Why the reign of Louis 14. Louis XIV (Sun King)

Booker Igor 11/23/2013 at 17:07

The frivolous public willingly believes in fairy tales about the abundance of love of the French king Louis XIV. Against the background of the morals of that time, the number of love victories of the "Sun King" simply fades. A timid young man, learning about women, did not become a libertarian. Louis was characterized by bouts of generosity in relation to the ladies left by him, who continued to enjoy many favors, and their offspring received titles and estates. Among the favorites, Madame de Montespan stands out, whose children from the king became Bourbons.

The marriage of Louis XIV to Maria Theresa was a political marriage and the French king missed his wife. The daughter of the King of Spain was a pretty woman, but she was completely lacking in charm (despite the fact that she was the daughter of Elizabeth of France, there was not a grain of French charm in her) and there was no gaiety. At first, Louis looked at Henrietta of England, his brother's wife, who was disgusted with her husband, a fan of same-sex love. At one of the court balls, Duke Philippe of Orleans, who showed courage and commanding qualities on the battlefield, dressed in a woman's dress and danced with his handsome cavalier. An unattractive 16-year-old tall girl with a drooping lower lip had two advantages - a lovely opal complexion and accommodating.

The contemporary French writer Eric Deschodt, in his biography of Louis XIV, testifies: "The relationship between Louis and Henriette does not go unnoticed. Monsieur (title Monsieur was given to the brother of the king of France, next in seniority - ed.) complains to his mother. Anne of Austria scolds Henrietta. Henrietta proposes to Louis, in order to avert suspicion from herself, to pretend that he is courting one of her ladies-in-waiting. They choose for this Louise de la Baume le Blanc (Françoise Louise de La Baume Le Blanc), the girl La Vallière (La Vallière), a seventeen-year-old native of Touraine, a delightful blonde (in those days, as later in Hollywood, men prefer blondes), - whose voice can touch even an ox, and whose glance can soften a tiger."

For Madame - title Madame was given to the wife of the brother of the king of France, next in seniority and having the title of "Monsieur" - the result was deplorable. You can't tell without looking, but Louis traded Henrietta's dubious charms for a blond beauty. From Maria Theresa, who in 1661 gave birth to the Grand Dauphin (the eldest son of the king), Louis concealed his affair in the greatest secret. “Despite all appearances and legends, from 1661 to 1683, Louis XIV always tries to keep his love affairs a great secret,” writes the French historian François Bluche. “He does this primarily to spare the queen.” The environment of the ardent Catholic Anna of Austria was in despair. Lavalier from the "king-sun" will give birth to four children, but only two will survive. Louis recognizes them.

The Duchy of Vaujour will be a farewell gift to her mistress, then she will retire to the Carmelite convent in Paris, but for some time she stoically endured the bullying of the new favorite, Françoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart or the Marquise de Montespan (marquise de Montespan). It is difficult for historians to establish an exact list and chronology of Louis's love affairs, especially since, as noted, he often returned to his former passions.

Witty compatriots even then noted that Lavalier loved the monarch like a mistress, Maintenon like a governess, and Montespan like a mistress. Thanks to the Marquise de Montespan, on July 18, 1668, a “grand royal feast at Versailles” took place, the Bath Apartments, the porcelain Trianon were built, the Versailles bosquets were created, and an amazing castle (“Palace of Armida”) was built in Clagny. Both contemporaries and current historians tell us that the king's affection for Madame de Montespan (where spiritual intimacy played no less a role than sensuality) continued after the termination of their love affair.

At 23, Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente was married to the Marquis de Montespan of the Pardaillan family. The husband was constantly afraid of being arrested for debts, which irritated Atenais extremely. She answered the call of the king, who had already become less timid and shy than during the cupids with Louise de La Vallière. The marquis could have taken his wife to the provinces, but for some reason he did not. Having learned about the betrayal of the Marquise, Gascon blood woke up in the cuckold and one day he read a notation to the monarch and ordered a memorial service for his wife.

Louis was not a petty tyrant, and although the Gascon was decently fed up with him, he not only did not put him in prison, but also promoted the legitimate son of the Marquis and Marquise de Montespan in every possible way. First he made him lieutenant-general, then director-general of civil works, and finally he was granted the titles of duke and peer. Madame de Montespan, awarded the title maîtresse royale en titre- "the official mistress of the king, gave birth to eight children to Louis. Four of them reached adulthood and were legalized and made Bourbons. Three of them married persons of royal blood. After the birth of the seventh bastard, Count of Toulouse, Louis avoids intimacy with Montespan.

Not even on the horizon, but almost in the royal chambers, Marie Angélique de Scorraille de Roussille, the maiden Fontanges, who arrived from Auvergne, appears. The aging king falls in love with an 18-year-old beauty, according to contemporaries, "who has not been seen in Versailles for a long time." Their feelings are mutual. With Montespan, the girl Fontange is related by the arrogance shown in relation to the former and forgotten Louis favorites. Perhaps all she lacked was de Montespan's causticity and sharp tongue.

Madame de Montespan stubbornly did not want to give up her place for a great life, and the king, by nature, was not inclined to openly break with the mother of his children. Louis allowed her to continue living in his luxurious apartments and even visited his former mistress from time to time, flatly refusing to have sex with a plump favorite.

“Maria Angelica sets the tone,” writes Eric Deschodt. “If, during a hunt in Fontainebleau, she ties a strand of hair that has fallen out with a ribbon, then the whole court and all of Paris does it the next day. The hairstyle “a la Fontange” is still mentioned in dictionaries "But the happiness of the one who invented it turned out to be not so long. A year later, Louis is already bored. The beauty is a replacement. It looks like she was stupid, but this was hardly the only reason for disgrace." The Duchess de Fontanges was given a pension of 20,000 livres by the king. A year after the loss of her prematurely born son, she died suddenly.

The subjects forgave their monarch for his love affairs, which cannot be said about gentlemen historians. Historiographers connected the "reign" of the Marquise de Montespan and her "resignation" with unseemly cases, such as the "poisoning case" (L "affaire des Poisons"). , black masses and all sorts of other devilry, and at the beginning it was only about poisoning, as is clear from its name, under which it appears to this day, ”explains historian Francois Bluche.

In March 1679, the police arrested a certain Catherine Deshayes, Monvoisin's mother, who was called simply Voisin (la Voisin), suspected of witchcraft. Five days later, Adam Kere or Cobré, aka Dubuisson, aka "abbe Lesage" (abbé Lesage), was arrested. Their interrogation revealed or led to the idea that witches and sorcerers had fallen into the hands of justice. These, in the words of Saint-Simon, "fashionable crimes", were dealt with, established by Louis XIV, a special court, nicknamed Chambre ardente- "Fire chamber". This commission included high-ranking officials and was chaired by Louis Bouchre, the future Chancellor.

