Louis XIV, king of France

Louis XIV, 1638–1715, king of France (1643–1715), son and successor of King Louis XIII.

Early Reign

After his father's death his mother, Anne of Austria Anne of Austria, 1601–66, queen of France, daughter of King Philip III of Spain. Married to the French king Louis XIII (1615), she was neglected by her husband and sought the society of the court intriguer, Mme de Chevreuse .
..... Click the link for more information. , was regent for Louis, but the real power was wielded by Anne's adviser, Cardinal Mazarin Mazarin, Jules (zhül mäzärăN`), 1602–61, French statesman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, b. Italy.
..... Click the link for more information. . Louis did not take over the government until Mazarin's death (1661). By then France was economically exhausted by the Thirty Years War, by the Fronde Fronde (frôNd), 1648–53, series of outbreaks during the minority of King Louis XIV, caused by the efforts of the Parlement of
..... Click the link for more information. , and by fiscal abuses. But the centralizing policies of Richelieu Richelieu, Armand Jean du Plessis, duc de (Cardinal Richelieu)
..... Click the link for more information. and Mazarin had prepared the ground for Louis, under whom absolute monarchy, based on the theory of divine right, reached its height.

Domestic Policy

Louis's reign can be characterized by the remark attributed to him, "L'état, c'est moi" [I am the state]. Louis continued the nobility's exemption from taxes but forced its members into financial dependence on the crown, thus creating a court nobility occupied with ceremonial etiquette and petty intrigues. The provincial nobles also lost political power. Louis used the bourgeoisie to build his centralized bureaucracy. He curtailed local authorities and created specialized ministries, filled by professionals responsible to him. Under his minister Jean Baptiste Colbert Colbert, Jean Baptiste (zhäN bätēst` kôlbĕr`), 1619–83, French statesman.
..... Click the link for more information. industry and commerce expanded on mercantilist principles and a navy was developed. The war minister, the marquis de Louvois Louvois, François Michel Le Tellier, marquis de
..... Click the link for more information. , established the foundations of French military greatness.

Religious Affairs

Louis increasingly imposed religious uniformity. His persecution of the Huguenots Huguenots (hy`gənŏts), French Protestants, followers of John Calvin .
..... Click the link for more information. in the 1680s culminated (1685) in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (see Nantes, Edict of Nantes, Edict of, 1598, decree promulgated at Nantes by King Henry IV to restore internal peace in France, which had been torn by the Wars of Religion; the edict defined the rights of the French Protestants (see Huguenots ).
..... Click the link for more information. ). The resultant exodus of Protestants, many of whom were merchants and skilled artisans, intensified the kingdom's economic decline and further alienated the Protestant powers. Louis also suppressed Jansenism (see under Jansen, Cornelis Jansen, Cornelis (kôrnā`lĭs yän`sən), 1585–1638, Dutch Roman Catholic theologian. He studied at the Univ.
..... Click the link for more information. ). Despite this concern with religious orthodoxy, he favored Gallicanism Gallicanism (găl`ĭkənĭz'əm), in French Roman Catholicism, tradition of resistance to papal authority.
..... Click the link for more information. , and controversy with the popes approached schism (1673–93) before Louis abandoned this position.

Foreign Policy

Louis strove vigorously for supremacy in foreign affairs. His marriage (1660) to the Spanish princess Marie Thérèse served as a pretext for the War of Devolution Devolution, War of, 1667–68, undertaken by Louis XIV for the conquest of the Spanish Netherlands. On her marriage to Louis, Marie Thérèse, daughter of Philip IV of Spain, had renounced her rights of inheritance in return for a large dowry.
..... Click the link for more information. (1667–68), which netted him part of Flanders, although the Dutch then moved against him with the Triple Alliance Triple Alliance, in European history, any of several coalitions.

1 The Triple Alliance of 1668 was formed by the Netherlands, England, and Sweden against France after Louis XIV had invaded the Spanish Netherlands in the War of Devolution .
..... Click the link for more information. of 1668. Relations with the Dutch were exacerbated by commercial rivalry and in 1672 Louis, determined to crush Holland, began the third of the Dutch Wars Dutch Wars, series of conflicts between the English and Dutch during the mid to late 17th cent. The wars had their roots in the Anglo-Dutch commercial rivalry, although the last of the three wars was a wider conflict in which French interests played a primary role.
..... Click the link for more information. , which depleted his treasury.

