[51] For this purpose, an elaborate court ritual was created wherein the king became the centre of attention and was observed throughout the day by the public. Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, had to flee to the Spanish Netherlands. [118], Alternatively, Louis' critics attribute the social upheaval culminating in the French Revolution to his failure to reform French institutions while the monarchy was still secure. The system was outrageously unjust in throwing a heavy tax burden on the poor and helpless. If the Duke of Berry declined it, it would go to the Archduke Charles, then to the distantly related House of Savoy if Charles declined it.[79]. [22], During this period, Louis fell in love with Mazarin's niece Marie Mancini, but Anne and Mazarin ended the king's infatuation by sending Mancini away from court to be married in Italy. His mother had experienced four stillbirths between 1619 and 1631. Louis also patronised the visual arts by funding and commissioning artists such as Charles Le Brun, Pierre Mignard, Antoine Coysevox, and Hyacinthe Rigaud, whose works became famous throughout Europe. Johan de Witt, Dutch Grand Pensionary from 1653 to 1672, viewed them as crucial for Dutch security and against his domestic Orangist opponents. For the French musical about him, see, King of France and Navarre, from 1643 to 1715. [125][126], In 1848, at Nuneham House, a piece of Louis' mummified heart, taken from his tomb and kept in a silver locket by Lord Harcourt, Archbishop of York, was shown to the Dean of Westminster, William Buckland, who ate it.[127]. Through these liaisons, he produced numerous illegitimate children, most of whom he married to members of cadet branches of the royal family. [37], The French were forced to retreat from the Dutch Republic but these advantages allowed them to hold their ground in Alsace and the Spanish Netherlands, while retaking Franche-Comté. In their place, he raised commoners or the more recently ennobled bureaucratic aristocracy (the "nobility of the robe"). [121] Leibniz, the German Protestant philosopher, commended him as "one of the greatest kings that ever was". Louis began his personal rule of France in 1661, after the death of his chief minister, the Cardinal Mazarin. His elder son and successor, Joseph I, followed him in 1711. Anjou was not in the direct line of French succession, thus his accession would not cause a Franco-Spanish union. They were among the most significant means to spread royal propaganda prior to the construction of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. [104] At other times, he would adopt mundane roles before appearing at the end in the lead role. Louis also sought Strasbourg, an important strategic crossing on the left bank of the Rhine and theretofore a Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire, annexing it and other territories in 1681. Buoyed by the victory of Louis, duc d’Enghien (later known as le Grand Condé) at the Battle of Lens, Mazarin, on Queen Anne's insistence, arrested certain members in a show of force. French military successes near the end of the war took place against the background of a changed political situation in Austria. After striking a deal with her old friend Marie de Rohan, who was able to impose the nomination of Charles de l'Aubespine, marquis de Châteauneuf as minister of justice, Anne arrested Condé, his brother Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, and the husband of their sister Anne Genevieve de Bourbon, duchess of Longueville. Arguably, Louis also applied himself indirectly to "the alleviation of the burdens of [his] subjects." Even while French Catholic leaders exulted, Pope Innocent XI still argued with Louis over Gallicanism and criticised the use of violence. Further down the French line of succession in 1715 was the House of Conde, followed by the House of Conti (a cadet branch of the House of Conde). In the acquisition of Alsace and half of Flanders, and of all of Franche-Comté, what he really liked was the name he made for himself. Louis' patriline is the line from which he is descended father to son. Defeats, famine, and mounting debt greatly weakened France. Burgundy's elder son, Louis, Duke of Brittany, joined them a few weeks later. [18] "In one sense, Louis' childhood came to an end with the outbreak of the Fronde. Unsurprisingly, the pope repudiated the Declaration.[4]. Although an attempt to restore James II failed at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, France accumulated a string of victories from Flanders in the north, Germany in the east, and Italy and Spain in the south, to the high seas and the colonies. Over the course of four building campaigns, Louis converted a hunting lodge built by Louis XIII into the spectacular Palace of Versailles. The earliest portrayals of Louis already followed the pictorial conventions of the day in depicting the child king as the majestically royal incarnation of France. The War of Devolution did not focus on the payment of the dowry; rather, the lack of payment was what Louis XIV used as a pretext for nullifying Maria Theresa's renunciation of her claims, allowing the land to "devolve" to him. This captured Franche-Comté and much of the Spanish Netherlands; French expansion in this area was a direct threat to Dutch economic interests. It was governed by kings who considered themselves sovereign and all-powerful because their authority was drawn from God. Louis was willing enough to tax the nobles but was unwilling to fall under their control, and only towards the close of his reign, under extreme stress of war, was he able, for the first time in French history, to impose direct taxes on the aristocratic elements of the population. After