Versailles, “capital” of the kingdom, 1682

The Court of Louis XIV | How To Get Ahead | Absolute History
Louis created the Palace of Versailles so he could surround himself with aristocrats, artists, interior designers, gardeners, wigmakers, chefs and musicians. Hordes of ambitious courtiers scrambled to get close to the king. But unseemly goings-on in the royal bedchamber reflected the quickest path to power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNM-4tZNwNs

Images:
1. Louis XIV, King of France (1638-1715) in his Coronation Robes
2. The gardens of Versailles encompass nearly 2,000 acres and feature fountains, pavilions, statues, and an orangery.
3. Louis XIV wife Queen Maria Theresa.
4. The Grand Trianon is only a single story to emphasize the connection with the gardens. Hans Wild

Background from {[https://www.thoughtco.com/king-louis-xiv-4766628]}
Biography of King Louis XIV, France’s Sun King
By McKenzie Perkins
Updated August 27, 2019
Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, was the longest-reigning monarch in European history, ruling France for 72 years and 110 days. He was responsible for moving the center of French government to the Palace of Versailles in 1682.
Fast Facts: Louis XIV
• Known For: King of France, 1643-1715
• Born: 5 September 1638
• Died: 1 September 1715
• Parents: Louis XVIII; Anne of Austria
• Spouses: Maria Theresa of Spain (m. 1660; d. 1683); Francoise d’Aubigne, Marquise de Maintenon (m. 1683)
• Children: Louis, Dauphin of France
Louis XIV assumed the throne at the age of five, and he was raised to believe in his divine right to rule. His experience with civil unrest during his childhood simultaneously fostered his desire for a strong France as well as his distaste for the French peasantry. He built a strong central government and expanded France’s borders, but his lavish lifestyle laid the foundation for the French Revolution.
Birth and Early Life
Louis XIV’s birth was a surprise. His parents, Louis XIII of France and Anne of Austria, were married when they were both 14, and they strongly disliked each other. Their marriage had produced a series of miscarriages and stillbirths, for which Louis blamed Anne. At the age of 37, Anne gave birth to a son, christened Louis-Dieudonne or Louis, the Gift of God. Two years later, she had a second son, Louis’ brother, Philippe I, Duke of Orleans.

Louis was doted on by his mother, and the two built a strong bond. He was raised from birth to believe that he was a gift from God, and it was his divine right to rule France as an absolute monarch. Even in his early years, Louis was charismatic, and he had an aptitude for languages and the arts.
The Sun King
Louis’ father died when he was only four, making him Louis XIV, king of France. His mother served as regent with the help of Cardinal Mazarin, but the years were marked by civil unrest. When Louis was 9 years old, members of the parliament in Paris rebelled against the crown, and the royal family was forced to flee to the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The rebellion and subsequent civil war, known as the Fronde, sparked Louis’ dislike for Paris and his fear of rebellions, impacting his future political decisions.
In 1661, Cardinal Mazarin died, and Louis declared himself as the Absolute Monarch to the French parliament, breaking with past French kings. In Louis’ view, treason wasn’t a crime under the law, but rather a sin against God. He adopted the Sun as the symbol of his monarchy, and he immediately began to centralize control of the government. He developed strict foreign policy while expanding the navy and army, and in 1667 he invaded Holland to claim what he believed to be his wife’s inheritance.
Under pressure from the Dutch and the English, he was forced to retreat, though in 1672, he was able to ally with a new English king, Charles II, to conquer territory from the Dutch and expand the size of France.

Louis appointed those loyal to the crown to government offices to carry out legal and financial matters in the different regions of France. In 1682, he formally moved the center of government from Paris to his palace in Versailles.
A staunch Catholic, Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which had provided legal protection for French Protestants, causing a mass exodus of Protestants to the Netherlands and England.

Marriage and Children
Louis’ first significant relationship was with Marie Mancini, the niece of Cardinal Mazarin, but his first marriage was a political union with his first cousin, Maria Theresa of Spain. Though the pair produced six children together, only one survived to adulthood. The relationship was said to have been friendly but never passionate, and Louis took numerous mistresses.
Louis’ second wife was Francoise d’Aubigne, a devout Catholic and once governess of Louis’ illegitimate children.

