Louis His reign extended from May 14, 1643 — under the regency of his mother Anne of Austria until September 7, 1651 — until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years is one of the longest in European history and the longest in French history.

Born Louis, nicknamed Dieudonné, he ascended the throne of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII, a few months before his fifth birthday, which made him one of the youngest kings of France. He thus became the 64th king of France, the 44th king of Navarre and the third king of France from the Bourbon dynasty.

Although he does not like it when his principal minister of state, Colbert, refers to Richelieu, minister of Louis XIII and uncompromising supporter of royal authority, he nevertheless subscribes to his secular project of building an absolutism of divine right. Usually, his reign is divided into three parts: the period of his minority, troubled by the Fronde, from 1648 to 1653, during which his mother and Cardinal Mazarin governed; the period from the death of Mazarin in 1661 to the early 1680s, during which the king governed by arbitrating between the great ministers; the period from the beginning of the 1680s to his death, where the king ruled more and more alone, notably after the death of Colbert, in 1683, then of Louvois, in 1691. This period is also marked by a return of the king to religion, notably under the influence of his second wife, Madame de Maintenon. His reign saw the end of the great noble, parliamentary, Protestant and peasant revolts which had marked the preceding decades. The monarch imposes obedience to all orders and controls currents of opinion (including literary or religious) in a more prudent manner than Richelieu.

France was, during his reign, the most populous country in Europe, which gave it a certain power, especially since, until the 1670s, the economy was doing well thanks in particular to the economic dynamism of the country and to public finances in order. Through diplomacy and war, Louis XIV asserted his power in particular against the House of Habsburg, whose possessions surrounded France. His “pre-square” policy seeks to enlarge and rationalize the country's borders, protected by Vauban's “iron belt”, which fortifies the conquered cities. This action allowed him to give France borders approaching those of the contemporary era, with the annexation of Roussillon, Franche-Comté, Lille, Alsace and Strasbourg. However, wars weighed on public finances and Louis XIV attracted the distrust of other European countries, who often joined forces at the end of his reign to counter his power. It was also the moment when, after the Glorious Revolution, England began to assert its power, particularly maritime and economic, under the reign of a determined adversary of Louis XIV, William of Orange.

From a religious point of view, the 17th century is complex and is not limited to the opposition between Catholics and Protestants. Among Catholics, the question of grace arouses strong opposition between the Jesuits and the Jansenists. Louis XIV had to decide between the various currents of religious thought, taking into account not only his own convictions, but also political considerations. Thus, if he condemned the Jansenists, it was also because he was wary of their anti-absolutism. Concerning Protestants, if the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 was generally well received in France, reactions in Europe and in Rome were more unfavorable. Relations with the popes are generally bad, particularly with Innocent XI. Indeed, the king intended to preserve his independence and that of his clergy from Rome, which did not prevent him from being wary of the Gallicans, often imbued with Jansenism. At the end of the reign, the quarrel over quietism also led to tensions with Rome.

From 1682, Louis XIV ruled his kingdom from the vast Palace of Versailles, whose construction he oversaw and whose architectural style inspired other European castles. His court subjects the nobility, closely monitored, to a very elaborate etiquette. Cultural prestige was affirmed there thanks to royal patronage in favor of artists such as Molière, Racine, Boileau, Lully, Le Brun and Le Nôtre, which favored the apogee of French classicism, described, during his lifetime, as " Grand Siècle”, or even “century of Louis XIV”.

His difficult end to his reign was marked by the exodus of persecuted Protestants, by military setbacks, by the famines of 1693 and 1709, which caused nearly two million deaths, by the Camisards revolt and by numerous deaths. of his royal heirs. All his dynasty children and grandchildren died before him, and his successor, his great-grandson Louis XV, was only 5 years old when he died. However, even after the fairly liberal regency of Philippe d'Orléans, absolutism continued, thus attesting to the solidity of the constructed regime.

