LOUIS XIV., King of France, b. at St. Germain-en-Laye, Sept. 16, 1638, succeeded his father, Louis XIII., in 1643. His mother, Anne of Austria, became regent, and Mazarin (q.v.) her minister. Diving the king's minority, the discontented nobles, encouraged by Spain, sought to shake off the authority of the crown, and the civil wacs of the .115.onde (q.v.) arose. Peace was concluded in 1659; and in the folloming year Louis married the Infanta Maria Theresa, a princess possessing neither beauty nor other attractive qualities. Little was expected from the young king; his education had been neglected, and his conduct was dissolute; but on Mazarin's death, in 1661, he suddenly assumed the reins of government, and from that tirne forth carried into effect With 17113) energy a political theory of pure despotism. His famous saying, " L'etat e'en' moi" (I am the state), expressed the principle to which everything was accommodated. He had a cool and clear head, with much dignity and amenity of manners, great activity, and indomitable perseverance. The distress caused by the religious wars had created throughout France a longing for repose, which was favorable to his assumption of abso lute power. He was ably supported by his ministers. Manufactures began to flourish under the royal protection. The fine cloths of Louviers, Abbeville, and Sedan, the tapestries of the Gobelins, the carpets of La Savonnerie, and the silks of Tours and Lyons acquired a wide celebrity. The wonderful talents of Colbert (q.v.) restored pros perity to the ruined finances of the country, and provided the means for war; whilst Louvois (q.v.) applied these means in raising and sending to the field armies more thor oughly equipped and disciplined than any other of that age.
On the death of Philip IV. of Spain, Louis, as his son-in-law, set up a claim to part of the Spanish Netherlands; and in 1667, accompanied by Turenne (q.v.), he crossed the frontier with a. powerful army, took many places, and made himself master of that part of Flanders since known fIS French Flanders, and of the whole of Franche Comte. The triple a/liance,--between England, the States-general, and Sweden—arrested his career of conquest. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668) forced him to surrender Franche Comte. He vowed revenge against the States-general, strengthened himself by German alliances, and purchased. with money the friendship of Charles II. of England. He seized Lorraine in 1670; and in May, 1672, again entered the Netherlands with Conde and Turenne, con quered half the country in six weeks, and left the duke of Luxembourg to lay it waste. The States-general formed an alliance with Spain and with the emperor, but Louis made himself master of ten cities of the empire in Alsace; and in the spring of 1674 took the field with three great armies, of which he commanded one in person, Conde another, and Turenne a third. Victory attended his arms; and notwithstanding the death of Turenne, and the
retirement of the prince of Conde from active service, he continued in subsequent years, along with his brother, the duke of Orleans, to extend his conquests in the Netherlands, where, by his orders, and according to the ruthless policy of Louvois, the country was fearfully desolated. The peare of Nimeguen, in 1678. left him possession of many of his conquests. He now established (huntlecs de reunizin in Metz, Breisach, and Besancon, pretended courts of law, in which his own will was supreme, and which confiscated to him, as feudal superior in right of his conquests, territories which he wished to acquire, seignories belonging to the elector Palatine, the elector of Treves, and °thin's. He also, qn Sept. 30, 1681, made a sudden and successful attack on Strasburg, a free German city, the possession and fortification of which added greatly to his power on the Rhine. The acquisition thus made, a treaty in 1684 confirmed to him.
Louis had now reached the zenith of his career. All Europe feared him; his own nation had been brought by tyranny, skillful management, and military glory, to recrard him with Asiatic humility, admiring and obeying; all reinnants of political indepeneence had been swept away; no assemblies of the sMtes or of the notables were held; the, nobles had lost both the desire and the ability to assert p'olitical power; the munieipaf corporations no longer exercised any right of election, hut received appointments of officials from the court; the provinces were governed by intendants, who were immedi ately responsible to the ministers, and they to the king, who was his own prime minister. Even the courts of justice yielded to the absolute sway of the monarch, who interfered at pleasure with the ordinary course of law, by the appointment of commissions. or withdrew offenders from the jurisdiction of the courts by lettres de cachet (q.v.), of which he issued about 9,000 in the course of his reign. He asserted a right to dispose at his pleasure of all properties within the boundaries of his reahn, and took credit to himself for gracious moderation in exercising it sparingly. The court was the very heart of the political and national life of France, and there the utmost splendor was main tained; and a system of etiquette was established, which was a sort of perpetual worship of the king.