots (roughly one quarter of the Protestant population, or 1% of the French population)
who defied royal decrees and fled France for various Protestant states, weakening the French economy and enriching that of
Protestant states. On the other hand, some historians view this as an exaggeration.
They argue that most of France's preeminent Protestant businessmen and industrialists
converted to Catholicism and remained.[74]

What is certain is that the reaction to the Edict was mixed. Even while French
Catholic leaders exulted, Pope Innocent XI still argued with Louis over Gallicanism
and criticized the use of violence. Protestants across Europe were horrified at the
treatment of their co-religionists, but most Catholics in France applauded the move.
Nonetheless, it is indisputable that Louis's public image in most of Europe, especially
in Protestant regions, was dealt a severe blow.

In the end, however, despite renewed tensions with the Camisards of south-central Protestant peasants rebelled against the
France at the end of his reign, Louis may have helped ensure that his successor would officially sanctioned dragonnades
experience fewer instances of the religion-based disturbances that had plagued his (conversions enforced by dragoons,
forebears. French society would sufficiently change by the time of his descendant, labeled "missionaries in boots") that
followed the Edict of Fontainebleau.
Louis XVI, to welcome tolerance in the form of the 1787 Edict of Versailles, also
known as the Edict of Tolerance. This restored to non-Catholics their civil rights and
the freedom to worship openly.[75] With the advent of the French Revolution in 1789, Protestants were granted equal rights with
their Roman Catholic counterparts.

Nine Years' War

Causes and conduct of the war

The Nine Years' War, which lasted from 1688 to 1697, initiated a period of decline in
Louis's political and diplomatic fortunes. It arose from two events in the Rhineland.
First, in 1685, the Elector Palatine Charles II died. All that remained of his immediate
family was Louis's sister-in-law, Elizabeth Charlotte. German law ostensibly barred
her from succeeding to her brother's lands and electoral dignity, but it was unclear
enough for arguments in favour of Elizabeth Charlotte to have a chance of success.
Conversely, the princess was demonstrably entitled to a division of the family's
personal property. Louis pressed her claims to land and chattels, hoping the latter, at
least, would be given to her.[76] Then, in 1688, Maximilian Henry of Bavaria,
Archbishop of Cologne, an ally of France, died. The archbishopric had traditionally
been held by the Wittelsbachs of Bavaria, but the Bavarian claimant to replace
Battle of Fleurus, 1690
Maximilian Henry, Prince Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, was at that time not more than
17 years old and not even ordained. Louis sought instead to install his own candidate,
Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg, to ensure the key Rhenish state remained an ally.[77]

In light of his foreign and domestic policies during the early 1680s, which were
perceived as aggressive, Louis's actions, fostered by the succession crises of the late
1680s, created concern and alarm in much of Europe. This led to the formation of the
1686 League of Augsburg by the Holy Roman Emperor, Spain, Sweden, Saxony, and
Bavaria. Their stated intention was to return France to at least the borders agreed to in
the Treaty of Nijmegen.[78] Emperor Leopold I's persistent refusal to convert the
Truce of Ratisbon into a permanent treaty fed Louis's fears that the Emperor would
turn on France and attack the Reunions after settling his affairs in the Balkans.[79]

Another event Louis found threatening was England's Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Although King James II was Catholic, his two Anglican daughters, Mary and Anne,
ensured the English people a Protestant succession. But when James II's son James
Francis Edward Stuart was born, he took precedence in succession over his sisters.
This seemed to herald an era of Catholic monarchs in England. Protestant lords called
on the Dutch Prince William III of Orange, grandson of Charles I of England, to come Louis in 1690
to their aid. He sailed for England with troops despite Louis's warning that France
would regard it as a provocation. Witnessing numerous desertions and defections,
even among those closest to him, James II fled England. Parliament declared the throne vacant, and offered it to James's daughter
Mary II and his son-in-law and nephew William. Vehemently anti-French, William (now William III of England) pushed his new
kingdoms into war, thus transforming the League of Augsburg into the Grand Alliance. Before this happened, Louis expected
William's expedition to England to absorb his energies and those of his allies, so he dispatched troops to the Rhineland after the
expiry of his ultimatum to the German princes requiring confirmation of the Truce of Ratisbon and acceptance of his demands
about the succession crises. This military manoeuvre was also intended to protect his eastern provinces from Imperial invasion by
depriving the enemy army of sustenance, thus explaining the preemptive scorched earth policy pursued in much of southwestern
Germany (the "Devastation of the Palatinate").[80]

French armies were generally victorious throughout the war because of Imperial commitments
in the Balkans, French logistical superiority, and the quality of French generals such as Condé's
famous pupil, François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Luxembourg.[81] He
triumphed at the Battles of Fleurus in 1690, Steenkerque in 1692, and Landen in 1693,
although, the battles proved to be of little of strategic consequence,[82][83] mostly due to the
nature of late 17th-century warfare.[84]

Although an attempt to restore James II failed at the Battle of

the Boyne in 1690, France accumulated a string of victories
from Flanders in the north, Germany in the east, and Italy
and Spain in the south, to the high seas and the colonies.
Louis personally supervised the captures of Mons in 1691
Louis XIV at the siege of and Namur in 1692. Luxembourg gave France the defensive
Namur (1692) line of the Sambre by capturing Charleroi in 1693. France
also overran most of the Duchy of Savoy after the battles of
Marsaglia and Staffarde in 1693. While naval stalemate
ensued after the French victory at the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690 and the Allied victory at
Barfleur-La Hougue in 1692, the Battle of Torroella in 1694 exposed Catalonia to French
invasion, culminating in the capture of Barcelona. The Dutch captured Pondichéry in 1693, but
a 1697 French raid on the Spanish treasure port of Cartagena, Spain, yielded a fortune of Marshal de Luxembourg

10,000,000 livres.

In July 1695, the city of Namur, occupied for three years by the French, was besieged by an allied army led by William III.
Louis XIV ordered the surprise destruction of a Flemish city to divert the attention of these troops. This led to the bombardment
of Brussels, in which more than 4,000 buildings were destroyed, including the entire city centre. The strategy failed, as Namur fell
three weeks later, but harmed Louis XIV's reputation: a century later, Napoleon deemed the bombardment "as barbarous as it was
useless".[85]

Peace was broached by Sweden in 1690. By 1692, both sides evidently wanted peace, and secret bilateral talks began, but to no
avail.[86] Louis tried to break up the alliance against him by dealing with individual opponents but did not achieve his aim until
1696 when the Savoyards agreed to the Treaty of Turin and switched sides. Thereafter, members of the League of Augsburg
rushed to the peace table, and negotiations for a general peace began in earnest, culminating in the Peace of Ryswick of 1697.[87]

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

The treaty yielded many benefits for France. Louis secured permanent French sovereignty over all of Alsace, including
Strasbourg, and established the Rhine as the Franco-German border (as it is to this day). Pondichéry and Acadia were returned to
France, and Louis's de facto possession of Saint-Domingue was recognised as lawful. However, he returned Catalonia and most of
the Reunions.

