All About - History - Hitler Versus Stain

Hero or Villain?
G LOUIS XIV OF FRANCE
Defining
moment
WaroftheGrandAlliance
LouisXIV’sreigncanoftenbecharacterised
byanendlessneedtoreiteratethepowerof
thecrownandFrance’splacewithintheeverevolving
political arena of early modern Europe.
The War of the Grand Alliance, fought between
France and the other great powers of Europe,
wasanotherexpressionofthemonarch’s
refusaltoappearweakinthefaceof
anykindofthreat.
1688-97
The sheer amount of busts, statues, portraits
and murals created in Louis XIV’s image weren’t
just a reflection of his ego, but of his role in the
resurgence of the arts in 17th-century France
Louis XIV had an almost fantastical relationship
with Versailles and his close courtiers, and was
fond of allegorical paintings such as this
Like many a king before him, Louis XIV became
consumed with the need to war with other nations
to acquire or reclaim lands in the name of France
“He ruled for an incredible 72 years – the
longest reign of any European monarch”
become the Sun King, the source of all light, and his
efforts were paying off.
For the first half of his reign, Louis’s actions as king
of France were informed by his hunger to establish
both himself and his kingdom as the dominant
power in Europe. As such, the French monarch
wasn’t willing to be held at bay by the Peace of
Westphalia that had secured the end of the Thirty
Years’ War. France had been too long under the heel
of England, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.
France needed to reassert itself – and that meant war.
As a warring monarch, the darker and more
aggressive side of Louis was brought to the surface.
He funded France’s involvement in the War of
Devolution (1667-68) over control of the Spanish
Netherlands, France’s power base – it ultimately
proved a tactical failure when England, Sweden,
Spain and the Holy Roman Empire united against
him, but it worked wonders for his national image.
By directing the conflict from the front line, Louis
solidified his image as the proverbial Sun King in the
minds of both his soldiers and the people back home.
That hunger for greater status led Louis to a
renewed conflict that proved far more fruitful in
the form of the Dutch War (1672-78). The Sun King
wanted the Spanish Netherlands and he was willing
to do anything to acquire them. The war nearly
bankrupted the kingdom, but it bolstered the realm
with new lands and territories and the confirmation
of France’s ascension in the political theatre of
Europe. Those same desires drove him to the War of
the Grand Alliance (1688-97), in which all the major
powers of Europe rose up to halt France and Louis’s
hunger for more territory.
In his later years, Louis XIV’s character went
through something of a transformation, and with
it so did the state of the realm. While devout from
birth, his religious leanings began to radicalise and
it was here that his Catholic upbringing took hold.
France was a Protestant nation (and a poorer one
for all Louis’s wars), but the monarchy was absolute,
so Louis imposed the same reform in the religious
sphere that he had used elsewhere. He revoked the
Edict of Nantes, issued by his grandfather Henry IV
in 1598, which had granted freedom of worship and
other rights to French Protestants (Huguenots). He
then razed Protestant churches to the ground and
created a culture of fear that drove Protestants in
their thousands out of the country in exodus.
On 1 September 1715, Louis XIV succumbed to
gangrene at his palace in Versailles. He ruled for
an incredible 72 years – the longest reign of any
European monarch in history – and in that time
the man on the throne left a lasting impression on
the kingdom. He revitalised France, rebuilding the
economy and fortifying the nation as the dominant
military power in Europe. But he lost the people he
gained as the resplendent and opulent Sun King,
forcing religious reform in a time where spiritual
diversity had barely found an equilibrium.
If Louis XIV was guilty of one thing, it was
an unrelenting need to shed weakness. From
consolidating his personal rule to needless territorial
wars, the Sun King was a man who shaped France
by the nature of his desires.
Was King Louis XIV a hero or a villain? Let us
know what you think
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