31.05.2011 - 16:48

Every person, regardless of their gender, religion, social status, dreams of being loved. There are no exceptions to this rule - even kings suffered from loneliness and were looking for a soul mate. But, as you know, no king can marry for love - politics is much more important than human feelings. True, sometimes fate presents true love as a gift to monarchs ...

Marriage of convenience

When the young King Louis XIV married the Spanish Infanta Maria Theresa, his heart and thoughts were occupied by another Maria - Mancini, the niece of Cardinal Mazarin. This girl could well be next to the king, but, alas, politics is stronger than love ...

The marriage of Louis XIV with Maria Theresa was beneficial from all points of view - both the long-awaited peace with Spain, and the reinforcement of the necessary connections, and a good dowry ...

And what will marriage with Maria Mancini give France? Nothing, except perhaps the strengthening of the power of Cardinal Mazarin. The choice of the mother of King Anna of Austria is unequivocal - only the Spanish Infanta! And Mazarin had to negotiate with the Spanish court about the marriage of Louis and Maria Theresa.

The young king relented and refused to marry the cardinal's much-desired niece. Maria was forced to leave Paris. But politics is politics, and love is love. The image of a black-eyed beauty with a tear-stained face, her tender words and farewell kisses lived in the heart of the king for a long time ...

Poor lame

After the wedding with his unloved wife, the king threw himself into the maelstrom of love affairs. The most beautiful women in France are ready to succumb to the desire of Louis, and he meets the second true love of his life. Modest, ugly, lame Louise de La Vallière suddenly won the heart of the king.

Alexandre Dumas described the girl dear to Louis in this way: “She was a blonde with brown expressive eyes, with wide white teeth; her mouth was rather large; there were some traces of smallpox on her face; she had neither beautiful breasts nor beautiful shoulders; her hands were thin, ugly; moreover, she limped a little due to a dislocation that happened and was poorly corrected in the seventh or eighth year, when she jumped to the ground from a pile of firewood. However, they said that she was very kind and sincere; at court she did not have a single admirer, except for the young Guiche, who, however, did not succeed in anything "...

But the king sincerely fell in love with the ugly Louise. They say that his love began with the fact that once the king, as in a fairy tale, overheard the conversations of several court ladies-in-waiting, discussing yesterday's ball and the beauty of the gentlemen present. And Louise suddenly said: “How can you talk about someone if the king himself was at the celebration ?!” ...

Touched to the core by such love and devotion, Louis reciprocated the girl and began to shower her with gifts. But the maid of honor needed only Louis himself and his love. She did not at all seek, like everyone else, to pull money and jewelry from Louis. Louise dreamed of only one thing - to become the legitimate wife of the king, give birth to children for him and be close to her any man ...

The king was touched to the core by such a sincere feeling. Once, when a young man and his lover were caught in the rain, Louis covered Louise with his hat for two hours .... For a woman, such an act proves the love of a man much more strongly than all the jewelry and gifts. But Louis did not skimp on them either. Louise was bought a whole palace in which the favorite was waiting for her king ...

But Louis was bound by family ties, duty, public policy considerations. Louise gave birth to his children, but the babies were taken away from her - why once again compromise the unfortunate maid of honor ... The king's heart was torn from the torment of poor Louise, but what could he do? And Louis began to take out his anger on Louise, and she only wept bitterly in response ...

Black mass

The queen's lady-in-waiting, the clever and insidious Francoise Athenais de Montespan, noticed that not everything was going well in the king's relationship with Louise, and decided that her hour had come. For the heart of Louis, she was going to fight seriously - both the usual female tricks and insidious intrigues are used.

Louise was at a loss, sobbed, did not know how to behave in such a cruel persecution. She became more and more pious and found consolation only in religion ... The king was getting more and more bored next to his mistress, and the witty and lively Françoise loomed next to her tidbit ...

Soon, Louis fell before the ardent charms of the beauty, and Louise had no choice but to retire to the Carmelite monastery, where she prayed for the king and his soul ...

But intrigues against Louise do not bring happiness to the Marquise. She receives rich gifts from the king, but her happiness seems so fragile. About the love of Louis for Françoise, such touching stories were not told, as about the feeling of the king for the lame Louise. No, the king was now constantly surrounded by beauties, and he showed signs of attention to each of them.

Montespan was angry and filled with hatred for the whole world. But if Louise de La Valliere sought solace in God, then the Marquise turned to the devil for help ... All Paris spoke in a whisper about her passion for black magic, about witchcraft means by which she warded off poor Louise from the king, about terrible bloody masses with the killing of babies ...

They say that there is not a single crime on Francoise’s conscience, that it was she who poisoned the beautiful red-haired girl Fontage, to whom the king was not indifferent at one time ... It is not known how it all really happened, but Louis is gradually moving away from Francoise de Montespan ...

Wise woman

... When the age of the king approached 40 years, Louis ceased to be attracted by constant easy connections, frivolous beauties. He was tired of women's tears, intrigues, accusations, quarrels between favorites and random mistresses ...

Increasingly, he repeats his famous words: “It would be easier for me to reconcile the whole of Europe than a few women” ...

He wanted only one thing - love and peace, a reliable girlfriend, such that she would help him and share with him all the difficulties and doubts. And such a woman was soon found ...

Enlightened, intelligent, mature Mrs. Francoise Scarron, widow of the famous poet Paul Scarron, has long been close to the king - but as a governess to his children. The king was very fond of his offspring - both those born in a legal marriage and bastards from favorites. After Francoise Scarron took up their upbringing, he notices that the children are becoming more and more intelligent and educated.

Louis became interested in their teacher. Long hours of conversation showed him that before him was a woman of extraordinary intelligence. Heart-to-heart conversations grew into a real feeling - Louis' last love ... To strengthen the position in society of his new favorite, he granted her the estate of Maintenon and the title of Marquise.

Françoise compares favorably with the frivolous coquettes surrounding Louis. Madame de Maintenon stands out for her high morality, religiosity and condemns the mores of the court. She wrote: “I see the most diverse passions, betrayals, baseness, boundless ambitions, on the one hand, on the other, the terrible envy of people who have rabies in their hearts and who think only about destroying everyone. Women of our time are unbearable for me, their clothes are immodest, their tobacco, their wine, their rudeness, their laziness - all this I cannot endure.

In 1683, the legitimate wife of the king, Maria Theresa, dies. The king will say after her death: "This is the only worry in life that she has caused me" ...

Being a widower, after some time, Louis is married in secret to Madame Maintenon, but he is still afraid to proclaim her officially queen. But the position of the new wife of Louis is more than profitable - no woman before her had such an influence on the king of his affairs. All historians note how, under the influence of Madame de Mentonon, both the policy of France, and the life of the court, and the king himself changed - gradually he became a completely different person ...

