Short biography of louis xiv of france

Burgundy's elder son, Louis, Duke of Brittanyjoined them a few weeks later. Thus, on his deathbed, Louis's heir-apparent was his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis, Duke of AnjouBurgundy's younger son. He stripped Maine and his brother, Louis-Alexandre, Count of Toulouseof the rank of Prince of the Bloodwhich Louis had granted them, and significantly reduced Maine's power and privileges.

Louis XIV's only surviving legitimate grandson, Philip V, was not included in the line of succession due to having renounced the French throne after the war of the Spanish Succession, which lasted for 13 years after the death of Charles II of Spain in According to Philippe de Courcillon 's JournalLouis on his deathbed advised his heir with these words:.

Do not follow the bad example which I have set you; I have often undertaken war too lightly and have sustained it for vanity. Do not imitate me, but be a peaceful prince, and may you apply yourself principally to the alleviation of the burdens of your subjects. Some historians point out that it was a customary demonstration of piety in those days to exaggerate one's sins.

Thus they do not place much emphasis on Louis's deathbed declarations in assessing his accomplishments. Rather, they focus on military and diplomatic successes, such as how he placed a French prince on the Spanish throne. This, they contend, ended the threat of an aggressive Spain that historically interfered in domestic French politics. These historians also emphasise the effect of Louis's wars in expanding France's boundaries and creating more defensible frontiers that preserved France from invasion until the Revolution.

Arguably, Louis also applied himself indirectly to "the alleviation of the burdens of [his] subjects. Moreover, the significant reduction in civil wars and aristocratic rebellions during his reign are seen by these historians as the result of Louis's consolidation of royal authority over feudal elites. In their analysis, his early reforms centralised France and marked the birth of the modern French state.

They regard the political and military victories as well as numerous cultural achievements as how Louis helped raise France to a preeminent position in Europe. Europeans generally began to emulate French manners, values, goods, and deportment. French became the universal language of the European elite. Louis's detractors have argued that his considerable foreign, military and domestic expenditure impoverished and bankrupted France.

His supporters, however, distinguish the state, which was impoverished, from France, which was not.

Short biography of louis xiv of france: Acclaimed as “Louis the God-given”, arriving

As supporting evidence, they cite the literature of the time, such as the social commentary in Montesquieu 's Persian Letters. Alternatively, Louis's critics attribute the social upheaval culminating in the French Revolution to his failure to reform French institutions while the monarchy was still secure. Other scholars counter that there was little reason to reform institutions that largely worked well under Louis.

They also maintain that events occurring almost 80 years after his death were not reasonably foreseeable to Louis and that in any case, his successors had sufficient time to initiate reforms of their own. Louis has often been criticised for his vanity. The memoirist Saint-Simonwho claimed that Louis slighted him, criticised him thus:. There was nothing he liked so much as flattery, or, to put it more plainly, adulation; the coarser and clumsier it was, the more he relished it.

For his part, Voltaire saw Louis's vanity as the cause for his bellicosity:. It is certain that he passionately wanted glory, rather than the conquests themselves. Nonetheless, Louis has also received praise. The anti-Bourbon Napoleon described him not only as "a great king", but also as "the only King of France worthy of the name". He did say, "Every time I appoint someone to a vacant position, I make a hundred unhappy and one ungrateful.

Patrilineal descent is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations - which means that if King Louis were to choose a historically accurate house name it would be Robertian, as all his male-line ancestors have been of that house. Louis is a member of the House of Bourbona branch of the Capetian dynasty and of the Robertians.

Louis' patriline is the line from which he is descended from father to son. It is one of the oldest in Europe. This is an incomplete list of Louis XIV's illegitimate children.

Short biography of louis xiv of france: Louis XIV, king of France (–),

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. King of France from to Portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud See list. Basilica of Saint-Denis. Maria Theresa of Spain. Minority and the Fronde. This section needs additional citations for verification.

Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. August Learn how and when to remove this message. Further information: Franco-Spanish War — Personal reign and reforms. Coming of age and early reforms. Relations with the major colonies. Early wars in the Low Countries.

Non-European relations and the colonies. Further information: French colonial empire and Orientalism in early modern France. France as the pivot of warfare. Main article: Edict of Fontainebleau. Nine Years' War. Main article: Nine Years' War. Causes and conduct of the war. Main article: Peace of Ryswick. War of the Spanish Succession. Main article: War of the Spanish Succession.

Causes and build-up to the war. Acceptance of the will of Charles II and consequences. See also: Louis XIV style. Evolution of royal portraiture. Line of succession in Ancestors of Louis XIV 8. Antoine of Navarre [ ] 4. Henry IV of France [ ] 9. Jeanne III of Navarre [ ] 2. Marie de' Medici [ ] Joanna of Austria [ ] 1. Louis XIV of France Philip II of Spain [ ] 6.

Philip III of Spain [ ] Anna of Austria [ ] 3. Anne of Austria Margaret of Austria [ ] Maria Anna of Bavaria [ ]. Portals : Biography Catholicism Europe. MSN Encarta. Archived from the original on 28 October Retrieved 20 January The Independent. Archived from the original on 14 February Retrieved 4 July Catholic Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 16 December Retrieved 19 January Paris, France: Plon-Nourrit.

