Louis XIV

I

Introduction

Louis XIV (1638-1715), king of France (1643-1715), known as the Sun King. Louis, third monarch of the Bourbon family, ruled for 72 years, the longest reign in European history. His rule typified the period of absolute monarchy in the second half of the 17th century, during which time kings ruled without the restraint of representative institutions. This epoch is widely known as the age of Louis XIV because other European monarchs imitated and competed with developments in France. Louis inherited a kingdom that was internally divided, militarily exhausted, and nearly bankrupt. He left to his heirs the greatest power in the Western world.

Louis’s main achievements were expanding the effectiveness of the central government, increasing the boundaries of France to the north and east, and placing one of his grandsons on the throne of Spain. But these successes cost the nation dearly. The economy suffered during the long years of war, taxes increased, and the countryside was left vulnerable to punishing famines.

II

Early Life

Louis XIV was born at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He was the unexpected child of King Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, who had not had children in their 22-year marriage. He was christened Louis Dieudonné (literally, “gift of God”). In 1643, before his fifth birthday, his father died, and Louis inherited the crown of France. While Louis was a child, his mother served as regent, ruling France in his place. She was assisted by Jules Cardinal Mazarin, the Italian financier who had been the principal minister of Louis XIII. Mazarin had guided the nation through the later stages of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). In this war France struggled against the Habsburg dynasty that ruled Spain for military supremacy in Europe. The roots of the war stretched back to the 16th century, and the two countries fought for decades, each seeking to enlarge its territories and influence.

Mazarin understood the intricacies of foreign policy and diplomatic relations as well as anyone in Europe. He attempted to pass his knowledge and skill on to the new king. Coming to power at a young age, Louis did not have the conventional humanist education of most princes, who learned Latin, ancient history, rhetoric, and the arts. Instead his instruction focused on the practical necessities of kingship, such as the history of France and its monarchy and military affairs. As a teenager Louis was allowed to take part in sieges and to watch battles from a safe distance. He also studied what Mazarin regarded as the political arts: dealing with foreign ambassadors, judging the character of men from their behavior, and concealing one’s true opinions and ideas from others. From his mother, a Roman Catholic, Louis received a spiritual education. Throughout his life Louis remained devoutly religious and attempted to eliminate Protestantism in France.

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During Louis’s early years, France was dominated by a series of rebellions known as the Fronde (1648-1653). These rebellions took place mainly in major cities and consisted largely of aristocrats attacking the government of Mazarin and Louis’s mother. At one point Louis, in danger of being captured, was unceremoniously hustled out of Paris and hidden in the countryside. The Fronde made a lasting impression on Louis, creating a lifelong fear of rebellion. It also left him with a distaste for Paris, the largest city in his kingdom and the center of royal government. When he came to rule France in 1661, Louis decided to build a royal palace away from Paris. In 1682 he moved his government to Versailles, southwest of Paris (See also Palace of Versailles).

Louis married out of diplomatic necessity. Most of the nations of Europe had agreed to peace in 1648, ending the Thirty Years’ War. However, the war between France and Spain dragged on for another decade because neither side was willing to accept the gains made by the other. In 1659 Mazarin finally succeeded in concluding a pact, the Peace of the Pyrenees, which recognized French territorial gains. The pact was sealed in 1660 by the marriage of Louis to Marie-Thérèse, the eldest daughter of King Philip IV of Spain. The marriage was arranged via a treaty that explicitly excluded Marie’s heirs from inheriting the Spanish crown once Philip had paid her dowry. However, the full dowry was never paid. Consequently, Louis refused to relinquish his family’s claim to the Spanish inheritance, a claim that was to influence French policy later in Louis’s reign.

III

Absolute Monarchy

After Mazarin died in 1661, Louis declared that henceforth he would rule France without a chief minister, something no French king had done in living memory. He intended to rule as an absolute monarch, believing that his power as king was derived from God and that he was responsible to God alone. An absolute monarch did not share power with representative institutions such as the Estates-General, which was never summoned to meet during Louis’s reign, nor with the law courts known as Parlements. Even so, he was obliged to rule for the benefit of his people. While Louis assumed responsibility for decision making, he understood that he must rule within the constraints of the laws and customs of his kingdom. Louis consulted widely with his nobles and ministers, and he met weekly with members of his high council. He created an informal cabinet, which was eventually led by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, chief minister of finance.

Nevertheless, the system of absolute monarchy emphasized the role of the king, and no monarch was more successful in creating the image of monarchy than Louis XIV. He took the sun as his emblem and connected himself to its radiant image. Portraits, woodcuts, and engravings of the king portrayed as the Greek sun god Apollo poured from Parisian workshops. The grandeur of the king was the theme of sermons, poems, and drama.

IV

Court Life and Culture

The exquisite palace built at Versailles between 1661 and 1689 was filled with images of Louis’s glory. Over 30,000 men worked on the palace, a project that drained the royal treasury for decades. Expenses included not only building but also diverting rivers, piping in fresh water, and planting thousands of orange trees to mask the smell of sewage that could not be properly drained away. No foreign ambassador, nobleman, or ordinary citizen could enter this new center of government without being overwhelmed by representations of the power of Louis XIV. The king moved to the Palace of Versailles in 1682, occupying it with his growing family, his courtiers, and his mistresses.

Though Versailles constituted a seat of power, it was also part of an artistic renaissance that flourished under Louis. Despite his lack of formal artistic education, Louis sponsored the work of a remarkable generation of artists, playwrights, and architects. Though he abandoned Paris for Versailles, he nevertheless contributed to rebuilding Paris after the Fronde had been suppressed. Construction projects included adding a new wing to the Louvre palace, building Les Invalides as housing for army veterans, and constructing the Observatory as a site for new scientific inquiry. All were designed by French architects in the classical tradition. Among literary figures, the great playwrights Molière and Jean Baptiste Racine received royal patronage. Perhaps most importantly, under Colbert’s influence, Louis created three French academies, later part of the Institut de France, to support the study of fine arts, languages, and sciences: L’Académie des Beaux Arts (1648), the L’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1663), and L’Académie des Sciences (1666). The latter supported the experimental work of French astronomers, chemists, and physicists and helped coordinate and disseminate their discoveries.

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