History of Louis XIV, King of France

Louis, who survived the wars of the Fronde in his childhood, became a staunch supporter of the principle absolute monarchy and the divine right of kings (he is often credited with the expression “The state is me!”), He combined the strengthening of his power with the successful selection of statesmen for key political posts. The reign of Louis - a time of significant consolidation of the unity of France, its military power, political weight and intellectual prestige, the flowering of culture, went down in history as the Great Age. At the same time, the long-term military conflicts in which France participated during the reign of Louis the Great led to higher taxes, which placed a heavy burden on the shoulders of the population, and the repeal of the Edict of Nantes, which called for religious tolerance within the kingdom, led to the emigration of 200,000 Huguenots from France.

Biography
Childhood and early years

Louis XIV came to the throne in May 1643, when he was not even five years old, so, according to his father's will, the regency was transferred to Anna of Austria, who ruled in close tandem with the first minister, Cardinal Mazarin. Even before the end of the war with Spain and the House of Austria, the princes and the highest aristocracy, supported by Spain and in alliance with the Parlement of Paris, began unrest, which received common name The Fronde (1648-1652) and ended only with the submission of the Prince de Conde and the signing of the Peace of the Pyrenees (November 7, 1659).

In 1660, Louis married the Spanish Infanta Maria Theresa of Austria. At this time, the young king, having grown up without sufficient upbringing and education, did not yet show great expectations. However, as soon as Cardinal Mazarin died (1661), the next day, Louis XIV convenes the Council of State, at which he announces that he intends to rule from now on himself, without appointing the first minister. So Louis began to independently manage the state, the king followed this course until his death. Louis XIV had a gift for choosing talented and capable employees (for example, Colbert, Vauban, Letelier, Lyonne, Louvois). Louis raised the doctrine of royal rights to a semi-religious dogma.

Thanks to the works of the talented economist and financier J. B. Colbert, much was done to strengthen state unity, the well-being of the representatives of the third estate, encourage trade, develop industry and the fleet. At the same time, the Marquis de Louvois reformed the army, unified its organization and increased its fighting strength. After the death of King Philip IV of Spain (1665), Louis XIV announced France's claims to part of the Spanish Netherlands and kept it behind him in the so-called War of Devolution. The Peace of Aachen, concluded on May 2, 1668, gave French Flanders and a number of border areas into his hands.

War with the Netherlands

From that time on, the United Provinces had a passionate enemy in the person of Louis. Contrasts in foreign policy, state views, trade interests, religion led both states to constant clashes. Louis in 1668-71 skillfully managed to isolate the republic. Through bribery, he managed to divert England and Sweden from the Triple Alliance, to win over Cologne and Munster to the side of France. Having brought his army to 120,000 people, Louis in 1670 occupied the possessions of an ally of the States General, Duke Charles IV of Lorraine, and in 1672 crossed the Rhine, conquered half of the provinces within six weeks and returned in triumph to Paris. The breakthrough of the dams, the rise of William III of Orange to power, the intervention of European powers stopped the success of French weapons. The States General entered into an alliance with Spain and Brandenburg and Austria; the empire also joined them after the French army attacked the archbishopric of Trier and occupied the 10 imperial cities of Alsace, already half-joined with France. In 1674, Louis opposed his enemies with 3 large armies: with one of them he personally occupied Franche-Comté; the other, under the command of Conde, fought in the Netherlands and won at Senef; the third, headed by Turenne, devastated the Palatinate and successfully fought the troops of the emperor and the great elector in Alsace. After a short break due to the death of Turenne and the removal of Condé, Louis, at the beginning of 1676, appeared with renewed vigor in the Netherlands and conquered a number of cities, while Luxembourg devastated Breisgau. The whole country between the Saar, the Moselle and the Rhine, by order of the king, was turned into a desert. In the Mediterranean, Duquesne defeated Reuter; Brandenburg's forces were distracted by an attack by the Swedes. Only as a result of hostile actions on the part of England, Louis in 1678 concluded the Treaty of Niemwegen, which gave him large gains from the Netherlands and the entire Franche-Comté from Spain. He gave Philippsburg to the emperor, but received Freiburg and kept all the conquests in Alsace.

Louis at the pinnacle of power

This moment marks the apogee of Louis' power. His army was the most numerous, best organized and led. His diplomacy dominated all European courts. The French nation, with its achievements in the arts and sciences, in industry and commerce, has reached unprecedented heights. The court of Versailles (Louis transferred the royal residence to Versailles) became the object of envy and surprise of almost all modern sovereigns, who tried to imitate the great king even in his weaknesses. Strict etiquette was introduced at the court, regulating all court life. Versailles became the center of all high society life, in which the tastes of Louis himself and his many favorites (Lavaliere, Montespan, Fontange) reigned. All the highest aristocracy coveted court positions, since living away from the court for a nobleman was a sign of strife or royal disgrace. "Absolutely without objection, - according to Saint-Simon, - Louis destroyed and eradicated every other force or authority in France, except those that came from him: reference to the law, to the right was considered a crime." This cult of the Sun-King, in which capable people were increasingly pushed aside by courtesans and intriguers, was bound to lead inevitably to the gradual decline of the entire edifice of the monarchy.

The king held back his desires less and less. In Metz, Breisach and Besancon, he established chambers of reunification (chambres de réunions) to seek the rights of the French crown to certain localities (September 30, 1681). The imperial city of Strasbourg was suddenly occupied by French troops in peacetime. Louis did the same with respect to the Dutch borders. In 1681, the fleet bombarded Tripoli, in 1684 - Algiers and Genoa. Finally, an alliance was formed between Holland, Spain and the emperor, forcing Louis in 1684 to conclude a 20-year truce in Regensburg and abandon further "reunions".

Domestic politics

The central government of the state was carried out by the king with the help of various councils (conseils):

Council of Ministers (Conseil d`Etat) - considered issues of particular importance: foreign policy, military affairs, appointed the highest ranks of the regional government, resolved conflicts of the judiciary. The council included state ministers with life salaries. The number of one-time members of the council never exceeded seven people. These were mainly secretaries of state, the comptroller-general of finance, and the chancellor. The king himself presided over the council. He was a permanent council.

Finance Council (Conseil royal des finances) - considered fiscal issues, financial, as well as appeals against quartermaster orders. The council was created in 1661 and was initially chaired by the king himself. The council included the chancellor, the comptroller general, two state advisers and the quartermaster for financial affairs. He was a permanent council.

Postal Council (Conseil des depeches) - dealt with general matters of administration, such as lists of all appointments. He was a permanent council.

The Board of Trade was a temporary board established in 1700.

Spiritual Council (Conseil des conscience) - was also a temporary council in which the king consulted with his confessor on the replacement of spiritual positions.

Council of State (Conseil des parties) - consisted of state advisers, quartermasters, in the meeting of which lawyers and managers of petitions took part. In the conditional hierarchy of councils, it was lower than the councils under the king (Council of Ministers, Finance, Postal and others, including temporary ones). He combined the functions of the cassation chamber and the highest administrative court, the source of precedents in the administrative law of France of those times. The Chancellor presided over the council. The council consisted of several departments: on awards, on matters from land holdings, salt tax, noble affairs, coats of arms and on various other issues, depending on the need.

Grand Council (Grand conseil) - a judicial institution which included four presidents and 27 advisers. He considered questions about bishoprics, church estates, hospitals, and was the last resort in civil cases.
The chancellor is an irremovable senior dignitary with a law degree. Was responsible for keeping the Great Seal of France. He headed the Great Chancellery, which made patents (lettre de provision), presided over the "Council of State" and had the right to preside over any higher court. Chancellors were appointed from the highest ranks of Parliament. The position belonged to the highest crown ranks in France.

Secretaries of State - There were four main positions of secretaries (according to foreign affairs, according to the military department, according to the naval department, according to the "reformed religion"). Each of the four secretaries received a separate province for administration. The posts of secretaries were sold and, with the permission of the king, they could be inherited. The positions of secretaries were very well paid and influential. Each subordinate had his own clerks and clerks, appointed at the personal discretion of the secretaries.

There was also the position of Secretary of State for the King's Household, which was an adjoining one, held by one of the four Secretaries of State. Adjacent to the positions of secretaries was often the position of controller general. There was no exact division of posts.

Councilors of State are members of the Council of State. There were thirty of them: twelve ordinary, three military, three spiritual and twelve semester. The hierarchy of councilors was headed by a dean. The positions of advisers were not for sale and were for life. The position of an adviser gave a title of nobility.

provincial administration

Governors (gouverneurs) were usually at the head of the provinces. They were appointed by the king from noble families of dukes or marquises on certain time, but often this post could be inherited with the permission (patent) of the king. The duties of the governor included: to keep the province in obedience and peace, to protect it and keep it ready for defense, to promote justice. Governors had to reside in their provinces for at least six months of the year, or be at the royal court, unless otherwise authorized by the king. Governors' salaries were very high.

In the absence of governors, they were replaced by one or more lieutenant generals, who also had deputies, whose positions were called as royal governors. In fact, none of them ruled the province, but only received a salary. There were also positions of chiefs of small districts, cities, citadels, to which the military was often appointed.

Simultaneously with the governors, the quartermasters (intendants de justice police et finances et commissaires departis dans les generalites du royaume pour l`execution des ordres du roi) were engaged in administration in territorially separate units - regions (generalites), which in turn numbered 32 and whose borders were not aligned with provincial boundaries. Historically, the positions of intendants arose from the positions of petitioners who were sent to the provinces to deal with complaints and requests, but remained to exercise constant control. The tenure of the position has not been determined.