Louis began to read religious books, talk with preachers, think about the punishment for sins and the Last Judgment ... But even in this world, God sends him one test after another. The son died, then the grandson and great-grandson ... The Bourbon dynasty is under the threat of extinction, and Louis lost the people dearest to him ...

Diseases begin to devour the king, and France is practically ruled by Madame Maintenon. In the early morning of September 1, 1715, Louis XIV died. Faithful Francoise de Maintenon hears his last words: “Why are you crying? Did you really think that I would live forever? ”... It is not known what the king thought in his last minutes, whether he remembered all the women that had passed through his life in succession - or did he see only one of them, shedding tears on the king’s face - his last love and affection, Francoise de Maintenon...

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In 1695 Madame de Maintenon triumphed. Thanks to an extremely fortunate combination of circumstances, the poor widow Scarron became the governess of the illegitimate children of Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV. Madame de Maintenon, modest, inconspicuous - and also cunning - managed to attract the attention of the Sun King 2, and he, having made her his mistress, finally secretly betrothed her! To which Saint-Simon 3 once remarked: "History will not believe this." Be that as it may, but Stories, albeit with great difficulty, still had to believe it.

Madame de Maintenon was a born educator. When she became queen in partibus, her penchant for education grew into a real passion. The Duke of Saint-Simon, already familiar to us, accused her of a morbid addiction to controlling others, arguing that "this craving deprived her of freedom, which she could fully enjoy." He reproached her for spending a lot of time in the care of a good thousand monasteries. “She took upon herself the burden of useless, illusory, difficult worries,” he wrote, “and then sent letters and received answers, compiled instructions for the elite — in a word, she was engaged in all sorts of nonsense, which, as a rule, leads to nothing, but if it does, then it leads to some out of the ordinary consequences, bitter oversights in decision-making, miscalculations in managing the course of events and the wrong choice. Not a very kind judgment about a noble lady, although, in general, a fair one.

So, on September 30, 1695, Madame Maintenon informed the Superior of Saint-Cyr - at that time it was a boarding school for noble maidens, and not a military school, as in our days - of the following:

“In the near future I intend to tonsure a Moorish woman as a nun, who expressed her desire that the whole Court be present at the ceremony; I suggested that the ceremony be held behind closed doors, but we were informed that in this case the solemn vow would be declared invalid - it is necessary to give the people the opportunity to amuse themselves.

Moorish? What else Mauritanian?

It should be noted that in those days, "Moors" and "Moorish" were called people with dark skin color. So Madame de Maintenon was writing about a young negro woman.

About the one who, on October 15, 1695, the king appointed a pension of 300 livres as a reward for her "good intention to devote her life to the service of the Lord in the Benedictine monastery in Moret." Now it remains for us to find out who she is, this Mauritanian from Moret.

On the road from Fontainebleau to Pont-sur-Yonne lies the small town of Moret - surrounded by ancient walls, a delightful architectural ensemble, consisting of old buildings and streets completely unsuitable for car traffic. Over time, the appearance of the town has changed a lot. At the end of the 17th century, there was a Benedictine monastery there, no different from hundreds of others scattered throughout the French kingdom. No one would have ever remembered this holy monastery if one fine day a black nun, whose existence so amazed contemporaries, had not been found among its inhabitants.

The most surprising, however, was not that some Moorish woman took root among the Benedictines, but the care and attention that high-ranking persons at the Court showed her. According to Saint-Simon, Madame de Maintenon, for example, "had been visiting her from Fontainebleau every now and then, and, in the end, they got used to her visits." True, she saw the Mauritanian infrequently, but not so very rarely. During such visits, she "compassionately inquired about her life, health, and how the abbess felt about her." When Princess Marie Adelaide of Savoy arrived in France to be engaged to the heir to the throne, the Duke of Burgundy, Madame de Maintenon took her to Moret so that she could see the Moor with her own eyes. The Dauphin, son of Louis XIV, saw her more than once, and the princes, his children, once or twice, "and they all treated her kindly."

In fact, the Mauritanian was treated like no one else. “She was treated with much more attention than any famous, outstanding person, and she was proud of the fact that she was shown so much care, as well as the mystery that surrounded her; although she lived modestly, it was felt that powerful patrons stood behind her.

Yes, what you can’t refuse Saint-Simon is the ability to capture the interest of readers. His skill is especially pronounced when, talking about a Moorish woman, he reports, for example, that “one day, having heard the sound of a hunting horn - Monseigneur (the son of Louis XIV) was hunting in the forest nearby - she, as if by the way, dropped: “This is my brother hunting ".

So the noble duke raised the question. But does he give an answer? Gives, though not entirely clear.

“It was rumored that she was the daughter of the king and queen ... they even wrote that the queen had a miscarriage, which many courtiers were sure of. But be that as it may, it remains a mystery.

Frankly speaking, Saint-Simon was ignorant of the basics of genetics - can not he be condemned for this? Today, any medical student will tell you that a husband and wife, if they are both white, simply cannot give birth to a black child.

For Voltaire, who wrote so much about the secret of the Iron Mask, everything was clear as daylight if he decided to write this: “She was extremely dark and, moreover, looked like him (the king). When the king sent her to a monastery, he gave her a gift, assigning a maintenance of twenty thousand crowns. There was an opinion that she was his daughter, which made her feel proud, but the abbesses expressed obvious dissatisfaction about this. During another trip to Fontainebleau, Madame de Maintenon visited the Moray monastery, she called on the black nun to be more restrained and did everything to rid the girl of the thought that flattered her pride.

“Madame,” the nun answered her, “the zeal with which such a noble person as you tries to convince me that I am not the daughter of a king convinces me of just the opposite.”

The authenticity of Voltaire's testimony is difficult to doubt, since he drew his information from a source that is trustworthy. Once he himself went to the Morea monastery and personally saw a Moorish woman. Voltaire's friend Comartin, who enjoyed the right to freely visit the monastery, obtained the same permission for the author of The Age of Louis XIV.

And here is another detail that deserves the attention of the reader. In the boarding letter that King Louis XIV handed over to the Mauritanian, her name appears. It was double and consisted of the names of the king and queen ... The Mauritanian was called Louis-Maria-Teresa!

If, thanks to his mania for erecting monumental structures, Louis XIV was similar to the Egyptian pharaohs, then his passion for love pleasures made him related to the Arab sultans. So, Saint-Germain, Fontainebleau and Versailles were turned into real seraglios. The Sun King used to casually drop his handkerchief - and every time there were a dozen ladies and maidens, moreover, from the most noble families of France, who immediately rushed to pick it up. In love, Louis was more of a "glutton" than a "gourmet". The most frank woman in Versailles, the Princess of the Palatinate, the king's daughter-in-law, said that “Louis XIV was gallant, but often his gallantry grew into sheer debauchery. He loved everyone indiscriminately: noble ladies, peasant women, gardener's daughters, maids - the main thing for a woman was to pretend that she was in love with him. The king began to show promiscuity in love from his very first heartfelt passion: the woman who introduced him to love pleasures was thirty years older than him, besides, she did not have an eye.