French military superiority might have allowed him to press for more advantageous terms. Thus, his generosity to Spain with
regard to Catalonia has been read as a concession to foster pro-French sentiment and may ultimately have induced King Charles II
to name Louis's grandson Philip, Duke of Anjou, heir to the Spanish throne.[88] In exchange for financial compensation, France
renounced its interests in the Electorate of Cologne and the Palatinate. Lorraine, which had been occupied by the French since
1670, was returned to its rightful Duke Leopold, albeit with a right of way to the French military. William and Mary were
recognised as joint sovereigns of the British Isles, and Louis withdrew support for James II. The Dutch were given the right to
garrison forts in the Spanish Netherlands that acted as a protective barrier against possible French aggression. Though in some
respects the Treaty of Ryswick may appear a diplomatic defeat for Louis since he failed to place client rulers in control of the
Palatinate or the Electorate of Cologne, he did fulfil many of the aims laid down in his 1688 ultimatum.[89] In any case, peace in
1697 was desirable to Louis, since France was exhausted from the costs of the war.

War of the Spanish Succession

Causes and build-up to the war

By the time of the Peace of Ryswick, the Spanish succession had been a source of
concern to European leaders for well over forty years. King Charles II ruled a vast
empire comprising Spain, Naples, Sicily, Milan, the Spanish Netherlands, and
numerous Spanish colonies. He produced no children, however, and consequently had
no direct heirs.

The principal claimants to the throne of Spain belonged to the ruling families of
France and Austria. The French claim derived from Louis XIV's mother Anne of
Austria (the older sister of Philip IV of Spain) and his wife Maria Theresa (Philip IV's
eldest daughter). Based on the laws of primogeniture, France had the better claim as it
originated from the eldest daughters in two generations. However, their renunciation
of succession rights complicated matters. In the case of Maria Theresa, nonetheless,
the renunciation was considered null and void owing to Spain's breach of her marriage
contract with Louis. In contrast, no renunciations tainted the claims of Emperor
Leopold I's son Charles, Archduke of Austria, who was a grandson of Philip III's
youngest daughter Maria Anna. The English and Dutch feared that a French or
Austrian-born Spanish king would threaten the balance of power and thus preferred
the Bavarian Prince Joseph Ferdinand, a grandson of Leopold I through his first wife
Margaret Theresa of Spain (the younger daughter of Philip IV).
Philip V of Spain
In an attempt to avoid war, Louis signed the Treaty of the Hague with William III of
England in 1698. This agreement divided Spain's Italian territories between Louis's
son le Grand Dauphin and Archduke Charles, with the rest of the empire awarded to Joseph Ferdinand. William III consented to
permitting the Dauphin's new territories to become part of France when the latter succeeded to his father's throne.[90] The
signatories, however, omitted to consult the ruler of these lands, and Charles II was passionately opposed to the dismemberment
of his empire. In 1699, he re-confirmed his 1693 will that named Joseph Ferdinand as his sole successor.[91]

Six months later, Joseph Ferdinand died. Therefore, in 1700, Louis and William III concluded a fresh partitioning agreement, the
Treaty of London. This allocated Spain, the Low Countries, and the Spanish colonies to the Archduke. The Dauphin would
receive all of Spain's Italian territories.[92] Charles II acknowledged that his empire could only remain undivided by bequeathing
it entirely to a Frenchman or an Austrian. Under pressure from his German wife, Maria Anna of Neuburg, Charles II named
Archduke Charles as his sole heir.

Acceptance of the will of Charles II and consequences

On his deathbed in 1700, Charles II of Spain unexpectedly changed his will. The clear demonstration of French military
superiority for many decades before this time, the pro-French faction at the court of Spain, and even Pope Innocent XII convinced
him that France was more likely to preserve his empire intact. He thus offered the entire empire to the Dauphin's second son
Philip, Duke of Anjou, provided it remained undivided. Anjou was not in the direct line of French succession, thus his accession
would not cause a Franco-Spanish union.[92] If Anjou refused, the throne would be offered to his younger brother Charles, Duke
of Berry. If the Duke of Berry declined it, it would go to Archduke Charles, then to the distantly related House of Savoy if Charles
declined it.[93]

Louis was confronted with a difficult choice. He could agree to a partition of the Spanish possessions and avoid a general war, or
accept Charles II's will and alienate much of Europe. He may initially have been inclined to abide by the partition treaties, but the
Dauphin's insistence persuaded him otherwise.[94] Moreover, Louis's foreign minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, marquis de Torcy,
pointed out that war with the Emperor would almost certainly ensue whether Louis accepted the partition treaties or Charles II's
will. He emphasised that, should it come to war, William III was unlikely to stand by France since he "made a treaty to avoid war
and did not intend to go to war to implement the treaty".[91] Indeed, in the event of
war, it might be preferable to be already in control of the disputed lands. Eventually,
therefore, Louis decided to accept Charles II's will. Philip, Duke of Anjou, thus
became Philip V, King of Spain.

Most European rulers accepted Philip as king, some reluctantly. Depending on one's
views of the war's inevitability, Louis acted reasonably or arrogantly.[95] 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. But his actions were certainly not read as
disinterested. Moreover, Louis sent troops to the Spanish Netherlands to evict Dutch
garrisons and secure Dutch recognition of Philip V. In 1701, Philip transferred the
asiento (the right to supply slaves to Spanish colonies) to France, as a sign of the two
nations' growing connections. As tensions mounted, Louis decided to acknowledge
James Stuart, the son of James II, as King of England, Scotland and Ireland on the
latter's death, infuriating William III. These actions enraged Britain and the Dutch
Republic.[96] With the Holy Roman Emperor and the petty German states, they
formed another Grand Alliance and declared war on France in 1702. French
diplomacy secured Bavaria, Portugal, and Savoy as Franco-Spanish allies.[97]
Louis in 1701
Commencement of fighting
Even before war was officially declared, hostilities began with Imperial aggression in
Italy. Once finally declared, the War of the Spanish Succession lasted almost until
Louis's death, at great cost to him and France.