Subordinate to the quartermasters were the so-called subdelegates (elections), appointed from employees of lower institutions. They had no right to make any decisions and could only act as speakers.
Inside the state, the new fiscal system had in mind only an increase in taxes and taxes for the growing military needs, which fell heavily on the shoulders of the peasantry and the petty bourgeoisie. Particularly unpopular was the filing of salt - gabel, which caused several unrest throughout the country. The decision to impose a stamp paper tax in 1675 during the Dutch War caused a powerful stamp paper uprising in the rear of the country, in the west of France, primarily in Brittany, partly supported by the regional parliaments of Bordeaux and Rennes. In the west of Brittany, the uprising developed into anti-feudal peasant uprisings, which were suppressed only by the end of the year.

At the same time, Louis, as the “first nobleman” of France, spared the material interests of the nobility that had lost political significance and, as a faithful son of the Catholic Church, did not demand anything from the clergy.

As the intendant of finance of Louis XIV, J. B. Colbert, figuratively formulated: “Taxation is the art of plucking a goose in such a way as to get a maximum of feathers with a minimum of squeak”

Trade

In France, during the reign of Louis XIV, the first codification of commercial law was carried out and the Ordonance de Commerce - the Commercial Code (1673) was adopted. The significant merits of the Ordinance of 1673 are due to the fact that its publication was preceded by very serious preparatory work based on the opinions of knowledgeable persons. Savary was the chief worker, so this ordinance is often referred to as Savary's code.

Migration:

On emigration issues, the edict of Louis XIV, issued in 1669 and valid until 1791, was in effect. The edict decreed that all persons who left France without special permission from the royal government would be subject to confiscation of their property; those who enter into foreign service as shipbuilders are subject, upon their return to their homeland, to the death penalty.

“The connections of birth,” the edict said, “connecting natural subjects with their sovereign and fatherland, are the closest and most inseparable of all that exist in civil society.”

State positions:

A specific phenomenon of French public life was the venality of government posts, both permanent (offices, charges) and temporary (commissions).

A person was appointed to a permanent position (offices, charges) for life and could only be removed from it by a court for a serious violation.

Regardless of whether an official was removed or a new position was established, any person suitable for it could acquire it. The cost of the position was usually approved in advance, and the money paid for it was also a pledge. In addition, the approval of the king or a patent (lettre de provision) was still required, which was also produced for a certain cost and certified by the seal of the king.

To persons long time occupying one position, the king issued a special patent (lettre de survivance), according to which this position could be inherited by the son of an official.

The situation with the sale of posts in the last years of Louis XIV's life reached the point that in Paris alone, 2,461 newly created posts were sold for 77 million French livres. Officials, however, mainly received salaries from taxes than from the state treasury (for example, overseers of slaughterhouses demanded 3 livres for each bull imported to the market, or, for example, brokers and commissioners for the wine part, who received a duty on each bought and sold barrels of wine).

Religious policy

He tried to destroy the political dependence of the clergy on the pope. Louis XIV even intended to form a French patriarchate independent of Rome. But, thanks to the influence of the famous bishop of Moscow, Bossuet, the French bishops refrained from breaking with Rome, and the views of the French hierarchy received official expression in the so-called. statement of the Gallican clergy (declaration du clarge gallicane) of 1682 (see Gallicanism).

In matters of faith, the confessors of Louis XIV (Jesuits) made him an obedient instrument of the most ardent Catholic reaction, which was reflected in the merciless persecution of all individualistic movements among the church (see Jansenism).

A number of harsh measures were taken against the Huguenots: churches were taken away from them, priests were deprived of the opportunity to baptize children according to the rules of their church, perform marriages and burials, and conduct worship. Even mixed marriages between Catholics and Protestants were forbidden.

The Protestant aristocracy was forced to convert to Catholicism so as not to lose their social advantages, and restrictive decrees were launched against Protestants from among other classes, culminating in the dragonades of 1683 and the repeal of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. These measures, despite severe penalties for emigration, forced more than 200 thousand hardworking and enterprising Protestants to move to England, Holland and Germany. An uprising even broke out in the Cévennes. The growing piety of the king was supported by Madame de Maintenon, who, after the death of the queen (1683), was united with him by secret marriage.

War for the Palatinate

In 1688, a new war broke out, the cause of which was the claims to the Palatinate, presented by Louis XIV on behalf of his daughter-in-law, Elisabeth-Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans, who was related to the Elector Charles-Ludwig, who had died shortly before that. Having entered into an alliance with the Elector of Cologne, Karl-Egon Furstemberg, Louis ordered his troops to occupy Bonn and attack the Palatinate, Baden, Württemberg and Trier.

At the beginning of 1689, French troops devastated the entire Lower Palatinate in the most terrible way. An alliance was formed against France from England (which had just overthrown the Stuarts), the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, and the German Protestant states.

The Marshal of France, the Duke of Luxembourg, defeated the Allies on July 1, 1690 at Fleurus; Marshal Catinat conquered Savoy, Marshal Tourville defeated the British-Dutch fleet on the heights of Dieppe, so that the French a short time had an advantage even at sea.

In 1692, the French laid siege to Namur, Luxembourg gained the upper hand at the Battle of Steenkerken; on the other hand, on May 28, the French fleet was defeated at Cape La Hougue.

In 1693-1695, the preponderance began to lean towards the side of the allies; in 1695 the Duke de Luxembourg, a student of Turenne, died; in the same year a huge military tax was needed, and peace became a necessity for Louis. It took place at Ryswick in 1697, and for the first time Louis XIV had to confine himself to the status quo.

War of the Spanish Succession

France was completely exhausted when, a few years later, the death of Charles II of Spain brought Louis to war with the European coalition. The War of the Spanish Succession, in which Louis wanted to win back the entire Spanish monarchy for his grandson Philip of Anjou, inflicted incurable wounds on the power of Louis. The old king, who personally led the struggle, held himself in the most difficult circumstances with amazing dignity and firmness. According to the peace concluded in Utrecht and Rastatt in 1713 and 1714, he kept Spain proper for his grandson, but her Italian and Dutch possessions were lost, and England, by destroying the Franco-Spanish fleets and conquering a number of colonies, laid the foundation for her maritime dominion. The French monarchy did not have to recover until the very revolution from the defeats at Hochstadt and Turin, Ramilla and Malplaque. She languished under the weight of debts (up to 2 billion) and taxes, which caused local outbursts of displeasure.

Last years.

Thus, the result of the whole system of Louis was the economic ruin, the poverty of France. Another consequence was the growth of oppositional literature, especially developed under the successor of the "great" Louis.

The family life of the elderly king at the end of his life was not quite a rosy picture. On April 13, 1711, his son, Grand Dauphin Louis (born in 1661), died; in February 1712 he was followed by the eldest son of the Dauphin, the Duke of Burgundy, and on March 8 of the same year, the eldest son of the latter, the infant Duke of Brittany. On March 4, 1714, the younger brother of the Duke of Burgundy, the Duke of Berry, fell off his horse and was killed to death, so that, in addition to Philip V of Spain, there was only one heir - the four-year-old great-grandson of the king, the second son of the Duke of Burgundy (later Louis XV).

Even earlier, Louis legitimized his two sons from Madame de Montespan, Duke of Maine and Count of Toulouse, and gave them the name Bourbon. Now, in his will, he appointed them members of the regency council and declared their eventual right to succession to the throne. Louis himself remained active until the end of his life, firmly maintaining court etiquette and the whole appearance of his “great age”, which was already beginning to fall. He died on September 1, 1715.

In 1822, an equestrian statue (based on the model of Bosio) was erected to him in Paris, on the Place des Victories.

Marriages and children

Louis the Great Dauphin (1661-1711)

Anna Elizabeth (1662-1662)

Maria Anna (1664-1664)

Maria Theresa (1667-1672)

Philip (1668-1671)
Louis Francois (1672-1672)

Vnebr. Louise de La Baume Le Blanc (1644-1710), Duchess de Lavalière

Charles de La Baume Le Blanc (1663-1665)

Philippe de La Baume Le Blanc (1665-1666)

Marie-Anne de Bourbon (1666-1739), Mademoiselle de Blois

Louis de Bourbon (1667-1683), Comte de Vermandois

Vnebr. Françoise-Athenais de Rochechouart de Mortemart (1641-1707), marquise de Montespan

Louise-Francoise de Bourbon (1669-1672)

Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, Duke of Maine (1670-1736)

Louis Cesar de Bourbon (1672-1683)

Louise-Francoise de Bourbon (1673-1743), Mademoiselle de Nantes

Louise-Marie de Bourbon (1674-1681), Mademoiselle de Tours

Françoise-Marie de Bourbon (1677-1749), Mademoiselle de Blois

Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, Count of Toulouse (1678-1737)

Vnebr. connection (in 1679) Marie-Angelique de Skoray de Roussil (1661-1681), Duchess de Fontanges

Vnebr. Claude de Ven (c.1638-1687), Mademoiselle Desoyers

Louise de Maisonblanche (c.1676-1718)

The history of the nickname Sun King

At the age of twelve (1651), Louis XIV made his debut in the so-called "ballets of the theater of the Palais Royal", which were staged annually during carnivals.

The carnival of the Baroque era is not just a holiday and entertainment, but an opportunity to play in a kind of "inverted world". For example, the king for several hours became a jester, an artist or a buffoon, at the same time, the jester could well afford to appear in the form of a king. In one of the ballet performances, which was called "The Ballet of the Night", young Louis had the opportunity to appear for the first time before his subjects in the image rising sun(1653), and then Apollo - the Sun God (1654).

When Louis XIV began to rule independently (1661), the court ballet genre was put at the service of state interests, helping the king not only create his representative image, but also manage the court society (however, like other arts). The roles in these productions were distributed only by the king and his friend, the Comte de Saint-Aignan. Princes of the blood and courtiers, dancing next to their sovereign, depicted various elements, planets and other beings and phenomena subject to the Sun. Louis himself continues to appear before his subjects in the form of the Sun, Apollo and other gods and heroes of Antiquity. The king left the stage only in 1670.