For the next ten years the king limited his policies to diplomacy. He set up "chambers of reunion" to unearth legal grounds for claims on a number of cities, which Louis promptly annexed. Fear of Louis's rapacity resulted in a European coalition (see Augsburg, League of Augsburg, League of, defensive alliance formed (1686) by Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I with various German states, including Bavaria and the Palatinate, and with Sweden and Spain so far as their German interests were concerned.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Grand Alliance, War of the Grand Alliance, War of the, 1688–97, war between France and a coalition of European powers, known as the League of Augsburg (and, after 1689, as the Grand Alliance).
..... Click the link for more information. ), which confronted him when he attacked the Holy Roman Empire in 1688. This war ended with the Treaty of Ryswick Ryswick, Treaty of, 1697, the pact that ended the War of the Grand Alliance . Its signers were France on one side and England, Spain, and the Netherlands on the other. It was a setback for Louis XIV , who kept Strasbourg but lost most other conquests made after 1679.
..... Click the link for more information. (1697), through which Louis lost minor territories. Louis's last war, the War of the Spanish Succession Spanish Succession, War of the, 1701–14, last of the general European wars caused by the efforts of King Louis XIV to extend French power. The conflict in America corresponding to the period of the War of the Spanish Succession was known as Queen Anne's War
..... Click the link for more information. (1701–14), left France in debt and greatly weakened militarily; nevertheless, Louis's grandson retained the Spanish throne.

The Court

Although he had a series of mistresses, Louis XIV finally came under the influence of Mme de Maintenon Maintenon, Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de
..... Click the link for more information. , whom he married morganatically (1684) after the queen's death. A great supporter of the arts, Louis patronized the foremost writers and artists of his time, including Molière Molière, Jean Baptiste Poquelin (zhäN bätēst` pôklăN` môlyĕr`)
..... Click the link for more information. , Jean Racine Racine, Jean (zhäN räsēn`), 1639–99, French dramatist. Racine is the prime exemplar of French classicism .
..... Click the link for more information. , Jean de La Fontaine La Fontaine, Jean de (zhäN də), 1621–95, French poet, whose celebrated fables place him among the masters of world literature.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Charles Le Brun Le Brun, Charles (shärl lə bröN`), 1619–90, French painter, decorator, and architect. He studied with Vouet and in Rome.
..... Click the link for more information. . The architect Jules Mansart Mansart or Mansard, Jules Hardouin (zhül ärdwăN` mäNsär`)
..... Click the link for more information. supervised the building of the lavish palace of Versailles Versailles (vərsī`, Fr. vĕrsī`), city (1990 pop. 91,029), capital of Yvelines dept., N central France.
..... Click the link for more information. . Because of the brilliance of his court, Louis was called "Le Roi Soleil" [the Sun King] and "Le Grand Monarque." He was succeeded by his great-grandson, Louis XV Louis XV, 1710–74, king of France (1715–74), great-grandson and successor of King Louis XIV, son of Louis , titular duke of Burgundy, and Marie Adelaide of Savoy.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

For contemporary sources see the incisive memoirs of the Cardinal de Retz Retz, Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de (zhäN fräNswä` pōl də gôNdē`, də rĕts)
..... Click the link for more information. ; the extremely prejudiced but indispensable memoirs of the duc de Saint-Simon Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy, duc de (lwē də r
..... Click the link for more information. ; and the letters of Mme de Sévigné Sévigné, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de
..... Click the link for more information. , which brilliantly portray the social life of the time. See also biographies by J. B. Wolf (1968) and P. Erlanger (tr. 1970); studies by P. Goubert (1972), O. Bernier (1987), and P. Sonnino, ed. (1990).

Louis XIV

known as the Sun King

(born Sept. 5, 1638, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France—died Sept. 1, 1715, Versailles) King of France (1643–1715), ruler during one of France's most brilliant periods and the symbol of absolute monarchy of the Neoclassical age. He succeeded his father, Louis XIII, at age four, under the regency of his mother, Anne of Austria. In 1648 the nobles and the Paris Parlement, who hated the prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, rose against the crown and started the Fronde. In 1653, victorious over the rebels, Mazarin gained absolute power, though the king was of age. In 1660 Louis married Marie-Thérèse of Austria (1638–83), daughter of Philip IV of Spain. When Mazarin died in 1661, Louis astonished his ministers by informing them that he intended to assume responsibility for ruling the kingdom. A believer in dictatorship by divine right, he viewed himself as God's representative on earth. He was assisted by his able ministers, Jean-Baptiste Colbert and the marquis de Louvois. Louis weakened the nobles' power by making them dependent on the crown. A patron of the arts, he protected writers and devoted himself to building splendid palaces, including the extravagant Versailles, where he kept most of the nobility under his watchful eye. In 1667 he invaded the Spanish Netherlands in the War of Devolution (1667–68) and again in 1672 in the Third Dutch War. The Sun King was at his zenith; he had extended France's northern and eastern borders and was adored at his court. In 1680 a scandal involving his mistress, the marchioness de Montespan (1641–1707), made him fearful for his reputation, and he openly renounced pleasure. The queen died in 1683, and he secretly married the pious marchioness de Maintenon. After trying to convert French Protestants by force, he revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Fear of his expansionism led to alliances against France during the War of the Grand Alliance (1688–97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). Louis died at age 77 at the end of the longest reign in European history.