The Reign of Louis XIV

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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.

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