After the death of Louis XIV, Voltaire was partly inspired by him to develop the concept of enlightened despotism. In the 19th century, Jules Michelet was hostile to him and insisted on the dark side of his reign (dragons, galleys, famine, etc.). Ernest Lavisse will be more moderate, even if his school textbooks emphasize the despotism of the king, and certain tyrannical decisions. In the second half of the 20th century, Marc Fumaroli considered Louis XIV as the “patron saint” of the cultural policy of the Fifth Republic in France. Michel of Greece points out his inadequacies, while François Bluche and Jean-Christian Petitfils rehabilitate him.
Childhood, health and education
Birth of Louis-Dieudonné
A woman and her child.
Anne of Austria and the future King Louis XIV, who wears a feather in her crush to match her dress and an apron richly decorated with embroidery and lace.

Son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, Louis was the fruit of the union of the two most powerful dynasties of that time: the Capetian house of Bourbon and the house of Habsburg2.

To the traditional title of Dauphin of Viennois was added at his birth that of First Son of France. Occurring after almost twenty-three years of sterile marriage punctuated by several miscarriages, the unexpected birth of the heir to the throne is considered a gift from heaven, which earned him also the name Louis-Dieudonné3, n 1 (and not -Désiré). If some historians have argued that the real father is Mazarin, this hypothesis has been refuted by a DNA examination4,5. If the historian Jean-Christian Petitfils proposes the date of November 23 or 30, the week when the royal couple stayed in Saint-Germain, as the date of the "conception of the dolphin"6, other authors affirm that the dolphin was conceived on December 5, 1637, in the Louvren 2 palace (December 5 fell exactly nine months before his birth, September 5, 1638)7,8.

For King Louis XIII as for the Queen (and later their son himself), this long-awaited birth was the fruit of the intercession made by Brother Fiacre with Notre-Dame de Grâces with whom the religious performed three novenas of prayers in order to obtain “an heir for the crown of France”. The novenas are said by Brother Fiacre from November 8 to December 5, 16379, no. 3.
Louis XIV in his childhood.

In January 1638, the queen became aware that she was pregnant again. On February 7, 1638, the king and queen officially received Brother Fiacre to discuss with him the visions he said he had of the Virgin Mary10 and the Marian promise of an heir to the crown. At the end of the interview, the king officially commissioned the religious to go to the Notre-Dame-de-Grâces church in Cotignac, in his name, to perform a novena of masses for the happy birth of the dolphin9,11,12 ,n 4.

On February 10, in gratitude to the Virgin for this unborn child, the king signed the Vow of Louis XIII, consecrating the kingdom of France to the Virgin Mary, and making August 15 a public holiday throughout the kingdom13. In 1644, the queen called Brother Fiacre to her and said to her: “I have not lost sight of the notable grace that you obtained for me from the Blessed Virgin, who obtained me a son.” And on this occasion, she entrusted him with a personal mission: to bring a present (to the Virgin Mary) to the sanctuary of Cotignac, in gratitude for the birth of her son13,9. In 1660, Louis No. 5. On the occasion of his visit to Provence (in 1660), the king and his mother went on a pilgrimage to the Sainte-Baume cave, following in the footsteps of Saint Mary Magdalene16.

The birth of Louisn 6, on September 5, 163817, was followed two years later by that of Philippe. The long-awaited birth of a dauphin removes from the throne the unrepentant plotter who was Gaston d'Orléans, the king's brother.
Education
Two children in costumes.
Louis XIV and his younger brother Philippe, known as “the Little Monsieur”. Painting attributed to Henri and Charles Beaubrun.
painting depicting a man
Louis XIV in coronation costume, in 1648.

In Mars to his ministerial functions, Mazarin, godfather of Louis young monarch and that of his brother Duke Philippe of Orléans (known as “the Little Monsieur”). The custom is that princes raised by governesses "pass to men" at the age of 7 (the age of reason at the time), to be entrusted to the care of a governor assisted by a deputy. governor19. Mazarin therefore became "superintendent of the government and the conduct of the person of the king as well as that of Mr. the Duke of Anjou", and entrusted the task of governor to Marshal de Villeroy. The king and his brother often went to the Hôtel de Villeroy, not far from the Palais-Royal. It was then that Louis XIV formed a lifelong friendship with the marshal's son, François de Villeroy. The king had different tutors, notably Abbot Péréfixe de Beaumont in 1644 and François de La Mothe Le Vayer. From 1652, his best educator was undoubtedly Pierre de La Porte, his first valet and the one who read historical stories to him20. Despite their efforts to give him lessons in Latin, history, mathematics, Italian and drawing, Louis was not a very hardworking student. On the other hand, following the example of the great art collector Mazarin, he showed himself to be very sensitive to painting, architecture, music and especially dance which was, at the time, a component essential to the education of a gentleman21. The young king also learned to play the guitar from Francesco Corbetta22.

