Three hundred years ago today Louis XIV died in the Palace of Versailles at the end of a reign of 72 years and 110 days, the longest of any monarch in France. Louis XIV incarnates the absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime and is famous for having built the Palace of Versailles.
Louis XIV, the Sun King
In 1938 exhibitions and cultural events were organised in France for the 300th anniversary of Louis XIV’s birth.
In 2015, 77 years later a few towns marked the 300th anniversary of the monarch’s death, for instance:
- Saint-Germain-en-Laye,
- Maisons-Laffitte,
- Marly-le-Roi,
- Port-Marly, and
- Versailles.
Louis XIV, aka the Sun King (le Roi-Soleil) by his admirers, was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (at the Henri IV Pavilion near the castle) on the 5th of September 1638. He died at the Palace of Versailles on the 1st of September 1715.
Louis XIV aged 10
Louis XIV aged 23
Louis XIV aged 63
As a monarch of the House of Bourbon he ruled as King of France from 1643 until his death. Many considered his reign as ‘the fullest of splendour and misery’. Indeed, in the 17th century, France was the leading European power.
“Like many another great man endowed with exceptional qualities, Louis XIV could have achieved tremendous and lasting benefits for his country and his people, but he allowed his great gifts to be subordinated to a selfish pride and vainglory which undermined his success, and which, after he had brought France to a high pitch of ascendancy, brought her to the verge of ruin, paved the way for the Revolution, and sealed the fate of her royalty.“
(P.E. Smythe in ‘A study of France and the French people’).
The great men of the king
Prominent men distinguished the reign of Louis XIV. They played military, financial and cultural roles, for instance:
- Mazarin,
- Condé,
- Colbert,
- Louvois,
- Turenne,
- Vauban,
- Bossuet,
- Corneille,
- Boileau,
- La Fontaine,
- Le Brun,
- Le Nôtre,
- Lully
- Le Vau,
- Mansart,
- Molière,
- Racine,
- Charles, and
- Claude Perrault…
A great architectural legacy
His architectural legacy is best seen at the Palace of Versailles. Louis XIV transformed the former hunting lodge of his father Louis XIII into a spectacular and lavish residence to serve as the Seat of his power. Louis commissioned other grand monuments such as:
- the Hôtel des Invalides and its golden dome (1679),
- the East wing of the Louvre,
- and the Canal du Midi (1681) between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
Port cities and formidable fortified towns
The king developed the ports of Brest and Toulon and fortified the cities of Belfort, Besançon, Briançon, and Lille with the help of Vauban. When he gained territories over his enemies, he commissioned the creation of new towns such as Neuf-Brisach in Alsace.
![Briançon Vauban © Etienne Baudon - licence [CC BY-SA 3.0] from Wikimedia Commons](https://frenchmoments.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Briançon-Vauban-©-Etienne-Baudon-licence-CC-BY-SA-3.0-from-Wikimedia-Commons.jpg)
A warmonger king
Louis the Great fought three major wars:
- the Franco-Dutch War,
- the War of the League of Augsburg,
- and the War of the Spanish Succession.
It was during Louis XIV’s reign that La Salle followed the Mississippi from source to mouth and Louisiana was added to the possessions of France.
The SUN king
Louis XIV choose the sun as his own emblem and you’ll see it in many places in Versailles. In Ancient Times, the sun was associated with Apollo, the god of music, poetry, art, light and knowledge.
The king’s wife and… mistresses
In 1660, Louis XIV married Maria Theresa (1638-1683), the eldest daughter of the king of Spain and had six children. His famous mistresses were Louise de La Vallière and Françoise-Athénaïs de Montespan.
After the death of Maria Theresa, Louis secretly remarried to Françoise d’Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon (1635-1719).
The King’s death
On the 1st September 1715, four days before his 77th birthday Louis XIV died of gangrene. After his death, his body was buried in Saint-Denis basilica, the necropolis of the kings and queens of France.
On the 14th of October 1793, the Revolutionaries desecrated Louis XIV’s coffin and threw his corpse in a common grave to the North of the basilica.
In 1841, Louis-Philippe commissioned a cenotaph (an empty funeral monument) in the Bourbons’ commemorative chapel inside the basilica of Saint-Denis.
Louis XV succeeded his great-grandfather, at age 5.
Buy your online ticket to visit the Palace of Versailles and its stunning domain (Park, Grand Trianon, Petit Trianon, Hameau de la Reine).