The war began with French successes, but the talents of John Churchill, 1st Duke of
Marlborough, and Eugene of Savoy checked these victories and broke the myth of
French invincibility. The duo allowed the Palatinate and Austria to occupy Bavaria
after their victory at the Battle of Blenheim. Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of
The Franco-Spanish army led by the
Bavaria, had to flee to the Spanish Netherlands. The impact of this victory won the
Duke of Berwick defeated decisively the
support of Portugal and Savoy. Later, the Battle of Ramillies delivered the Low
Alliance forces of Portugal, England, and
Countries to the Allies, and the Battle of Turin forced Louis to evacuate Italy, leaving the Dutch Republic at the Battle of
it open to Allied forces. Marlborough and Eugene met again at the Battle of Almansa.
Oudenarde, which enabled them to invade France.

France established contact with Francis II Rákóczi and promised support if he took up
the cause of Hungarian independence.

Defeats, famine, and mounting debt greatly weakened France. Between 1693 and
1710, over two million people died in two famines, made worse as foraging armies
seized food supplies from the villages.[98] In desperation, Louis ordered a disastrous
invasion of the English island of Guernsey in the autumn of 1704 with the aim of
raiding their successful harvest. By the winter of 1708–09, he was willing to accept
peace at nearly any cost. He agreed that the entire Spanish empire should be
surrendered to Archduke Charles, and also consented to return to the frontiers of the
The Battle of Ramillies where the French
Peace of Westphalia, giving up all the territories he had acquired over 60 years. But he fought the Dutch and British, 23 May
could not promise that Philip V would accept these terms, so the Allies demanded that 1706
Louis single-handedly attack his grandson to force these terms on him. If he could not
achieve this within the year, the war would resume. Louis would not accept these
terms.[99]

Turning point
The final phases of the War of the Spanish Succession demonstrated that the Allies could not maintain Archduke Charles in Spain
just as surely as France could not retain the entire Spanish inheritance for Philip V. The Allies were definitively expelled from
central Spain by the Franco-Spanish victories at the Battles of Villaviciosa and Brihuega in 1710. French forces elsewhere
remained obdurate despite their defeats. The Allies suffered a Pyrrhic victory at the Battle
of Malplaquet with 21,000 casualties, twice that of the French.[100] Eventually, France
recovered its military pride with the decisive victory at Denain in 1712.

French military successes near the end of the war took place against the background of a
changed political situation in Austria. In 1705, Emperor Leopold I died. His elder son and
successor, Joseph I, followed him in 1711. His heir was none other than Archduke Charles,
who secured control of all of his brother's Austrian landholdings. If the Spanish empire
then fell to him, it would have resurrected a domain as vast as Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V's in the 16th century. To the maritime powers of Great Britain and the Dutch
Republic, this would have been as undesirable as a Franco-Spanish union.[101]
Louis XIV depicted on a Louis d'or in
1709
Conclusion of peace
As a result of the fresh British perspective on the European balance of power, Anglo-
French talks began, culminating in the 1713 Peace of Utrecht between Louis, Philip V
of Spain, Anne of Great Britain, and the Dutch Republic. In 1714, after losing Landau
and Freiburg, the Holy Roman Emperor also made peace with France in the Treaties
of Rastatt and Baden.

In the general settlement, Philip V retained Spain and its colonies, while Austria
received the Spanish Netherlands and divided Spanish Italy with Savoy. Britain kept
Gibraltar and Menorca. Louis agreed to withdraw his support for James Stuart, son of
James II and pretender to the thrones of Great Britain and Ireland, and ceded
Newfoundland, Rupert's Land, and Acadia in the Americas to Anne. Britain gained the
Map of France after the death of
most from the treaty, but the final terms were much more favourable to France than
Louis XIV
those being discussed in peace negotiations in 1709 and 1710. France retained Île-
Saint-Jean and Île Royale, and Louis acquired a few minor European territories, such
as the Principality of Orange and the Ubaye Valley, which covered transalpine passes into Italy. Thanks to Louis, his allies the
Electors of Bavaria and Cologne were restored to their prewar status and returned their lands.[102]

Personal life

Marriages and children

Louis and his wife Maria Theresa of Spain had six children from the marriage
contracted for them in 1660. However, only one child, the eldest, survived to
adulthood: Louis, le Grand Dauphin, known as Monseigneur. Maria Theresa died in
1683, whereupon Louis remarked that she had never caused him unease on any other
occasion.

Despite evidence of affection early on in their marriage, Louis was never faithful to
Maria Theresa. He took a series of mistresses, both official and unofficial. Among the
better documented are Louise de La Vallière (with whom he had five children; 1661–
Wedding of Louis and Maria Theresa
1667), Bonne de Pons d'Heudicourt (1665), Catherine Charlotte de Gramont (1665),
Françoise-Athénaïs, Marquise de Montespan (with whom he had seven children;
1667–1680), Anne de Rohan-Chabot (1669–1675), Claude de Vin des Œillets (one child born in 1676), Isabelle de Ludres (1675–
1678), and Marie Angélique de Scorailles (1679–1681), who died at age 19 in childbirth. Through these liaisons, he produced
numerous illegitimate children, most of whom he married to members of cadet branches of the royal family.

Louis proved relatively more faithful to his second wife, Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon. He first met her through
her work caring for his children by Madame de Montespan, noting the care she gave to his favourite, Louis Auguste, Duke of
Maine.[103] The king was, at first, put off by her strict religious practice, but he warmed to her through her care for his
children.[103]
When he legitimized his children by Madame de Montespan on 20 December 1673, Françoise
d'Aubigné became the royal governess at Saint-Germain.[103] As governess, she was one of
very few people permitted to speak to him as an equal, without limits.[103] It is believed that
they were married secretly at Versailles on or around 10 October 1683[104] or January
1684.[105] This marriage, though never announced or publicly discussed, was an open secret
and lasted until his death.

Piety and religion

Louis was a pious and devout king who saw himself as the head and protector of the Catholic
Church in France. He made his devotions daily regardless of where he was, following the
liturgical calendar regularly.[106] Under the influence of his very religious second wife, he Dual Cypher of King Louis XIV
became much stronger in the practice of his Catholic faith.[107] This included banning opera & Queen Marie Thérèse
and comedy performances during Lent.[107]

Towards the middle and the end of his reign, the centre for the King's religious
observances was usually the Chapelle Royale at Versailles. Ostentation was a
distinguishing feature of his daily Mass, annual celebrations (such as those of Holy
Week), and special ceremonies.[108] Louis established the Paris Foreign Missions
Society, but his informal alliance with the Ottoman Empire was criticised for
undermining Christendom.[109]

Patronage of the arts

Louis supported the royal court of France Louis XIV encouraged Catholic missions
and those who worked under him. He through the creation of the Paris Foreign
brought the Académie Française under his Missions Society
patronage and became its "Protector". He
promoted classical French literature by
protecting such writers as Molière, Racine, and La Fontaine. Louis also patronised the
visual arts by funding and commissioning artists such as Charles Le Brun, Pierre
Mignard, Antoine Coysevox, and Hyacinthe Rigaud. Composers and musicians such
as Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, and François Couperin
thrived. In 1661, Louis founded the Académie Royale de Danse, and in 1669, the
Painting from 1667 depicting Louis as
Académie d'Opéra, important events in the evolution of ballet. He also attracted,
patron of the fine arts
supported and patronized such artists as André Charles Boulle, who revolutionised
marquetry with his art of inlay, today known as "Boulle work". Always on the lookout
for new talent, the king launched music competitions: in 1683, Michel-Richard de
Lalande thus became deputy master of the Royal Chapel, composing his Symphonies
for the Soupers du Roy along with 77 large scale Grand Motets.