However, in the future, it must be admitted, he achieved more significant success: his mistresses were the charming Louise de La Vallière and Athenais de Montespan, a delightful beauty, although, judging by current concepts, and somewhat plump - nothing can be done, over time, fashion changes as to women as well as clothes.

What tricks did the court ladies resort to in order to "get the king"! For the sake of this, young girls were even ready for blasphemy: it was often possible to see how in the chapel, during mass, they turned their backs to the altar without any shame in order to better see the king, or rather, to make it easier for the king to see them. Well well! Meanwhile, "The Greatest of Kings" was just a short man - his height barely reached 1 meter 62 centimeters. So, since he always tried to look handsome, he had to wear shoes with a sole 11 centimeters thick and a wig high 15 centimeters. However, this is still nothing: you can be small, but beautiful. Louis XIV, on the other hand, underwent a severe operation on the jaw, after which a hole was left in the upper cavity of the mouth, and when he ate, food came out through his nose. Worse, the king always smelled bad. He knew this - and when he entered the room, he immediately opened the windows, even if it was frosty outside. To fight off the unpleasant smell, Madame de Montespan always clutched a handkerchief soaked in harsh perfume in her hand. However, in spite of everything, for most of the ladies of Versailles, the “moment” spent in the company of the king seemed truly heavenly. Perhaps the reason for this is female vanity?

Queen Maria Theresa loved Louis no less than other women who at various times shared his bed with the king. As soon as Maria Teresa, upon arrival from Spain, set foot on the island of Bidassoa, where the young Louis XIV was waiting for her, she fell in love with him at first sight. She admired him, for he seemed to her handsome, and every time she froze in delight before him and before his genius. Well, what about the king? And the king was much less blinded. He saw her as she was—fat, small, with ugly teeth, “spoiled and blackened.” “They say that her teeth became so because she ate a lot of chocolate,” explains the Princess of Palatinate and adds: “Besides, she ate garlic in exorbitant quantities.” Thus, it turned out that one unpleasant smell beat off another.

The Sun King was finally imbued with a sense of conjugal duty. Whenever he appeared before the queen, her mood became festive: “As soon as the king gave her a friendly look, she felt happy all day long. She rejoiced that the king shared her marriage bed, for she, a Spaniard by blood, brought real pleasure to love pleasures, and the courtiers could not help but notice her joy. She never got angry at those who made fun of her for this - she herself laughed, winked at the scoffers, and at the same time rubbed her little hands with pleasure.

Their union lasted twenty-three years and brought them six children - three sons and three daughters, but all the girls died in infancy.

The question related to the mystery of the Moorish woman from Moret is divided, in turn, into four sub-questions: could it be that the black nun was at the same time the daughter of the king and queen? — and we have already given a negative answer to this question; could she be the daughter of a king and a black mistress? - or, in other words, the daughter of a queen and a negro lover? And finally, could it be that the black nun, having nothing to do with the royal couple, was simply mistaken in calling the Dauphin “her brother”?

There are two figures in History whose love affairs have been the subject of careful study - Napoleon and Louis XIV. Other historians have spent their entire lives trying to figure out how many mistresses they had. So, with regard to Louis XIV, no one has been able to establish - although scientists have thoroughly studied all the documents, testimonies and memoirs of that time - that he at least once had a “colored” mistress. What is true is true, at that time in France, colored women were a curiosity, and if the king had accidentally looked after himself one, rumors of his passion would have spread throughout the kingdom in no time. Especially when you consider that every single day the sun king tried to stay in front of everyone. None of his gestures or words simply could not be missed by the curious courtiers: still, after all, the Court of Louis XIV was known as the most slanderous in the world. Can you imagine what would happen if there was a rumor that the king had a black passion?

However, there was nothing of the sort. In that case, how could a Moorish woman be the daughter of Louis XIV? However, not all historians adhered to this assumption. But many of them, including Voltaire, quite seriously believed that the black nun was the daughter of Marie-Therese.

Here the reader may wonder: how is this so? Such a chaste woman? The queen, who, as you know, literally adored her husband the king! What's right is right. However, for all that, one should not forget that this dearest woman was extremely stupid and extremely simple-hearted. Here is what, for example, the Princess of Palatinate, whom we know, writes about her: “She was too stupid and believed everything she was told, good and bad.”

The version put forward by such writers as Voltaire and Touchard-Lafosse, the author of the famous "Chronicles of the Bull's Eye", as well as the famous historian Gosselin Le Nôtre, boils down, with a slight difference, to something like this: the envoys of an African king gave Maria Theresa a little Moor of ten or twelve years of age not taller than twenty-seven inches. Touchar-Lafos allegedly even knew his name - Nabo.

And Le Nôtre claims that since that time it has become fashionable - the founders of which were Pierre Mignard and others like him - "to draw Negroes in all large portraits." In the Palace of Versailles, for example, there is a portrait of Mademoiselle de Blois and Mademoiselle de Nantes, the king's illegitimate daughters: just in the middle, the canvas is decorated with the image of a black child, an indispensable attribute of the era. However, soon after the “shameful story connected with the queen and the Moor” became known, this fashion gradually faded away.

So, after a while, Her Majesty discovered that they were soon to become a mother - the same was confirmed by the court doctors. The king rejoiced, waiting for the birth of an heir. What recklessness! The black man has grown. He was taught to speak French. It seemed to everyone that "the innocent amusements of the Moor came from his innocence and liveliness of nature." In the end, as they say, the queen fell in love with him with all her heart, so deeply that no chastity could protect her from weakness, which even the most exquisite handsome man from the Christian world could hardly inspire in her.

As for Nabo, he probably died, and "rather suddenly" - immediately after it was publicly announced that the Queen was on demolitions.

Poor Marie-Therese was about to give birth. But the king could not understand why she was so nervous. And the queen, you know, sighed and, as if in bitter foreboding, said:
“I don’t recognize myself: why this nausea, disgust, whims, because nothing like this has ever happened to me before?” If I did not have to restrain myself, as decency requires, I would happily fiddle on the carpet, as we often did with my Mauritanian.

— Ah, madame! Ludovic was perplexed. “Your condition makes me tremble. You can’t think about the past all the time - otherwise, God forbid, you still give birth to a scarecrow, contrary to nature.

The king looked into the water! When the baby was born, the doctors saw that it was “a black girl, black as ink, from head to toe”, and were amazed.