Maria Theresa of Spain
In 1660, Louis married Maria Theresa, the daughter of Philip IV of Spain. She was his first cousin on his mother’s side, a Spanish princess of the House of Habsburg. The marriage was a political arrangement intended to foster peace and unity between the neighboring countries.
Of their six children, only one, Louis le Grand Dauphin, also known as Monseigneur, survived to adulthood. Though Monseigneur was heir to the throne, Louis XIV outlived both his son and his grandson, passing the throne to his great-grandson at the time of his death.

Francoise d’Aubigne, Marquise de Maintenon
As the governess to Louis’ illegitimate children, d’Aubigne came into contact with Louis on numerous occasions. She was a widow, known for her piety. The pair was secretly married at Versailles in 1683, never announcing the marriage to the public, though it was a matter of common knowledge.
Mistresses and Illegitimate Children
Throughout his marriage to his first wife, Maria Theresa, Louis took both official and unofficial mistresses, producing more than a dozen children. He was more faithful to his second wife, Francoise d’Aubigne, likely due to her piety, though the two never had children.

The Palace of Versailles
As a result of the rebellions he saw in his youth and the subsequent civil war, Louis developed a strong dislike for Paris, and he spent long stretches of time at his father’s hunting lodge in Versailles. During his lifetime, Versailles became Louis’ refuge.

In 1661, after the death of Cardinal Mazarin, Louis began a massive construction project on Versailles, transforming the lodge into a palace suitable to host the Parisian court. He included the symbol of his monarchy, the sun with his face stamped into its center, as a design element in almost every part of the palace.
Louis formally relocated the French seat of government from Paris to Versailles in 1682, though construction continued on the palace until 1689. By isolating political leaders in rural Versailles, Louis strengthened his control over France.

Decline and Death
Toward the end of his life, Louis faced a series of personal and political disappointments in addition to failing health. The House of Stuart fell in England, and the Protestant William of Orange took the throne, eliminating any chance of continued political association between the countries. Louis XIV also lost a series of battles during the War of Spanish Succession, though he did manage to maintain the territory he had gained in previous decades.
Medical journals from the 18th century indicate that Louis faced a myriad of health complications towards the end of his life, including dental abscesses, boils, and gout, and he likely suffered from diabetes. In 1711, Louis XIV’s son, le Grand Dauphin, died, followed by his grandson, le Petit Dauphin in 1712.
Louis XIV died on September 1, 1715, from gangrene, passing the crown to his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis XV.

Legacy
During his lifetime, Louis XIV built an empire, reconstructing the government of France and transforming the country into the dominant European power. He is the most significant example of an absolute monarch during the 17th and 18th centuries, and he built the Palace of Versailles, one of the most famous contemporary historical landmarks in the world.
However strong Louis XIV made France to foreign adversaries, he created a stark divide between the nobility and the working classes, isolating the political elite in Versailles and separating the nobility from the common people in Paris. While Louis created a France that was stronger than it had ever been, he unknowingly laid the foundation for the revolution that was to come, a revolution that would see the permanent end to the French monarchy.

Sources
• Berger, Robert W. Versailles: The Château of Louis XIV. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1985.
• Bernier, Olivier. Louis XIV. New World City, Inc., 2018.
• Cronin, Vincent. Louis XIV. The Harvill Press, 1990.
• Horne, Alistair. Seven Ages of Paris: Portrait of a City. Macmillian, 2002.
• Mitford, Nancy. The Sun King: Louis XIV at Versailles. New York Review Books, 2012.
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Private Lives of the Monarchs - King Louis XIV
Tracy Borman investigates the private life of the 'Sun King' - the man who believed that the rest of France revolved around him. She hears the truth about the Palace of Versailles - outwardly sumptuous and glorious, actually filthy and stinking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmGgcjlqO0g

