Louis XIV, was, in his time, one of the crucial highly effective males on this planet. He had a big impact on French historical past. He had lavish tastes, he was a management freak, he beloved the humanities and believed himself chosen by God to rule over tens of millions of individuals. He was arguably one of many best Kings of France, actually one of the crucial remembered. He was additionally a Machiavellian puppet grasp whose legacy is obvious within the France of at this time, lengthy after its residents disposed of his heirs. He dominated for a really very long time and he was an enchanting character who lived an unimaginable life, certainly one of historical past’s most iconic monarchs for positive. Step again to seventeenth century France to discover the life and occasions of Louis XIV and uncover the person behind the legend and the legacy that outlived him. Uncover all the pieces you need to find out about Louis XIV – and extra…
Little Louis
Louis was born in 1638 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye into the royal home of the Bourbons. He was a much-loved child and was referred to as Louis Dieudonné – the god given one, as a result of after 23 years of marriage and 4 miscarriages, his mother and father King Louis XIII and Queen Anne had all however given up hope of getting a wholesome son. He was born with tooth, which was considered an indication of an amazing future. Later he was referred to as Louis le Grand (Louis the Nice) and Louis le Roi de Soleil, the Solar King.
Little Louis grew to become a King at simply 4 years previous in 1643 when his father died. He was topped in Reims Cathedral in Champagne. As a result of he was so younger, his mom grew to become regent till he was able to take over. As her chief advisor she took a person referred to as Cardinal Mazarin. He was not a humble man of God. He was an obsessive collector of worthwhile issues and when he died, he was the richest man France had ever had at that time. The Queen and Mazarin spent cash prefer it was going out of style, and after they tried to boost extra money by getting authorities officers to surrender their wages for 4 years, there was uproar.
You may’t hold taxing folks and eroding their high quality of life. There was inevitable pushback. So Cardinal Mazarin had his opponents arrested. Now it is a potted historical past after all however all these shenanigans led to revolt by the nobles in opposition to the monarchy, it was referred to as the Fronde, a sequence of civil wars between 1648 and 1653. Queen Anne fled her house in Paris taking the younger King along with her. And for Louis who was 9 years previous when all of it kicked off, it was a terrifying time and deeply affected him, giving him a lifelong need for absolute management and shaping his method to monarchy. It additionally made him not need to dwell in Paris.
An absolute monarch
Mazarin had a agency pair of arms on the reins of energy and wasn’t going to allow them to go if he may assist it. It wasn’t till he died in 1661 that Louis, then 23 years previous, was in a position to take complete management. And he vowed that from now he would rule with no chief minister. Solely he may concern orders. Solely he may direct coverage. He was in spite of everything he believed, the direct consultant of God, who had chosen him to rule France.
He believed that he possessed miraculous therapeutic powers. On main holidays he went round touching these contaminated with scrofula (also referred to as tuberculosis of the neck). Really it wasn’t simply him who thought he may treatment sick folks, everybody thought he may, however scrofula although horrible, couldn’t be cured, but additionally not often killed, so when folks didn’t die after being touched by the King all of them went together with the idea that kings may treatment. In 1680, Louis bestowed his royal contact on 1600 folks in someday alone. It’s stated that he touched and possibly ‘healed’ about 350,000 folks throughout his reign.
Louis related himself with the Roman solar god, Apollo. He felt that because the world revolved across the solar, so France revolved round him, and that’s how the solar grew to become his emblem.
By the point Mazarin died, Louis had been married for a yr to his first cousin Marie Theresa of Spain. He had no love for her, it was a strategic alliance organised by the Cardinal, despite the fact that Louis was for a time in love with Mazarin’s niece Maria with whom he had a passionate affair. Louis remained married to Marie Theresa for 23 years and in that point they’d six kids, although just one survived to change into an grownup. Additionally throughout that point he had many mistresses and lots of extra offspring together with 5 kids with the Duchess Louise de la Vallière, a girl in ready to his spouse, and seven kids with the Marquise de Montespan. Nobody is aware of what number of kids he had in complete – not less than 20 it’s thought.
And nobody truly is aware of for positive nevertheless it’s believed that he secretly married his final mistress Madame de Maintenon. She by no means modified her title although it’s stated that these within the know referred to as her Majesty in non-public, and he or she sat within the Queen’s place when travelling with the King.
If he actually did marry her, it’s very out of character and reveals a hidden aspect, because it should have been for love. He was solely 44 years previous when the wedding is claimed to have taken place after Queen Marie-Therese died in 1683. He may have made one other strategic marriage, grown his energy, had extra royal kids. However he didn’t. He additionally knew that if he married Madame de Maintenon brazenly, the nobles would insurgent over it, and he’d labored so exhausting to achieve management and set up absolute monarchy. Marrying for love would have appeared weak, plus she was of lesser rank. So he had a human aspect in spite of everything.