But the appearance of the nickname of the Sun King was preceded by another important cultural event of the Baroque era - the Tuileries Carousel of 1662. This is a festive carnival cavalcade, which is a cross between sports holiday(in the Middle Ages these were tournaments) and a masquerade. In the 17th century, the Carousel was called "equestrian ballet", since this action was more like a performance with music, rich costumes and a fairly consistent script. On the Carousel of 1662, given in honor of the birth of the first-born of the royal couple, Louis XIV pranced in front of the audience on a horse dressed as a Roman emperor. In the hand of the king was a golden shield with the image of the Sun. This symbolized that this luminary protects the king and, with him, all of France.

According to the historian of the French Baroque F. Bossan, “it was on the Great Carousel of 1662 that, in a way, the Sun King was born. He was given his name not by politics and not by the victories of his armies, but by equestrian ballet.

Louis XIV, Sun King

Louis XIV.
Reproduction from the website http://monarchy.nm.ru/

Louis XIV
Louis XIV the Great, Sun King
Louis XIV le Grand, Le Roi Soleil
Years of life: September 5, 1638 - September 1, 1715
Reigned: May 14, 1643 - September 1, 1715
Father: Louis XIII
Mother: Anna of Austria
Wives:
1) Maria Theresa of Austria
2) Francoise d "Aubigne, Marquise de Maintenon
Sons: Grand Dauphin Louis, Philip Charles, Louis Francis
Daughters: Maria Anna, Maria Teresa

For 22 years, the marriage of Louis' parents was fruitless, and therefore the birth of an heir was perceived by the people as a miracle. After the death of his father, the young Louis moved with his mother to the Palais Royal, the former palace of the cardinal Richelieu. Here the little king was brought up in a very simple and sometimes wretched environment. His mother was considered the regent France, but the real power was in the hands of her favorite cardinal Mazarin. He was very stingy and did not care at all not only about pleasing the child-king, but even about the availability of basic necessities for him.

The first years of Louis's formal reign saw the events of the civil war known as the Fronde. In January 1649, an uprising broke out in Paris against Mazarin. The king and ministers had to flee to Saint-Germain, and Mazarin to Brussels in general. Peace was restored only in 1652, and power returned to the hands of the cardinal. Despite the fact that the king was already considered an adult, Mazarin ruled France until his death. In 1659 peace was signed with Spain. The treaty was sealed by the marriage of Louis with Maria Theresa, who was his cousin.

When Mazarin died in 1661, Louis, having received his freedom, hastened to get rid of any guardianship over himself. He abolished the office of First Minister, announcing to the Council of State that from now on he would be First Minister himself, and no even the most insignificant decree should be signed by anyone on his behalf.

Louis was poorly educated, barely able to read and write, but possessed of common sense and a firm determination to uphold his royal dignity. He was tall, handsome, had a noble posture, strove to express himself briefly and clearly. Unfortunately, he was excessively selfish, as no European monarch was distinguished by monstrous pride and selfishness. All former royal residences seemed to Louis unworthy of his greatness. After some deliberation, in 1662 he decided to turn the small hunting castle of Versailles into a royal palace. It took 50 years and 400 million francs. Until 1666, the king had to live in the Louvre, from 1666 to 1671. in the Tuileries, from 1671 to 1681, alternately in the construction of Versailles and Saint-Germain-O-l "E. Finally, from 1682, Versailles became the permanent residence of the royal court and government. From now on, Louis visited Paris only on short visits. The new palace of the king was different extraordinary splendor. The so-called "large apartments" - six salons named after ancient deities - served as hallways for the Mirror Gallery 72 meters long, 10 wide and 16 meters high. Buffets were arranged in the salons, guests played billiards and cards. In general, a card room the game became an indomitable passion at court.Bets reached several thousand livres per game, and Louis himself stopped playing only after losing 600,000 livres in 1676 in six months.

Comedies were also staged in the palace, first by Italian and then by French authors: Corneille, Racine, and especially often Molière. In addition, Louis loved to dance, and repeatedly took part in ballet productions at court. The splendor of the palace corresponded to the complex rules of etiquette established by Louis. Any action was accompanied by a whole set of carefully designed ceremonies. Meals, going to bed, even the simple quenching of thirst during the day - everything was turned into complex rituals.

From a young age, Louis was very ardent and not indifferent to pretty women. Despite the fact that the young Queen Maria Theresa was beautiful, Louis was constantly looking for entertainment on the side. The first favorite of the king was the 17-year-old Louise de La Valliere, the maid of honor of the wife of brother Louis. Louise was not a flawless beauty and limped a little, but she was very sweet and gentle. The feelings that Louis felt for her could be called true love. From 1661 to 1667, she gave birth to four children for the king and received a ducal title. After that, the king began to cool off towards her, and in 1675 Louise was forced to leave for the Carmelite monastery.

The king's new passion was the Marquise de Montespan, who was the complete opposite of Louise de La Vallière. The bright and ardent marquise had a prudent mind. She knew perfectly well what she could get from the king in exchange for her love. Only in the first year of his acquaintance with the Marquise, Louis gave her family 800 thousand livres to pay off debts. The golden rain did not fail in the future. At the same time, Montespan actively patronized many writers and other people of art. The Marquise was the uncrowned Queen of France for 15 years. However, since 1674, she had to fight for the heart of the king with Madame d "Aubigne, the widow of the poet Scarron, who was engaged in the upbringing of the children of Louis. Madame d" Aubignet was granted the estate of Maintenon and the title of Marquise. After the death of Queen Maria Theresa in 1683 and the removal of the Marquise de Montespan, she acquired a very strong influence on Louis. The king highly valued her mind and listened to her advice. Under her influence, he became very religious, stopped organizing noisy festivities, replacing them with soul-saving conversations with the Jesuits.

Under no sovereign did France wage such a large-scale war of conquest as under Louis XIV. After the death of Philip IV of Spain in 1667-1668. Flanders was captured. In 1672, a war began with Holland and Spain, Denmark and the German Empire, which came to her aid. However, the coalition, called the Grand Alliance, was defeated, and France acquired Alsace, Lorraine, Franche-Comté and several other lands in Belgium. Peace, however, did not last long. In 1681, Louis captured Strasbourg and Casale, and a little later Luxembourg, Kehl and a number of environs.

However, from 1688, things began to go worse for Louis. Through the efforts of William of Orange, the anti-French Augsburg League was created, which included Austria, Spain, Holland, Sweden and several German principalities. At first, Louis managed to capture the Palatinate, Worms and a number of other German cities, but in 1688 William became king of England and directed the resources of this country against France. In 1692, the Anglo-Dutch fleet defeated the French in the harbor of Cherbourg and began to dominate the sea. On land, the successes of the French were more noticeable. Wilhelm was defeated near Steinkerke and on the Neuerwinden Plain. Meanwhile, in the south, Savoy, Girona and Barcelona were taken. However, the war on several fronts required a huge amount of money from Louis. During the ten years of the war, 700 million livres were spent. In 1690, royal furniture made of solid silver and various small utensils were melted down. At the same time, taxes increased, which hit peasant families especially hard. Louis asked for peace. In 1696, Savoy was returned to the rightful duke. Then Louis was forced to recognize William of Orange as king of England and to refuse all support of the Stuarts. The lands beyond the Rhine were returned to the German emperor. Luxembourg and Catalonia were returned to Spain. Lorraine regained its independence. Thus the bloody war ended with the acquisition of Strasbourg alone.

However, the most terrible for Louis was the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1700, the childless king of Spain, Charles II, died, bequeathing the throne to Louis' grandson Philip of Anjou, with the condition, however, that the Spanish possessions never join the French crown. The condition was accepted, but Philip retained the rights to the French throne. In addition, the French army invaded Belgium. It was restored right there. Great Union as part of England, Austria and Holland, and in 1701 the war began. The Austrian Prince Eugene invaded the Duchy of Milan, which belonged to Philip as King of Spain. At first, things were going well for the French, but in 1702, due to the betrayal of the Duke of Savoy, the advantage passed to the side of the Austrians. At the same time, the English army of the Duke of Marlborough landed in Belgium. Taking advantage of the fact that Portugal joined the coalition, another English army invaded Spain. The French tried to launch a counterattack against Austria and moved to Vienna, but in 1704 at Gechstadt they were defeated by the army of Prince Eugene. Soon Louis had to leave Belgium and Italy. In 1707, the 40,000-strong Allied army even crossed the Alps, invading France, and laid siege to Toulon, but to no avail. There was no end in sight to the war. The people of France were suffering from hunger and poverty. All the golden utensils were melted down, and even black bread instead of white was served on Madame de Maintenon's table. However, the forces of the allies were not unlimited. In Spain, Philip managed to turn the tide of the war in his favor, after which the British began to lean towards peace. In 1713 peace was signed with England in Utrecht, and a year later in Rishtadt with Austria. France lost practically nothing, but Spain lost all its European possessions outside the Iberian Peninsula. In addition, Philip V was forced to renounce his claims to the French crown.

Foreign policy problems of Louis were exacerbated by family problems. In 1711, the king's son, the great dauphin Louis, died of smallpox. A year later, the wife of the younger Dauphin, Marie Adelaide, died. After her death, her correspondence with the heads of hostile states was opened, in which many state secrets of France were revealed. A few days after the death of his wife, the younger Dauphin Louis fell ill with a fever and also died. Another three weeks passed, and five-year-old Louis of Brittany, the son of the younger dauphin and heir to the throne, died of scarlet fever. The title of heir passed to his younger brother Louis of Anjou, at that time still an infant. Soon he, too, fell ill with a rash. Doctors were waiting for his death from day to day, but a miracle happened and the child recovered. Finally, in 1714, Charles of Berry, the third grandson of Louis, died suddenly.

