Louis XIV of France

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Born: September 5, 1638, Castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France Death: September 1, 1715, Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France Children: Louis, Grand Dauphin of France, Louise de Maisonblanche, More Grandchildren: Philip V of Spain, Luísa Isabel de Orleans, More Parents: Louis XIII of France, Anne of Austria, Queen of France Spouse: Françoise d'Aubigné (from 1683 to 1715), Maria Teresa of Spain (from 1660 to 1683) Siblings: Philip I, Duke of Orleans Louis from 1643 until his death; being the longest reign in Europe and longest in history (for 72 years). He was one of the leaders of the growing concentration of power in the era of absolutism in Europe.

KING OF FRANCE AND NAVARRE

Reign May 14, 1643 until September 1, 1715 (72 years old) Coronation June 7, 1654 Predecessor Louis XIII Successor Louis XV Regent Anne of Austria (1643–1656) Birth September 5, 1638 Castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France Death September 1, 1715 (76 years old) Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France Buried in Basilica of Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis, France Full name Louis-Dieudonné Wives Maria Teresa of Spain Françoise d'Aubigné (morganatic) Offspring Louis, Grand Dauphin of France Ana Isabel de França Maria Ana de França Maria Teresa of France Philippe Charles, Duke of Anjou Louis Francis, Duke of Anjou Home Bourbon Father Louis XIII of France Mother Anne of Austria Religion Catholicism

BIOGRAPHY

He was the son of King Louis XIII and his wife Anne of Austria. His father died in 1643, when Louis was five years old, and his mother became regent in his name. His personal reign began in 1661, after the death of his chief minister, the Italian Cardinal Jules Mazarin. Louis supported the concept of the divine right of kings, continuing his predecessors' policy of creating a centralized government from the capital. He sought to eliminate the last vestiges of feudalism that still existed in some parts of France and to pacify the aristocracy by offering many members of the nobility the opportunity to live in his luxurious Palace of Versailles. By these means, Louis became one of the most powerful French monarchs in history and consolidated the system of absolute monarchy that lasted in France until the French Revolution. His reign saw France rise to the leadership of the European powers, and fight in three separate wars: the Franco-Dutch War, the Nine Years' War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. There were also the smaller conflicts of the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions. Louis died a few days before his 77th birthday, and was succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson Louis XV. All of his other heirs had predeceased him: his son Louis, Grand Dauphin of France, Louis's eldest son Louis, Duke of Burgundy, and Louis XV's younger brother Louis, Duke of Brittany.

LIFE

Louis XIV, nicknamed "the Great" and "the Sun King", was born in 1638 with the baptismal name Louis-Dieudonné ("Louis, the gift of God"), to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, who had been married for twenty-three years. For this reason, some historians believe that he was not the biological son of Louis XIII. In addition to the traditional title of Dauphin (the heir apparent), he received that of Premier Fils de France ("Firstborn of France"). Louis XIII and Anne had a second son, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans. The king did not trust his wife and tried to prevent her from gaining influence over the country. However, after her death in 1643, Anne became regent. She entrusted all powers of state to the Italian cardinal Giulio Mazarin, who was hated by most French political circles. Parliament not only refused to pay, but also annulled all previous financial edicts issued by Mazarin, who had them arrested, which caused Paris to be taken over by riots. Louis XIV and the court were forced to leave the city. When the turmoil began to subside, the Peace of Westphalia was signed, which restored the crown's control over the French army, and which was succeeded by the Peace of Rueil, which ended the conflicts temporarily.

