|
|
|
|
Louis XIV, King of France and
Navarre 1643-1651-1715, (1638-1715)
Born 5 September 1638 St.Germain-en-Laye
Died 1 September 1715 Chƒteau de Versailles
Buried St.Denis
Married (1) 3 June 1660 Fontarabia (by proxy)
Maria Theresia of Austria, Infanta of Spain,
daughter of Felipe IV, King of Spain 1621-1665 and Princess Elisabeth
de France
Born 20 September 1638 Madrid
Died 30 July 1683 Versailles
Married (2) 12 June 1684 Versailles (secretly)
Francoise d'Aubigne, Marquise de Maintenon,
daughter of Constant d'Aubigne, Baron de Surineau and Jeanne de Cardillac
Born 8 September 1635 Niort
Died 17 April 1719 St.Cyr
First love (a) Maria Mancini,
daughter of Michaele Lorenzo Mancini and Girolama Mazzarini
Born 1639 Paris
Died 11 May 1716 Pisa
Child by (b) NN
Children by (c) Louise Francoise de la Baume le Blanc,
Duchesse de La Valliere et de Vaujours
Born 6 August 1644 Touraine, Chateau de la Valliere
Died 6 June 1710 Paris, Carmelite Convent
Children by (d) Athenas de Rochechouart,
daughter of Gabriel de Rochechouart, 1.Duc de Mortemart
and Diane de Grandseigne
Born 26 April 1641 Chateau de Tonnay
Died 28 May 1707 Bourbon L'Archambault
Child by (e) Claude de Vin, Mademoiselle des Oeillets,
daughter of Nicholas de Vin and Louise Faviot
Born circa 1637 Provence
Died 18 May 1687 Paris
Child by (f) Marie Angelique de Scorailles, Duchesse de
Fontanges
Born 1661
Died 28 June 1681 Port Royal convent
|
At the age of four he succeeded his father to become King of France
and through his reign became the symbol of absolute monarchy. 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".
In 1648 the nobles rose against the crown in protest against the Prime
Minister, Cardinal Mazarin. This civil war, known as the Fronde, lasted
several years, bringing 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.
Although Louis XIV had been proclaimed to be of age, he would not dispute
the Cardinal's
absolute power. In 1658 he fell in love with Marie Mancini, a niece
of Cardinal Mazarin; but in 1660 he dutifully married a Spanish Infanta.
In 1661 Cardinal Mazarin died and Louis XIV astonished his ministers by
announcing that he intended to assume all responsibility for ruling the
kingdom.
He was fortunate that he had several great ministers to support him
and, for the next fifty-four years, he devoted himself to the task of controlling
everything, from court etiquette to troop movements, from road building
to theological disputes. The nobilty, for centuries
a cause of instability in the kingdom, were lured to the court and
corrupted with gambling and dissipation, their destinies depending on their
capacity for pleasing him. Etiquette became most important and from that
time the nobility ceased to be an important factor in French politics.
In his younger years he had mistresses who supplied him with many illegitimate
children, all of whom were acknowledged.
Louis XIV was fortunate in knowing how to bring out the best in his
people, while at the same time France was fortunate in having so many talented
people. Louis XIV built several new residences; however, Versailles, cursed
as an extravagance, is the only one not only to have survived but to become
an object of universal admiration enhancing French prestige. By living
in Versailles Louis XIV had not only removed himself from the unhealthy
city of Paris but also isolated himself from his people.
In 1667 he invaded the Spanish Netherlands which he regarded as his
first wife's inheritance. This started a series of wars lasting the greater
part of his reign. After a brilliant beginning he was forced to retreat
by the English and the Dutch. He never forgave the
Dutch and, allying himself with Charles II of England, invaded the
Netherlands in 1672. This started a long war ending in 1678 with Louis
XIV triumphant.
In 1682 he transferred the seat of government to Versailles. A year
later his queen died and he secretly married Madame de Maintenon, so that
hypocricy became the rule at his court. Nevertheless, he remained devoted
to her and, even late in life when she was over seventy, she was told by
her confessor to fulfil her conjugal duties. In 1685 he revoked the Edict
of Nantes. This made him many enemies and caused the departure of the French
Huguenots, as the revocation was accompanied by pitiless persecution which
caused endless misfortune. England, the Dutch and the Emperor then united
in the Grand Alliance to resist him, and the war starting in 1688 lasted
until 1697. At the Peace Treaty of Rijswijk, he was forced not only to
return part of his territorial acquisitions but also to acknowledge his
enemy, William of Orange as King of England.
In 1700 the Spanish King, last of the Spanish Habsburgs, died and bequeathed
all his possessions to Louis XIV's grandson. At first Louis XIV hesitated
to accept but had to do so if only to prevent Spain from falling to the
hostile Habsburg Emperor in Vienna. The War of the Spanish Succession,
instigated by his enemy William of Orange, again lasted for several years.
His last years were marred not only by this war but also by the premature
deaths of his son, his grandson and two great-grandsons, eaving a little
boy to succeed him when he died in 1715. When his body was taken to the
St. Denis basilica, the population jeered.
Source: Leo van de Pas |
|
|