After the deaths of his heirs, Louis became sad and gloomy. He hardly got out of bed. All attempts to stir him up came to nothing. On August 24, 1715, the first signs of gangrene appeared on his leg, on August 27 he made his last dying orders, and on September 1 he died. His 72-year reign was the longest among all monarchs.

Used material from the site http://monarchy.nm.ru/

Other biographical material:

Lozinsky A.A. The de facto ruler was Cardinal Mazarin ( Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 8, KOSHALA - MALTA. 1965).

Prior to his birth, for twenty-two years his parents' marriage had been fruitless ( All the monarchs of the world. Western Europe. Konstantin Ryzhov. Moscow, 1999).

Beginning of the reign of Louis XIV ).

Features of the absolutism of Louis XIV ( The World History. Volume V. M., 1958).

Under him, French absolutism stabilized ( History of France. (responsible editor A.Z. Manfred). In three volumes. Volume 1. M., 1972).

Read further:

France in the 17th century (chronological table).

Louis XIII (biographical article).

Loving was the Sun King! He entered into a relationship with the Marquise de Montespan, then with the Princess of Subise, who gave birth to a son, very similar to the king. To continue the list: Madame de Ludre was replaced by the Countess of Grammont and the maiden Guesdam. Then there was the girl Fontanges. But the king, satiated with voluptuousness, quickly left his women. Why? An early pregnancy disfigured the beauty of each, and childbirth was unhappy. Today, Louis XIV would not be so quick to abandon ladies, because now pregnancy does not spoil modern women in the least.

Name: Louis XIV (Louis de Bourbon)

Age: 76 years old

Growth: 163

Activity: King of France and Navarre

Family status: was married

Louis XIV: biography

The reign of the French monarch Louis XIV is called the Great, or Golden Age. Biography of the Sun King is half legends. A staunch supporter of absolutism and the divine origin of kings, he went down in history as the author of the phrase

"The state is me!"

The record for the longest stay of a monarch on the throne - 72 years - was not broken by any European king: only a few Roman emperors held power longer.

Childhood and youth

The appearance of the Dauphin, the heir of the Bourbon family, in the first days of September 1638, the people greeted with rejoicing. Royal parents - and - have been waiting for this event for 22 years, all this time the marriage remained childless. The birth of a child, besides a boy, was perceived by the French as a mercy from above, calling the Dauphin Louis-Dieudonnet (God-given).

Popular rejoicing and the happiness of parents did not make Louis' childhood happy. After 5 years, the father died, the mother and son moved to the Palais Royal, formerly the Richelieu Palace. The heir to the throne grew up in an ascetic environment: Cardinal Mazarin, the favorite of the ruler, pulled power, including the management of the treasury, over to himself. The stingy priest did not favor the little king: he did not allocate money for entertainment and study of the boy, Louis-Dieudonné had two dresses with patches in his wardrobe, the boy slept on leaky sheets.

Mazarin explained the economy civil war- Fronde. At the beginning of 1649, fleeing the rebels, the royal family left Paris and settled in a country residence 19 kilometers from the capital. Later, the fear and deprivation experienced were transformed into Louis XIV's love for absolute power and unheard of extravagance.

After 3 years, the unrest was suppressed, the unrest subsided, the cardinal who fled to Brussels returned to power. He did not let go of the reins of government until death, although Louis was considered the full-fledged heir to the throne since 1643: the mother, who became regent with her five-year-old son, voluntarily ceded power to Mazarin.

At the end of 1659, the war between France and Spain ended. The signed Treaty of the Pyrenees brought peace, which sealed the marriage of Louis XIV and the Princess of Spain. After 2 years, the cardinal died, and Louis XIV took the reins of government into his own hands. The 23-year-old monarch abolished the position of first minister, convened the Council of State and proclaimed:

“Do you think, gentlemen, that the state is you? The state is me.

Louis XIV made it clear that from now on he did not intend to share power. Even the mother, whom until recently Louis was afraid of, was given a place.

Beginning of the reign

The previously windy and prone to panache and revelry, the Dauphin surprised the court nobility and officials with a transformation. Ludovic filled in the gaps in education - he had previously barely been able to read and write. Naturally sane, the young emperor immediately delved into the essence of the problem and solved it.

Louis expressed himself clearly and concisely, devoted all his time to state affairs, but the arrogance and pride of the monarch turned out to be immeasurable. All royal residences seemed too modest to Louis, so in 1662 the Sun King turned a hunting lodge in the city of Versailles, 17 kilometers west of Paris, into a palace ensemble of unheard of scale and luxury. For 50 years, 12-14% of the state's annual expenditures were spent on its development.

For the first twenty years of his reign, the monarch lived in the Louvre, then in the Tuileries. The suburban castle of Versailles became the permanent residence of Louis XIV in 1682. After moving to the largest ensemble in Europe, Louis visited the capital for short trips.

The splendor of the royal apartments prompted Louis to establish cumbersome rules of etiquette that applied to even the smallest things. It took five servants for a thirsty Louis to drink a glass of water or wine. During a silent meal, only the monarch sat at the table, a chair was not offered even to the nobility. After dinner, Louis met with ministers and officials, and if he was ill, the Council in full force was invited to the royal bedchamber.

In the evening, Versailles opened for entertainment. The guests danced, treated themselves to delicious dishes, played cards, which Louis was addicted to. The salons of the palace were named according to which they were furnished. The dazzling Mirror Gallery was 72 meters long and 10 meters wide. Colored marble, floor-to-ceiling mirrors adorned the interior of the room, thousands of candles burned in gilded candelabra and girandoles, making silver furniture and stones in the adornments of ladies and gentlemen burn with fire.

At the court of the king, writers and artists enjoyed favor. Comedies and plays by Jean Racine and Pierre Corneille were staged at Versailles. On Shrove Tuesday, masquerades were held in the palace, and in summer the courtyard and servants went to the village of Trianon attached to the Versailles gardens. At midnight, Louis, after feeding the dogs, went to the bedchamber, where he went to bed after a long ritual and a dozen ceremonies.

Domestic politics

Louis XIV knew how to select capable ministers and officials. Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert strengthened the welfare of the third estate. Under him, trade and industry flourished, the fleet grew stronger. The Marquis de Louvois reformed the troops, and the marshal and military engineer, the Marquis de Vauban, built fortresses that became a UNESCO heritage. The Comte de Tonnerre, Secretary of State for Military Affairs, turned out to be a brilliant politician and diplomat.

The government under Louis the 14th was carried out by 7 councils. The heads of the provinces were appointed by Louis. They kept the dominions on alert in case of war, promoted fair justice, and kept the people in subjection to the monarch.

Cities were ruled by corporations or councils made up of burgomasters. The burden of the fiscal system fell on the shoulders of the petty bourgeois and peasants, which repeatedly led to uprisings and riots. Stormy unrest was caused by the introduction of a tax on stamped paper, which resulted in an uprising in Brittany and in the west of the state.

Under Louis XIV, the Commercial Code (Ordinance) was adopted. To prevent migration, the monarch issued an edict according to which the property of the French who left the country was taken away, and those citizens who entered the service of foreigners as shipbuilders were awaiting the death penalty at home.

Government offices under the Sun King were sold and inherited. In the last five years of the reign of Louis in Paris, 2.5 thousand positions were sold in the amount of 77 million livres. Officials were not paid from the treasury - they lived off taxes. For example, brokers received a fee on every barrel of wine sold or bought.

The Jesuits, the monarch's confessors, turned Louis into an instrument of Catholic reaction. Temples were taken away from opponents - the Huguenots, they were forbidden to baptize children and get married. Marriages between Catholics and Protestants were forbidden. Religious persecution forced 200,000 Protestants to move to neighboring England and Germany.

Foreign policy

Under Louis, France fought a lot and successfully. In 1667-68, Louis' army captured Flanders. After 4 years, a war broke out with neighboring Holland, to whose aid Spain and Denmark rushed. The Germans soon joined them. But the coalition lost, and Alsace, Lorraine and the Belgian lands went to France.

Since 1688, the series of military victories of Louis becomes more modest. Austria, Sweden, Holland and Spain, joined by the principalities of Germany, united in the League of Augsburg and opposed France.

In 1692, in the harbor of Cherbourg, the forces of the League defeated the French fleet. On land, Louis was victorious, but the war demanded more and more funds. The peasants rebelled against the increase in taxes, silver furniture from Versailles went to be melted down. The monarch asked for peace and made concessions: he returned Savoy, Luxembourg and Catalonia. Lorraine became independent.

The most debilitating was Louis's War of the Spanish Succession in 1701. England, Austria and Holland again united against the French. In 1707, the allies, having crossed the Alps, invaded the possessions of Louis with a 40,000-strong army. To find funds for the war, gold dishes from the palace were sent for remelting, famine began in the country. But the forces of the allies dried up, and in 1713 the French signed the Treaty of Utrecht with the British, and a year later in Rishtadt with the Austrians.

Personal life

Louis XIV is a king who tried to marry for love. But you can’t throw words out of a song - this is beyond the power of kings. 20-year-old Louis fell in love with the 18-year-old niece of Cardinal Mazarin, an educated girl Maria Mancini. But political expediency required France to conclude peace with the Spaniards, which could seal the marriage bond between Louis and Infanta Maria Theresa.

In vain did Louis beg the queen mother and the cardinal to let him marry Mary - he was forced to marry an unloved Spaniard. Maria was given in marriage to an Italian prince, and the wedding of Louis and Maria Theresa took place in Paris. But no one could force him to be faithful to the wife of the monarch - the list of women of Louis XIV with whom he had affairs is very impressive.