Retrieved 6 December Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art. University of California Press. Translated by St. John, Bayle. London: Chatto and Windus. Archived from the original on 13 July Retrieved 22 March Internet Modern History Sourcebook. History Department of Fordham University. Archived from the original on 10 April Translated by Eden, Malcolm.

Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library. Retrieved 1 April France Baroque, France Classique in French. The Columbia Encyclopedia 6th ed. Archived from the original on 7 January OCLC Cahiers bruxellois in French. III II : 85— Archived from the original on 30 December Retrieved 10 July Journal of the History of Ideas. ISSN JSTOR S2CID Dance Chronicle.

Westminster Abbey. Archived from the original on 24 July Retrieved 17 January History — Seventeenth-Century Europe. Archived from the original on 3 June Retrieved 4 May New York: E. Le roi ne peut jamais avoir tort, le roi ne peut mal faire [ The king was not wrong, the king can do no wrong ] in French. Le Normant. Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung in German.

February Archived from the original on 14 April Retrieved 11 May Archived from the original on 14 October Retrieved 13 February Paris: La compagnie des libraires. Archived from the original on 31 March Retrieved 30 August Antoine, Michel Louis XV in French. Paris: Fayard. Bailey, Gauvin Alexander Barentine, John C. Springer Publishing.

Short biography of louis xiv of france: King of France from until his

Barnes, Linda L. Harvard University Press. Beem, Charles Queenship in Early Modern Europe. Red Globe Press. Archived from the original on 24 November Retrieved 30 October The History of France. Paris: Editions Jean-Paul Gisserot. Black, Jeremy Palgrave Macmillan. Blanning, Tim Penguin Books. Louis XIV in French. Louis XIV. Translated by Greengrass, Mark.

New York: Franklin Watts. Bryant, Mark In Campbell Orr, Clarissa ed. Queenship in Europe — The Role of the Consort. Cambridge University Press. Buckley, Veronica London: Bloomsbury. Burke, Peter History Today. Claydon, Tony Europe and the Making of England, — Delon, Michel Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. Dunlop, Ian London: Pimlico.

Durant, Will; Durant, Ariel The Story of Civilization. Dvornik, Francis The Slavs in European History and Civilization. Rutgers University Press. Archived from the original on 17 October Louis was born on 5 September at St Germain-en-Laye. Louis's early years were marked by a series of rebellions against his mother and Mazarin, which were known as the 'Fronde'.

These created in him a lifelong fear of rebellion, and a dislike of Paris, prompting him to spend more and more time in Versailles, southwest of Paris. When Mazarin died inthe year-old Louis decided to rule without a chief minister. He regarded himself as an absolute monarch, with his power coming directly from God. He carefully cultivated his image and took the sun as his emblem.

Between andhe built a magnificent palace at Versailles and moved his government there from Paris in Ultimately, Louis XIV wished to bring glory to France and to his dynasty, and he died believing that he had. Contents move to sidebar hide. Page Talk. Read Change Change source View history. Tools Tools. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item.

Royal Basilica, Saint-DenisFrance. Early life and reign [ change change source ]. Absolute monarch [ change change source ]. Construction of Versailles [ change change source ]. Expansion of French power in Europe [ change change source ]. Later reign [ change change source ]. Decline [ change change source ]. Legacy [ change change source ]. Children with Maria Theresa of Spain [ change change source ].

Children with Madame de Montespan [ change change source ]. Related pages [ change change source ]. References [ change change source ]. Age of Enlightenment. Unlike monarchs before him, he excluded family members and old nobility. He worked with his finance minister Jean-Baptise Colbert during the early years. He reorganized several financial and administration aspects of the government at the time and expanded urban law enforcement to create a police force in Paris.

Short biography of louis xiv of france: Louis XIV, the 'Sun

He also expanded the French navy and the French army. Louis XIV believed in forceful foreign policies. He fought in several wars for land, two of which were against the Dutch. He was successful only in the first one, but he managed to gain a considerable amount of territory during the second war. In light of these wars, the growing size and might of the French army and other rising political tensions in Europe, many countries stopped being allies with France during this time.

This led to the country becoming isolated. The idea of glorifying the monarchy and himself through the arts was incredibly appealing to King Louis XIV and his finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Under him, French literature and art flourished. The government developed several academies which specialized in writing, music and architecture.

Louis XIV believed in propaganda and hired many artist to paint several different works of him. He did this so that his face would be preserved and he would be seen everywhere. Artists also depicted the king, like monarchs before him, in mythological situations which showed him as having great power physically and mentally. The Louvre was originally intended to be built upon and expanded as a royal residence, but it was given over to the arts and to the public after court relocated to Versailles.

Versailles was a country suburb about 20 kilometers from the capital of France. At the time it was the perfect place for the monarch to get away from Paris. It was built in four building campaigns that took around 50 years altogether. The construction of the palace ended with The Hall of Mirrors, the biggest room in the palace.