LOUIS XIV
(5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715)
Louis XIV, known as Louis the Great or "le Roi-Solei" (the Sun King), was born in the Chateau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, about 19 km of Paris, and died in Versailles, France. He was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. He holds the distinction of being the longest-reigning king in European history, reigning for 72 years and 110 days.
Louis began his personal rule of France in 1661 after the death of his chief minister, the Italian Cardinal Mazarin. 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 the noble elite to inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles, succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many members of which had participated in the Fronde rebellion during Louis' minority. By these means he consolidated a system of absolute monarchical rule in France that endured until the French Revolution.
During Louis's reign, France was the leading European power and fought three major wars: the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession—and two minor conflicts—the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions.
Few rulers in world history have commemorated themselves as Louis. He used the arts and court ritual to demonstrate, augment and maintain his control over France. Louis encouraged and benefited from the work of prominent political, military and cultural figures such as Mazarin, Colbert, Turenne and Vauban, as well as Molière, Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, Lully, Le Brun, Rigaud, Bossuet, Le Vau, Mansart, Charles and Claude Perrault, and Le Nôtre.
It was his great Palace of Versailles, with its gardens, architecture, interior design and works of art that Louis sought to visually represent the absolute power of the monarchy. Under the King's close supervision, Le Brun finalised the decoration of the Hall of Mirrors, which retraced the important accomplishments of Louis's reign.
With his support, Colbert established from the beginning of Louis's personal reign a centralised and institutionalised system for creating and perpetuating the royal image. The King was thus portrayed largely in majesty or at war, notably against Spain. This portrayal of the monarch was to be found in numerous media of artistic expression, such as painting, sculpture, theatre, dance, music, and the almanacs which diffused royal propaganda to the population at large.
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