Soon after the marriage, the temperamental king noticed the wife of his brother, the Duke of Orleans, Henrietta. To divert suspicion from herself, a married lady introduced Louis to a 17-year-old maid of honor. The blond Louise de la Vallière limped, but she was sweet and liked the ladies' man Louis. A six-year romance with Louise culminated in the birth of four offspring, of which a son and a daughter survived to adulthood. In 1667, the king distanced himself from Louise, giving her the title of duchess.

The new favorite - the Marquise de Montespan - turned out to be the opposite of la Valliere: an ardent brunette with a lively and practical mind was with Louis XIV for 16 years. She looked through her fingers at the intrigues of the loving Louis. Two rivals of the Marquise gave birth to Louis by a child, but Montespan knew that the womanizer would return to her, who bore him eight children (four survived).

Montespan missed her rival, who was the governess of her children - the widow of the poet Scarron, the Marquise de Maintenon. An educated woman interested Louis with a sharp mind. He talked with her for hours and one day noticed that he was sad without the Marquise of Maintenon. After the death of his wife Maria Theresa, Louis XIV married Maintenon and changed: the monarch became religious, there was no trace of the former windiness.

Death

In the spring of 1711, the son of the monarch, the Dauphin Louis, died of smallpox. His son, the Duke of Burgundy, the grandson of the Sun King, was declared heir to the throne, but he also died a year later from a fever. The remaining child - the great-grandson of Louis XIV - inherited the title of dauphin, but fell ill with scarlet fever and died. Previously, Louis gave the surname Bourbon to two sons whom de Montespan bore him out of wedlock. In the will, they were listed as regents and could inherit the throne.

A series of deaths of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren undermined the health of Louis. The monarch became gloomy and sad, lost interest in state affairs, could lie in bed all day and grew decrepit. A fall from a horse during a hunt was fatal for the 77-year-old king: Louis injured his leg, gangrene began. The operation proposed by the doctors - amputation - he rejected. The monarch made the last orders at the end of August and died on September 1.

For 8 days they said goodbye to the deceased Louis in Versailles, on the ninth day the remains were transported to the basilica of the abbey of Saint-Denis and buried according to Catholic traditions. The reign of Louis XIV is over. The Sun King ruled for 72 years and 110 days.

Memory

More than a dozen films have been shot about the times of the Great Age. The first, The Iron Mask, directed by Allan Dwan, was released in 1929. In 1998, he played Louis XIV in the adventure film The Man in the Iron Mask. According to the film, it was not he who led France to prosperity, but the twin brother who took the throne.

In 2015, the French-Canadian series "Versailles" was released on the screens about the reign of Louis and the construction of the palace. The second season of the project was released in the spring of 2017, in the same year the filming of the third began.

Dozens of essays have been written about the life of Louis. His biography inspired the creation of novels, Anne and Serge Golon,.

• According to legend, the queen mother gave birth to twins, and Louis the 14th had a brother, whom he hid from prying eyes under a mask. Historians do not confirm the presence of a twin brother in Louis, but they do not categorically reject either. The king could hide a relative in order to avoid intrigues and not to stir up upheavals in society.
• The king had a younger brother - Philip of Orleans. The Dauphin did not seek to sit on the throne, being satisfied with the position that he had at court. The brothers sympathized with each other, Philip called Louis "little dad".

• There were legends about the Rabelaisian appetite of Louis XIV: the monarch ate as much provisions in one sitting as would be enough for dinner for the entire retinue. Even at night, the valet brought food to the monarch.
• It is said that apart from good health There were several reasons for Louis' exorbitant appetite. One of them - a tapeworm (tapeworm) lived in the body of the monarch, so Louis ate "for himself and for that guy." Evidence has been preserved in the reports of the court physicians.

• Doctors of the 17th century believed that a healthy intestine is an empty intestine, so Louis was regularly treated to laxatives. No wonder the Sun King went to the bathroom 14 to 18 times a day, indigestion and gas were a constant occurrence for him.
• Dac's court dentist believed that there was no greater breeding ground for infection than bad teeth. Therefore, he removed the teeth of the monarch with an unwavering hand until, by the age of 40, nothing remained in Louis's mouth. Removing the lower teeth, the doctor broke the monarch's jaw, and pulling the upper ones, pulled out a piece of the sky, which caused a hole in Louis. In order to disinfect, Daka burned the inflamed sky with a red-hot rod.

• At the court of Louis, perfumes and aromatic powders were used in huge quantities. The concepts of hygiene in the 17th century were different from the current ones: dukes and servants did not have the habit of washing. But the stench emanating from Louis has become a byword. One of the reasons is the unchewed food stuck in the hole made by the dentist in the sky of the king.
• The monarch adored luxury. In Versailles and other residences, Louis counted 500 beds, the king's wardrobe had a thousand wigs, and four dozen tailors sewed outfits for Louis.

• Louis XIV is credited with the authorship of high-heeled shoes with red soles, which became the prototype of the Louboutins sung by Sergei Shnurov. 10-centimeter heels added to the monarch (1.63 meters) height.
• The Sun King went down in history as the founder of the Grand Maniere, which characterizes the combination of classicism and baroque. Palace furniture in the style of Louis XIV is oversaturated decorative elements, carving, gilding.

The attention of any tourist who stepped under the arches of the royal residence near Paris, Versailles, in the very first minutes will be drawn to the numerous emblems on the walls, tapestries and other furnishings of this beautiful palace ensemble. The emblems represent a human face framed by the sun's rays illuminating the globe.

Source: Ivonin Yu. E., Ivonina L. I. Rulers of the destinies of Europe: emperors, kings, ministers of the 16th - 18th centuries. - Smolensk: Rusich, 2004. P. 404-426.

This face, executed in the best classical traditions, belongs to the most famous of all the French kings of the Bourbon dynasty, Louis XIV. The personal reign of this monarch, which had no precedents in Europe in its duration - 54 years (1661-1715) - went down in history as a classic example of absolute power, as an era of unprecedented prosperity in all areas of culture and spiritual life, which paved the way for the emergence of the French Enlightenment and, finally, as the era of French hegemony in Europe. Therefore, it is not surprising that the second half of the 17th - early 18th centuries. in France it was called the "Golden Age", the monarch himself was called the "Sun King".

A huge number of scientific and popular books have been written about Louis XIV and his time abroad.

The authors of a number of works of art known to the general public are still attracted by the personality of this king and his era, so full of a wide variety of events that left an indelible mark on the history of France and Europe. Domestic scientists and writers, in comparison with their foreign counterparts, paid relatively little attention to both Louis himself and his time. Nevertheless, everyone in our country has at least an approximate idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthis king. But the problem is how accurate this representation is to reality. Despite the wide range of the most controversial assessments of the life and work of Louis XIV, all of them can be reduced to the following: he was a great king, although he made many mistakes throughout his long reign, he elevated France to the rank of major European powers, although in the end he diplomacy and endless wars led to the elimination of French hegemony in Europe. Many historians note the inconsistency of the policy of this king, as well as the ambiguity of the results of his reign. As a rule, they look for the origins of contradictions in the previous development of France, the childhood and youth of the future absolute ruler. The psychological characteristics of Louis XIV are very popular, although they practically remain behind the scenes knowledge of the depth of the king's political thinking and his mental abilities. The latter, I think, is extremely important for assessing the life and activities of a person within the framework of her era, understanding her needs of her time, as well as her ability to foresee the future. Here we will immediately take revenge, so as not to refer to this in the future, that the versions about the “iron mask” as the twin brother of Louis XIV have long been swept aside by historical science.

"Louis, by the grace of God, King of France and Navarre" - such was the title of the French monarchs in the middle of the 17th century. It represented a certain contrast with the contemporary long titles of Spanish kings, Holy Roman Emperors or Russian tsars. But its apparent simplicity in fact meant the unity of the country and the presence of a strong central government. To a large extent, the strength of the French monarchy was based on the fact that the king simultaneously combined various roles in French politics. We will only mention the most important ones. The king was the first judge and, undoubtedly, the personification of justice for all the inhabitants of the kingdom. Being responsible (p. 406) before God for the well-being of his state, he directed its domestic and foreign policy and was the source of all legitimate political power in the country. As the first overlord, he had the largest lands in France. He was the first nobleman of the kingdom, protector and head of the Catholic Church in France. Thus, wide legally justified powers in the event of fortunate circumstances gave the king of France rich opportunities to effective management and the exercise of his power, of course, provided that he possessed certain qualities for this.

In practice, of course, no king of France could simultaneously combine all these functions on a full scale. The existing social order, the presence of government and local authorities, as well as the energy, talents, personal psychological features monarchs limited the scope of their activities. In addition, the king, in order to successfully rule, had to be a good actor. As for Louis XIV, this case circumstances were favorable for him.

Actually, the reign of Louis XIV began much earlier than his immediate reign. In 1643, after the death of his father Louis XIII, he became king of France at the age of five. But only in 1661, after the death of the first minister, Cardinal Giulio Mazarin, Louis XIV took full power into his own hands, proclaiming the principle "The State is me." Realizing the comprehensive and unconditional significance of his power and power, the king repeated this phrase very often.

... For the deployment of the stormy activities of the new king, solid ground had already been prepared. He had to consolidate all the achievements and outline the further path for the development of French statehood. The outstanding ministers of France, Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin, who had advanced political thinking for that era, were the creators of the theoretical foundations of French (p. 407) absolutism, laid its foundation and strengthened it in a successful struggle against opponents of absolute power. The crisis in the era of the Fronde was overcome, the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ensured the hegemony of France on the continent and made it the guarantor of European balance. The Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659 consolidated this success. This magnificent political legacy was to be used by the young king.