No-one higher
As a younger man Louis had a busy social life and folks thought he wouldn’t be critical about his tasks in order that they had been shocked when he determined to actually take management when Mazarin died. In truth he was robust as previous boots, labored exhausting, performed exhausting and was clever and crafty. Quickly after he took energy, he had certainly one of his chief ministers arrested – Nicolas Fouquet, who had constructed the attractive fortress of Vaux-le-Vicomte close to Paris. It was a way more stunning chateau than something Louis had and his jealousy made him offended. The fees of stealing from the king’s coffers had been probably made up. Nevertheless it confirmed everybody that Louis was to not be trifled with, and it despatched a message “ nobody is extra highly effective than the King of France.”
Louis didn’t desire a repeat of the horrible civil wars that came about throughout his childhood. He knew he needed to take care of the pesky nobles, the peasants wanted to know he was boss, not the native lords. With the assistance of his minister Jean Baptiste Colbert, he reformed the tax and administration of France which had been largely managed by the nobles who pocketed a lot of the cash. With Colbert’s assist, way more went to the royal coffers. Colbert was an unimaginable man, he elevated commerce and commerce, decreased imports, inspired manufacturing in all areas from making silk to creating cheese decreasing France’s reliance of overseas industries. As an example when France was at struggle with the Dutch, and folks nonetheless needed Edam cheese, Louis and Colbert ordered cheese makers to make one thing prefer it – and Mimolette was born although it’s a really completely different color and I feel completely different style! Colbert established laws of manufacturing, new industries, based the Academy of Sciences, the Paris observatory, the Royal Academy of Structure. All of this enhanced the status of the King. Colbert employed individuals who weren’t nobles to take care of administration as they had been simpler to manage and didn’t have household loyalty just like the nobles did. The cash poured in.
However Louis spent it simply as quick as he banked it. He fought struggle after struggle. His overseas coverage and army engagements reshaped European geopolitics And he expanded France’s territory. Louisianna within the US was named in his honour after it was claimed it for France within the 1680s. In 1803 it was bought to the US for $15 million. 828,000 sq. miles of land. A cut price!
A style for the great life
Louis had costly tastes. One of many methods he managed the the Aristocracy was by shifting them to Versailles and away from Paris and their very own houses. On the former Versailles looking lodge, Louis employed the creators of Vaux-le-Vicomte, the fortress that had made him so jealous, to rework the lodge into one of the crucial stunning palaces ever constructed. After which he made positive that if anybody needed to be in favour with him, they lived within the palace or close by the place he may regulate them. He spied on them, learn their letters and saved them busy.
He commissioned plenty of cultural and sporting occasions. Throughout his reign his assist of the humanities was beneficiant. He commissioned hundreds of artworks, portraits and busts of himself. He based the Académie Royale de Danse – he beloved to bounce and was educated by skilled instructors. And he was very pleased with his legs which had been usually a principal function in his portraits! He additionally based the Académie d’Opéra. He employed hundreds of craftspeople at Versailles to make statues, ornaments, furnishings, mirrors and different ornamental gadgets.
In Paris, he established a police drive, constructed broad boulevards, and put in road lighting. He additionally constructed Les Invalides, a army advanced for troopers and infirm veterans. He expanded The Louvre, and commissioned the Canal du Midi.
He was a busy King alright. He launched meticulous routines into the each day lives of Versailles, controlling the nobles by means of a system of rituals, ceremonies and etiquette which distracted them and saved them from having time to consider opposing him or inflicting him hassle. Some etiquette guidelines had been pretty odd. If the King wasn’t in residence and also you handed his portrait you needed to bow or curtsy to it. You weren’t allowed to knock on his door, you needed to scratch it like a rat in order to not disturb him an excessive amount of – apparently some courtiers grew out certainly one of their fingernails lengthy so they may scratch higher! Solely Louis and his quick household may stroll by means of a door with out scratching first. You couldn’t sit until you had been accredited, you needed to keep in your toes all day, and because it was a full-time job getting observed for being round, it was not a simple life for nobles who weren’t in with the king.
Guidelines of etiquette at Versailles
Each hour of the King’s day could be exactly organised with all the trimmings of ritual round it. Somebody at hand him slippers, somebody to empty his chamber pot, two folks to take his night time shirt off, somebody at hand tie his neckcloth, another person to regulate it, somebody at hand him a mirror – there have been quite a few positions for the nobles to know their place. Watching the King carry out his levée (waking up and getting dressed ceremony), or couchée (bedtime undressing ceremony), was the spotlight of the day for nobles hoping to curry favour with the King.