all, the Edict was the pragmatic concession of his grandfather Henry IV to end the longstanding French Wars of Religion. This line can be traced back more than 1,200 years from Robert of Hesbaye to the present day, through Kings of France & Navarre, Spain and Two-Sicilies, Dukes of Parma and Grand-Dukes of Luxembourg, Princes of Orléans and Emperors of Brazil. He claimed descent from Charlemagne, but the story goes that his father, as a young page of Louis XIII., gained favour with his royal master by his skill in holding the stirrup, and was finally made a … Moreover, a mob of angry Parisians broke into the royal palace and demanded to see their king. All that remained of his immediate family was Louis's sister-in-law, Elizabeth Charlotte. No further churches were to be constructed, and those already existing were to be demolished. He brought the Académie Française under his patronage and became its "Protector". Thanks to Louis, his allies the Electors of Bavaria and Cologne were restored to their prewar status and returned their lands.[88]. The Fronde thus gradually lost steam and ended in 1653, when Mazarin returned triumphantly from exile. Colbert's mercantilist administration established new industries and encouraged manufacturers and inventors, such as the Lyon silk manufacturers and the Gobelins manufactory, a producer of tapestries. Pondichéry and Acadia were returned to France, and Louis's de facto possession of Saint-Domingue was recognised as lawful. Versailles became a dazzling, awe-inspiring setting for state affairs and the reception of foreign dignitaries. Based on the laws of primogeniture, France had the better claim as it originated from the eldest daughters in two generations. In addition, France also contested shorter wars, such as the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions. Lorraine, which had been occupied by the French since 1670, was returned to its rightful Duke Leopold, albeit with a right of way to the French military. This had several implications. Later, the Battle of Ramillies delivered the Low Countries to the Allies, and the Battle of Turin forced Louis to evacuate Italy, leaving it open to Allied forces. The Frondeurs claimed to act on Louis' behalf, and in his real interest against his mother and Mazarin. Praising his ability to choose and encourage men of talent, the historian Chateaubriand noted: "it is the voice of genius of all kinds which sounds from the tomb of Louis".[25]. Salmon | Published in History Today. The archbishopric had traditionally been held by the Wittelsbachs of Bavaria, but the Bavarian claimant to replace Maximilian Henry, Prince Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, was at that time not more than 17 years old and not even ordained. To rectify the situation, Louis chose Jean-Baptiste Colbert as Controller-General of Finances in 1665. Most European rulers accepted Philip as king, some reluctantly. The members of that council were called ministers of state. To break the Portuguese dominance there, Louis sent Jesuit missionaries to the court of the Kangxi Emperor in 1685: Jean de Fontaney, Joachim Bouvet, Jean-François Gerbillon, Louis Le Comte, and Claude de Visdelou. [124] Voltaire's history, The Age of Louis XIV, named Louis' reign as not only one of the four great ages in which reason and culture flourished, but the greatest ever. In 1673, Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette discovered the Mississippi River. First, in 1685, the Elector Palatine Charles II died. Between 300,000 and 400,000 Huguenots converted, as this entailed financial rewards and exemption from the dragonnades. Pastors could choose either exile or a secular life. Philip was the first Bourbon king of Spain, the country's present ruling house. Louis' patriline is the line from which he is descended father to son. [103], Louis loved ballet and frequently danced in court ballets during the early half of his reign. The Queen also gave a partial Catholic orientation to French foreign policy. However, only one child, the eldest, survived to adulthood: Louis, le Grand Dauphin, known as Monseigneur. without my command; to render account to me personally each day and to favor no one". Few rulers in world history have commemorated themselves in as grand a manner as Louis. [129][b][130], He did say, "Every time I appoint someone to a vacant position, I make a hundred unhappy and one ungrateful. This restored to non-Catholics their civil rights and the freedom to worship openly. [10] This action abolished the regency council and made Anne sole Regent of France. This agreement divided Spain's Italian territories between Louis's son le Grand Dauphin and the Archduke Charles, with the rest of the empire awarded to Joseph Ferdinand. From 1647 to 1711, the three chief physicians to the king (Antoine Vallot, Antoine d'Aquin, and Guy-Crescent Fagon) recorded all of his health problems in the Journal de Santé du Roi (Journal of the King's Health), a daily report of his health. The threat of an escalation and a secret treaty to divide Spanish possessions with Emperor Leopold, the other major claimant to the throne of Spain, led Louis to relinquish many of his gains in the 1668 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. The expenditure was around 18 million pounds, leaving a deficit of 8 million. The principle of cuius regio, eius religio generally had also meant that subjects who refused to convert could emigrate, but Louis banned emigration and effectively insisted that all Protestants must be converted. He may have been seeking to placate Pope Innocent XI, with whom relations were tense and whose aid was necessary to determine the outcome of a succession crisis in the Electorate of