Louis XIV was the son of the French king Louis XIII and his wife, Queen Anne of Austria. Louis XIII and Anne attempted to have a child for many years, until he was born on 14 May 1643 and was baptized Louis-Dieudonné. It was expected so long that it was considered a blessing, hence the choice of his middle name which, in French, means “gift of God”.
Like legendary and literary heroes, whose heroism would be “ab initio”, that is, from birth, Louis XIV became completely convinced that his existence was a divine gift to the world. This belief will become particularly evident in the future, when the young Louis XIV will come to believe that those who disobey the king disobey God, so his orders were considered divine orders.
- Over the years.
- Louis XIV became King Sun and will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the most emblematic kings.
- What were the keys to your reign?In this article.
- We will talk about the King of France who incorporated in himself the values of monarchical absolutism.
At just four years and eight months, Louis XIV ascended to the throne of France, becoming from that moment, according to the French laws of the time, the owner and lord of the bodies and property of 19 million people.
Of course, at that age, Luus was too young to have access to the throne, and as a result, his mother acted as regent. Anne of Austria, the Queen Mother, entrusted Cardinal Jules Mazarin, as Prime Minister, with the responsibility of overseeing government decisions until Louis XIV came of age.
As he grew older, the young monarch’s education focused on politics and economics. As a child, he suffered an accident that almost cost him his life; little Louis XIV was about to drown, your mother has been accused of not being a responsible mother or not being considerate enough, however, the truth is that Louis XIV had countless opponents since childhood, no one is surprised that there were people who do not want Luus to become an adult.
When Louis XIV was 9 years old, the nobles who made up the French parliament rebelled against the Crown and Prime Minister Mazarino, marking the beginning of a long civil war known as Fronda, during which Louis XIV suffered humiliation, poverty, fear, cold and hunger.
This war marked the character of the monarch and transformed his way of thinking and acting, of course, this could be no different with a child who grew up believing that he was God’s representative on earth, so Louis XIV never forgave Paris, the nobles or the people who supported them.
In this way, Mazarino overcageed the conflict and initiated an economic and administrative reform that Louis XIV would end during his tenure, Louis greatly admired the cardinal and, even as an adult, did not dismiss him as prime minister.
Luis trained as a diplomat, but also as a soldier, and fully understood the political functioning of the moment. For this reason, Louis XIV agreed to marry the daughter of the king of Spain, instead of marrying the woman he loved, it was a concerted marriage, whose purpose was to preserve peace between France and Spain and increase French power in Europe.
After Mazarrín’s death, Louis XIV assumed all the responsibilities of government, a decision that surprised his advisers and all the nobility, because tradition indicated that the king was only a social figure, but Luus was sure of his nature and therefore deeply defended his figure as An Absolute Leader. Without accepting any suggestions, Louis XIV established in his country a regime that would survive for centuries in much of Europe.
For 54 years, Louis XIV devoted 10 hours a day to the organization of the kingdom. No detail was small, no task was delegated. Louis controlled everything, France revolved around the king. Unsurprisingly, Louis XIV was soon known as the Sun King.
The king knew that the greatest weakness of his reign was the nobility, which could easily rebel as in the time of the slingshot, so Louis XIV attracted all the nobility to Versailles, the great palace on the outskirts of Paris. the nobility lived there, seeking the king’s support.
In this way, Louis XIV controlled a long network of spies and informants who kept him informed of the nobility’s plans against the crown, so that the king could anticipate and avoid any incident.
Versailles was the quintessence of centralized government and remained a beacon of culture and scholarship for many decades.
Louis XIV was a great patron of the arts, became the protector of great writers, such as Moliére, the influential playwright, created the Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal Academy of Music and was the main sponsor of the Paris Observatory.
Thus, Louis XIV was the protector of the most important French artists. These artists sang, played and painted for the Palace of Versailles. The gardens of Versailles were the largest open-air work in all of France. However, despite the greatness of the king and his palace, the monarchy was increasingly isolated from people and art, so the royal family was delegated to palatial life.
France was a self-sufficient nation, but its king remained a soldier at heart. Louis XIV decided to invade Holland and claim the territory on a mission that was not profitable for France. Soon after, France would go to war against the Grand Alliance. group formed by Spain, England and the Holy Roman Empire.
Although France did not lose much territory, at the end of the war its economic resources ran out. Louis XIV had ceased to be the king of a rich nation, to be the king of a nation plunged into poverty, weak and miserable.
Louis XIV died a few days before his 77th birthday, which is quite unusual, being one of the liveliest kings of his time. After his death, perpetuating the unexpected tradition, the throne passed to the last son of the Duke of Burgundy, who at the time was only 5 years old.
Louis XIV was a great king, admired for his contributions to culture, but who became the man who best represented absolutism; an example of a man who believed deeply in the values of the Old Regime; besides, he believed in the idea of his destiny. and his own nature was marked from birth.
A king who may have managed to shine his nation, but has also plunged it into poverty. The Sun King was and will remain an emblematic figure in the history of France.