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Photos – Library of Congress

King Louis XIV

The “Sun King”

• Ruled as King of France and of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death just prior to his 77 birthday. He acceded to the throne a few months before his fifth birthday, but did not assume actual personal control of the government until the death of his first minister (premier minister), Jules Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661. Louis XIV, ruled France for 72 years—the longest reign of any French or other major European monarch.

Fronde-French rebellion

• After a first Fronde (Fronde Parlementaire) ended, the second Fronde, that of the princes, began in 1650.

• Nobles of all ranks, from princes of the Blood Royal and cousins of the king to nobles of legitimated royal descent and nobles of ancient families, participated in the rebellion against royal rule. Even the clergy was represented by Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz.

• The result of these tumultuous times, when the Queen Mother reputedly sold her jewels to feed her children, was a king filled with a permanent distrust for the nobility and the mob.

“L’état c’est moi”

Louis's reign can be characterized by the remark attributed to him, "L'état, c'est moi" [I am the state].

Louis continued the nobility's exemption from taxes but forced its members into financial dependence on the crown, thus creating a court nobility occupied with ceremonial etiquette and petty intrigues. The provincial nobles also lost political power. Louis used the bourgeoisie to build his centralized bureaucracy. He curtailed local authorities and created specialized ministries, filled by professionals responsible to him. Under his minister Jean Baptiste Colbert-industry and commerce grew – mercantilism.Navy was developed and the war minister, The Marquis de Louvois, established the foundations of French military greatness.

His reforms

During his reign, Louis instituted various legal reforms. The major legal code, both civil and criminal, formulated by Louis XIV, the Code Louis, also played a large part in France's legal history as it was the basis for Napoleon I's Code Napoléon, which is itself the basis for the modern French legal codes.It sought to provide France with a single system of law where there were two, customary law in the north and Roman law in the south. The Code Forestier sought to control and oversee the forestry industry in France, protecting forests from destruction. The Code Noir granted sanction to slavery (though it did extend a measure of humanity to the practice such as prohibiting the separation of families), but no person could disown a slave in the French colonies unless he were a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and a Catholic priest had baptize each slave.

“I have no intention of

sharing my authority with

them.” • The Dutch War (1672-78),

during which Louis XIV demonstrated strategic and tactical capabilities, provided the occasion for a skillful propaganda campaign by his historian-poets Boileau (b. 1636-d. 1711) and Racine (b. 1639-d. 1699). The war also produced the Campagnes de Louis XIV which contains maps of the operations and movements of French troops. Louis is illustrated here at the beginning of the volume dressed as a Roman emperor.

The Sun Myth• Louis XIV chose the sun as his emblem.

• The sun was associated with Apollo, god of peace and arts, and was also the heavenly body which gave life to all things, regulating everything as it rose and set.

• Like Apollo, the warrior-king Louis XIV brought peace[at least in the early days!], was a patron of the arts, and dispensed his bounty. The regularity of his work habits and his ritual risings were another point of solar comparison.

• Throughout Versailles, decoration combines images and attributes of Apollo (laurel, lyre, tripod) with the king's portraits and emblems. The Apollo Salon is the main room of the Grand Apartment  because it was originally the monarch's state chamber. The path of the sun is also traced in the layout of the gardens. 

• Louis is depicted at the Greek God, Apollo, in the painting below - - one of Louis's personal favorites.

State control of culture reached unprecedented heights under Louis XIV, the Sun King.

*Newly created academies in the arts and sciences generated heroic representations of the king that reinforced the royal religion. *Increasing censorship targeted "scandalous" texts and political writings incompatible with absolute monarchy. *Systematic purchases of treasures from ancient and modern cultures the world over enhanced the regime's prestige. *The need to reign supreme in cultural matters also spawned French Classicism, the crowning cultural achievement of France's golden age under Louis XIV.

Le Ballet Royal

• The costumes contributed to the dazzling entertainment of Le Ballet royal de la nuit, as did scenery changes and the ballet's diverse characters. The ballet ends with the appearance of Aurore, who yields her place to the rising Sun, Apollo, played the first time by the young king Louis XIV. During his lifetime, Louis performed a wide range of roles--including plebeian characters. These drawings are of the Lute Player, the Warrior, and Apollo.

• King Louis XIV built the palace as an expression of his absolute power and filled his desire to establish

a new center for the royal court. The court was officially established at Versailles in May of 1682. By moving the court to his residence, King Louis XIV hoped to gain more control over government while distancing himself from the population in

Paris.

Queen’s bedroom King’s chamber

Reception of Le Grand Conde at

Versailles

by Jan-Leon Gerome

Why Versailles

• One key to his power was his control of central policy making machinery of government.

• The chief offices of state were located at Versailles so Louis could watch over them.

The Period of DeclineThe 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

The “Sun” sets…• As the Sun King's reign passed into its twilight years,

some judged the social stability and routine he had created as oppressive to the individual spirit.

• A "counter-cultural" revolution under his successors, Louis XV (1715-1774) and Louis XVI (1774-1793), unleashed Enlightenment ideas and values which tore away at the theatrical and courtly foundations that Richelieu and Louis XIV had given the state.

• The cultural vitality of the realm shifted decisively from the royal court at Versailles to Paris.

• The increased role of the press, of reports of scientific and commercial activities, of exploration and discoveries, as well as the weekly meetings of academies and salons energized literary, artistic, and artisan circles.

Assignment

• Analyze the text and/or documents.

• Share your findings with others reading the same document or section.

• Present findings to class.

• Write a one paragraph (5 sentences minimum) using fact and opinion on King Louis XIV as a cult like figure.

Cult – NOUN:A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader. The followers of such a religion or sect.

A system or community of religious worship and ritual.

The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.

A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.

Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.The object of such devotion.

An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.

Cult of personality or personality cult

is a derogatory term for what is perceived to be excessive adulation of a single living leader.