Over the course of four building campaigns, Louis converted a hunting lodge
commissioned by Louis XIII into the spectacular Palace of Versailles. Except for the
current Royal Chapel (built near the end of his reign), the palace achieved much of its
current appearance after the third building campaign, which was followed by an
official move of the royal court to Versailles on 6 May 1682. Versailles became a
The Cour royale and the Cour de marbre
at Versailles dazzling, awe-inspiring setting for state affairs and the reception of foreign dignitaries.
At Versailles, the king alone commanded attention.

Several reasons have been suggested for the creation of the extravagant and stately palace, as well as the relocation of the
monarchy's seat. The memoirist Saint-Simon speculated that Louis viewed Versailles as an isolated power centre where
treasonous cabals could be more readily discovered and foiled.[62] There has also been speculation that the revolt of the Fronde
caused Louis to hate Paris, which he abandoned for a country retreat, but his sponsorship of many public works in Paris, such as
the establishment of a police force and of street-lighting,[110] lend little credence to this theory. As a further example of his
continued care for the capital, Louis constructed the Hôtel des Invalides, a military complex and home to this day for officers and
soldiers rendered infirm either by injury or old age. While pharmacology was still quite rudimentary in his day, the Invalides
pioneered new treatments and set new standards for hospice treatment. The conclusion of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668
also induced Louis to demolish Paris's northern walls in 1670 and replace them with wide tree-lined boulevards.[111]
Louis renovated and improved the Louvre and other royal residences. Gian Lorenzo
Bernini was originally to plan additions to the Louvre; however, his 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 the elegant Louvre Colonnade designed by three Frenchmen: Louis Le Vau,
Charles Le Brun, and Claude Perrault. With the relocation of the court to Versailles,
the Louvre was given over to the arts and the public.[112] During his visit from Rome,
Bernini also executed a renowned portrait bust of the king.

Image and depiction

Few rulers in world history have commemorated themselves in as grand a manner as
Louis.[113] He cultivated his image as the Sun King (le Roi Soleil), the centre of the
universe "without equal". Louis used court ritual and the arts to validate and augment
his control over France. With his support, Colbert established from the beginning of Bust of Louis XIV by Gianlorenzo Bernini
Louis's personal reign a centralised and institutionalised system for creating and
perpetuating the royal image. The King was thus portrayed largely in majesty or at
war, notably against Spain. This portrayal of the monarch was to be found in
numerous media of artistic expression, such as painting, sculpture, theatre, dance,
music, and the almanacs that diffused royal propaganda to the population at large.

Evolution of royal portraiture

Over his lifetime, Louis commissioned
numerous works of art, including over 300
formal portraits. The earliest portrayals of
Louis already followed the pictorial
conventions of the day in depicting the
child king as the majestically royal
incarnation of France. This idealisation of
the monarch continued in later works,
which avoided depictions of the effect of
smallpox that Louis contracted in 1647. In
the 1660s, Louis began to be shown as a Bronze bust of Louis XIV. Circa 1660, by
Roman emperor, the god Apollo, or an unknown artist. From Paris, France.
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Alexander the Great, as can be seen in
many works of Charles Le Brun, such as
sculpture, paintings, and the decor of major monuments.
Le roi gouverne par lui-même, modello
for the central panel of the ceiling of the
Grandiose images of the king in allegorical or mythological guises followed
Hall of Mirrors c. 1680 by Le Brun, conventions of historiated portraiture that had been common since the
(1619–1690) Renaissance.[114] There is no better illustration of this than Hyacinthe Rigaud's 1701
Portrait of Louis XIV, where a 63-year-old Louis appears to stand on a set of
unnaturally young legs.[115]

Rigaud's portrait exemplified the height of royal portraiture during Louis's reign. Although Rigaud crafted a credible likeness of
Louis, the portrait was neither meant as an exercise in realism nor to explore Louis's character. Certainly, Rigaud was concerned
with detail and depicted the king's costume with great precision, down to his shoe buckle.[116]

However, Rigaud intended to glorify the monarchy. Rigaud's original, now housed in the Louvre, was originally meant as a gift to
Louis's grandson, Philip V of Spain. However, Louis was so pleased with the work that he kept the original and commissioned a
copy to be sent to his grandson. That became the first of many copies, both in full and half-length formats, to be made by Rigaud,
often with the help of his assistants. The portrait also became a model for French royal and imperial portraiture down to the time
of Charles X over a century later. In his work, Rigaud proclaims Louis's exalted royal status through his elegant stance and
haughty expression, the royal regalia and throne, rich ceremonial fleur-de-lys robes, as well as the upright column in the
background, which, together with the draperies, serves to frame this image of majesty.
Other works of art
In addition to portraits, Louis commissioned at least 20 statues of himself in the 1680s, to stand in Paris and provincial towns as
physical manifestations of his rule. He also commissioned "war artists" to follow him on campaigns to document his military
triumphs. To remind the people of these triumphs, Louis erected permanent triumphal arches in Paris and the provinces for the
first time since the decline of the Roman Empire.

Louis's reign marked the birth and infancy of the art of medallions. Sixteenth-century rulers had often issued medals in small
numbers to commemorate the major events of their reigns. Louis, however, struck more than 300 to celebrate the story of the king
in bronze, that were enshrined in thousands of households throughout France.

He also used tapestries as a medium of exalting the monarchy. Tapestries could be allegorical, depicting the elements or seasons,
or realist, portraying royal residences or historical events. They were among the most significant means to spread royal
propaganda prior to the construction of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.[117]

Ballet
Louis loved ballet and frequently danced in court ballets during the early half of his
reign. In general, Louis was an eager dancer who performed 80 roles in 40 major
ballets. This approaches the career of a professional ballet dancer.[118]

His choices were strategic and varied. He danced four parts in three of Molière's
comédies-ballets, which are plays accompanied by music and dance. Louis played an
Egyptian in Le Mariage forcé in 1664, a Moorish gentleman in Le Sicilien in 1667,
and both Neptune and Apollo in Les Amants magnifiques in 1670.