BEGINNING OF THE REIGN

The period of regency exercised by Luís' mother officially ended in 1651, when he was 13 years old. Louis assumed the throne, but Mazarin continued to control state affairs until his death in 1661. When this happened, the other members of the government expected him to be replaced by Nicolas Fouquet, the superintendent of finances. Not only did he not take office, but he was arrested for mismanagement of the French Treasury. The king announced that he himself would take over the government of the kingdom. Its council, the conseil d'en haut, featured prestigious names such as Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Hugues de Lionne and François-Michel Le Tellier. None of these belonged to the high aristocracy, which led the great memoirist of the end of the reign, the duke and peer of the kingdom Louis de Rouvroy, Duke of Saint-Simon, to call the government the "Kingdom of the petty bourgeoisie". The treasury was close to bankruptcy when Louis XIV came to power. Things did not improve as he spent money extravagantly, spending vast sums of money financing the royal court. Part of this money he spent as a patron of the arts, financing names such as Moliere, Charles Le Brun and Jean-Baptiste Lully and also on improvements to the old Louvre Palace, which he ended up abandoning in favor of the new foundation of Versailles, built on an old pavilion of Louis XIII's hunting. In 1665, Louis XIV appointed Jean-Baptiste Colbert to head the Comptroller General. Colbert reduced France's deficit through fiscal reform, which made taxes more efficient. His plan included the aides and douanes (both commercial taxes), the gabela (salt tax), and the taille (land tax). On the other hand, it did not abolish the tax exemption enjoyed by the clergy and nobility. The tax collection method has also been improved.

BEGINNING OF REIGN 2

Colbert made long-term plans for the development of France through trade. His administration created new industries and encouraged manufacturers and inventors to produce. He also modernized the navy, roads, and aqueducts. He is considered one of the fathers of the school of thought known as mercantilism, with "Colbertism" being a synonym for mercantilism in France. Louis XIV ordered the construction of the complex known as the Hôtel des Invalides (Palace of the Invalids) to house soldiers who had served him loyally in combat but were discharged due to war injuries or old age and whose only alternatives until then were begging and banditry. During his reign, the Canal du Midi was built, which linked the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and was very important for the economic development of France and Europe, and is considered fundamental to the Industrial Revolution. The Canal is 240 km long and was designed by Pierre Paul Riquet, and was inaugurated in 1681.

MARRIAGE

As the war with Spain continued, the French received military support from England, led by Oliver Cromwell. The Anglo-French alliance won the war in 1658 at the Battle of the Dunes. The result was the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which fixed the border between Spain and France. Spain ceded several provinces and cities to France in the Spanish Netherlands and in Rousillon. As a means of further establishing peace and the borders of the two kingdoms, a union between the two royal families, of Spain and France, was proposed. This proposal was immensely seducing Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV, who always wanted to see her son married to a relative of hers from the House of Habsburg. Meanwhile, Spanish hesitation led to a scheme in which Cardinal Jules Mazarin, Prime Minister of France, pretended to seek a union for the king with Catherine of Braganza. When Philip IV of Spain heard about the meeting in Lyon between the houses of France and Portugal, he sent a special message to the French court in order to open negotiations for peace and a royal marriage. Then Louis XIV willingly accepts to marry Infanta Maria Teresa of Spain, daughter of Philip IV, king of Spain, and Isabella of France, his aunt, his father's sister. The wedding took place on June 9, 1660 in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. To prevent a union of the two crowns, Spanish diplomats included a clause in which Maria Theresa and her descendants would be stripped of any right to the Spanish throne. However, due to Jules Mazarin's skill, the clause would only be valid upon payment of a large dowry. Spain was impoverished after decades of war and was unable to pay a dowry of such proportions, and France never received the agreed sum of 500,000 Escudos.

PERSONALITY OF THE KING

The Sun as an emblem: Louis XIV chooses the Sun as his emblem. It is the star that gives life to anything, but it is also the symbol of order and regularity. He reigned like a sun over the court, over the courtiers and over France. Lovers: Louis It is believed that the marriage took place around October 9 or 10, 1683, and was kept secret until the king's death. As a teenager, the king had a romance with Mazarin's niece, Maria Mancini. There was a great passion between them, contradicted by the cardinal who, aware of France's interests, preferred to make him marry the Infanta of Spain Maria Teresa. In 1670, Jean Racine was inspired by the story of Luís and Maria Mancini to write Berenice.