Images:
1. Queen Maria Theresa, Sun King, King Louis XIV
2. Colbert Presenting the Members of the Royal Academy of Sciences to Louis XIV in 1667, c. 1680
3. The Grand and Small Stables, named for purpose rather than size, are visible on the left and right sides of this illustration. Hulton Deutsch
4. Louis XIV on his death bed on September 1, 1715

Background from {[http://www.louis-xiv.de/index.php?id=31]}
Louis XIV, France's Sun King, had the longest reign in European history (1643-1715). During this time he brought absolute monarchy to its height, established a glittering court at Versailles, and fought most of the other European countries in four wars. The early part of his reign (1643-61), while Louis was young, was dominated by the chief minister Cardinal Mazarin. In the middle period (1661-85) Louis reigned personally and innovatively, but the last years of his personal rule (1685-1715) were beset by problems.

Minority
Born on Sept. 5, 1638, Louis was the first, regarded as "god-given," child of the long-married Louis XIII and his Habsburg wife, Anne of Austria. He succeeded his father on the throne at the age of four. However, he was also a neglected child, cared for by servants. Once he almost drowned in a pond because no one was watching him. However, his mother, Anne of Austria who caused the neglect, instilled in him a lasting fear of "crimes committed against God". While his mother was regent the great nobles and the judges of the parliament of Paris launched a major but uncoordinated revolt (the Fronde of 1648-53) in reaction to the centralizing policies of Louis XIII's minister Cardinal Richelieu and his successor, Mazarin. The royal family was twice driven out of Paris, and at one point Louis XIV and Anne were held under virtual arrest in the royal palace in Paris. This civil war brought Louis XIV poverty, misfortune, fear, humiliation, cold and hunger. This shaped his character and he would never forgive either Paris, the nobles, or the common people. Cardinal Mazarin was victorious in 1653 and constructed an extraordinary administration for the kingdom.
Mazarin finally suppressed the Fronde and restored internal order. The Peace of Westphalia (1648), which ended the Thirty Years' War, together with the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659), which concluded prolonged warfare with Spain, made France the leading European power. The latter treaty was sealed by Louis XIV's marriage (1660) to Marie Therese (1638-83), the daughter of Philip IV of Spain.

Personal Administration
On Mazarin's death in 1661, Louis astounded his court by becoming his own chief minister, thereby ending the long "reign of the cardinal-ministers." A sensational 3-year trial (1661-64) of the powerful and corrupt finance minister Nicolas Fouquet sent the would-be chief minister to prison for life. The king thereafter controlled his own government until his death, acting through his high state council (conseil d'en haut) and a few select ministers, whom he called or dismissed at will. The most famous and powerful of the ministers were Jean Baptiste Colbert in internal affairs and the marquis de Louvois in military matters.
Breaking with tradition, Louis excluded from his council members of his immediate family, great princes, and others of the old military nobility (noblesse d'epee); his reliance on the newer judicial nobility (noblesse de robe) led the duc de Saint-Simon to call this, mistakenly, "the reign of the lowborn bourgeoisie." Local government was increasingly placed under removable intendants.