He sometimes danced leading roles that were suitably royal or godlike (such as
Neptune, Apollo, or the Sun).[118] At other times, he would adopt mundane roles
before appearing at the end in the lead role. It is considered that, at all times, he
provided his roles with sufficient majesty and drew the limelight with his flair for
dancing.[118] For Louis, ballet may not have merely been a tool for manipulation in
his propaganda machinery. The sheer number of performances he gave as well as the
diversity of roles he played may serve to indicate a deeper understanding and interest
in the art form.[118][119]

Ballet dancing was used by Louis as a political tool to hold power over his state. He
integrated ballet deeply into court social functions and fixated his nobles' attention on Louis XIV as Apollo in the Ballet Royal de
upholding standards in ballet dancing, effectively distracting them from political la Nuit (1653)
activities.[120] In 1661, the Royal Academy of Dance was founded by Louis to further
his ambition. Pierre Beauchamp, his private dance instructor, was ordered by Louis to
come up with a notation system to record ballet performances, which he did with great
success. His work was adopted and published by Feuillet in 1700 as Choregraphie.
This major development in ballet played an important role in promoting French
culture and ballet throughout Europe during Louis's time.[121]

Louis greatly emphasized etiquettes in ballet dancing, evidently seen in "La belle
danse" (the French noble style). More challenging skills were required to perform this
dance with movements very much resembling court behaviours, as a way to remind
the nobles of the king's absolute power and their own status. All the details and rules Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Versailles
were compressed in five positions of the bodies codified by Beauchamp.[122]

Unofficial image
Besides the official depiction and image of Louis, his subjects also followed a non-official discourse consisting mainly of
clandestine publications, popular songs, and rumours that provided an alternative interpretation of Louis and his government.
They often focused on the miseries arising from poor government, but also carried the hope for a better future when Louis
escaped the malignant influence of his ministers and mistresses, and took the government into his own hands. On the other hand,
petitions addressed either directly to Louis or to his ministers exploited the traditional imagery and language of monarchy. These
varying interpretations of Louis abounded in self-contradictions that reflected the people's amalgamation of their everyday
experiences with the idea of monarchy.[123]

In fiction

Literature
Alexandre Dumas portrayed Louis in his two sequels to his 1844 novel The Three Musketeers: first as a child in
Twenty Years After (1845), then as a young man in The Vicomte de Bragelonne (1847–1850), in which he is a
central character. The final part of the latter novel recounts the legend that a mysterious prisoner in an iron mask
was actually Louis's twin brother and has spawned numerous film adaptations generally titled The Man in the Iron
Mask.
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
Angélique 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.
Louis features significantly in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, specifically in the 2003 novel The Confusion, the
greater part of which takes place at Versailles.
In the 39 Clues series universe, it has been noted that Louis was part of the Cahill branch, Tomas.
He is called the son of Apollo in Rick Riordan's Trials of Apollo series.
Louis XIV is portrayed in Vonda N. McIntyre's 1997 novel The Moon and the Sun.

Films

The film, The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (1966), directed by Roberto Rossellini, shows Louis's rise to power
after the death of Cardinal Mazarin.
The film Man in the Iron Mask (1998), directed by Randall Wallace, focused on the identity of an anonymous
masked prisoner who spent decades in the Bastille and other French prisons, and his true identity remains
somewhat a mystery till date. The monarch was played by Leonardo DiCaprio.
The film, Le Roi Danse (2000; translated: The King Dances), directed by Gérard Corbiau, reveals Louis through
the eyes of Jean-Baptiste Lully, his court musician.
Julian Sands portrayed Louis in Roland Jaffe's Vatel (2000).
Alan Rickman directed, co-wrote, and stars as Louis XIV in the film, A Little Chaos, which centres on construction
in the gardens of Versaille, at the time immediately before and after the death of Queen Maria Theresa.
The 2016 film The Death of Louis XIV, directed by Albert Serra, is set during the last two weeks of Louis XIV's life
before dying of gangrene, with the monarch played by Jean-Pierre Léaud.

Television
Louis XIV is portrayed by Thierry Perkins-Lyautey in the British television film Charles II: The Power and the
Passion.
The 15-year-old Louis XIV, as played by the Irish actor Robert Sheehan, is a major character of the short-lived
historical fantasy series Young Blades from January to June 2005.
George Blagden portrays Louis XIV in the Canal+ series Versailles which aired for three seasons from 2015.

Musicals
Emmanuel Moire portrayed Louis XIV in the 2005-07 Kamel Ouali musical Le Roi Soleil.

Health and death

Despite the image of a healthy and virile king that Louis sought to project, evidence exists to suggest that his health was not very
good. He had many ailments: for example, symptoms of diabetes, as confirmed in reports of suppurating periostitis in 1678,
dental abscesses in 1696, along with recurring boils, fainting spells, gout, dizziness, hot flushes, and headaches.
 From 1647 to 1711, the three chief physicians to the king (Antoine Vallot, Antoine
d'Aquin, and Guy-Crescent Fagon) recorded all of his health problems in the Journal
de Santé du Roi (Journal of the King's Health), a daily report of his health. On 18
November 1686, Louis underwent a painful operation for an anal fistula that was
performed by the surgeon Charles-François Félix de Tassy, who prepared a specially
shaped curved scalpel for the occasion. The wound took more than two months to
heal.[124]

Louis died of gangrene at Versailles on 1 September 1715, four days before his 77th
birthday, after 72 years on the throne. Enduring much pain in his last days, he finally
Louis XIV (seated) with his son le Grand "yielded up his soul without any effort, like a candle going out", while reciting the
Dauphin (to the left), his grandson Louis, psalm Deus, in adjutorium me festina (O Lord, make haste to help me).[125] His body
Duke of Burgundy (to the right), his great- was laid to rest in Saint-Denis Basilica outside Paris. It remained there undisturbed for
grandson Louis Duke of Anjou, and
about 80 years until revolutionaries exhumed and destroyed all of the remains found
Madame de Ventadour, Anjou's
in the Basilica.[126] In 1848, at Nuneham House, a piece of Louis's mummified heart,
governess, who commissioned this
painting; busts of Henry IV and Louis XIII taken from his tomb and kept in a silver locket by Lord Harcourt, Archbishop of York,
are in the background. was shown to the Dean of Westminster, William Buckland, who ate a part of it.[127]

