Louis XIV

Louis XIV
Portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1701
King of France (more...)
Reign	14 May 1643 – 1 September 1715
Coronation	7 June 1654 Reims Cathedral
Predecessor	Louis XIII
Successor	Louis XV
Regent	Anne of Austria (1643–1651)
Chief ministers	See list Cardinal Mazarin (1643–1661) Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1661–1683) The Marquis of Louvois (1683–1691)
Born	(1638-09-05)5 September 1638 Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
Died	1 September 1715(1715-09-01) (aged 76) Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France
Burial	9 September 1715 Basilica of Saint-Denis
Spouses	Maria Theresa of Spain ​ ​ (m. 1660; died 1683)​ Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon (private) ​ ​ (m. 1683)​
Issue more...	Louis, Grand Dauphin Marie Thérèse, Madame Royale Philippe Charles, Duke of Anjou Illegitimate : Marie Anne, Princess of Conti Louis, Count of Vermandois Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine Louis César, Count of Vexin Louise Françoise, Princess of Condé Louise Marie Anne, Mademoiselle de Tours Louise, Baroness of La Queue Françoise Marie, Duchess of Orléans Louis Alexandre, Count of Toulouse
Names Louis-Dieudonné de France
House	Bourbon
Father	Louis XIII
Mother	Anne of Austria
Religion	Catholicism
Signature

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 monarch in history.^[1][a] An emblem of the age of absolutism in Europe,^[3] Louis XIV's legacy includes French colonial expansion, the conclusion of the Eighty Years' War involving the Habsburgs, and a controlling influence on the style of fine arts and architecture in France, including the transformation of the Palace of Versailles into a center of royal power and politics. Louis XIV's pageantry and opulence helped define the French Baroque style of art and architecture and promoted his image as absolute ruler of France in the early modern period.

Louis XIV began his personal rule of France in 1661 after the death of his chief minister Cardinal Mazarin. A believer in the divine right of kings, Louis XIV continued Louis XIII's work of creating a centralized state governed from a capital. Louis XIV sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism persisting in parts of France by compelling many members of the nobility to reside at his lavish Palace of Versailles. In doing so, he succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many of whom had participated in the Fronde rebellions during his minority. He consolidated a system of absolute monarchy in France that endured until the French Revolution.

Louis XIV enforced uniformity of religion under the Catholic Church. His revocation of the Edict of Nantes abolished the rights of the Huguenot Protestant minority and subjected them to a wave of dragonnades, effectively forcing Huguenots to emigrate or convert, virtually destroying the French Protestant community.

During Louis's long reign, France emerged as the leading European power and regularly made war. A conflict with Spain marked his entire childhood, while during his personal rule, Louis fought three major continental conflicts, each against powerful foreign alliances: the Franco-Dutch War, the Nine Years' War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. In addition, France contested shorter wars such as the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions. Warfare defined Louis's foreign policy, impelled by his personal ambition for glory and power: "a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique".^[4] His wars strained France's resources to the utmost, while in peacetime he concentrated on preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats that their job was to create tactical and strategic advantages for the French military.^[5] Upon his death in 1715, Louis XIV left his great-grandson and successor, Louis XV, a powerful but war-weary kingdom, in major debt after the War of the Spanish Succession that had raged on since 1701.

Some of his other notable achievements include the construction of the 240 km (150 mi) long Canal du Midi in Southern France, the patronage of artists (the playwrights Molière, Racine, the man of letters Boileau, the violinist and chief musician Lully, the painter Le Brun and the landscape architect Le Nôtre, all contributed to the apogee of French classicism, described during his lifetime as the ‘Grand Siècle’, or even the ‘century of Louis XIV’.), and the founding of the French Academy of Sciences.

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