Louis XIV was born in 1638. In the year 1661 he succeeded the regent Cardinal Mazarin. At the time he was only twenty-three. Louis applied the symbol of the sun to his reign; "the light that imparts to the other heavenly bodies." Louis intended to make the other states of Europe "the other heavenly bodies," him take taking the role and duties of the sun. As you will see King Louis XIV was a very proud, clever, glory-hungry, and well-spoken ruler. There are three authors in the section on Louis XIV who discuss the qualities and short-comings during his time of power. These authors are Saint-Simon, Voltaire, and Pierre Goubert. They reveal the different ways that King Louis XIV was depicted during reign until his untimely death in 1715. The first author is Saint-Simon of Versailles. He was born in Versailles in 1675 and lived there until the year of 1705. In the word, of Saint-Simon at Versailles Saint-Simon depicted the feelings of a love-hate attitude towards Louis XIV. He accused Louis of neglect and "demeaning the old aristocracy to which Saint-Simon so self-consciously belonged." Although Saint-Simon hated his king he could not help but to admire him at the same time. Louis played such a huge role in Saint-Simon's life it is ridiculous. King Louis was almost god-like to Saint-Simon and all the people of his Court. According to Saint-Simon, everything Louis XIV said or did was taken in and emulated by the people in the Court. He talks of how Louis was a king of great poise and presence, and how his figure demanded attention. But while being a great man and personality, Saint-Simon describes how he was a man of great scandal. He tells of all of the affairs with his many mistresses and how he moved his entire court just to have privacy to commit these acts away from the public eye. He also tells how he was a careless spender of millions of dollar. Voltaire made a great contribution to the history of Louis XIV by writing the book, The Age of Louis XIV. In this book Voltaire shows overwhelming support for Louis XIV, only mentioning few instances of Louis's short-comings during his time of leadership. His main focus in his writing was Louis's characteristics; how he carried himself, his elegance, and his ability to throw luxurious parties of celebration.
Duc de Saint-Simon lived in the Palace of Versailles with King Louis XIV of France during the late seventeenth century. Louis did not move his court to Versailles until 1682, so it can be assumed that this document was written after. In his memoirs, he took detailed notes describing Louis’ attributes overwhelmingly positive, but seemingly accurate. This author creates a somewhat skewed look for the king of France with the immense positivity. Louis ruled with an absolute monarchy, Saint-Simon seems to be composing this to please the king and also for later to understand what life was truly like in the court and life at Versailles.
The reading depicted the surprising visit of King Louis XIV, together with six hundred nobles and thousands of court servants at Chantilly in 1671. The host Prince de Condé and his most trusted headwaiter Francois Vatel was given fifteen days to be prepared for the arrival of the gigantic royal party. A spontaneous event of mis-arrangements during the preparation has gradually built up the stresses on Vatel which ultimately broke down his stress threshold and led to his tragic ending. Madame de Sévigné who was a talented letter writer in 17th century decided wrote down the tragic story of a courtier in her letter, even though she was never there to see it in person.
This is known as divine right. King Louis XIV an earlier ruler before Louis XVI was a monarch that used this way to rule France. For, Louis XIV, the sun was his symbol of divine right. Apollo represented the Sun as the God of peace and was a heavenly body that gave life. “Like the Sun God, Louis XIV, the warrior hero, brought peace to his people; he protected the arts and dispensed all the graces” (History Court Characters, n.d). Being a monarch using your power of divine right isn’t bad cause in trying to harm your country, it is using your power in such a way to make life better for a nation. The Palace of Versailles was built to resemble this power “he insisted on the resemblance carved in stone: the decor of Versailles was filled with depictions and attributes of the god” (History Court Characters, n.d). When Louis XVI inherited the throne and resided in Versaille, it was not to live an aristocratic life, it was to show his divine right and resemble his ancestor Louis XIV “Sun King.” The Sun King represented peace and grace to his people. No harm was meant intentionally by his rule as
Louis XIV (Figure 1), the absolute monarch of France from 1643 to 1715, was a model of other European monarchs. Louis was born on 5th of September 1638 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where located outside of Paris in north central France, and died in 1715 at an age of seventy-seven. After the death of his father Louis XIII in 1963, his mother Anne of Austria and the chief minister Cardinal Jules Mazarin were appointed regent while Louis XIV was young. For the throne, Louis was allowed to attend councils of st...
The French Code Noir, also known as The Black Code, was a decree originally passed by King Louis XIV of France in 1685. The decree was a document that established the main points for slavery policies, including not only the treatment of the slaves but the life, death, purchase, and religion of the slaves. These policies were to be followed by the masters of the slaves in all French Colonies. Slavery was a huge issue and has shaped history in a way that nothing else has. Slavery has brought many social, political, and ethical issues to the world.
