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King Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France.jpg
King Louis XIV
(by Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1701)
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 (1638-09-05)5 September 1638
Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
Died 1 September 1715(1715-09-01) (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
Royal styles of
King Louis XIV
Par la grâce de Dieu, Roi de France et de Navarre
France moderne.svg
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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