He was constantly at war.ĭisingenuously claiming the Spanish Netherlands (roughly corresponding to present-day Belgium) as the inheritance of his wife, Louis XIV launched the War of Devolution in 1667. In 1709 he banished the nuns from the movement’s main convent and soon after ordered its destruction, all the while lobbying the pope to condemn Jansenism as heretical.

He even went after other Catholics who didn’t adhere to his narrow view of the faith, such as the Jansenists, who believed that humankind was inherently corrupt and that God bestowed salvation arbitrarily.

Hundreds of Huguenots who continued practicing their religion were put to death and at least 200,000 others fled France for more tolerant lands.Īt around the same time, Louis XIV expelled all Jews from the French West Indies. The coup de grâce came in 1685, when, in revoking the nearly century-old Edict of Nantes, he stripped them of all religious and civil liberties. He was a religious bigot.Ī devout Catholic, Louis XIV believed in the motto, “one king, one law, one faith.” To that end, he mercilessly cracked down on the country’s Protestants, known as Huguenots, who made up roughly 5 percent of the population. Many of his illegitimate children, meanwhile, were given a proper education and considered part of royal society. Among other benefits, the first of those three became a duchess, the second received a chateau with 1,200 gardeners, and the third wed Louis XIV in a secret ceremony following the death of the queen. Yet he also took on a string of mistresses, three of whom gained semi-official status, appearing next to him at church and even going off with him to war. In 1660 Louis XIV married Marie-Thérèse, the daughter of Spain’s king, a politically expedient move that cemented peace between the two nations. He was quite open about his infidelities. On major holidays he went around touching those infected with scrofula (also known as tuberculosis of the neck). Like many other kings, Louis XIV also claimed to possess miraculous healing powers. He made a particular point of associating himself with the Greek and Roman sun god Apollo, adopting the sun as his emblem and even playing Apollo in a royal ballet. Louis considered himself God’s representative on Earth.Īlthough Louis XIV did not invent the “divine right of kings” doctrine, which held that monarchs derived their authority from God and were therefore entitled to wield absolute power, he was certainly an adherent. Sitting in on council meetings, writing letters, reading documents, hosting foreign representatives and planning military strategy, he all the while consolidated power in his own hands.Ĥ. Though many officials apparently expected him to soon bore of this role, he continued carrying out the routine, monotonous affairs of government for the rest of his life. But when Mazarin died in 1661, the 22-year-old immediately informed his astonished court that he would henceforth rule without a chief minister-something no French king had done for generations. He ruled without a chief minister.Īs a young man, Louis XIV largely left the decision-making to Mazarin, his mentor and godfather. From then on, Louis XIV distrusted not only aristocrats and commoners alike, but also Paris itself. Mazarin was eventually able to crush the dissenters, but not before Louis XIV suffered numerous perceived humiliations, including twice having to flee Paris.

In that capacity, she and her chief minister, Italian-born Cardinal Jules Mazarin, ran afoul of the country’s nobles and judges, who rose up against the crown in a series of rebellions from 1648 to 1653. But his Habsburg wife, Anne of Austria, orchestrated an annulment of the council and took over as sole regent. In his will, Louis XIII arranged for a regency council to rule on his young son’s behalf.

This marks him as both the longest-reigning French monarch in history and the longest-reigning monarch of any extant European nation. Born in 1638, Louis XIV became king at age 4 following the death of his father, Louis XIII, and remained on the throne for the next 72 years.

Louis 14 black baby