Louis would also have benefited from special sexual education, his mother having asked the Baroness de Beauvais, nicknamed “Cateau la Borgnesse”, to “denify” him when he reached his sexual majority.
“Miraculous”

In his childhood, Louis XIV escaped death several times. At 5 years old, he almost drowned in one of the ponds in the Palais-Royal garden. He is saved at the last minute. At the age of 9, on November 10, 1647, he fell ill with smallpox23. Ten days later, the doctors no longer had any hope, but young Louis recovered “miraculously”. At 15, he had a breast tumor23. At 17, he suffered from gonorrhea23.

The most serious alert for the Kingdom took place on June 30, 1658: the king, at the age of 19, was the victim of serious food poisoning (due to infected water) and typhoid fever23, diagnosed as typhus. exanthematic, during the capture of Bergues in the North. On July 8, he received the last rites and the court began to prepare the succession. But François Guénaut, Anne of Austria's doctor, gave her an emetic based on antimony and wine, which once again “miraculously” healed the king. According to his secretary Toussaint Rose, it was on this occasion that he lost a good part of his hair and began to temporarily wear 8 the “window wig”, the openings of which allowed the few remaining strands to pass through25.
King of France and Navarre
Regency of Anne of Austria (1643-1661)
Related articles: Anne of Austria and Mazarin.
Cassation of the will of Louis XIII

On the death of his father, Louis-Dieudonné, who was 4 and a half years old, became king under the name of Louis XIVn 9. His father Louis XIII, who distrusted Anne of Austria and her brother the Duke of Orléans - notably for having participated in plots against Richelieu - established a regency council comprising, in addition to the two people mentioned, faithful of Richelieu, including Mazarin. The related text was recorded on April 21, 1643 by Parliament but, on May 18, 1643, Anne of Austria went with her son to Parliament, to have this provision overturned and to be entrusted with “the administration, free, absolute and entirety of the kingdom during his minority”26, in short the full and complete regency. Against all odds, she maintained Cardinal Mazarin as Prime Minister, despite the disapproval of French political circles at the time, many of whom did not appreciate that an Italian, loyal to Richelieu, was leading France27.

The Regent then left the inconvenient apartments of the Louvre and moved to the Palais-Cardinal, bequeathed by Richelieu to Louis XIII, to enjoy the garden where the young Louis XIV and his brother could play. The Palais-Cardinal then became the Palais-Royal, where governesses abandoned young Louis to their maids who gave in to his every whim, which gave rise to the legend, spread by the Memoirs of Saint-Simon, of an education neglected28.
Trial of the Sling
Main article: Fronde (history).
Painting representing the portrait of a man.
The Grand Condé, first a firm supporter of royal power, then an opponent, before returning to favor after the Treaty of the Pyrenees.
Bust of a man.
Louis XIV by Juste d'Egmont, in 1654.

In 1648, a period of strong contestation of royal authority by parliaments and the nobility began, called the Fronde. An episode that left a lasting mark on the monarch. In reaction to these events, he endeavored to continue the work begun by Richelieu, which consisted of weakening the members of the sword nobility by forcing them to serve as members of his court and by transferring the reality of power to an administration very centralized led by the nobility of the robe28. It all began when, in 1648, the Parliament of Paris opposed the taxes that Mazarin wanted to raise29. The Day of the Barricades forced the regent and the king to settle in Rueil-Malmaison30. If the court returned to the capital quickly enough, the demands of the parliamentarians, supported by the very popular coadjutor of Paris, Jean-François Paul de Gondi, forced Mazarin to consider a coup. In the middle of the night, at the beginning of 1649, the regent and the court left the capital with the aim of returning to besiege it and restore it to obedience. The matter becomes complicated when personalities of the high nobility provide their support for the Fronde: the Prince of Conti, brother of the Prince of Condén 10, Beaufort, grandson of Henri IV and a few others want to overthrow Mazarin. After a few months of siege led by Condé, a peace agreement (peace of Rueil) was reached, which saw the triumph of the Parliament of Paris and the defeat of the court. However, this is a truce rather than peace31.