Period of Glory
The early personal reign of Louis was highly successful in both internal and foreign affairs. At home the parlements lost their traditional power to obstruct legislation; the judicial structure was reformed by the codes of civil procedure (1667) and criminal procedure (1669), although the overlapping and confusing laws were left untouched. Urban law enforcement was improved by creation (1667) of the office of lieutenant general of police for Paris, later imitated in other towns. Under Colbert commerce, industry, and overseas colonies were developed by state subsidies, tight control over standards of quality, and high protective tariffs. As controller general of finances, Colbert sharply reduced the annual treasury deficit by economies and more equitable, efficient taxation, although tax exemptions for the nobility, clergy, and some members of the bourgeoisie continued.
Colbert and the king shared the idea of glorifying the monarch and monarchy through the arts. Louis was a discriminating patron of the great literary and artistic figures of France's classical age, including Jean Baptiste Moliere, Charles Le Brun, Louis Le Vau, Jules Mansart, and Jean Baptiste Lully. His state established or developed in rapid succession academies for painting and sculpture (1663), inscriptions (1663), French artists at Rome (1666), and science (1666), followed by the Paris Observatory (1667) and the academies of architecture (1671) and music (1672). The literary Academie Francaise also came under formal royal control in 1671.
Money was lavished on buildings. In Paris the Louvre was essentially completed with the classical colonnade by Claude Perrault. In Versailles, Louis XIII's hunting lodge was transformed into a remarkable palace and park, which were copied by Louis's fellow monarchs across Europe. When the king moved permanently to Versailles in 1682, an elaborate court etiquette was established that had the aristocracy, including former rebel princes, vying to participate in Louis's rising (leve) and retiring (couche). These ceremonies led to the saying that, at a distance, one could tell what was happening at the palace merely by glancing at an almanac and a watch.
In foreign affairs, the young Louis XIV launched the War of Devolution (1667-68) against the Spanish Netherlands, claiming that those provinces had "devolved" by succession to his Spanish wife rather than to her half brother Charles II, who had inherited the Spanish crown. The war brought him some valuable frontier towns in Flanders. Louis turned next against the United Provinces of the Netherlands in the third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-78). The intent this time was to take revenge against Dutch intervention in the previous war and to break Dutch trade. By the Peace of Nijmegen (1678-79) he gained more territory in Flanders, and the formerly Spanish Franche-Comte was added to France's eastern frontier, now fortified by the great siege expert, Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban. Now at the height of his power, the king set up "courts of reunion" to provide legal pretexts for the annexation of a series of towns along the Franco-German border. More blatantly, he seized both the Alsatian city of Strasbourg and Casale, in northern Italy, in 1681.

Period of Decline
The turning point in Louis's reign between the earlier grandeur and the later disasters came after Colbert's death (1683). In 1685 the king took the disastrous step of revoking the Protestant (Huguenot) minority's right to worship by his Edict of Fontainebleau, often called the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Many Huguenots--who constituted an industrious segment of French society--left the country, taking with them considerable capital as well as skills. In addition Louis's display of religious intolerance helped unite the Protestant powers of Europe against the Sun King.
In September 1688, Louis sent French troops into the Palatinate, hoping to disrupt his enemies who had formed the League of Augsburg against him. The 9-year war of the Grand Alliance ensued. France barely held its own against the United Provinces and England, both under William III, as well as Austria, Spain, and minor powers; but the Treaty of Rijswijk (1697) preserved Strasbourg and Louis's "reunion" acquisitions along the Franco-German border.
The aging ruler was almost immediately drawn into the disastrous War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14), in which he defended his grandson Philip V's inheritance of Spain and its empire on the death of Charles II. The genius of the English general the duke of Marlborough and his Austrian counterpart, Eugene of Savoy, was almost too much for the ducs de Villars, Berwick, and Vendome, who were Louis's principal generals. The terrible French winter of 1709 and near fiscal collapse also took their toll. Nonetheless, France rallied. By the Peace of Utrecht France retained most of its earlier conquests, and the Spanish empire was divided between Philip V, who received Spain and its overseas colonies, and Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, who acquired the Spanish Netherlands and Spain's Italian possessions. Louis was forced to agree that the crowns of France and Spain would remain separate despite the dynastic connection.
During the post-1685 period the once personal monarchy became increasingly bureaucratized. A long and bitter quarrel (1673-93) with the pope was concluded when the king withdrew the French clergy's Four Gallican Articles of 1682, in which they had claimed quasi-independence from the papacy for the French church (see Gallicanism). Reconciliation with the papacy aided Louis's attempt to suppress Jansenism. The Jansenist convents of Port-Royal were closed (1709-10), and in 1713 the pope issued, at Louis's request, the anti-Jansenist bull Unigenitus.
After a series of celebrated liaisons with mistresses, notably Louise de la Valliere and Madame de Montespan, Louis settled down to a more sedate life with Madame de Maintenon, whom he secretly married about 1683. She shared with Louis the grief of lost battles and the successive deaths of all but two of his direct descendants. The two who survived him were his grandson Philip V of Spain and a great-grandson who became Louis XV when the Sun King died on Sept. 1, 1715."

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