Cardinal Armand Gaston Maximilien de Rohan gave Last Rites (confession, viaticum,
and unction) to king Louis XIV.[128]

Succession
Louis outlived most of his immediate legitimate family. His last surviving legitimate
son, Louis, Dauphin of France, died in 1711 and barely a year later, Louis, Duke of
Burgundy, the eldest of the Dauphin's three sons and then heir-apparent to Louis, also
died. Burgundy's elder son, Louis, Duke of Brittany, died a few weeks later. Thus, on
his deathbed, Louis's heir-apparent was his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis, Duke
of Anjou, Burgundy's younger son.
The Death of Louis XIV at the Palace of
Versailles, Thomas Jones Barker, 1835- Louis foresaw that his successor would not yet be mature and sought to restrict the
1840 power of his nephew Philip II, Duke of Orléans, who, as his closest surviving
legitimate relative in France, would probably become regent to the prospective Louis
XV. Accordingly, the king created a regency council as Louis XIII had in anticipation
of Louis XIV's own minority, with some power vested in his illegitimate son Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, Duke of Maine.[129]
Orléans, however, had Louis's will annulled by the Parlement of Paris after his death and made himself sole regent. He stripped
Maine and his brother, Louis-Alexandre, Count of Toulouse, of the rank of Prince of the Blood that Louis had granted them and
significantly reduced Maine's power and privileges.[130]

Line of succession in 1715

Below is the line of succession to the French throne at the time of the death of Louis XIV in 1715. Louis XIV's only surviving
legitimate grandson, Philip V, was not included in the line of succession because he had renounced the French throne after the war
of the Spanish Succession, a 14-year conflict following the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700.[131]

Louis XIII (1601–1643)

Louis XIV (1638–1715)
Louis, Grand Dauphin (1661–1711)
Louis, Duke of Burgundy (1682–1712)
Louis, Duke of Brittany (1707–1712)
(1) Louis, Duke of Anjou (1710–1774)
Philip V of Spain (1683–1746)
Charles, Duke of Berry (1686–1714)
Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (1640–1701)
(2) Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1674–1723)
(3) Louis, Duke of Chartres (1703–1752)
Further down the French line of succession in 1715 was the House of Condé, followed by the House of Conti (a cadet branch of
the House of Condé). Both of these royal houses were descended in the male line from Henri II, Prince of Condé, a second cousin
of French King Louis XIII (the father of Louis XIV) in the male line.
Legacy

Reputation
According to Philippe de Courcillon's Journal, Louis on his deathbed advised his heir with these words:

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.[132]

Some historians point out that it was a customary demonstration of piety in those days
to exaggerate one's sins. Thus they do not place much emphasis on Louis's deathbed
declarations in assessing his accomplishments. Rather, they focus on military and
diplomatic successes, such as how he placed a French prince on the Spanish throne.
This, they contend, ended the threat of an aggressive Spain that historically interfered
in domestic French politics. These historians also emphasise the effect of Louis's wars
in expanding France's boundaries and creating more defensible frontiers that
preserved France from invasion until the Revolution.[132]

Arguably, Louis also applied himself indirectly to "the alleviation of the burdens of
Territorial expansion of France under
[his] subjects." For example, he patronised the arts, encouraged industry, fostered
Louis XIV (1643–1715) is depicted in
trade and commerce, and sponsored the founding of an overseas empire. Moreover,
orange.
the significant reduction in civil wars and aristocratic rebellions during his reign are
seen by these historians as the result of Louis's consolidation of royal authority over
feudal elites. In their analysis, his early reforms centralised France and marked the birth of the modern French state. They regard
the political and military victories as well as numerous cultural achievements as how Louis helped raise France to a preeminent
position in Europe.[133] Europe came to admire France for its military and cultural successes, power, and sophistication.
Europeans generally began to emulate French manners, values, goods, and deportment. French became the universal language of
the European elite.

Louis's detractors have argued that his considerable foreign, military and domestic expenditure impoverished and bankrupted
France. His supporters, however, distinguish the state, which was impoverished, from France, which was not. As supporting
evidence, they cite the literature of the time, such as the social commentary in Montesquieu's Persian Letters.[134]

Alternatively, Louis's critics attribute the social upheaval culminating in the French Revolution to his failure to reform French
institutions while the monarchy was still secure. Other scholars counter that there was little reason to reform institutions that
largely worked well under Louis. They also maintain that events occurring almost 80 years after his death were not reasonably
foreseeable to Louis and that in any case, his successors had sufficient time to initiate reforms of their own.[135]

Louis has often been criticised for his vanity. The memoirist Saint-Simon, who
claimed that Louis slighted him, criticised him thus:

There was nothing he liked so much as flattery, or, to put it more plainly,
adulation; the coarser and clumsier it was, the more he relished it.

For his part, Voltaire saw Louis's vanity as the cause for his bellicosity:
Royal procession passing the Pont-Neuf
under Louis XIV
It is certain that he passionately wanted glory, rather than the conquests
themselves. In the acquisition of Alsace and half of Flanders, and of all of
Franche-Comté, what he really liked was the name he made for
himself.[136]

Nonetheless, Louis has also received praise. The anti-Bourbon Napoleon described him not only as "a great king", but also as "the
only King of France worthy of the name".[137] Leibniz, the German Protestant philosopher, commended him as "one of the
greatest kings that ever was".[138] And Lord Acton admired him as "by far the ablest man who was born in modern times on the
steps of a throne".[139] The historian and philosopher Voltaire wrote: "His name can never be pronounced without respect and
without summoning the image of an eternally memorable age".[140] Voltaire's history, The Age of Louis XIV, named Louis's reign
as not only one of the four great ages in which reason and culture flourished, but the greatest ever.[141][142]

Quotes
Numerous quotes have been attributed to Louis XIV by legend.