In 1649-1650, a reversal of alliance occurred, Mazarin and the regent approached the Parliament and the leaders of the Grands of the first Fronde and imprisoned Condé, their former ally, and the Prince of Conti32. On December 25, 1649, the king made his first communion in the Saint-Eustache church and, when he was only twelve years old, joined the council in 1650. From February 1650, the princely revolt developed, which forced Mazarin and the court to move to the provinces to carry out military expeditions33. In 1651, Gondi and Beaufort, leaders of the Grands of the first Fronde, joined forces with Parliament to overthrow Mazarin, whom a riot forced into exile on February 8, 1651. The queen and young Louis try to flee the capital but, alarmed, the Parisians invade the Palais-Royal where the king, now a prisoner of the Fronde, is staying. The coadjutor and the Duke of Orléans will then subject the king to a humiliation that he will never forget: in the middle of the night, they entrust the captain of the Duke's Swiss Guards to verify visually that he is really there34.

On September 7, 1651, a court declared the king's majority (the royal majority is thirteen years). All the Greats of the kingdom come to pay homage to him, except Condé who, from Guyenne, raises an army to march on Paris35. On September 27, to avoid being taken prisoner again in Paris, the court left the capital for Fontainebleau, then Bourges, where Marshal d'Estrée's four thousand men were stationed35. Then begins a civil war which “will help to clarify things”35. On December 12, Louis XIV authorized Mazarin to return to France; in reaction, the Parliament of Paris, which banished the cardinal, put a price on his head for 150,000 livres36.

At the beginning of 1652, three camps faced each other: the court, freed from the supervision established by the Parliament in 1648, the Parliament and finally Condé and the Grands37. Condé will dominate Paris during the first part of the year 1652, relying in particular on the people whom he partly manipulates. But he lost positions in the provinces, while Paris, which tolerated his tyranny less and less, forced him to leave the city on October 13 with his troops38. On October 21, Anne of Austria and her son Louis XIV, accompanied by the deposed king Charles II of England, returned to the capital. Divine right absolutism begins to take hold. A letter that the king addressed to Parliament allows us to perceive its substance:

    “All authority belongs to Us. We hold it from God alone without any person, of whatever condition, being able to claim it […] The functions of justice, weapons, finances must always be separated; the officers of Parliament have no other power than that which We have deigned to entrust to them to administer justice [...] Will posterity be able to believe that these officers claimed to preside over the government of the kingdom, form councils and collect taxes, finally arrogate to ourselves the fullness of a power which is due only to Us39”

On October 22, 1653, Louis XIV, then aged fifteen, summoned a court of justice where, breaking with tradition, he appeared as a military leader with guards and drummers. On this occasion, he proclaimed a general amnesty, while banishing from Paris Grands, parliamentarians as well as servants of the house of Condé. As for Parliament, it forbids it “from taking any knowledge of state affairs and finances in the future”40.
Coronation of the king in Reims

Louis XIV was crowned on June 7, 1654 in Reims Cathedral by Simon Legras, bishop of Soissons. He left political affairs to Mazarin, while he continued his military training with Turenne41.
Marriage with Maria Theresa of Austria
Interview between Louis XIV and Philippe IV on the Isle of Pheasants in 1659. We can see the daughter of Philippe IV, future queen of France, behind him.

On November 7, 1659, the Spanish agreed to sign the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which established the borders between France and Spain. For his part, Louis The spouses are doubly first cousins: the queen mother Anne of Austria being the sister of Philippe IV and Elisabeth of France the sister of Louis XIII. This marriage, however, aims to bring France closer to Spain. It took place on June 9, 1660 in the Saint-Jean-Baptiste church in Saint-Jean-de-Luz43. Louis has only known his wife for three days, she does not speak a word of French, but the king “honors” her passionately in front of witnesses from the wedding night44. According to other sources, this wedding night, contrary to custom, did not have a witness45.

