It was a serious thing for France and the world when Louis fell under the control of his mistress, the marquise cle Maintenon (q.v.), whom he married in a balf-priva,te man ner in 1685, and who was herself governed by the Jesuits. One of the first effects of this change was the adoption of severe measures against the Protestants. When it was reported to Louis that his troops had converted all the heretics, he revoked the edict of Nantes in 1685, and then ensued a bloody persecution; whilst more than half a million of the best and most industrious of the inhabitants of France fled, carrying their skill and industry to other lands. Yet Louis was by no means willing to yield too much power to the pope; and quarreling with him concernin7 the revenues of vacant bishoprics, lie convened a council of French clergy, which declared the papal power to extend only to matters of faith, and even in these to be dependent upon the decrees of councils.
The elector of the Palatinate having died in .May, 1685, and left his sister, the duchess of Orleans, heiress of his movable property, Louis claimed for her also all the allodial lands; and from this and other causes arose a new European war. A French army invaded the Palatinate, Baden, Whrtemberg, and Treves in 1688. In 1689 the lower Palatinate and neighboring regions were laid waste by fire and sword. This atrocious proceeding led to a new coalition against France. Success for a time attended the French arms, particularly in Savoy and at the battle of Steiukerk. Reverses, how ever, ensued: the war was waged for years ou a great scale, and with various success: and after the French, under Luxembourg, had gained, iu 1693, the battle of Neerwiuden, it was found that the means of waging war were very much exhausted, and Louis con cluded the peace of Ryswiek, Sept. 20, 1697. The navy destroyed, the finances griev ously embarrassed, the people suffering from want of food, and discontentment deep and general, Louis placed the count D'Argenson at the head of the police, and estab lished an unparalleled system of espionage for the maintenance of his own despotism. The power of Mme. de Maintenon and her clerical advisers became more and more absolute at the court, where scandals of every kind increased.
When the death of Charles II. of Spain took place, Nov. 1. 1700, it was found that Louis had obtained his signature to a will by which he left all his dominions to one of the grandsons of his sister, who had been Louis's queen. Louis supported to the utmost the claim. of his grandson (Philip V.), whilst the emperor Leopold supported that of his son, afterwards the emperor Charles VI. But the power of France was now weakened, and the war had to be maintained both on the side of the Netherlands and of Italy. One bloody defeat followed another; Marlborough was victorious in the Low Countries, and prince Eugene in Italy; whilst the forces of Louis were divided and weakened by the employment of large bodies of troops against the Camisards in the Cevennes, for the extinction of the last relics of Protestantism. On April 11, 1713. peace was concluded. a.t Utrecht, the French prince obtaining the Spanish throne, but France sacrificiir• valu able colonies. A terrible fermentation now prevailed in France, and the count'ry was almost completely ruined; but the monarch maintained to the last an unbending despot ism. He died, after a short illness, Sept. 1, 1715. He was succeeded by his great grandson, Louis XV. His son, the dauphin, and his eldest grandson, the duke of Bretagne, had both died in 1711. Louis had a number of natural children, and he had legitimized those of whom Mme. de Montespan was the mother; but the parliament, which made no objection to recording the edict when required by hiin, inade as little objection to annulling it when required by the next government. The " works" of Louis XIV. (6 vols. Paris, 1806), containing his instructions for his sons, and many letters, afford important information as to his character and the history of his reign. The reign of Louis XIV, is regarded as the A.ugustan age of Freneh literature and art, and it can hardly be doubted that Franco has never since produced poets like Corneille and Racine in tragedy, or MoHere in comedy; satirists like Boileau, or divines like Bossuet, Fenelon, Bourdaloue, and Massillon.