The Children of Adam and Eve

He was known as the Sun King, who imposed absolute rule on France and
fought a series of wars trying to dominate Europe. His reign, the Longest
in European history, was Marked by a great flowering of French culture.

His Parents, grateful for an heir after 20 barren years of marriage,
christened him Louis Dieudonn?literally, the "gift of God").

Early Reign

In 1643 Louis XIII died. Anne of Austria, aided by her minister, Cardinal
Mazarin, ruled France as regent. His father's Death spared Louis XIV the
beatings and abuse usually given French princes; kindly but mediocre
tutors gave him a feeble education. His mother formed his rules of
conscience, teaching him a simple kind of Roman Catholicism laced with
superstition. Mazarin instructed him in court ceremony, war, and the craft
of Kingship. The Fronde?two rebellions against the Crown between 1648 and
1653?impressed upon Louis the need to bring order, stability, and reform
to France and also Fostered in him a deep suspicion of the nobility. In
accordance with the Franco-Spanish Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), Louis
married his Spanish cousin, Marie-Th?se (1638-83), in 1660. When Mazarin
died the following year, Louis shocked France by refusing to name a first
minister; he decided to rule alone and select Jean Baptiste Colbert as his
financial adviser. Colbert encouraged domestic industry and foreign
exports and rebuilt the French navy.

Despite his rakish youth, Louis XIV proved a hardWorking King. Every
Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday he presided at a council meeting in which
he and a select group of ministers formulated policies that affected the
lives of his 20 million subjects. Louis developed two effective new
instruments of power: a corps of professional diplomats and a standing,
uniformed army. After 1682 the King spent most of his time at Versailles,
near Paris, where he had built a magnificent palace that became the
showplace of Europe.

Foreign Wars

In foreign affairs, Louis's consistent aim was to glorify France, to gird
its defenses on the northern and eastern frontiers, and to prevent any
resurgence of the power of the Habsburg dynasty, which had formerly
threatened France on two sides by its control over Spain and Germany. In
four wars he displayed before all of Europe his prowess as a military
leader. In 1667, claiming his wife's right of inheritance (jus
devolutionis), Louis invaded the Spanish Netherlands. His quick victories
prompted England, Holland, and Sweden to check France and force the Peace
of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668). Louis gained 12 fortresses in Flanders and soon
isolated the Dutch by buying English and Swedish neutrality. In 1672 he
hurled an army against Holland. For six years the Dutch, aided by Spain
and Austria, staved off French attacks. The treaties signed at Nijmegen
(1678) did not dismantle Holland but gave Louis the Franche-Comt?egion
and More forts in Flanders.

While his armies were battling Dutch Protestants, Louis had been denying
religious liberty to the Protestants (Huguenots) of France and tightening
control over his Roman Catholic clergy. In 1685, determined to force
conversion of the Huguenots, he revoked their cHarter of liberties, the
Edict of Nantes, forcing More than 200,000 into exile and igniting the
Camisards' revolt. Although applauded by his Roman Catholic subjects, the
revocation stiffened resistance to Louis in Protestant Europe.
Overconfident and ill-advised, he sent an army into the Rhineland in 1688
to claim the Palatinate for his sister-in-law Elizabeth Charlotte of
Bavaria (1652-1722). This War of the League of Augsburg (1688-97) revealed
serious deficiencies in Louis's army. Despite the devastation of the
Rhineland, the Peace of Ryswick (1697) did not improve French defenses or
add to the glory of the monarchy.

Louis's last military venture, the War of the Spanish Succession
(1701-13), stemmed from his acceptance of the Spanish throne on behalf of
his grandson, Philip. Louis's armies, opposed by an alliance of the
European powers, lost most of the major Battles, but won control of Spain.
The Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which aWarded several French territories in
North America to the British, also recognized Philip as King of Spain.
Louis ruled a war-weary France until his health Broke in 1715. Suffering
from fever and gangrene, he mustered enough strength to say, "I depart,
France remains," before dying.

Achievements

Parallel to Louis's quest for glory in war was his patronage of glory in
the arts. Moli? and Jean Baptiste Racine wrote plays performed at his
court. Paintings by French masters ornamented his palaces, where the music
of Jean Baptiste Lully charmed his guests. Louis founded the academies of
Painting and Sculpture (1655), Science (1666), and Architecture (1671),
and in 1680 he established the ComEdie Francaise. His grand palace at
Versailles afForded the ideal setting for his lavish court.

After Queen Marie-Th?se's Death in 1683, Louis secretly married a pious
and previously obscure woman, Fran?se d'Aubign?known as Madame de
Maintenon; she urged him to suppress spectacles and sin. Louis's interest
in improving Paris, However, never waned. He razed the city's mEdieval
walls, built the Invalides as a home for disabled veterans, planned the
great avenue of the Champs-?ys?, and refurbished the Cathedral of Notre
Dame.

Louis XIV was never able to resolve the tensions between a governing elite
committed to efficiency and a society organized by rank, birth, and
privilege, which explains many of the failures of his reign. His personal
example of Long, dedicated rule, However, made France the bureaucratic
model for 18th-century, absolutist Europe.