The well-known "I am the state" ("L'État, c'est moi.") was reported from at least the late 18th century.[143] It was widely repeated
but also denounced as apocryphal by the early 19th century.[144][b][145]

He did say, "Every time I appoint someone to a vacant position, I make a hundred unhappy and one ungrateful."[146][147] Louis is
recorded by numerous eyewitnesses as having said on his deathbed: "Je m'en vais, mais l'État demeurera toujours." ("I depart, but
the State shall always remain.")[148]

Arms
Coat of arms of Louis XIV

Notes
Upon his accession to the throne Louis assumed the royal coat of arms of France &
Navarre.[149]
Adopted
1643–1715
Crest
The Royal crown of France
Helm
An opened gold helmet, with blue and gold mantling.
Escutcheon
Azure, three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) impaling Gules on a chain in cross saltire and
orle Or an emerald Proper (for Navarre).
Supporters
The two supporters are two angels, acting as heralds for the two realms. The dexter
angel carries a standard with the arms of France, and wears a tabard with the same
arms. The sinister angel also carries a standard and wears a tabard, but that of
Navarre. Both are standing on puffs of cloud.
Motto
The motto is written in gold on a blue ribbon: MONTJOIE SAINT DENIS the war cry of
France, Saint Denis was also the abbey where the oriflamme was kept.
Orders
The escutcheons are surrounded first by the chain of the Order of Saint Michael and
by the chain of the Order of the Holy Spirit, both were known as the ordres du roi.
Other elements
Above all is a pavilion armoyé with the Royal crown. From it, is a royal blue mantle
with a semis of fleurs-de-lis Or, lined on the inside with ermine.
Banner
Royal standard of the king

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.[150][151] 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).

Family

Ancestry
Ancestors of Louis XIV
 8. Antoine of Navarre[154]

4. Henry IV of France[152]

9. Jeanne III of Navarre[154]

2. Louis XIII of France

10. Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany[155]

5. Marie de' Medici[152]

11. Joanna of Austria[155]

1. Louis XIV of France

12. Philip II of Spain[156]

6. Philip III of Spain[153]

13. Anna of Austria[156]

3. Anne of Austria

14. Charles II, Archduke of Inner Austria[157]

7. Margaret of Austria[153]

15. Maria Anna of Bavaria[157]

Patrilineal descent
Patrilineal descent

Louis' patriline is the line from which he is descended from father to son.

Patrilineal descent is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the
generations - which means that if King Louis were to choose a historically accurate house name it would be
Robertian, as all his male-line ancestors have been of that house.

Louis is a member of the House of Bourbon, a branch of the Capetian dynasty and of the Robertians.

Louis' patriline is the line from which he is descended from father to son. It follows the Bourbon kings of France, and
the Counts of Paris and Worms. This line can be traced back more than 1,200 years from Robert of Hesbaye to the
present day, through Kings of France & Navarre, Spain and Two-Sicilies, Dukes of Parma and Grand-Dukes of
Luxembourg, Princes of Orléans and Emperors of Brazil. It is one of the oldest in Europe.

1. Robert II of Worms and Rheingau (Robert of Hesbaye), 770–807

2. Robert III of Worms and Rheingau, 808–834
3. Robert IV the Strong, 820–866
4. Robert I of France, 866–923
5. Hugh the Great, 895–956
6. Hugh Capet, 941–996
7. Robert II of France, 972–1031
8. Henry I of France, 1008–1060
9. Philip I of France, 1053–1108
10. Louis VI of France, 1081–1137
11. Louis VII of France, 1120–1180
12. Philip II of France, 1165–1223
13. Louis VIII of France, 1187–1226
14. Louis IX of France, 1214–1270
15. Robert, Count of Clermont, 1256–1317
16. Louis I, Duke of Bourbon, 1279–1342
17. James I, Count of La Marche, 1319–1362
18. John I, Count of La Marche, 1344–1393
19. Louis, Count of Vendôme, 1376–1446
20. Jean VIII, Count of Vendôme, 1428–1478
21. François, Count of Vendôme, 1470–1495
22. Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, 1489–1537
23. Antoine, King of Navarre, Duke of Vendôme, 1518–1562
24. Henry IV, King of France and of Navarre, 1553–1610
25. Louis XIII, King of France and Navarre, 1601–1643
26. Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre, 1638–1715

Issue

Name Birth Death Notes

By Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of France and of Navarre (20 September 1638 – 30 July 1683)

Fils de France. Dauphin of France (1661–1711). Had issue.

Louis, le Grand Dauphin 1 November 1661 14 April 1711 Father of Louis, Dauphin of France, Philip V of Spain and
Charles, Duke of Berry. Grandfather of Louis XV of France
Anne Élisabeth 18 November 1662 30 December 1662 Fille de France. Died in infancy.

Marie Anne 16 November 1664 26 December 1664 Fille de France. Died in infancy.

Fille de France. Known as Madame Royale and la Petite

Marie Thérèse 2 January 1667 1 March 1672
Madame. Died in childhood.
Philippe Charles, Duke of Anjou 5 August 1668 10 July 1671 Fils de France. Died in childhood.

Louis François, Duke of Anjou 14 June 1672 4 November 1672 Fils de France. Died in infancy.

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 or legitimised.
 Name Birth Death Notes

By NN, a gardener

Daughter 1660 unknown She married N de la Queue, a sentry.[158]

By Louise de La Vallière (6 August 1644 – 6 June 1710)
Charles de La 19 December 15 July 1665
Not legitimised.
Baume Le Blanc 1663 (aged 1)

Philippe de La 7 January
1666 (aged 1) Not legitimised.
Baume Le Blanc 1665

Marie Anne de 2 October 3 May 1739

Legitimised on 14 May 1667. Married Louis Armand I, Prince of Conti.
Bourbon 1666 (aged 73)
18 November
Louis, Count of 3 October
1683 (aged Legitimised on 20 February 1669. Held the office of Admiral of France.
Vermandois 1667
16)

By Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan (5 October 1641 – 27 May 1707)

Louise Françoise at the end of 23 February

de Bourbon March 1669 1672 (aged 2)
Legitimised on 20 December 1673. Held numerous offices, of which: Colonel
General of the Suisses et Grisons, Governor of Languedoc, General of the
Louis Auguste, 31 March 14 May 1736
Galleys, and Grand Master of Artillery. Also Duke of Aumale, Count of Eu and
Duke of Maine 1670 (aged 66)
Prince of Dombes. Had issue. Founder of the Maine Line. Heir presumptive for
several days.