Note that on the occasion of this marriage, Maria Theresa must renounce her rights to the throne of Spain and that Philip IV of Spain, in return, undertakes to pay "500,000 gold crowns payable in three payments. It is agreed that if this payment is not made, the waiver becomes null and void46.
Early government leadership (1661-1680)
Takeover on the death of Mazarin
Painting representing a man.
Nicolas Fouquet, superintendent of finance.
Madame de la Vallière (portrait by Jean Nocret, 1667).

On the death of Mazarin, on Mars 9, 1661 Mars Louis

The degraded financial situation in 11, of which Jean-Baptiste Colbert informed him, and the strong discontent of the provinces against the pressure are worrying. The causes are the ruinous war against the House of Spain and the five years of Fronde, but also the unbridled personal enrichment of Mazarin, from which Colbert himself benefited, and that of Superintendent Fouquet. On September 5, 1661, his 23rd birthday, the king had Fouquet arrested in broad daylight by d'Artagnan. At the same time, he abolished the position of superintendent of finance48.

The reasons for Nicolas Fouquet's incarceration are numerous and go beyond a problem of enrichment. To understand the problem, it should be noted that Louis XIV, after the death of Mazarin, was not taken seriously and needed to assert himself49. However, precisely, Nicolas Fouquet can be perceived as a political threat: he fortified his possession of Belle-Île-en-Mer, he sought to build up a network of followers and did not hesitate to put pressure on the king's mother. by bribing his confessor49. He even tried to bribe Louis XIV's friend, Mademoiselle de La Vallière, into supporting him, which deeply shocked her. Furthermore, he was close to the devout, at a time when the king did not adhere to this doctrine. Finally for Jean-Christian Petitfils, it is appropriate to take into account Colbert's jealousy towards Fouquet. The first named, if he is a minister of quality whom the radical historians of the Third Republic have honored50, is also “a brutal man... of icy coldness", to whom Madame de Sévigné gave the nickname "The North"49 and, therefore, a formidable adversary.

Louis XIV created a chamber of justice to examine the accounts of financiers, including those of Fouquet. In 1665, the judges sentenced Fouquet to banishment, a sentence which the king commuted to life imprisonment in Pignerol49. In July 1665, the judges gave up pursuing the farmers and traders (financiers participating in the collection of taxes) friends of Fouquet, in return for the payment of a flat-rate tax51. All this allows the State to recover around a hundred million pounds52.
Method of government

The king governs with various trusted ministers: the chancellery is occupied by Pierre Séguier, then by Michel Le Tellier, the superintendence of finances is in the hands of Colbert, the state secretariat for war is entrusted to Michel Le Tellier, then to his son the Marquis de Louvois, the secretariat of state for the royal household and the clergy passed into the hands of Henri du Plessis-Guénégaud, until the latter's dismissal.

The king has several mistresses, the most notable of which are Louise de La Vallière and Madame de Montespan. The latter, who had in common with the king “the taste for splendor and grandeur”53, advised him in the artistic field. She supports Jean-Baptiste Lully, Racine and Boileau. Louis XIV, then in his forties, seemed seized by an intense sensual frenzy and led an unchristian sentimental life54. Things changed at the beginning of the 1680s, when, after the death of Madame de Fontanges, under the influence of Madame de Maintenon, the king became closer to the queen and then, after the death of his wife, secretly married Madame de Maintenon. The poison affair also contributes to this conversion55.

The Jesuits succeed one another in the position of royal confessor. It was first occupied from 1654 to 1670 by Father Annat, a fierce anti-Jansenist attacked by Pascal in Les Provinciales, then by Father Ferrier from 1670 to 167456, who was succeeded by Father de la Chaize from 1675 to 170957,58 and finally by Father Le Telliern 12.
Wars during the reign

During this period, Louis XIV led two wars. First the War of Devolution (1667-1668), caused by the non-payment of sums due for the queen's renunciation of the Spanish throne, then the Dutch War (1672-1678). The first concluded with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), by which the Kingdom of France retained the strongholds occupied or fortified by the French armies during the Flanders campaign, as well as their dependencies: towns in the county of Hainaut and the fortress of Charleroi in the county of Namur59. In return, France returned Franche-Comté to Spain, a territory which would return to it ten years later by the Treaty of Nijmegen (August 10, 1678), which concluded the Dutch War60.