WARS AND CONFLICTS

During his long reign, which in practice lasted from 1661 to 1715 (54 years), he reorganized and equipped the French army, making it the most powerful in Europe, and began his military attacks with the invasion of the Spanish Netherlands in 1667, which he considered to be his wife's inheritance. He persecuted the Protestant Dutch and French in an attempt to polarize Europe again, opposing Catholic nations to Protestant ones, but failed in this objective and ended up turning countries of both religions against France. In the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) he placed his grandson Philip V of Spain on the Spanish throne, but inflicted high economic and human costs on France. His reign, one of the most important in French history, lasted 54 years and became known for its monarchical absolutism, in which the king had complete control of the state. However, as Bossuet pointed out, there is a difference between "absolute power" and "arbitrary power", that is, even if the monarch's power is "absolute" it is subject to the fundamental laws of the kingdom, such as, for example, the rules of succession and religious principles[5]. One of its greatest military architects was Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, who provided the French kingdom with numerous fortifications on its borders, inaugurating the Vauban style. See more on this subject in poliorcetics.

END OF REIGN AND DEATH

In the final years of Louis XIV's reign, a succession of deaths almost put the succession to the throne at risk. Virtually all of the king's legitimate children had died in infancy. The only one who reached adulthood was his eldest son Louis, the Grand Dauphin, who died in 1711 before Louis XIV. The new heir, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, the king's eldest grandson, contracted smallpox (or measles) and died in 1712, followed by his eldest son Louis, Duke of Brittany, who succumbed to the same illness. Finally, the little Duke of Anjou, youngest son of the Duke of Burgundy and great-grandson of the king, was acclaimed Dauphin of France, becoming the successor to the French throne, and reigning as Louis XV of France. Louis XIV died on 1 September 1715 of gangrene, just days before his seventy-seventh birthday and 72 years and 100 days into his reign – the longest reign and government in the Western world. His body was buried in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, in Paris. Louis XIV tried to prevent the accession of his nephew Philip of Orleans, who, as the closest relative, would become regent for the future Louis XV. Louis XIV preferred to divert part of this power from the illegitimate son he had with Madame de Montespan, Louis Augustus de Bourbon. Louis XIV also created an 11-member regent council, anticipating Louis XV's coming of age. There was also inspiration from the cardinal archbishop of Paris, Louis Antoine de Noailles, a republican since he was young, and who had been made cardinal by Louis XIV himself and by Pope Clement XI in 1700. Louis XIV's will said that Louis Augustus, Duke of Maine , would be the protector of Louis XV, superintendent of the young king's education and Commander of the Royal Guard. The Duke of Orleans ensured the annulment of the will in parliament, on September 2, 1715, after surrounding the parliament with his troops, reading the will in a low voice so that no one could hear what was being read.

END OF REIGN AND DEATH

Only when his name appeared as a member of the council was he shouted in such a way that it created an uproar and he was acclaimed sole regent. He bribed the parliamentarians, with the return of the power that Louis intendant of the Dauphin's education, with Philip II as sole regent.

QUOTES

The well-known phrase "I am the State", or "The State is me" ("L'état, c'est moi"), was reported at least from the late 18th century.[18] It was widely repeated, but also denounced as apocryphal in the early 19th century. He indeed once said, "Every time I appoint someone to a vacant office, I make a hundred unhappy and one ungrateful."[20][21] Louis is recorded by numerous eyewitnesses to have said on his deathbed, "Je m'en vais, mais l'État demeurera toujours." ("I am leaving, but the State will always remain.")

PATERNITY ALLEGATIONS

A woman born in 1660 claimed to be the daughter of Louis XIV by an unidentified gardener, the king never recognized her and she was married at La Queue-en-Brie to a sentry. Claudia de Vin des Ceillets, the king's lover, had a daughter with Louis XIV around 1676 Louise de Maisonblanche. Louis XIV never recognized her. Perhaps due to the fact that his mother had other lovers besides the king and her involvement in the episode known as "The Case of the Poisons". In January 1680, Marie Angélica de Scorailles, one of Louis XIV's numerous mistresses, gave birth to a stillborn son who was never recognized. In March 1681, it is reported that Maria Angélica gave birth to a stillborn daughter, however, her existence is doubtful.

RELATIONSHIP

Louis is against homosexual relationships due to religion and also because he is ahead of his time, turning a blind eye only to his brother, the Duke of Orleans, but still forcing him to marry and have children.