If we try to give a psychological characterization of Louis XIV, then we can somewhat correct the widespread idea of ​​​​this king as a selfish and thoughtless person. According to his own explanations, he chose the emblem of the "sun king" for himself, since the sun is the giver of all blessings, a tireless worker and a source of justice, it is a symbol of a calm and balanced government. The late birth of the future monarch, which contemporaries called miraculous, the foundations of his upbringing laid by Anna of Austria and Giulio Mazarin, the horrors of the Fronde experienced - all this forced the young man to manage in this way and show himself to be a real, powerful sovereign. As a child, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, he was "serious ... prudent enough to remain silent, fearing to say something inappropriate", and, starting to rule, Louis tried to fill in the gaps in his education, since his curriculum was too general and avoided special knowledge. Undoubtedly, the king was a man of duty and, contrary to the famous phrase, considered the state incomparably higher than himself as an individual. He performed the “royal craft” conscientiously: in his view, it was associated with constant work, with the need for ceremonial discipline, restraint in the public manifestation of feelings, and strict self-control. Even his entertainment was largely a matter of state, their splendor supported the prestige of the French monarchy in Europe.

Could Louis XIV do without political mistakes? Was the time of his reign really calm and balanced? (p.408)

Continuing, as he believed, the work of Richelieu and Mazarin, Louis XIV was most of all occupied with the improvement of royal absolutism, which corresponded to his personal inclinations and concepts of the duty of the monarch. His Majesty persistently pursued the idea that the source of any statehood is only the king, who is placed by God himself above other people and therefore more perfectly than they evaluate the surrounding circumstances. “One head,” he said, “belongs to the right to consider and resolve issues, the functions of the remaining members are only in the execution of orders transmitted to them.” He considered the absolute power of the sovereign and the complete subordination of his subjects to him as one of the main divine commandments. “In all Christian teaching, there is no clearer established principle as the unquestioning obedience of subjects to those who are placed over them.

Each of his ministers, advisers or close associates could retain his position, provided that he managed to pretend that he was learning everything from the king and considered him alone the reason for the success of any business. Very good example in this regard, there was the case of the surintendant of finance, Nicolas Fouquet, whose name during the reign of Mazarin was associated with the stabilization of the financial situation in France. This case was also the most striking manifestation of the royal vindictiveness and vindictiveness brought up by the Fronde and was associated with the desire to remove everyone who does not obey the sovereign in due measure, who can be compared with him. Despite the fact that Fouquet during the years of the Fronde showed absolute loyalty to the Mazarin government and had considerable merits before the supreme power, the king eliminated him. In his behavior, Louis, most likely, saw something "Fronde" - self-reliance, an independent mind. The Surintendant also fortified the island of Belle Île that belonged to him, attracted clients from the military, lawyers, representatives of culture, maintained a magnificent courtyard and a whole staff of informers. His castle Vaux-le-Viscount was not inferior in beauty and splendor to the royal palace. In addition, according to a document that has survived (p. 409), though only in a copy, Fouquet tried to establish relations with the king's mistress, Louise de Lavaliere. In September 1661, the surintendant was arrested at the feast of Vaux-le-Vicomte by the well-known captain of the royal musketeers, d'Artagnan, and spent the rest of his life in prison.

Louis XIV could not put up with the existence of political rights that remained after the death of Richelieu and Mazarin for some state and public institutions, because these rights to some extent contradicted the concept of royal omnipotence. Therefore, he destroyed them and introduced bureaucratic centralization, brought to perfection. The king, of course, listened to the opinions of ministers, members of his family, favorites and favorites. But he stood firmly at the top of the pyramid of power. In accordance with the orders and instructions of the monarch, secretaries of state acted, each of which, in addition to the main field of activity - financial, military, etc. - had several large administrative-territorial regions under his command. These areas (there were 25 of them) were called "generalite". Louis XIV reformed the Royal Council, increased the number of its members, turning it into a real government in his own person. Under him, the States General were not convened, provincial and city self-government was everywhere destroyed and replaced by the administration of royal officials, of whom the intendants were endowed with the broadest powers. The latter carried out the policy and activities of the government and its head - the king. The bureaucracy was omnipotent.

But it cannot be said that Louis XIV was not surrounded by sensible officials or did not heed their advice. In the first half of the king's reign, the comptroller general of finances Colbert, the minister of war Louvois, the military engineer Vauban, talented generals - Condé, Turenne, Tesse, Vendome and many others contributed to the splendor of his reign. (p. 410)

Jean-Baptiste Colbert came from the bourgeois strata and in his youth managed the private property of Mazarin, who was able to appreciate his outstanding mind, honesty and hard work, and recommended him to the king before his death. Louis was won over by Colbert's relative modesty compared to the rest of his employees, and he appointed him comptroller-general of the finances. All the measures taken by Colbert to raise French industry and trade received a special name in history - Colbertism. First of all, the Comptroller General of Finance streamlined the system of financial management. Strict accountability was introduced in the receipt and expenditure of state revenues, all those who illegally evaded it were brought to pay land tax, taxes on luxury goods were increased, etc. True, in accordance with the policy of Louis XIV, the nobility of the sword (hereditary military nobility). Nevertheless, this reform of Colbert improved the financial situation of France, (p. 411), but not enough to satisfy all state needs (especially military ones) and the insatiable demands of the king.

Colbert also undertook a series of measures known as the policy of mercantilism, i.e., encouraging the productive forces of the state. In order to improve French agriculture, he reduced or completely abolished taxes for large peasants, gave benefits to those with shortfalls, and expanded the area of ​​cultivated land with the help of land reclamation measures. But most of all the minister was interested in the development of industry and trade. Colbert introduced a high tariff on all imported goods and encouraged them domestic production. He invited the best craftsmen from abroad, encouraged the bourgeoisie to invest in the development of manufactories, moreover, provided them with benefits and issued loans from the state treasury. Under him, several state manufactories were founded. As a result, the French market was filled with domestic goods, and a number of French products (Lyon velvet, Valenciennes lace, luxury items) were popular throughout Europe. Mercantilist measures of Colbert created a number of economic and political difficulties for neighboring states. In particular, angry speeches were often heard in the English Parliament against the policy of Colbertism and the penetration of French goods into the English market, and Colbert's brother Charles, who was the French ambassador in London, was not loved throughout the country.

In order to revitalize the French domestic trade Colbert ordered the construction of roads that stretched from Paris in all directions, destroyed the internal customs between individual provinces. He contributed to the creation of a large merchant and navy capable of competing with English and Dutch ships, founded the East India and West India trading companies, and encouraged the colonization of America and India. Under him, a French colony was founded in the lower reaches of the Mississippi, named Louisiana in honor of the king.

All these measures gave the state treasury huge revenues. But the maintenance of the most luxurious court in Europe and the continuous wars of Louis XIV (even in peacetime, 200 thousand people were constantly under arms) absorbed such colossal sums that they were not enough to cover all costs. At the request of the king, in order to find money, Colbert had to raise taxes even on basic necessities, which caused discontent against him throughout the kingdom. It should be noted that Colbert was by no means an opponent of French hegemony in Europe, but was against the military expansion of his overlord, preferring economic expansion to it. Finally, in 1683, the comptroller-general of the finances fell out of favor with Louis XIV, which subsequently led to a gradual decline in the proportion of French industry and trade on the Continent compared with England. The factor holding the king back was eliminated.

The Minister of War Louvois, the reformer of the French army, contributed a lot to the prestige of the French kingdom in the international arena. With the approval (p. 413) of the king, he introduced recruiting kits for soldiers and thus created a standing army. In wartime, its number reached 500 thousand people - an unsurpassed figure for those times in Europe. Exemplary discipline was maintained in the army, recruits were systematically trained, and each regiment was given special uniforms. Luvois also improved weaponry; the pike was replaced by a bayonet screwed to a gun, barracks, food stores and hospitals were built. On the initiative of the Minister of War, a corps of engineers and several artillery schools were established. Louis highly valued Louvois and in frequent quarrels between him and Colbert, by virtue of his inclination, took the side of the Minister of War.

According to the projects of the talented engineer Vauban, more than 300 land and sea fortresses were erected, channels were broken through, dams were built. He also invented some weapons for the army. After acquainting himself with the state of the French kingdom for 20 years of continuous work, Vauban submitted a memorandum to the king proposing reforms that could improve the situation of the lower strata of France. Louis, who did not issue any instructions and did not want to waste his royal time, and especially finances, on new reforms, disgraced the engineer.

The French generals Prince Conde, Marshals Turenne, Tesse, who left valuable memoirs to the world, Vendome and a number of other capable military leaders greatly increased the military prestige and asserted the hegemony of France in Europe. They saved the day even when their king started and fought wars rashly and imprudently.

During the reign of Louis XIV, France was in a state of war almost continuously. The wars for the Spanish Netherlands (60s - early 80s of the XVII century), the war of the Augsburg League, or the Nine Years' War (1689-1697) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), absorbing huge financial resources, eventually led to significant reduction French influence (p. 414) in Europe. Although France still remained among the states that determined European policy, there was a new arrangement forces on the continent, irreconcilable Anglo-French contradictions arose.

With international politics The French king was closely linked to the religious arrangements of his reign. Louis XIV made many political mistakes that Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin could not afford. But a miscalculation that became fatal for France and later called the “mistake of the century” was the repeal of the Edict of Nantes in October 1685. The king, who assessed his kingdom as the strongest in economic and political relations in Europe, laid claim not only to (p. - political, but also spiritual hegemony of France on the continent. Like the Habsburgs in the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries, he aspired to play the role of defender of the Catholic faith in Europe, in connection with which his disagreements with the See of St. Peter aggravated. Louis XIV banned the Calvinist religion in France, continued the persecution of French Protestants, which began in the 70s. and are now violent. Huguenots rushed abroad in masses, in connection with which the government banned emigration. But, despite severe punishments and cordons placed along the border, up to 400 thousand people moved to England, Holland, Prussia, Poland. The governments of these countries willingly received Huguenot emigrants, mostly of bourgeois origin, who noticeably revived the industry and trade of the states that hosted them. As a result economic development France suffered considerable damage, the Huguenot nobles most often entered the service of officers in the army of states - opponents of France.