The court physician Felix swore to Louis XIV that "one glance of the Moor was enough to turn the baby into a similar one even in the mother's womb." To which, according to Touchar-Lafos, His Majesty remarked:
- Hm, one look! So his gaze was too penetrating!

And Le Nôtre reports that only much later “the queen confessed that one day a young black slave, hiding somewhere behind a closet, suddenly rushed to her with a wild cry - apparently he wanted to frighten, and he succeeded.”

Thus, the pretentious words of the Moorish woman from Moret are confirmed by the following: since the queen gave birth to her, being at that time married to Louis XIV, she was legally entitled to call herself the daughter of the sun king, although in fact her father was a Moor who grew up from an unintelligent Negro slave!

But, frankly, this is only a legend, and it was put on paper much later. Watu wrote around 1840: Bull's Eye Chronicles appeared in 1829. And G. Lenotre's story, published in 1898 in the Monde Illustre magazine, ends on such a sad note: everyone was talking at the end of the last century.”

The authenticity of the portrait is indeed beyond doubt, which, however, cannot be said about the legend itself.

But still! The history of the Moorish woman from Moret, obviously, began with a completely reliable event. We have evidence, which is the written evidence of contemporaries, that the Queen of France really gave birth to a black girl. Let us now, following the chronological order, give the floor to the witnesses.

So, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, or Grand Mademoiselle, a close relative of the king, wrote:
“For three days in a row, the queen was tormented by severe attacks of fever, and she delivered prematurely - at eight months. After the birth, the fever did not stop, and the queen was already preparing for communion. Her condition plunged the courtiers into bitter sadness... By Christmas, I remember, the queen no longer saw or heard those who were talking in an undertone in her chambers...

His Majesty also told me what suffering the queen’s illness caused, how many people gathered at her place before communion, how at the sight of her the priest almost fainted from grief, how at the same time His Majesty the Prince laughed, and after him all the others, what an expression the queen had a face ... and that the newborn was like two drops of water like a charming Moorish child, which M. Beaufort brought with him and from whom the queen never parted; when everyone realized that the newborn could only look like him, the unfortunate Moor was taken away. The king also said that the girl was terrible, that she would not live, and that I should not tell the queen anything, because this could lead her to the grave ... And the queen shared with me the sadness that took possession of her after the courtiers laughed when her already gathered to take communion."

So in the year when this event happened - it was established that the birth took place on November 16, 1664 - the king's cousin mentions the resemblance of a black girl born to the queen with a Moor.

The fact of the birth of a black girl is also confirmed by Madame de Mottville, the maid of Anna of Austria. And in 1675, eleven years after the incident, Bussy-Rabutin told a story, in his opinion, quite reliable:
“Marie-Therese was talking with Madame de Montosier about the king’s favorite (Mademoiselle de Lavaliere), when His Majesty unexpectedly entered them - he overheard their conversation. His appearance so impressed the queen that she blushed all over and, lowering her eyes in shame, hurriedly left. And after three days, she gave birth to a black girl who, as she thought, would not survive. According to official reports, the newborn really soon died - more precisely, it happened on December 26, 1664, when she was a little over a month old, about which Louis XIV did not fail to inform his father-in-law, the Spanish king: “Last night my daughter died. .. Although we were ready for misfortune, I did not experience much grief.” And in the "Letters" of Guy Patin, one can read the following lines: "This morning the little lady had convulsions and she died, because she had neither strength nor health." Later, the Princess of Palatinate also wrote about the death of the “ugly baby”, although in 1664 she was not in France: “All the courtiers saw how she died.” But was it really like that? If the newborn really turned out to be black, it was quite logical to announce that she had died, but in fact to take and hide her somewhere in the wilderness. And if so, then a better place than a monastery cannot be found ...

In 1719, the Princess of the Palatinate wrote that "the people did not believe that the girl had died, for everyone knew that she was in a monastery in Moret, near Fontainebleau."

The last, later, evidence related to this event was the message of the Princess of Conti. In December 1756, the Duke de Luynes briefly outlined in his diary a conversation that he had with Queen Maria Leshchinskaya, wife of Louis XV, where it was just about a Moorish woman from Moret: “For a long time there was only talk that about some black a nun from a monastery in Moret, near Fontainebleau, who called herself the daughter of a French queen. Someone convinced her that she was the daughter of a queen, but because of the unusual color of her skin, she was hidden in a monastery. The Queen did me the honor of telling me that she had a conversation about this with the Princess of Conti, the legitimized illegitimate daughter of Louis XIV, and the Princess of Conti told her that Queen Marie-Thérèse had indeed given birth to a girl who had a purple, even black, face - apparently , because when she was born, she suffered greatly, but a little later the newborn died.

Thirty-one years later, in 1695, Madame de Maintenon intended to take the vows of a Moorish woman, who, a month later, Louis XIV appoints a boarding school. This Mauritanian is called Louis Maria Theresa.

When she enters the Morea monastery, she is surrounded by all sorts of worries. Madame de Maintenon often visits the Mauritanian - she demands to be treated with respect, and even introduces her to the Princess of Savoy, as soon as she has time to be engaged to the heir to the throne. The Mauritanian is firmly convinced that she herself is the daughter of the queen. In the same way, apparently, all the Morai nuns also think. Their opinion is shared by the people, because, as we already know, "the people did not believe that the girl had died, because everyone knew that she was in a monastery in Moret." Yes, as they say, there is something to think about here ...

It is possible, however, that there was a simple and at the same time amazing coincidence. Now is the time to cite one curious explanation that Queen Marie Leszczynska gave to the Duc de Luynes: “A certain Laroche, the porter in the Zoological Garden, at that time served a Moor and a Moorish woman. A daughter was born to a Moorish woman, and the father and mother, unable to raise the child, shared their grief with Madame de Maintenon, who took pity on them and promised to take care of their daughter. She provided her with weighty recommendations and escorted her to a monastery. This is how a legend appeared, which turned out to be a fiction from beginning to end.

But how, then, did the daughter of the Moors, the servants of the Zoo, imagine that royal blood flows in her veins? And why was she surrounded by such attention?

I think one should not rush to conclusions, decisively rejecting the hypothesis that the Mauritanian from Moret somehow has nothing to do with the royal family. I would very much like the reader to understand me correctly: I am not saying that this fact is indisputable, I just think that we have no right to categorically deny it without examining it from all sides. When we consider it comprehensively, we will certainly return to the conclusion of Saint-Simon: "Be that as it may, this remains a mystery."

And the last. In 1779, a portrait of a Moorish woman still adorned the office of the chief abbess of the Morea monastery. Later, he added to the collection of Sainte-Genevieve Abbey. Now the canvas is stored in the library of the same name. At one time, a whole “case” was attached to the portrait - correspondence concerning the Mauritanian. This file is in the archives of the Saint-Genevieve Library. However, now there is nothing in it. From him there was only one cover with an inscription that suggests: "Paper related to the Mauritanian, daughter of Louis XIV."