Louis XIV practiced a strong repressive policy towards the Bohemians. In line with the king's decree of 1666, the order of July 11, 1682 confirms and orders that all male Bohemians, in all the provinces of the kingdom where they live, be condemned to the galleys for life, their wives shaved and their children locked up in hospices61. The nobles who gave them asylum in their castles saw their fiefs confiscated62,63. These measures also aim to combat cross-border vagrancy and the use of mercenaries by certain nobles.
Maturity and period of glory (1680-1710)
Mutations of the 1680s
Painting representing the portrait of a woman.
Of Madame de Montespan (portrait by Pierre Mignard)...
Painting representing the portrait of a woman.
...to Madame de Maintenon (portrait of Nicolas II de Larmessin).

Around 1681, the king returned to a decent private life, under the combined influence of his confessors, the poison affair and Madame de Maintenon55. The year 1683 was marked by the death of Colbert, one of his principal ministers and the “agent of this rational absolutism which then developed, the fruit of the intellectual revolution of the first half of the century”. Queen Marie-Thérèse died the same year, which allowed the king to secretly marry Madame de Maintenon, during an intimate ceremony which probably took place in 1683 (the dates of January 1684 or January 1686 have also been put forward)64 . In 1684, devotion took hold in force at the court64, which had moved to Versailles since 1682. In 1685, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which granted religious freedom to French Protestants, restored the prestige of Louis XIV vis-à-vis Catholic princes and restored to him “his place among the great leaders of Christianity”65 ,n 13.
Rise of absolutism

For thirty years, until around 1691, the king governed by arbitrating between his main ministers: Colbert, Le Tellier and Louvois. Their death (the last, Louvois, died in 1691) changed the situation. It allowed the king to distribute the secretariat of state for war between several hands, which allowed him to be more involved in daily government. Saint-Simon notes that the king then took pleasure “in surrounding himself with “very young people” or obscure, inexperienced clerks, in order to highlight his personal abilities”66. From this date, he became both head of state and government66.
Foreign Affairs

The War of Reunions which, between 1683 and 1684, opposed France and Spain, ended with the Truce of Regensburg, signed to allow Emperor Leopold I to fight the Ottomans. From 1688 to 1697, the War of the League of Augsburg pitted Louis XIV, then allied with the Ottoman Empire and the Irish and Scottish Jacobites, against a large European coalition, the League of Augsburg led by the Anglo-Dutch William III, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, King Charles II of Spain, Victor Amadeus II of Savoy and many princes of the Holy Roman Empire. This conflict is taking place mainly in continental Europe and the neighboring seas. In August 1695, the French army, led by Villeroy, carried out the bombardment of Brussels, an operation which aroused indignation in European capitals67.

The conflict did not spare Irish territory, where William III and James II disputed control of the British Isles. Finally, this conflict gave rise to the first intercolonial war, opposing the English and French colonies and their Native American allies in North America. Ultimately, the war resulted in the Treaty of Ryswick (1697), by which France recognized the legitimacy of William of Orange to the English throne. If the English sovereign emerges strengthened from the ordeal, France, watched by its neighbors in the Augsburg League, is no longer able to dictate its law. Overall, this treaty is poorly received in France68. The War of the Spanish Succession, for its part, still pitted France against almost all of its neighbors, with the exception of Spain. It concluded with the Treaties of Utrecht (1713) and the Treaty of Rastatt (1714). These treaties were written in French, which became a diplomatic language, a situation which lasted until 1919.
Final years (1711-1714)
Painting representing the royal family.
Louis XIV and his family, by Nicolas de Largillierre.
Detailed article: Descendants of Louis XIV.