It must be said that not everyone in the king's entourage supported the abolition of the Edict of Nantes. As Marshal Tesse very aptly remarked, "her results were quite consistent with this apolitical measure." The "mistake of the century" dramatically damaged the plans of Louis XIV in the field of foreign policy. The mass exodus of the Huguenots from France revolutionized Calvinist doctrine. In the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689. more than 2,000 Huguenot officers participated in England. The outstanding Huguenot theologians and publicists of that time, Pierre Ury and Jean Le Clerc, created the basis of a new Huguenot political thinking, and the Glorious Revolution itself became for them a theoretical and practical model for the reorganization of society. The new revolutionary outlook was that France needed a "parallel revolution", the overthrow of the absolutist tyranny of Louis XIV. At the same time, the destruction of the Bourbon monarchy as such was not proposed, but only constitutional changes that turned it into a parliamentary monarchy. As a result religious policy Louis XIV (p. 416) prepared the transformation of political ideas, finally developed and strengthened in the concepts of the French Enlightenment of the 18th century. The Catholic Bishop Bossuet, who enjoys influence at the court of the king, noted that "free-thinking people did not neglect the opportunity to criticize the policies of Louis XIV." The concept of a tyrant king was formed.

So, for France, the repeal of the Edict of Nantes was a truly disastrous act. Called upon to strengthen the royal power within the country and achieve not only the territorial and political, but also the spiritual hegemony of France in Europe, in fact, he put the cards in the hands of the future English King William III of Orange and contributed to the accomplishment of the Glorious Revolution, pushed away almost all of her few allies from France. The violation of the principle of freedom of conscience, in parallel with the violation of the balance of power in Europe, turned into serious defeats for France, both in domestic and foreign policy. The second half of the reign of Louis XIV no longer looked so brilliant. And for Europe, in fact, his actions turned out to be quite favorable. In England, the Glorious Revolution was carried out, neighboring states rallied into an anti-French coalition, whose efforts resulted in bloody wars France lost its absolute primacy in Europe, retaining it only in the cultural field.

It was in this area that France's hegemony remained unshakable, and in some aspects it remains to this day. At the same time, the very personality of the king and his activities laid the foundation for the unprecedented cultural elevation of France. In general, there is an opinion among historians that it is possible to speak of the "golden age" of the reign of Louis XIV only in relation to the sphere of culture. This is where the "sun king" was really great. In the process of education, Ludovic did not receive skills independent work with books, he preferred questions, a lively conversation to the search for truth from authors who contradicted each other. Perhaps that is why the king paid great attention to the cultural framing of his reign (p. 417), and brought up his son Louis, born in 1661, in a different way: the heir to the throne was introduced to jurisprudence, philosophy, taught Latin and mathematics.

Among the various measures that were supposed to contribute to the growth of royal prestige, Louis XIV attached particular importance to attracting attention to his own person. He devoted as much time to worrying about this as to the most important affairs of state. After all, the face of the kingdom was primarily the king himself. Louis, as it were, made his life a work of art of classicism. He did not have a "hobby", he could not be imagined as an enthusiastic business that did not coincide with the "profession" of the monarch. All his sports hobbies are purely royal pursuits that created the traditional image of the king-knight. Louis was too solid to be talented: a bright talent would have broken through at least somewhere the boundaries of the circle of interests assigned to him. However, this rationalistic focus on one's specialty was a phenomenon of the early modern period, which in the field of culture was characterized by encyclopedism, dispersion and disorganized curiosity.

By awarding ranks, awards, pensions, estates, profitable positions, and other signs of attention, for which Louis XIV was inventive to the point of virtuosity, he managed to attract representatives of the best families to his court and turn them into his obedient servants. The most well-born aristocrats considered it their greatest happiness and honor to serve the king when dressing and undressing, at the table, during walks, etc. The staff of courtiers and servants numbered 5-6 thousand people.

Strict etiquette was adopted at court. Everything was distributed with petty punctuality, each, even the most ordinary act of the life of the royal family, was arranged extremely solemnly. When dressing the king, the whole court was present, a large staff of employees was required to serve the king a dish or drink. During the royal dinner, all those admitted to it, including (p. 418) and members of the royal family, stood, it was possible to talk with the king only when he himself wished it. Louis XIV considered it necessary for himself to strictly observe all the details of complex etiquette and demanded the same from the courtiers.

The king gave an unprecedented splendor to the external life of the court. His favorite residence was Versailles, which turned under him into a large luxurious city. Especially magnificent was the grandiose palace in a strictly sustained style, richly decorated both outside and inside by the best French artists of that time. During the construction of the palace, an architectural innovation was introduced, which later became fashionable in Europe: not wanting to demolish his father’s hunting lodge, which became an element of the central part of the palace ensemble, the king forced the architects to come up with a mirror hall, when the windows of one wall were reflected in the mirrors on the other wall, creating there the illusion of the presence of window openings. The large palace was surrounded by several small ones, for members of the royal family, many royal services, rooms for the royal guard and courtiers. The palace buildings were surrounded by a vast garden, kept according to the laws of strict symmetry, with decoratively trimmed trees, many flower beds, fountains, and statues. It was Versailles that inspired Peter the Great, who visited there, to build Peterhof with its famous fountains. True, Peter spoke of Versailles as follows: the palace is beautiful, but there is little water in the fountains. In addition to Versailles, under Louis, other beautiful architectural structures were built - the Grand Trianon, Les Invalides, the Louvre colonnade, the gates of Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin. On all these creations, encouraged by the king, the architect Hardouin-Monsart, the artists and sculptors Lebrun, Girardon, Leclerc, Latour, Rigaud and others worked.

While Louis XIV was young, life in Versailles proceeded like a continuous holiday. Balls, masquerades, concerts, theatrical performances, and pleasure walks followed in a continuous succession. Only in his old age (p. 419) did the king, who was already continuously ill, begin to lead a more relaxed lifestyle, unlike the English king Charles II (1660–1685). He even on the day that turned out to be the last in his life, arranged a celebration in which he took an active part.

Louis XIV constantly attracted famous writers to his side, giving them monetary rewards and pensions, and for these favors he expected glorification of himself and his reign. The literary celebrities of that era were the playwrights Corneille, Racine and Moliere, the poet Boileau, the fabulist La Fontaine and others. Almost all of them, with the exception of Lafontaine, created a cult of the sovereign. For example, Corneille, in his tragedies from the history of the Greco-Roman world, emphasized the advantages of absolutism, extending benefits to its subjects. In the comedies of Molière, the weaknesses and shortcomings of modern society were skillfully ridiculed. However, their author tried to avoid everything that might not please Louis XIV. Boileau wrote laudatory odes in honor of the monarch, and in his satires he ridiculed medieval orders and opposition aristocrats.

Under Louis XIV, a number of academies arose - sciences, music, architecture, the French Academy in Rome. Of course, not only the high ideals of serving the beautiful inspired His Majesty. The political nature of the French monarch's concern for cultural figures is obvious. But did this work, created by the masters of his era, become less beautiful?

As we have already seen, Louis XIV made his private life the property of the entire kingdom. Let's note one more aspect. Under the influence of his mother, Louis grew up to be a very religious person, at least outwardly. But, as researchers note, his faith was faith common man. Cardinal Fleury, in a conversation with Voltaire, recalled that the king "believed like a collier". Other contemporaries noted that "he never read the Bible in his life and believes everything that the priests and bigots tell him." But perhaps this was consistent with the religious policy of the king. Louis listened to Mass every day (p. 420), every year on Holy Thursday he washed the feet of 12 beggars, every day he read the simplest prayers, and on holidays he listened to long sermons. However, such ostentatious religiosity was not a hindrance to the luxurious life of the king, his wars and relationships with women.

Like his grandfather, Henry IV of Bourbon, Louis XIV was very amorous by temperament and did not consider it necessary to observe marital fidelity. As we already know, at the insistence of Mazarin and his mother, he had to give up his love for Maria Mancini. Marriage to Maria Theresa of Spain was a purely political matter. Not being faithful, the king nevertheless conscientiously fulfilled his marital duty: from 1661 to 1672, the queen gave birth to six children, of whom only the eldest son survived. Louis was always present at childbirth and, together with the queen, experienced her torment, as, indeed, other courtiers. Maria Theresa, of course, was jealous, but very unobtrusively. When the queen died in 1683, her husband honored her memory with the following words: "This is the only trouble she gave me."

In France, it was considered quite natural that the king, if he is a healthy and normal man, has mistresses, as long as decency is observed. It should also be noted here that Louis never confused love affairs with state affairs. He did not allow women to interfere in politics, prudently measuring the boundaries of the influence of his favorites. In the "Memoirs" addressed to his son, His Majesty wrote: "Let the beauty that gives us pleasure, do not dare to talk to us about our affairs, or about our ministers."

Among the numerous lovers of the king, three figures are usually distinguished. Former favorite in 1661-1667. the quiet and modest lady-in-waiting Louise de Lavalière, who gave birth four times to Louis, was perhaps the most devoted and most humiliated of all his mistresses. When she was no longer needed by the king, she retired to a monastery, where she spent the rest of her life.

