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The last three decades of Louis's reign were marked by almost constant warfare. France was now the dominant power on the continent and other European nations felt threatened by this supremacy.
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), 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 sovereign.
Oct 20, 2024 · Known as the Sun King, Louis XIV sought to make France the most powerful nation in Europe, expanding its influence through war, diplomacy, and cultural patronage. His reign saw the rise of absolute monarchy, the construction of Versailles, and significant legal and economic reforms.
- Early Life of Louis XIV
- The Fronde
- Sun King
- The Arts and The Royal Court Under Louis XIV
- Versailles
- Louis XIV and Foreign Policy
- War of The Spanish Succession
- Louis XIV and Religion
- Death of Louis XIV
- Sources
Born on September 5, 1638, to King Louis XIII of France and his Habsburg queen, Anne of Austria, the future Louis XIV was his parents’ first child after 23 years of marriage; in recognition of this apparent miracle, he was christened Louis-Dieudonné, meaning “gift of God.” A younger brother, Philippe, followed two years later. When his father died ...
During the early years of Louis XIV’s reign, Anne and Mazarin introduced policies that further consolidated the monarchy’s power, angering nobles and members of the legal aristocracy. Beginning in 1648, their discontent erupted into a civil war known as the Fronde, which forced the royal family to flee Paris and instilled a lifelong fear of rebelli...
After Mazarin’s death in 1661, Louis XIV broke with tradition and astonished his court by declaring that he would rule without a chief minister. He viewed himself as the direct representative of God, endowed with a divine right to wield the absolute power of the monarchy. To illustrate his status, he chose the sun as his emblem and cultivated the i...
A hard-working and meticulous administrator who oversaw his programs down to the last detail, Louis XIV nevertheless appreciated art, literature, music, theater and sports. He surrounded himself with some of the greatest artistic and intellectual figures of his time, including the playwright Molière, the painter Charles Le Brun and the composer Jea...
Most famously, he transformed a royal hunting lodge in Versailles, a village 25 miles southwest of the capital, into one of the largest and most extravagant palacesin the world, officially moving his court and government there in 1682. It was against this awe-inspiring backdrop that Louis tamed the nobility and impressed foreign dignitaries, using ...
In 1667 Louis XIV launched the War of Devolution—the first in a series of military conflicts that characterized his aggressive approach to foreign policy—by invading the Spanish Netherlands, which he claimed as his wife’s inheritance. Under pressure from the English, the Swedes and especially the Dutch, France retreated and returned the region to S...
In the late 1680s, responding to yet another spate of expansionist campaigns by Louis’ armies, several powerful countries formed a coalition known as the Grand Alliance. The ensuing war, fought on both hemispheres, lasted from 1688 to 1697; France emerged with most of its territory intact but its resources severely strained. More disastrous for Lou...
It was not only decades of warfare that weakened both France and its monarch during the latter half of Louis XIV’s reign. In 1685, the devoutly Catholic king revoked the Edict of Nantes, issued by his grandfather Henry IV in 1598, which had granted freedom of worship and other rights to French Protestants, known as Huguenots. With the 1685 Edict of...
On September 1, 1715, four days before his 77th birthday, Louis XIV died of gangrene at Versailles. His reign had lasted 72 years, longer than that of any other known European monarch, and left an indelible mark on the culture, history and destiny of France. His five-year-old great-grandson succeeded him as Louis XV.
The Edict of Nantes, 1598. Columbia University Core Curriculum. History. Chateau de Versailles. The Reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715): An Overview. University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences. History: Louis XIV (1638-1715). BBC.
Jul 26, 2022 · Louis XIV finally yielded to the clergy’s pressure to obtain the revocation of the Edict of Nantes on 18 October 1685, also known as the Edict of Fontainebleau. The king’s subjects were compelled to adopt the religion of the king.
Apr 3, 2014 · Dissatisfied with the outcome, Louis XIV engaged his country in the Franco-Dutch War from 1672 to 1678, during which France managed to acquire more land in Flanders and the Franche-Compté.
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Throughout the early 1680s, Louis XIV continued his aggressive drive to expand France’s borders, particularly along the Rhine river. The annexation of the historically German city of Strasbourg in 1681 gave him control of the strategic province of Alsace .
