42 Facts About King Louis XIV

1. King Louis XIV considered that this offer made his previous agreement invalid and against the advice of his council accepted it.

2. King Louis XIV began with a team of excellent ministers inherited from Mazarin, but only now put to full and proper use.

3. King Louis XIV established himself as the most powerful monarch in Europe and France as the leading nation in the region.

4. King Louis XIV loved his second wife more than his first and he was comparatively more faithful to her.

5. King Louis XIV had many children with his mistresses, which include five with Louise de La Valliere and seven with Madame de Montespan.

6. King Louis XIV led France, mostly successfully, in a number of wars which expanded his kingdom.

7. King Louis XIV had the famous Palace of Versailles built and moved the royal court from Paris to Versailles in 1682.

8. King Louis XIV implemented a series of administrative, legal and financial reforms which reduced the deficit, fostered growth of industry, established uniform laws and transformed France into a centralized state.

9. King Louis XIV is known for controversial acts like the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and for having numerous mistresses.

10. King Louis XIV identified with his office to such an extent that it is difficult to find the individual.

11. King Louis XIV had distrusted his nephew, the duke d'Orleans, and wanted to leave actual power in the hands of the duke du Maine, his son by Mme de Montespan.

12. King Louis XIV had openly renounced pleasure, but the sacrifice was made easier for him by his new favourite, the very pious Mme de Maintenon.

13. The Catholic Sun King Louis XIV decided that his own faith should be the only faith.

14. King Louis XIV altered his life sentence from mere exile to life imprisonment—one of his first acts of authoritarian rule.

15. King Louis XIV is largely credited with modernizing the remnants of feudal France into a less hierarchical but more centralized government.

16. King Louis XIV inherited the French throne when he was only four years old.

17. King Louis XIV is a member of the House of Bourbon, a branch of the Capetian dynasty and of the Robertians.

18. King Louis XIV named it after Louis IX and intended it as a reward for outstanding officers.

19. King Louis XIV is a major character in the 1959 historical novel "Angelique et le Roy", part of the Angelique Series.

20. King Louis XIV danced four parts in three of Moliere's comedies-ballets, which are plays accompanied by music and dance.

21. In general, King Louis XIV was an eager dancer who performed 80 roles in 40 major ballets.

22. King Louis XIV used tapestries as a medium of exalting the monarchy.

23. Over his lifetime, King Louis XIV commissioned numerous works of art to portray himself, among them over 300 formal portraits.

24. King Louis XIV used court ritual and the arts to validate and augment his control over France.

25. The King Louis XIV attracted, supported and patronized such artists as Andre Charles Boulle who revolutionised marquetry with his art of inlay, today known as "Boulle Work".

26. King Louis XIV allowed Classical French literature to flourish by protecting such writers as Moliere, Racine, and La Fontaine, whose works remain greatly influential to this day.

27. King Louis XIV established the Paris Foreign Missions Society, but his informal alliance with the Ottoman Empire was criticised for undermining Christendom.

28. King Louis XIV took a series of mistresses, both official and unofficial.

29. King Louis XIV agreed that the entire Spanish empire should be surrendered to the Archduke Charles, and he consented to return to the frontiers of the Peace of Westphalia, giving up all the territories he had acquired over sixty years of his reign.

30. King Louis XIV might agree to a partition of the Spanish possessions and avoid a general war, or accept Charles II's will and alienate much of Europe.

31. King Louis XIV secured permanent French sovereignty over all of Alsace, including Strasbourg, and established the Rhine as the Franco-German border.

32. King Louis XIV tried to break up the alliance against him by dealing with individual opponents, but this did not achieve its aim until 1696, when the Savoyards agreed to the Treaty of Turin and switched sides.

33. King Louis XIV sailed for England with troops despite Louis' warning that France would regard it as a provocation.

34. King Louis XIV judged that royal authority thrived more surely by filling high executive and administrative positions with these men because they could be more easily dismissed than nobles of ancient lineage, with entrenched influence.

35. King Louis XIV sought Strasbourg, an important strategic crossing on the left bank of the Rhine and theretofore a Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire, annexing it and other territories in 1681.

36. King Louis XIV established the Chambers of Reunion to determine the full extent of his rights and obligations under those treaties.

37. King Louis XIV was devoted to the soldiers' material well-being and morale, and even tried to direct campaigns.

38. King Louis XIV instituted reforms in military administration through Michel le Tellier and the latter's son Francois-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois.

39. King Louis XIV invited manufacturers and artisans from all over Europe to France, such as Murano glassmakers, Swedish ironworkers, and Dutch shipbuilders.

40. King Louis XIV began his personal reign with administrative and fiscal reforms.

41. King Louis XIV's left the direction of the daily administration of policy to Cardinal Mazarin.

42. King Louis XIV 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, succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many members of which had participated in the Fronde rebellion during Louis' minority.