In some way, the contrast in comparison with her was represented by Françoise-Athenais de Montespan, who "reigned" (p. 422) in 1667-1679. and bore the king six children. She was a beautiful and proud woman, already married. So that her husband could not take her away from the court, Louis gave her the high court rank of sirintendante of the queen's court. Unlike Lavaliere, Montespan was not loved by the king's entourage: one of the highest church authorities in France, Bishop Bossuet, even demanded the removal of the favorite from the court. Montespan adored luxury and liked to give orders, but she also knew her place. The king's beloved preferred to avoid asking Louis for private individuals, talking with him only about the needs of the monasteries she patronized.

Unlike Henry IV, who went crazy at the age of 56 for the 17-year-old Charlotte de Montmorency, widowed at 45, Louis XIV suddenly began to strive for quiet family happiness. In the person of his third favorite, Francoise de Maintenon, who was three years older than him, the king found what he was looking for. Despite the fact that in 1683 Louis entered into a secret marriage with Françoise, his love was already the calm feeling of a man who foresaw old age. The beautiful, intelligent and pious widow of the famous poet Paul Scarron was apparently the only woman capable of influencing him. The French enlighteners attributed the repeal of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 to its decisive influence. However, there is no doubt that this act was in the best possible way consistent with the aspirations of the king himself in the field of domestic and foreign policy, although it cannot be overlooked that the “Maintenon era” coincided with the second, worst half of his reign. In the secluded rooms of his secret wife, His Majesty "shed tears that he could not hold back." Nevertheless, in relation to her subjects, the traditions of court etiquette were observed: two days before the death of the king, his 80-year-old wife left the palace and lived out her days in Saint-Cyr, an educational institution for noble maidens she founded.

Louis XIV died on September 1, 1715 at the age of 77. Judging by his physical data, the king could have lived much longer. Despite his small stature, which forced him to wear high heels, Louis was stately and proportionally complex, had a representative appearance. Natural grace was combined in him with a majestic posture, a calm look, unshakable self-confidence. The king had enviable health, rare in those difficult times. Ludovic's conspicuous tendency was bulimia - an insatiable feeling of hunger that caused an incredible appetite. The king ate mountains of food day and night, while eating food in large chunks. What body can handle it? The inability to cope with bulimia was the main cause of his many illnesses, combined with the dangerous experiments of the doctors of that era - endless bloodletting, laxatives, drugs with the most incredible ingredients. The court physician Vallo rightly wrote about the "heroic health" of the king. But it was gradually shattered, in addition to illnesses, also by countless entertainments, balls, hunting, wars and the nervous tension associated with the latter. No wonder therefore, on the eve of his death, Louis XIV uttered these words: "I loved the war too much." But this phrase, most likely, was uttered for a completely different reason: on his deathbed, the "sun king" may have realized what result his country's policy had led to.

So, now it remains for us to utter the sacramental phrase, so often repeated in studies about Louis XIV: did a man or a messenger of God on earth die? Undoubtedly, this king, like many others, was a man with all his weaknesses and contradictions. But to appreciate the personality and rule of this monarch is still not easy. The great emperor and unsurpassed commander Napoleon Bonaparte noted: “Louis XIV was a great king: it was he who elevated France to the rank of the first nations in Europe, it was he who for the first time had 400 thousand people under arms and 100 ships at sea, he annexed Franche-Comte to France, Roussillon, Flanders, he put one of his children on the throne of Spain ... What king since Charlemagne can compare with Louis in every respect? Napoleon is right - Louis XIV was indeed a great king. But was he a great man? It seems that here the assessment of the king by his contemporary Duke Saint-Simon suggests itself: "The king's mind was below average and did not have a great ability to improve." The statement is too categorical, but its author did not sin much against the truth.

Louis XIV was, without a doubt, a strong personality. It was he who contributed to bringing absolute power to its apogee: the system of rigid centralization of government, cultivated by him, was an example for many political regimes of both that era and the modern world. It was under him that the national and territorial integrity of the kingdom was strengthened, a single internal market functioned, the quantity and quality of French industrial products. Under him, France dominated Europe, having the strongest and most efficient army on the continent. And, finally, he contributed to the creation of immortal creations that spiritually enriched the French nation and all of humanity.

But nevertheless, it was during the reign of this king that the “old order” in France cracked, absolutism began to decline, and the first prerequisites for the French revolution of the late 18th century arose. Why did it happen? Louis XIV was neither a great thinker, nor a significant commander, nor a capable diplomat. He did not have the broad outlook that his predecessors Henry IV, Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin, could boast of. The latter created the foundation for the flourishing of the absolute monarchy and defeated its internal and external enemies. And Louis XIV, with his devastating wars, religious persecution and extremely rigid centralization, built obstacles to the further dynamic development of France. Indeed, in order to choose the right strategic course for his state, the monarch required extraordinary political thinking. But the "king-sun" did not possess such. Therefore, it is not surprising that on the day of the funeral of Louis XIV, Bishop Bossuet, in his funeral speech, summed up the results of a stormy and unheard of long reign with one phrase: “Only God is great!”

France did not mourn the monarch, who reigned for 72 years. Did the country already then foresee the destruction and horrors of the Great Revolution? And was it really impossible to avoid them during such a long reign?

Louis 14 - The Sun King - the most charismatic monarch of France. The era of his reign, which lasted 72 years, historians call the "Great Age". The French king became the "hero" of numerous novels and films. There were legends about him during his lifetime. And the monarch was worthy of them.

It was King Louis 14 who came up with the idea to build a grandiose palace complex on the site of a small hunting lodge. The majestic Versailles, which has been amazing for centuries, has become not just the residence of the monarch during his lifetime, here he dignifiedly, as befits an august person, accepted his death.

The greatest of the Bourbon dynasty - "God-given" Louis 14

King Louis 14 de Bourbon is the long-awaited heir. That is why at birth he received a "significant" name - Louis-Dieudonné - "God-given". The era of his reign in France began when little Louis was barely five years old. The regents were Anna of Austria - the mother of the Sun King and the notorious Cardinal Mazarin, who tried with all his might to connect his family with family ties with the Bourbons. It is interesting that the skillful strategist almost succeeded.

King Louis 14 inherited from his mother - a proud Spaniard, firmness of character and great conceit. It is quite natural that the young monarch did not “share the throne” with the Italian cardinal for a long time. Even though he was his godfather. Already at the age of 17, Louis showed disobedience for the first time, expressing dissatisfaction in front of the entire French parliament. “The state is me” is a phrase that characterizes the entire era of the reign of King Louis 14.

The unsolved mysteries of the biography of Louis de Bourbon

The birth of King Louis 14 remains the biggest mystery. According to a legend that many believed in that era, Anna of Austria gave birth to not one, but two dauphines. Did Louis have a twin brother? Historians still doubt this. But in many novels and even chronicles there are references to the mysterious "Iron Mask" - a man who, by order of the king, was forever hidden from human eyes. Such a decision can be considered justified, because twin heirs are the cause of political scandals and upheavals.

King Louis 14 really had a brother, but the younger one was Philip. The Duke of Orleans did not claim the throne and never tried to intrigue against the Sun King. On the contrary, he called him "my little dad", as Louis constantly tried to take care of him. Photo portraits of two brothers give a clear idea of ​​their mutual sympathy.

Women in the life of Louis de Bourbon - favorites and wives

Cardinal Mazarin, becoming the godfather of King Louis 14, wanted to get even closer to the Bourbon dynasty. The clever intriguer never forgot that he came from a rather seedy Italian family. It was one of the cardinal's nieces, brown-eyed Maria Mancini, who became the first love of young Louis 14. The King of France was twenty at that time, his beloved was only two years younger than him. The court whispered that the Bourbon monarch would soon marry for love. But fate decreed otherwise.

Maria Mancini - the first love of King Louis 14

Mary and Louis had to part only because, for political reasons, King Louis 14 had to marry Maria Theresa, the daughter of the Spanish king. Mazarin very quickly "attached" his niece by marrying her to an Italian prince. It is from the moment when the young monarch was forced to enter into a political marriage union that a series of his love affairs begins.

Historians believe that King Louis 14 de Bourbon inherited the amorousness and ardent temperament from his grandfather, Henry 4. But the Sun King was more prudent in his hobbies: none of his favorites influenced French politics. Did the wife know about the monarch's many love interests and his illegitimate children? Yes, but Maria Theresa was a proud Spaniard and the daughter of a king, so she remained imperturbable - Louis 14 did not hear any tears or reproaches from her.

Queen Maria Theresa - first wife of King Louis 14

The queen died much earlier than her husband. Literally a few months after her death, King Louis 14 enters into a second marriage. With whom? The governess of his illegitimate children born to the Marquise de Montespan, Francoise de Maintenon, became the chosen one. The woman was older than Louis, before that she was married to the then-famous writer Paul Scarron. At court, she was called none other than "Widow Scarron." It was with Francoise that King Louis 14 "met old age", it was she who became his last passion, it was her few whims that he performed throughout all the years of marriage.

Interesting facts from the biography of Louis 14 - the Sun King

The excellent appetite of Louis 14 was known not only to the whole court, even ordinary residents of Paris knew about it. The dishes that the monarch ate at dinner could feed not only all the ladies-in-waiting of the queen, but also his retinue. And this meal was not the only one. The king constantly satisfied his hunger at night, but he did it alone, the food was secretly brought to him by the valet.

King Louis 14 almost always fulfilled the whims of his favorites, but with regard to his second wife, the king outdid himself. When Françoise wished to ride a sleigh in the summer heat, her loving husband fulfilled her whim. Literally the next morning, Versailles sparkled with "snow", which was perfectly replaced by tons of salt and sugar.

King Louis XIV loved luxury. Historians believe that this was due to the fact that in childhood his expenses were carefully controlled by Mazarin, and he grew up completely “not royally”. When Louis became a "state", he was able to satisfy his passion. In the residences of the monarch, there were about 500 luxurious beds. He had more than a thousand wigs, clothes for him were sewn by 40 of the best tailors in France.

In contact with