Louis’s day was rigorously organised from morning to nighttime. His day began at 08.30 when he was visited by medical doctors after which mates and nobles who attended whereas he washed, combed his hair, shaved gown and had a bowl of soup or a little bit of bread dipped in wine for breakfast. And he drank espresso or scorching chocolate. Solely essential servants had been allowed to look at.
It’s thought round 100 folks, all male, took half in getting the king prepared within the morning! At 10 o’clock he crossed the palace to go to Mass, adopted by crowds of individuals. After this he labored on state issues, he famously stated “L’Etat c’est moi” – the state – it’s me: that means there isn’t any one larger than me in France. Then he had lunch in his bed room. Within the afternoon he hunted, walked within the gardens, did extra work, met together with his mistresses.
Then at 10 o’clock at night time he had dinner, the “Grand Couvert“. The Aristocracy could be positioned close to the King, in response to their significance and rank however to the aspect of the desk so that everybody may have a transparent view of Louis. Crowds would watch him eat – they had been squeezed in. It was a present of his energy. The soup and starters had been adopted by roasts and salads, then puddings and eventually fruit. With every service a special procession of officers from the Providers for the King’s Mouth, a crew that taken care of his family wants, carried the meals in gold, silver or silver-gilt dishes. One of the best goldsmiths labored to supply new types that may hold the meals heat for longer. Glasses, which had been extraordinary gadgets, had been solely supplied upon request. Regardless of all this, the meal lasted lower than an hour.
A whopping 324 folks had been concerned in getting ready the Solar King’s meals. Somebody to maintain the desk, tablecloth and bread, somebody to maintain the candelabras and fruit. Somebody to fold the napkins which might be made into extraordinary shapes. Because the servants carried the meals to and from the kitchens, they had been escorted by guards. And it was etiquette that in case you had been strolling in Versailles and the meals headed for the royal desk was carried previous you, you needed to bow or curtsy to the dish.
The king would eat as much as 30 completely different dishes, washed down with wine and would pop some candied fruit in his pocket to eat on this solution to mattress!
Louis appreciated ice cream. Loads. He had two ice-houses constructed at Versailles. The ice was carved out of a frozen pond in winter and saved within the ice homes – not precisely hygienic however fairly wonderful for the day when he served frozen ice balls on scorching days. In truth this created a complete new pattern because the poorer folks acquired to listen to about it and the follow of blending cream, ice and fruit unfold.
Louis imposed a strict gown code at Versailles, insisting on the best supplies so the nobles spent a small fortune cash on outfits attempting to outdo one another and impress the king, bankrupting themselves, as an alternative of having the ability to pay troopers to trigger hassle. France grew to become the capital of style, etiquette, and tradition. The French love of the artwork de la desk and artwork de vivre all stem from the foundations that had been put in place at Versailles.
Every part you need to find out about Louis XIV
Louis was fairly brief at 5 toes 4 inches, and that had an affect on the style of the day. As a management freak he needed to be taller so he wore excessive heeled sneakers as much as 5 inches excessive with buckles and ribbons. And he beloved purple heels for his sneakers and made it a rule solely he and choose aristocrats may put on purple heels. He made himself taller with huge wigs, like, actually huge wigs. He had a room within the palace only for conserving wigs in. He began to lose his hair when fairly younger and that partly influenced his option to put on wigs. He apparently had 48 wigmakers, and it took round 10 heads of hair to create a single wig. The remainder of European aristocracy had been influenced by Louis’ love of lengthy flowing locks in a wig and the time period “bigwig” was coined in England – that means an essential individual – and we nonetheless use the phrase to at the present time!
Louis holds the document for the longest reigning monarch within the historical past of France – 72 years on the throne, regardless of not at all times having fun with the very best of well being. His medical doctors famous signs of diabetes, power irritation, dental abscesses, boils, fainting spells, gout, dizziness, scorching flushes and complications. As he drew close to the top of his life, he was in nearly everlasting ache. He outlived all of his quick household together with his surviving legit son. His legit grandsons had additionally died, that means his inheritor was his five-year-old nice grandson Louis, the Duke of Anjou, who coincidentally was to have the second longest reign in French historical past.
Louis XIV died in 1715, and his physique was displayed for 8 days on the palace earlier than being transported to the basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris, final resting place of French Kings and Queens. His dying marked the top of an period, however the legacy of the Solar King lives on. Versailles stands as a monument to his reign, and his insurance policies proceed to affect French nationwide identification. His reign epitomised the age of absolutism, leaving a mark on historical past that endures to at the present time.
Janine Marsh is the creator of a number of internationally best-selling books about France. Her newest e book The best way to be French – a celebration of the French way of life and artwork de vivre, is out now – a take a look at the French lifestyle. Discover all books on her web site janinemarsh.com
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