Alain Decaux, French historian
Translated from French by I. Alcheev

Louis XIV de Bourbon, who at birth received the name of Louis-Dieudonne ("given by God", fr. Louis-Dieudonne), also known as the "sun king" (fr. Louis XIV Le Roi Soleil), also Louis XIV the Great, (5 September 1638 (16380905), Saint-Germain-en-Laye - September 1, 1715, Versailles) - King of France and Navarre from May 14, 1643

He reigned for 72 years - longer than any other European monarch in history. Louis, who survived the wars of the Fronde in his youth, became a staunch supporter of the principle of absolute monarchy and the divine right of kings (he is often credited with the expression “The State is me”), he combined the strengthening of his power with the successful selection of statesmen for key political posts.

The reign of Louis - a time of significant consolidation of the unity of France, its military power, political weight and intellectual prestige, the flourishing of culture, went down in history as a "great century". At the same time, the constant wars waged by Louis and demanding high taxes ruined the country, and the abolition of religious tolerance led to the mass emigration of the Huguenots from France.

He ascended the throne as a minor and the government passed into the hands of his mother and Cardinal Mazarin. Even before the end of the war with Spain and the House of Austria, the highest aristocracy, supported by Spain and in alliance with Parliament, began unrest, which received the general name of the Fronde and ended only with the subordination of the Prince de Conde and the signing of the Peace of the Pyrenees (November 7, 1659).

In 1660, Louis married the Infanta of Spain, Maria Theresa of Austria. At this time, the young king, having grown up without proper upbringing and education, did not arouse even greater expectations.

However, as soon as Cardinal Mazarin died (1661), Louis set about independent government. He had a gift for choosing talented and capable employees (for example, Colbert, Vauban, Letellier, Lyonne, Louvois). Louis raised the doctrine of royal rights to a semi-religious dogma.

Thanks to the work of the brilliant Colbert, much was done to strengthen state unity, the well-being of the working classes, and encourage trade and industry. At the same time, Luvois put the army in order, unified its organization and increased its fighting strength.

After the death of King Philip IV of Spain, he declared French claims to part of the Spanish Netherlands and kept it behind him in the so-called war of devolution. The Treaty of Aachen, concluded on May 2, 1668, gave French Flanders and a number of border areas into his hands.

Through bribery, he managed to divert England and Sweden from the Triple Alliance, to win over Cologne and Munster to the side of France. Having brought his army to 120,000 people, Louis in 1670 occupied the possessions of an ally of the States General, Duke Charles IV of Lorraine, and in 1672 crossed the Rhine, conquered half the provinces within six weeks and returned in triumph to Paris.

The breakthrough of the dams, the rise of William III of Orange to power, the intervention of European powers stopped the success of French weapons.

The States General entered into an alliance with Spain and Brandenburg and Austria; the empire also joined them after the French army attacked the archbishopric of Trier and occupied the 10 imperial cities of Alsace, already half-joined with France.

After a short interval due to the death of Turenne and the removal of Condé, Louis, at the beginning of 1676, appeared with renewed vigor in the Netherlands and conquered a number of cities, while Luxembourg devastated Breisgau. The whole country between the Saar, the Moselle and the Rhine, by order of the king, was turned into a desert.

In the Mediterranean, Duquesne defeated Reuter; Brandenburg's forces were distracted by an attack by the Swedes. Only as a result of hostile actions on the part of England, Louis in 1678 concluded the Treaty of Niemwegen, which gave him large gains from the Netherlands and the entire Franche-Comté from Spain. He gave Philippsburg to the emperor, but received Freiburg and kept all the conquests in Alsace.

This world marks the apogee of Louis' power. His army was the most numerous, best organized and led. His diplomacy dominated all European courts.

The French nation, with its achievements in the arts and sciences, in industry and commerce, has reached unprecedented heights. The court of Versailles (Louis transferred the royal residence to Versailles) became the object of envy and surprise of almost all modern sovereigns, who tried to imitate the great king even in his weaknesses.

Strict etiquette was introduced at the court, regulating all court life. Versailles became the center of all high society life, in which the tastes of Louis himself and his many favorites (Lavaliere, Montespan, Fontange) reigned.

All the highest aristocracy coveted court positions, since living away from the court for a nobleman was a sign of strife or royal disgrace.

“Absolutely without objection,” according to Saint-Simon, “Louis destroyed and eradicated every other force or authority in France, except those that came from him: reference to the law, to the right, was considered a crime.”

This cult of the Sun-King, in which capable people were increasingly pushed aside by courtesans and intriguers, was bound to lead inevitably to the gradual decline of the entire edifice of the monarchy.

The king held back his desires less and less. In Metz, Breisach and Besancon, he established chambers of reunification (chambres de reunions) to search for the rights of the French crown to certain areas (September 30, 1681).

The imperial city of Strasbourg was suddenly occupied by French troops in peacetime. Louis did the same with respect to the Dutch borders.

In 1681, his fleet bombarded Tripoli, in 1684 - Algiers and Genoa. Finally, an alliance was formed between Holland, Spain and the emperor, forcing Louis in 1684 to conclude a 20-year truce in Regensburg and abandon further "reunions".

Inside the state, the new fiscal system had in mind only an increase in taxes and taxes for the growing military needs, which fell heavily on the shoulders of the peasantry and the petty bourgeoisie. Particularly unpopular was the application of salt - gabel, which caused several unrest throughout the country.

The decision to introduce a stamp paper tax in 1675 during the Dutch War caused a powerful stamp paper uprising in the rear of the country, in the west of France, primarily in Brittany, partly supported by the regional parliaments of Bordeaux and Rennes. In the west of Brittany, the uprising developed into anti-feudal peasant uprisings, which were suppressed only by the end of the year.

At the same time, Louis, as the “first nobleman” of France, spared the material interests of the nobility that had lost political significance and, as a faithful son of the Catholic Church, did not demand anything from the clergy.

He tried to destroy the political dependence of the clergy on the pope, having achieved at the national council of 1682 a decision in his favor against the pope (see Gallicanism); but in matters of faith, his confessors (Jesuits) made him an obedient instrument of the most ardent Catholic reaction, which was reflected in the merciless persecution of all individualistic movements among the church (see Jansenism).

A number of harsh measures were taken against the Huguenots; the Protestant aristocracy was forced to convert to Catholicism, so as not to lose their social advantages, and restrictive decrees were launched against Protestants from among other classes, culminating in the dragonades of 1683 and the repeal of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

These measures, despite severe penalties for emigration, forced more than 200,000 industrious and enterprising Protestants to move to England, Holland and Germany. An uprising even broke out in the Cévennes. The growing piety of the king was supported by Madame de Maintenon, who, after the death of the queen (1683), was united with him by secret marriage.