10 January
Louis César, Count 20 June
1683 (aged Legitimised on 20 December 1673.
of Vexin 1672
10)

Louise Françoise 16 June 1743 Legitimised on 20 December 1673. Married Louis III, Prince of Condé. Had
1 June 1673
de Bourbon (aged 70) issue.
Louise Marie Anne 12 November 15 September
Legitimised in January 1676.
de Bourbon 1674 1681 (aged 6)

1 February
Françoise Marie de 9 February Legitimised in November 1681. Married Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, the Regent
1749 (aged
Bourbon 1677 of France under Louis XV. Had issue.
72)

1 December Legitimised on 22 November 1681. Held numerous offices, of which: Admiral of

Louis Alexandre,
6 June 1678 1737 (aged France, Governor of Guyenne, Governor of Brittany, and Grand Huntsman of
Count of Toulouse
59) France. Also Duke of Damville, of Rambouillet and of Penthièvre. Had issue.
by Claude de Vin, Mademoiselle des Œillets (1637 – 18 May 1687)

12 September
Louise de c. 17 June
1718 (aged In 1696 she married Bernard de Prez, Baron de La Queue.
Maisonblanche 1676
42)

by Angélique de Fontanges (1661 – 28 June 1681)

January January 1680
Son
1680 (stillborn)

March 1681
Daughter March 1681 Her existence is uncertain.
(stillborn)

See also
Charles de Lorme, personal medical doctor to Louis XIV
Fundamental laws of the Kingdom of France
House of France
Levée (ceremony)
List of French monarchs
Outline of France
Louis XIV style
Nicolas Fouquet
French forestry Ordinance of 1669
Potager du Roi
Éléphante de Louis XIV
Notes
a. Some monarchs of states that were not fully sovereign for most or all of their reign ruled for longer. For example,
Sobhuza II of Swaziland at 82 years and Bernard VII of Lippe in the Holy Roman Empire at 81 years.[2]
b. The anecdote as circulated after the French Revolution, designed to illustrate the tyrannical character of the
absolutism of the Ancien Régime, held that the president of the parlement began to address the king with the
words Sire, l'État [...] but was cut off by the king interjecting L'État, c'est moi.

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ncounterof0000mung_m1v1). Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-3815-3.
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Further reading
Cambridge Modern History: Vol. 5 The Age of Louis XIV (1908), old, solid articles by scholars; complete text online (ht
tp://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/cmh/cmh.html#cmh1) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201402
10213151/http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/cmh/cmh.html#cmh1) 10 February 2014 at the Wayback
Machine
Lynn, John A. "Food, funds, and fortresses: resource mobilization and positional warfare in the campaigns of Louis
XIV." in Feeding Mars: Logistics in Western Warfare from the Middle Ages to the Present (Taylor and Francis,
2019) pp. 150–172.
Ashley, Maurice P. Louis XIV and the Greatness of France (1965) ISBN 0029010802
Beik, William. Louis XIV and Absolutism: A Brief Study with Documents (2000) ISBN 031213309X
Beik, William. "The Absolutism of Louis XIV as Social Collaboration." Past & Present 2005 (188): 195–224. online (htt
ps://muse.jhu.edu/article/188590) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20240422210856/https://muse.jhu.edu/art
icle/188590) 22 April 2024 at the Wayback Machine at Project MUSE
Campbell, Peter Robert. Louis XIV, 1661–1715 (London, 1993)
Church, William F., ed. The Greatness of Louis XIV. (1972).
Cowart, Georgia J. The Triumph of Pleasure: Louis XIV and the Politics of Spectacle University of Chicago Press,
2008. ISBN 978-0-2261-1638-9
Cronin, Vincent. Louis XIV. London: HarperCollins, 1996. ISBN 978-1-8604-6092-0
Félix, Joël. "'The most difficult financial matter that has ever presented itself': paper money and the financing of
warfare under Louis XIV." Financial History Review 25.1 (2018): 43–70 online (http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/72452/
2/The%20most%20difficult%20financial%20matter%20FH.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2021022610
4833/http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/72452/2/The%20most%20difficult%20financial%20matter%20FH.pdf) 26
February 2021 at the Wayback Machine.
Goubert, Pierre (197). Louis XIV and Twenty Million Frenchmen. social history from Annales School. ISBN 978-0-
3947-1751-7.
Jones, Colin. The Great Nation: France from Louis XIV to Napoleon (1715–1799) (2002)
Klaits, Joseph. Printed propaganda under Louis XIV: absolute monarchy and public opinion (Princeton University
Press, 2015).
Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel. The Ancien Régime: A History of France 1610–1774 (1999), survey by leader of the
Annales School ISBN 0631211969
Lewis, W. H. The Splendid Century: Life in the France of Louis XIV (1953) ISBN 0881339210
Mitford, Nancy (1966). The Sun King: Louis XIV at Versailles (2012 ed.). New York Review of Books. ISBN 978-1-
5901-7491-3.
Prest, Julia, and Guy Rowlands, eds. The Third Reign of Louis XIV, c. 1682–1715 (Taylor & Francis, 2016).
Rothkrug, Lionel. Opposition to Louis XIV: The Political and Social Origins of French Enlightenment (Princeton
University Press, 2015).
Rowlands, Guy. The Dynastic State and the Army under Louis XIV: Royal Service and Private Interest, 1661–1701
(2002)
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.
Rule, John C., Louis XIV and the craft of kingship 1969.
Shennan, J. H. Louis XIV (1993)
Thompson, Ian. The Sun King's Garden: Louis XIV, André Le Nôtre And the Creation of the Gardens of Versailles.
London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006 ISBN 1-5823-4631-3
Treasure, Geoffrey. The Making of Modern Europe, 1648–1780 (3rd ed. 2003). pp. 230–296.
Wilkinson, Rich. Louis XIV (Routledge, 2007). ISBN 978-0-4153-5815-6
Cénat, Jean-Philippe. Le roi stratège: Louis XIV et la direction de la guerre, 1661–1715 (Presses universitaires de
Rennes, 2019).
Croix, Alain. "Vingt millions de Français et Louis XIV." Revue dhistoire moderne contemporaine 2 (2020): 27–46.
Engerand, Fernand, editor (1899). (in French) Inventaire des tableaux du Roy rédigé en 1709 et 1710 par Nicolas
Bailly. Paris: Ernest Leroux. Copy (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6323734m/f11.image) Archived (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20160307153902/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6323734m/f11.image) 7 March 2016 at
the Wayback Machine at Gallica.

External links
Ranum, Orest, ed. (1972). The Century of Louis XIV (http://www.palgrave.com/in/book/9781349004997).
doi:10.1007/978-1-349-00497-3 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-1-349-00497-3). ISBN 978-1-349-00499-7.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20180207182952/https://www.palgrave.com/in/book/9781349004997) from
the original on 7 February 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2017. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
Works by or about Louis XIV (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28+%22Louis+XIV%22+OR+%22Louis+the
+Great%22+OR+%22Sun+King%22+OR+%28%221638-1715%22+AND+Louis%29+%29) at the Internet Archive
Works by Louis XIV (https://librivox.org/author/9631) at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Louis XIV (http://www.history.com/topics/louis-xiv) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170622232619/http://w
ww.history.com/topics/louis-xiv) 22 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine at History.com
Full text of marriage contract (https://web.archive.org/web/20070616071522/http://www.smae.diplomatie.gouv.fr/ch
oiseul/ressource/pdf/D16590004.pdf), France National Archives transcription (in French)
Le Siècle de Louis XIV by Voltaire, 1751, hosted by French Wikisource

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