King Louis XIV of France
| Louis XIV | |
|---|---|
King Louis XIV
(by Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1701) |
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| King of France and Navarre | |
| Reign | 14 May 1643 – 1 September 1715 |
| Coronation | 7 June 1654 |
| Predecessor | Louis XIII |
| Successor | Louis XV |
| Regent | Anne of Austria (1643–51) |
| Born |
5 September 1638 Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France |
| Died | 1 September 1715 (aged 76) Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France |
| Burial | Basilica of St Denis, Saint-Denis, France |
| Spouse | Maria Theresa of Spain |
| Issue among others... |
Louis, Grand Dauphin of France |
| House | Bourbon |
| Father | Louis XIII of France |
| Mother | Anne of Austria |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
| Signature |  |
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Royal styles of King Louis XIV Par la grâce de Dieu, Roi de France et de Navarre |
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| Reference style | His Most Christian Majesty |
| Spoken style | Your Most Christian Majesty |
| Alternative style | Monsieur Le Roi |
Louis XIV (5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715), known as Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) or the Sun King (le Roi-Soleil), was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of any monarch of a major country in European history. In the age of absolutism in Europe, Louis XIV's France was a leader in the growing centralization of power.
Louis began his personal rule of France in 1661, after the death of his chief minister, the Italian Cardinal Mazarin. An adherent of the concept of the divine right of kings, which advocates the divine origin of monarchical rule, Louis continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralized state governed from the capital. He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism persisting in parts of France and, by compelling many members of the nobility to inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles (formerly a hunting lodge belonging to Louis' father), succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many members of which had participated in the Fronde rebellion during Louis' minority. By these means he became one of the most powerful French monarchs and consolidated a system of absolute monarchical rule in France that endured until the French Revolution.
Louis encouraged and benefited from the work of prominent political, military, and cultural figures such as Mazarin, Colbert, Louvois, the Grand Condé, Turenne, and Vauban, as well as Molière, Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, Lully, Marais, Le Brun, Rigaud, Bossuet, Le Vau, Mansart, Charles and Claude Perrault, and Le Nôtre. Under his rule, the Edict of Nantes, which granted rights to Huguenots, was abolished. The revocation effectively forced Huguenots to emigrate or convert in a wave of dragonnades, which managed to virtually destroy the French Protestant minority.
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