In 1688, a new war broke out, the reason for which was, among other things, the claims to the Palatinate, presented by Louis on behalf of his daughter-in-law, Elizabeth-Charlotte of Orleans, who was related to the Elector Karl-Ludwig, who had died shortly before that. Having entered into an alliance with the Elector of Cologne, Karl-Egon Furstemberg, Louis ordered his troops to occupy Bonn and attack the Palatinate, Baden, Württemberg and Trier.

At the beginning of 1689, French troops devastated the entire Lower Palatinate in the most terrible way. An alliance was formed against France from England (which had just overthrown the Stuarts), the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, and the German Protestant states.

Luxembourg defeated the allies on July 1, 1690 at Fleurus; Catinat conquered Savoy, Tourville defeated the British-Dutch fleet on the heights of Dieppe, so that the French had an advantage even at sea for a short time.

In 1692, the French laid siege to Namur, Luxembourg gained the upper hand at the Battle of Steenkerken; but on May 28, the French fleet was defeated at Cape La Hogue.

In 1693-95, the preponderance began to lean towards the side of the allies; Luxembourg died in 1695; in the same year a huge military tax was needed, and peace became a necessity for Louis. It took place at Ryswick in 1697, and for the first time Louis had to confine himself to the status quo.

The old king, who personally led the struggle, held himself in the most difficult circumstances with amazing dignity and firmness.

According to the peace concluded in Utrecht and Rastatt in 1713 and 1714, he kept Spain proper for his grandson, but her Italian and Dutch possessions were lost, and England, by destroying the Franco-Spanish fleets and conquering a number of colonies, laid the foundation for her maritime dominion.

The French monarchy did not have to recover until the very revolution from the defeats at Hochstadt and Turin, Ramilla and Malplaque. She languished under the weight of debts (up to 2 billion) and taxes, which caused local outbursts of displeasure.

Thus, the result of the whole system of Louis was the economic ruin, the poverty of France. Another consequence was the growth of oppositional literature, especially developed under the successor of the "great" Louis.

The family life of the elderly king at the end of his life presented a sad picture. On April 13, 1711, his son, the Dauphin Louis (born in 1661), died; in February 1712 he was followed by the eldest son of the Dauphin, the Duke of Burgundy, and on March 8 of the same year, the eldest son of the latter, the infant Duke of Brittany.

On March 4, 1714, the younger brother of the Duke of Burgundy, the Duke of Berry, fell off his horse and was killed to death, so that, in addition to Philip V of Spain, there was only one heir - the four-year-old great-grandson of the king, the second son of the Duke of Burgundy (later Louis XV).

Even earlier, Louis legitimized his two sons from Madame de Montespan, Duke of Maine and Count of Toulouse, and gave them the name Bourbon. Now, in his will, he appointed them members of the regency council and declared their eventual right to succession to the throne.

Louis himself remained active until the end of his life, firmly maintaining court etiquette and the whole appearance of his “great age”, which was already beginning to fall. He died on September 1, 1715.

In 1822, an equestrian statue (based on the model of Bosio) was erected to him in Paris, on the Place des Victories.

- Marriages and children
* (from June 9, 1660, Saint-Jean de Lutz) Maria Theresa (1638-1683), Infanta of Spain
* Louis the Great Dauphin (1661-1711)
* Anna Elizabeth (1662-1662)
* Maria Anna (1664-1664)
* Maria Theresa (1667-1672)
* Philip (1668-1671)
* Louis Francois (1672-1672)
* (from June 12, 1684, Versailles) Francoise d'Aubigne (1635-1719), Marquise de Maintenon
* Vnebr. Louise de La Baume Le Blanc (1644-1710), Duchess de Lavalière
* Charles de La Baume Le Blanc (1663-1665)
* Philippe de La Baume Le Blanc (1665-1666)
* Marie-Anne de Bourbon (1666-1739), Mademoiselle de Blois
* Louis de Bourbon (1667-1683), Comte de Vermandois
* Vnebr. Françoise-Athenais de Rochechouart de Mortemart (1641-1707), marquise de Montespan
* Louise-Francoise de Bourbon (1669-1672)
* N (1669 -)
* Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, Duke of Maine (1670-1736)
* Louis-Cesar de Bourbon (1672-1683)
* Louise-Francoise de Bourbon (1673-1743), Mademoiselle de Nantes
* Louise-Marie de Bourbon (1674-1681), Mademoiselle de Tours
* Françoise-Marie de Bourbon (1677-1749), Mademoiselle de Blois
* Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, Count of Toulouse (1678-1737)
* Vnebr. connection (in 1679) Marie-Angelique de Skoray de Roussil (1661-1681), Duchess de Fontanges
* N (1679-1679)
* Vnebr. Claude de Ven (c.1638-1687), Mademoiselle Desoyers
* Louise de Maisonblanche (c.1676-1718)

Louis XIV from the age of 12 danced in the so-called "ballets of the theater of the Palais Royal". These events were quite in the spirit of the time, for they were held during the carnival.

Baroque carnival is not just a holiday, it is an upside down world. The king for several hours became a jester, an artist, a buffoon (just as the jester could well afford to appear in the role of king). In these ballets, the young Louis had a chance to play the roles of the Rising Sun (1653) and Apollo - the Sun God (1654).

Later, court ballets were staged. The roles in these ballets were distributed by the king himself or by his friend de Saint-Aignan. In these court ballets, Louis also dances the parts of the Sun or Apollo.

For the emergence of the nickname, another cultural event of the Baroque era is also important - the so-called Carousel. This is a festive carnival cavalcade, something between a sports festival and a masquerade. In those days, the Carousel was simply called "horse ballet".

On the Carousel of 1662, Louis XIV appeared before the people in the role of the Roman Emperor with a huge shield in the shape of the Sun. This symbolized that the Sun protects the king and with him all of France.

The princes of the blood were "forced" to depict different elements, planets and other beings and phenomena subject to the Sun.

We read from the ballet historian F. Bossan: “It was on the Great Carousel of 1662 that the Sun King was born in some way. It was not politics or the victories of its armies that gave it its name, but the equestrian ballet.”

Louis XIV appears in the Musketeers trilogy by Alexandre Dumas. In the last book of the Vicomte de Bragelonne trilogy, an impostor (allegedly the twin brother of the king) is involved in a conspiracy, with whom they are trying to replace Louis.

In 1929, the film The Iron Mask was released, based on the Vicomte de Bragelon, where William Blackwell played Louis and his twin brother. Louis Hayward played twins in the 1939 film The Man in the Iron Mask.

