Louis XIV of France

thumb|Louis XIV of France Louis XIV of France (baptised as Louis-Dieudonné) (5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715) ruled as King of France and of the Navarre from 1643. Louis established the French absolute monarchy and made France the main political power in western Europe in his time. Quotes Toutes les fois que je donne une place vacante, je fais cent mécontents et un ingrat. Every time that I fill a high office, I create a hundred discontented men and an ingrate. Quoted in Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV (1751), ch.26 Il n'y a plus de Pyrénées. The Pyrenees have ceased to exist. On his grandson becoming King of Spain, quoted in Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV (1751), ch.28 Je m'en vais, mais l'État demeurera toujours. I am going away, but the State will always remain. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k55404p Mémoire sur la mort de Louis XIV (page 24) Marquis de Dangeau Je mettrais plutôt toute l'Europe d'accord que deux femmes. I could sooner reconcile all Europe than two women. Comte de Mirabeau. Esprit de Mirabeau (v.1, page 246) Disputed L'État, c'est moi. I am the State. probably apocryphal; reported in the late 18th century: C. D. Erhard, Betrachtungen über Leopolds des Weisen Gesetzgebung in Toscana, Richter, 1791, p. 30. Widely known and denounced as apocryphal by the early 19th century. Jean Etienne François Marignié, The king can do no wrong: Le roi ne peut jamais avoit tort, le roi ne peut mal faire, Le Normant, 1818 p. 12 J'ai failli attendre. I almost had to wait. Regarded as apocryphal by E. Fournier, L'Esprit dans l'Histoire (4th ed. 1884). ch.xlviii Quotes about Louis XIV Lewis XIV. was by far the ablest man who was born in modern times on the steps of a throne. He was laborious, and devoted nine hours a day to public business. He had an excellent memory and immense fertility of resource. Few men knew how to pursue such complex political calculations, or to see so many moves ahead. He was patient and constant and unwearied, and there is a persistent unity in his policy, founded, not on likes and dislikes, but on the unvarying facts in the political stage of Europe. Lord Acton, 'Lewis the Fourteenth' (c. 1899–1901), Lectures on Modern History, eds. John Neville Figgis and Reginald Vere Laurence (1906), p. 234 [A]s the country had nearly relapsed into Anarchy again, through the Frondist revolt, only one resource remained to it, the direct rule of the King; in other words, monarchical autocracy.That is why Louis XIV's first pronouncement on attaining his majority was the famous apophthegm "L’Etat, c’est moi!" All France applauded that utterance. And indeed the observation was interpreted as announcing, not a despotism, but a deliverance. Henceforth the State was, not a minister, nor the great nobles and fair ladies of the Fronde, nor the magistrates of Parliament, nor the lords of Finance (hence the importance and the significance of the Fouquet trial). The governing power would now be in the undisputed possession of its lawful representative, the heir to the Kings of France. Jacques Bainville, Dictators (1937), pp. 79-80 The French people were quick to realize the deep significance of the King's ideas, or rather, perhaps, it was the King who grasped what it was that France required. France gave him a free hand and thus enabled him to abolish the final vestiges of ancient wrongs, and to display to the world the inspiring picture of a prince and his people working harmoniously to a common end, for the like of which we should search through history in vain.We know what came of it—the "pré carré" all but completed; in Europe, the prestige of France raised to a height that has never been surpassed; amazing prosperity at home; literature and the arts flourishing as never before; our frontiers inviolate for a century—in a word the Age of Louis XIV! Jacques Bainville, Dictators (1937), pp. 82-83 This was a king, wise in his councils, valiant in his armies and magnanimous in his victories. Esprit Fléchier, quoted in François Bluche, Louis XIV (1984; English translation, 1990), p. ii Your opinion is right, that the members of the Académie Royale des Sciences must not be pestered if it does not appear that they are pleased to see that which has been prepared for them. Those are fruits that grow best on their own soil, which is so well cultivated under the protection of one of the greatest kings that has ever been. Gottfried Leibniz to Paul Pellisson (3 July 1692), quoted in Pierre Costabel, Leibniz and Dynamics: The Texts of 1692 (1973), p. 39. Translated as "one of the greatest kings who ever lived" in François Bluche, Louis XIV (1984; English translation, 1990), p. 633 The personal qualities of the French King added to the respect inspired by the power and importance of his kingdom. No sovereign has ever represented the majesty of a great state with more dignity and grace. Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, Volume I [1848], ed. C. H. Firth (1913), p. 182 Humans also start wars because of what Hobbes called ‘trifles’: ‘a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other sign of undervalue, either direct in their persons or by reflection in their kindred, their friends, their nation, their profession, or their name’. Honour and glory are abstract concepts yet they can matter more than life itself. Alexander the Great, it is said, modelled himself on the great warrior Achilles, who would not suffer insults, and slept with a copy of the Iliad under his pillow. Louis XIV, the Sun King, beggared France and inflicted years of war on Europe in a search for glory, not for his country but for himself. ‘I shall not attempt to justify myself,’ he said after starting a war with the Dutch. ‘Ambition and [the pursuit of] glory are always pardonable in a prince …’ Victory in battle, the acquisition of territory, the quest to put the king’s relatives on other European thrones, even if the wars that followed did not benefit France, were for Louis’s glory. Napoleon, who seems to have admired Louis’s great antagonist the Duke of Marl-borough more than the king, shared the hunger. Margaret MacMillan, War: How Conflict Shaped Us (2020) No sovereign in the world was more a king than this prince. Obedience, under his reign, was a veritable cult, and never were the French more submissive and greater. Joseph de Maistre, Against Rousseau (1795), p. 193 Louis XIV was the only king of France worthy the name, but though a great king, he was not, like Francis I and Henry IV, un militaire. Napoleon, Napoleon's Notes on English History, Made on the Eve of the French Revolution, Illustrated from Contemporary Documents (1905), p. 258 Durant ce temps, il s'est passé deux affaires assez considérables: une femme qui avoit perdu son fils d'une chute pendant qu'il travailloit aux machines de Versailles, et qui avoit esté taxée à la chambre de justice, outrée de douleur, présenta un placet en blanc pour estre remarquée, et, en effet, on luy demanda en riant ce qu'elle prétendoit; en mesme temps elle dit des injures au roy, l'appelant putassier, roy machiniste, tyran, et mille autres sottises et extravagances, dont le roy, surpris, demanda sy elle parloit à luy. A quoy elle répliqua que ouy, et continua. Elle fut prise et condamnée sur-le-champ à avoir le fouet et menée aux Petites-Maisons. Le fouet luy fut donné par le bourg de Saint-Germain avec une rigueur extresme, et cette femme ne dit jamais mot, souffrant ce mal comme un martyr et pour l'amour de Dieu. Beaucoup ont blasmé cette punition sy sévère, et dit qu'il falloit traiter cette femme de folle et la faire mettre aux Petites-Maisons, et ne pas faire esclater cet emportement par la punition.Quelques jours après, un homme âgé de soixante ans, s'estant emporté encore à de pareilles extravagances, fut accusé d'avoir dit que le roy estoit un tyran, et qu'il y avoit encore des Ravaillac et des gens de courage et de vertu. Cet homme a esté jugé par le grand prévost avec les maistres des requestes du quartier de juillet et autres estant à Saint-Germain, et condamné à avoir la langue coupée et aux galères. Il y eut des opinions à la mort, Bercy, Foulé le jeune, etc. L'on dit que c'est un supplice nouveau que de couper la langue, et qu'on la perce seulement aux blasphémateurs. During this period [July 1668], two rather significant incidents occurred. A woman—whose son had died from a fall while working on the machinery at Versailles and who had subsequently been assessed a heavy fine by the Chamber of Justice—was driven to distraction by grief; she presented a blank petition in order to attract attention. Indeed, she was asked with a laugh what she wanted; at the same time, she hurled insults at the King, calling him a whoremonger, a "machinist king," a tyrant, and a thousand other foolish and wild things. Surprised, the King asked if she was speaking to him. She replied that she was, and continued her tirade. She was seized and immediately sentenced to be whipped and taken to the Petites-Maisons asylum. The whipping was administered in the town of Saint-Germain with extreme severity, yet the woman never uttered a word, enduring the pain like a martyr and for the love of God. Many criticised such a harsh punishment, arguing that she should have been treated as a madwoman and committed to the Petites-Maisons, rather than drawing public attention to her outburst through such a penalty.A few days later, a sixty-year-old man, having similarly given way to wild outbursts, was accused of calling the King a tyrant and claiming that there were still Ravaillacs—as well as people of courage and virtue—in existence. This man was tried by the Grand Provost, alongside the Masters of Requests on duty for July and other officials present at Saint-Germain; he was sentenced to have his tongue cut out and to be sent to the galleys. Some—such as Bercy and Foulé the Younger—advocated for the death penalty. It was remarked that cutting out the tongue was an unprecedented punishment, as blasphemers were usually merely branded through the tongue. Olivier Lefèvre d'Ormesson, Journal D'Olivier Lefèvre D'Ormesson et extraits Des Mémoires D'André Lefèvre D'Ormesson Publiés Par M. Chéruel. Tome Deuxiè 1661–1672 (1861), p. 552 After Westphalia brought peace to Europe, the second half of the seventeenth century saw a further spread of resident ambassadors, with Louis XIV’s France leading the way, and French replaced Latin as the lingua franca. There was, however, still scope for summitry, for instance during Peter the Great’s tour of Western Europe in 1697–8. His meetings with William III of England helped bring Russia belatedly into the European diplomatic orbit. In due course, the czar created a “Diplomatic Chancellery” and a network of foreign embassies on the European model. David Reynolds, Summits: Six Meetings that Changed the Twentieth Century (2007), p. 19 Despots always insist that they are merciful... When Louis XIV. revoked the edict of Nantz, and proclaimed two millions of his subjects free plunder for persecution-when from the English channel to the Pyrennees the mangled bodies of the Protestants were dragged on reeking hurdles by a shouting populace, he claimed to be "the father of his people," and wrote himself "His most Christian Majesty." Theodore Dwight Weld American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses (1839) External links Category:Monarchs from France Category:People from Paris Category:1638 births Category:1715 deaths