The end of the reign was overshadowed by the loss, between 1711 and 1714, of almost all his legitimate heirs69 and by declining health. In 1711, the Grand Dauphin, the only surviving legitimate son, died of smallpox at age 4970. In 1712, a measles epidemic deprived the family of the eldest of their three grandsons. The new dauphin, the ex-Duke of Burgundy, died at the age of 29 with his wife and his 5-year-old son (a first child had already died at an early age in 1705). Only a little two-year-old boy survives, Louis, saved from the epidemic (and from the doctors71) by his governess72, but who remains weakened: he is the last legitimate great-grandson of the reigning king, especially isolated that in 1714, his uncle, the Duke of Berry, the youngest of the king's grandsons, died without an heir, following a fall from a horse. In an attempt to cope with a lack of legitimate heir, Louis to the Duke of Maine and the Count of Toulouse, two legitimized bastard sons he had from Madame de Montespan. This decision violates the fundamental laws of the Kingdom, which have always excluded bastard children from the throne and is met with strong incomprehension74. It seems that the king was ready to deny the old laws of succession to remove from the throne and the regency his nephew Philippe d'Orléans, his potential successor, whom he found lazy and debauched75.
Death of the king and succession
Main article: Death of Louis XIV.

On September 1, 1715, around 8:15 a.m., the king died of acute ischemia of the lower limb, caused by an embolism linked to a complete arrhythmia, complicated by gangrene76, at the age of 76. He is surrounded by his courtiers. The agony lasted several days. His death puts an end to a reign of seventy-two years and one hundred days, including fifty-four years of effective reign.

The Parliament of Paris annulled his will on September 4, 76, opening an era of strong return of nobles and parliamentarians. For most of his subjects, the aging ruler became an increasingly distant figure. The funeral procession was even booed or mocked on the road to Saint-Denis. However, many foreign courts, even those traditionally enemies of France, are aware of the disappearance of an exceptional monarch; thus Frederick William I of Prussia did not need to give any details of name when he solemnly announced to his entourage: “Gentlemen, the king is dead”77.
King's Vault
Cenotaph of Louis XIV in the Saint-Denis basilica.

The body of Louis XIV was placed in the Bourbon vault, in the crypt of the Saint-Denis basilica 14. His coffin was desecrated on October 14, 1793 and his body thrown into a mass grave adjoining the basilica, to the north78.

In the 19th century, Louis-Philippe I commissioned a monument in the Bourbon memorial chapel in Saint-Denis, in 1841-1842. The architect François Debret is responsible for designing a cenotaph, using several sculptures of various origins: a central medallion representing a portrait of the king in profile, produced by the workshop of the sculptor Girardon in the 17th century, but whose precise author is not known, surrounded by two figures of Virtues sculpted by Le Sueur and coming from the tomb of Guillaume du Vair, bishop-count of Lisieux, and surmounted by an angel sculpted by Jacques Bousseau in the 18th century, coming from the church of Picpus. On either side of this set of sculptures are placed four columns in red marble from the Saint-Landry church, and bas-reliefs from the tomb of Louis de Cossé in the church of the Célestins convent in Paris ( the funerary spirits from the same tomb were moved by Viollet-le-Duc to the Louvre museum)79.
Figure of French absolutism
Louis XIV in 1661 by Charles Le Brun. At the age of 23, he decided to truly take power by becoming absolute monarch.

Under Louis Legend has it that he then said to the reluctant parliamentarians the famous words “The State is me!” ”, but the fact is wrong. In reality, Louis XIV dissociated himself from the State, of which he defined himself as only being the first servant81,82. Moreover, on his deathbed, he declared in 1715: “I am leaving, but the State will always remain”83. However, the phrase “the State is me” sums up the idea that his contemporaries had of the king and his centralizing reforms. From a more philosophical point of view, for the theorists of 17th century French absolutism, steeped in neoplatonism, this formula means that the king's interest is not only his own, but also that of the country he he serves and represents. Bossuet notes on this subject: “the king was not born for himself, but for the public”84.
Practice of absolutism
Absolutist thought
Bust of Hobbes at 58 years old in three-quarter view, scrutinizing gaze, timidly pursed lips, skullcap on the head.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) who wrote his major book Leviathan (Thomas Hobbes) in France was a contemporary of Louis XIV.