Cologne. But his actions were certainly not read as disinterested. Under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a highly developed luxury product industry has been formed in France. Louis XIV’s domestic policy was to transform France.Louis XIV built on Louis XIII’s policy of extending absolute royal rule (centralised absolutism) to all parts of the kingdom.Louis was the archetypal absolutist monarch. Although Louis XIV was not known to repose in any one of them the kind of confidence that his father … Louis XIV (1624–1715) As ruler of France for 72 years, Louis XIV had a tremendous impact on his nation’s domestic institutions. Admittedly, he may only have been hypothesising a theoretical eventuality and not attempting a Franco-Spanish union. [75] In any case, peace in 1697 was desirable to Louis, since France was exhausted from the costs of the war. Anne wanted to give her son absolute authority and a victorious kingdom. Shortly thereafter, the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia allowed Condé's army to return to aid Louis and his court. The English and Dutch feared that a French or Austrian-born Spanish king would threaten the balance of power and thus preferred the Bavarian Prince Joseph Ferdinand, a grandson of Leopold I through his first wife Margaret Theresa of Spain (the younger daughter of Philip IV). His uncle, the future. It was Condé's sister who pushed him to turn against the queen. France also overran most of the Duchy of Savoy after the battles of Marsaglia and Staffarde in 1693. He produced no children, however, and consequently had no direct heirs. To continue reading this article you will need to purchase access to the online archive. Held the office of. With the help of his finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV established reforms that cut France's deficit and promoted industrial growth. Until he reached maturity in 1723, his kingdom was ruled by Philippe d’Orléans, Duke of Orléans as Regent of France, and Cardinal Fleury was his chief minister from 1726 until 1743. [101], Rigaud's portrait exemplified the height of royal portraiture during Louis' reign. 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 an historically accurate house name it would be Robertian, as all his male-line ancestors have been of that house. This situation did not last long, and Mazarin's unpopularity led to the creation of a coalition headed mainly by Marie de Rohan and the duchess of Longueville. In their analysis, his early reforms centralised France and marked the birth of the modern French state. Votes: 101 During his childhood, he was taken care of by the governesses Françoise de Lansac and Marie-Catherine de Senecey. The treaty yielded many benefits for France. For this material accomplishment, regardless of Louvois’ many and deep moral flaws, he is properly regarded by historians as the first great civilian “minister of war.” [106] In 1661, Royal of the Academy was founded by Louis to further his ambition. For his part, Voltaire saw Louis' vanity as the cause for his bellicosity: It is certain that he passionately wanted glory, rather than the conquests themselves. Among the better documented are Louise de La Vallière (with whom he had five children; 1661–67), Bonne de Pons d'Heudicourt (1665), Catherine Charlotte de Gramont (1665), Françoise-Athénaïs, Marquise de Montespan (with whom he had seven children; 1667–80), Anne de Rohan-Chabot (1669–75), Claude de Vin des Œillets (one child born in 1676), Isabelle de Ludres (1675–78), and Marie Angélique de Scorailles (1679–81), who died at age 19 in childbirth. Sensing imminent death, Louis XIII decided to put his affairs in order in the spring of 1643, when Louis XIV was four years old. Luxembourg gave France the defensive line of the Sambre by capturing Charleroi in 1693. Europeans generally began to emulate French manners, values, goods, and deportment. Anne protected Mazarin by arresting and exiling her followers who conspired against him in 1643: the Duke of Beaufort and Marie de Rohan. Louis has often been criticised for his vanity. Conseil royal des finances ("Royal Council of Finances") who was headed by the "chef du conseil des finances" (an honorary post in most cases)—this was one of the few posts in the council that was opened to the high aristocracy. Protestant lords called on the Dutch Prince William III of Orange, grandson of Charles I of England, to come to their aid. Additionally, government officials could not be excommunicated for acts committed in pursuance of their duties. By keeping him in his post, Anne was giving a sign that the interests of France and her son Louis were the guiding spirit of all her political and legal actions. This portrayal of the monarch was to be found in numerous media of artistic expression, such as painting, sculpture, theatre, dance, music, and the almanacs that diffused royal propaganda to the population at large. [114], Line of succession to the French throne upon the death of Louis XIV in 1715. [57] This discrimination did not encounter much Protestant resistance, and a steady conversion of Protestants occurred, especially among the noble elites. He took delivery of an African elephant as a gift from the king of Portugal. Louis pressed her claims to land and chattels, hoping the latter, at least, would be given to her. [1][a] Louis XIV's France was emblematic of the age of absolutism in Europe. [14], All this led her to advocate a forceful policy in all matters relating to the King's authority, in a manner that was much more radical than the one proposed by Mazarin. Louis de Rouvroy, who later became the Duc de Saint-Simon, was born in Paris, January 16, 1675. 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