Louis XIII and Richelieu were both ambitious for France and fearful for her position within Europe with powerful forces sharing large borders with her. These borders were dominated by the Habsburgs, the family who ruled the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Throne. Habsburg is the name of the family which sprang the Dukes and archdukes of Austria after 1282. They became kings of Hungary and Bohemia after 1526, and emperors of Austria after 1804. They were Holy Roman Emperors from 1430 to 1806 and kings of Spain from 1516 to 1700, and held many other titles. In the time of Louis XIII and cardinal Richelieu Ferdinand II (1578-1637) and Ferdinand III(1608-1657) as holy Roman emperor and Philip IX(1605-1665) in Spain. Louis XIII was from the Valois-Bourbon linage in France who had been rivals of the Habsburgs for generations. (EN Brit Vol 11 p 59)
Madelin, Louis. The French revolution by Louis Madelin. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Of Michigan Library, 1916. Print.
The Palace of Versailles leads back to the regime of Louis XIV. Louis inherited the crown in 1643 at the young age of four, much too young to rule, especially in the midst of France’s chaos. Anne of Austria, his mother, and her Chief Minister, Cardinal Jules Mazarin, ruled on Louis’s behalf. Mazarin died in 1661,however, Louis took over with a revolutionary announcement: he would rule without a prime minister, thus all power will fall solely upon himself. He believed he was divinely appointed to lead France and used “L’Etat c’est moi” or “I am the State” as his motto. Louis chose the sun as his personal symbol of dominance, creating himself a legacy as the “Sun King” (History.com).
Power- something so potent, yet so easy to misuse. Not everyone can obtain power, however those who possess it often acquire arrogance. Louis XIV held total control of France, abusing his dominance. Louis called himself ‘the Sun King’, believing that everything revolved around him. His pompousness led him to making foolish decisions, as he considered himself to be superior. If you don’t use your brain, you will ultimately lose it, as Louis was beheaded by the determined citizens of France. Likewise, in Antigone, King Creon is the ruler of Thebes. Creon makes an arbitrary ruling, swearing the ‘disloyal’ Polyneices should never be buried. When Antigone goes against this, Creon is infuriated. Creon lets his arrogance take over, and continuously makes unwise decisions. Power simply creates narcissism, as Creon’s pride causes him to commit foolish actions.
Although it is known that the palace of Versailles was created by King Louis XIV, its foundation of the palace starts long before then in 1623 when King Louis XIII underwent construction to build a royal hunting lodge made of brick and stone in a town located 17 kilometres from the centre of Paris known as Versailles. Louis XIII commissioned the Baroque architect Philibert Le Roy who did several modifications towards the lodge but it remained the same until his death in 1643 and Louis XIV toke the French throne . For his reign as King Louis XIV chose the sun as his emblem, it represented Apollo, the God of Peace and the Arts it also represented the heavenly body giving life to all. This is how he ruled by creating Versailles he made a world where all orbited around him, the sun king. He imposed his etiquette on the court, the rules of superiority in which the
King Louis XIV was a showy and self-absorbed king. His palace was representative of his personality and ideals. The Versailles palace architecture displayed Louis XIV ideals of secular issues. He cared more about spending money to show off his power. Unlike the Escorial, Versailles was centered on “The Sun King” instead of religion. At one point Louis XIV stated that “he was the state”. This statement was saying that Louis XIV represented the center and best of France. An example of this was that King Louis XIV lived in the middle of Versailles. Versailles was also very ornate and had the atmosphere of freeness. However, the Escorial was very basic like Philip II.
Absolutism describes a form of monarchical power that is unrestrained by all other institutions, such as churches, legislatures, or social elites. To achieve absolutism one must first promote oneself as being powerful and authoritative, then the individual must take control of anyone who might stand in the way of absolute power. The Palace of Versailles helped King Louis XIV fulfill both of those objectives. Versailles used propaganda by promoting Louis with its grandiosity and generous portraits that all exuded a sense of supremacy. Versailles also helped Louis take control of the nobility by providing enough space to keep them under his watchful eye. The Palace of Versailles supported absolutism during King Louis XIV’s reign through propaganda, and control of nobility.
When Louis the XIV began his rule in 1643, his actions immediately began to suggest and absolute dictatorship. Because of the misery he had previously suffered, one of the first things he did was to decrease the power of the nobility. He withdrew himself from the rich upper class, doing everything secretly. The wealth had no connection to Louis, and therefore all power they previously had was gone. He had complete control over the nobles, spying, going through mail, and a secret police force made sure that Louis had absolute power. Louis appointed all of his officials, middle class men who served him without wanting any power. Louis wanted it clear that none of his power would be shared. He wanted "people to know by the rank of the men who served him that he had no intention of sharing power with them." If Louis XIV appointed advisors from the upper classes, they would expect to gain power, and Louis was not willing to give it to them. The way Louis XIV ruled, the sole powerful leader, made him an absolute ruler. He had divine rule, and did not want to give any power to anyone other than himself. These beliefs made him an absolute ruler.
King Louis XVI and Tsar Nicholas II was both very weak leaders. Both were throw into being leaders of their countries and neither felt ready. Both were young when they first became leaders, King Louis at 20 and Nicholas at 26. Many were unconfident in King Louis and thought he was indecisive and had no social graces. People liked Nicholas, but as it grew obvious he was a bad Tsar, they started to dislike him. Also, both King Louis XVI and Tsar Nicholas II derived their power from the church. King Louis believed in Divine Right, the idea that god decided who is to be the ruler. During church ceremonies, people faced away from the priest and toward King Louis, who was standing looking down on everyone. Similarly, Nicholas II and the nobility got