The Memoirs for the Instruction of the Dauphin provide an overview of Louis XIV's thoughts on absolutism. The book was not written directly by the king. It was “partly dictated to President Octave de Prérigny then to Paul Pellisson85”, while for the other part, the king just indicated in a note what he wanted to see in the book. If these Memoirs constitute a fairly disparate set of “military tables and thoughts with no other common thread than chronology86”, it nevertheless made it possible to give Louis XIV “the figure of the king-writer” which Voltaire took up and amplified, in making Louis XIV a Platonic philosopher-king, precursor of enlightened despotism87. If we consider the text itself, it is strongly imbued, as is the cultivated society of the Grand Siècle88, with neo-Stoic thought.

This book clearly shows Louis XIV's attraction to the concentration of power. For him, power is first and foremost synonymous with freedom of action both in relation to ministers and any other constituted body. The thought of Louis emphasis on the people and the multitude89. However, in Louis In his Memoirs, Louis XIV notes:

    “It is because in these accidents which sting us keenly and to the depths of our hearts, we must keep a medium between timid wisdom and carried away resentment, trying, so to speak, to imagine for ourselves what we advise another in such a case. For, whatever effort we make to reach this point of tranquility, our own passion, which presses and solicits us on the contrary, gains enough over us to prevent us from reasoning with too much coldness and indifference. »

Achieving this balance requires a fight against yourself. Louis To achieve this wisdom, he recommends introspection: “it is useful […] to put before our eyes from time to time the truths of which we are convinced” n 17. In the case of the manager, it is not only necessary to know oneself well, one must also know others well: “This maxim which says that to be wise it is enough to know oneself well, is good for individuals; but the sovereign, to be skillful and well served, is obliged to know all those who can be within sight” n 18.
Divine right

During the coronation of Reims, the king “is placed at the head of the mystical body of the kingdom” and becomes, at the end of a process begun under Philip the Fair, the head of the Church of France94. The king is God's lieutenant in his country and, in a certain way, depends only on him. In his book Memoirs for the Instruction of the Dauphin, he notes “He who gave kings to men wanted them to be respected as his lieutenants, reserving to Him alone the right to examine their conduct”95. For Louis XIV, the relationship with God is primary, his power coming directly from Him. He is not first of all human (de jure humano) as with Francisco Suárez and Robert Bellarmin96. For the Great King, the relationship with God must not be only “utilitarian”. He declares to the dauphin “Be careful, my son, I implore you, to have only this view of religion as one of interest, very bad when it is alone, but which moreover would not succeed for you, because that artifice always contradicts itself and does not produce for long the same effects as the truth”97.

Louis XIV is particularly attached to three men of God: David, Charlemagne and Saint Louis. He exhibited the painting David playing the harp in his apartment in Versailles. Charlemagne is represented at the Invalides and at the royal chapel of Versailles. Finally, he had relics of Saint Louis deposited at the Château de Versailles. On the other hand, he did not like being compared to Constantine I (Roman emperor) and had the equestrian statue that Bernini made of him transformed into Constantine, into an equestrian statue of Louis XIV in the guise of Marcus Curtius96.
Moderate practice of absolutism
Painting representing a man.
Portrait of Bossuet by Hyacinthe Rigaud.

Contrary to Bossuet's vision which tends to assimilate the king to God, Louis XIV only considers himself as God's lieutenant as far as France is concerned98. As such, he sees himself as the equal of the pope and the emperor. God is for him a vengeful god, it is not the God of gentleness that Francis de Sales begins to promote. He is a God who, through his Providence, can immanently punish those who oppose him. In this sense, the fear of God limits absolutism99.

Even with Bossuet - a pro-absolutist for whom "The prince must not account to anyone for what he orders" - royal power has limits. In his book Politics taken from the own words of Holy Scripture, he writes: “Kings are not therefore freed from the laws.” Indeed, the path that the king must follow is, so to speak, marked out: "Kings must respect their own power and use it only for the public good", "the prince was not born for himself but for the public”, “The prince must provide for the needs of the people”100.

Louis XIV is more political and more pragmatic than the great ministers who