Richard Chamberlain played them in the 1977 film adaptation, and Leonardo DiCaprio played them in the 1999 remake of this film. Jean-Francois Poron played the role in the 1962 French film The Iron Mask.

Louis XIV also appears in the film Vatel. In the film, the Prince of Condé invites him to his castle of Chantilly and tries to impress him in order to take over as commander-in-chief in the war with the Netherlands. Responsible for the entertainment of the royal person is the butler Vatel, brilliantly played by Gerard Depardieu.

Vonda McLintre's short story The Moon and the Sun depicts the court of Louis XIV century. end of the 17th century. The king himself appears in the Baroque Cycle of Neil Stevenson's trilogy.

Louis XIV is one of the main characters in Gerard Corbier's The King Dances.

Louis XIV appears as a beautiful seducer in the film "Angelica and the King", where he was played by Jacques Toja (fr. Jacques Toja), also appears in the films "Angelica - Marquis of Angels" and "Magnificent Angelica".

Young Louis is the central character in Roger Planchon's film "Louis the Child King", in which the 12-year-old king fights for power with the Fronde, learns the science of love and begins to create the famous image of le roi soleil.

For the first time in modern Russian cinema, the image of King Louis XIV was performed by the artist of the Moscow New Drama Theater Dmitry Shilyaev, in Oleg Ryaskov's film The Servant of the Sovereigns.

Louis XIV is one of the main characters in the 1996 Nina Companeez series "L` Allee du roi" "The Way of the King". Historical drama based on the novel by Francoise Chandernagor "Royal Avenue: Memoirs of Francoise d'Aubigne, Marquise de Maintenon, wife of the King of France." Dominique Blanc stars as Françoise d'Aubigné and Didier Sandre stars as Louis XIV.

Louis XIV de Bourbon, who at birth received the name Louis-Dieudonné ("God-given", French Louis-Dieudonné), also known as the "Sun King" (Fr. Louis XIV Le Roi Soleil), also Louis the Great (Fr. Louis le Grand). Born September 5, 1638 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye - died September 1, 1715 in Versailles. King of France and Navarre from 14 May 1643.

He reigned for 72 years - longer than any other European king in history (of the monarchs of Europe, only some rulers of the small states of the Holy Roman Empire, for example, Bernard VII of Lippe or Karl Friedrich of Baden, were in power longer).

Louis, who survived the wars of the Fronde in childhood, became a staunch supporter of the principle of absolute monarchy and the divine right of kings (he is credited with the expression "The state is me!"), he combined the strengthening of his power with the successful selection of statesmen for key political posts.

The reign of Louis - a time of significant consolidation of the unity of France, its military power, political weight and intellectual prestige, the flowering of culture, went down in history as the Great Age. At the same time, the long-term military conflicts in which France participated during the reign of Louis the Great led to an increase in taxes, which placed a heavy burden on the shoulders of the population and caused popular uprisings, and as a result of the adoption of the Edict of Fontainebleau, which canceled the Edict of Nantes on religious tolerance within the kingdom, about 200,000 Huguenots emigrated from France.

Louis XIV came to the throne in May 1643, when he was not yet five years old, so, according to his father's will, the regency was transferred to Anna of Austria, who ruled in close tandem with the first minister, Cardinal Mazarin. Even before the end of the war with Spain and the House of Austria, the princes and the highest aristocracy, supported by Spain and in alliance with the Parliament of Paris, began unrest, which received the general name of the Fronde (1648-1652) and ended only with the submission of the Prince de Condé and the signing of the Pyrenean Peace (7 November 1659).

In 1660, Louis married the Spanish Infanta Maria Theresa of Austria. At this time, the young king, who grew up without sufficient upbringing and education, did not yet show great promise. However, as soon as Cardinal Mazarin died (1661), the next day, Louis XIV convenes the Council of State, at which he announces that from now on he intends to rule independently, without appointing the first minister.

So Louis began to independently manage the state, the king followed this course until his death. Louis XIV had a gift for choosing talented and capable employees (for example, Colbert, Vauban, Letelier, Lyonne, Louvois). It can even be said that Louis elevated the doctrine of royal rights to a semi-religious dogma. Thanks to the works of the talented economist and financier J. B. Colbert, much was done to strengthen state unity, the well-being of the representatives of the third estate, encourage trade, develop industry and the fleet. At the same time, the Marquis de Louvois reformed the army, unified its organization and increased its fighting strength.

After the death of King Philip IV of Spain (1665), Louis XIV announced France's claims to part of the Spanish Netherlands and kept it behind him in the so-called War of Devolution. The Treaty of Aachen, concluded on May 2, 1668, transferred French Flanders and a number of border areas into his hands.

From that time on, the United Provinces had a passionate enemy in the person of Louis. Contrasts in foreign policy, state views, trade interests, religion led both states to constant clashes. Louis in 1668-1671 skillfully managed to isolate the republic. Through bribery, he managed to divert England and Sweden from the Triple Alliance, to attract Cologne and Munster to the side of France.

Having brought his army to 120,000 people, Louis in 1670 occupied the possessions of an ally of the States General, Duke Charles IV of Lorraine, and in 1672 crossed the Rhine, conquered half of the provinces within six weeks and returned to Paris in triumph. The breakthrough of the dam, the rise of William III of Orange to power, the intervention of European powers stopped the success of French weapons. The States General entered into an alliance with Spain, Brandenburg and Austria; the Empire also joined them after the French army attacked the Archbishopric of Trier and occupied the 10 imperial cities of Alsace, already half-joined with France.

In 1674, Louis opposed his enemies with 3 large armies: with one of them he personally occupied Franche-Comté; the other, under the command of Conde, fought in the Netherlands and won at Senef; the third, headed by Turenne, devastated the Palatinate and successfully fought the troops of the emperor and the great elector in Alsace. After a short break due to the death of Turenne and the removal of Condé, Louis at the beginning of 1676 came to the Netherlands with renewed vigor and conquered a number of cities, while Luxembourg devastated the Breisgau. The whole country between the Saar, the Moselle and the Rhine, by order of the king, was turned into a desert. In the Mediterranean, Duquesne defeated Reuter; Brandenburg's forces were distracted by an attack by the Swedes. Only as a result of hostile actions on the part of England, Louis in 1678 concluded the Treaty of Niemwegen, which gave him large gains from the Netherlands and the entire Franche-Comté from Spain. He gave Philippsburg to the emperor, but received Freiburg and kept all the conquests in Alsace.

This moment marks the apogee of Louis' power. His army was the most numerous, best organized and led. His diplomacy dominated all European courts. The French nation, with its achievements in the arts and sciences, in industry and commerce, has reached unprecedented heights.

The court of Versailles (Louis transferred the royal residence to Versailles) became the object of envy and surprise of almost all modern sovereigns, who tried to imitate the great king even in his weaknesses. Strict etiquette was introduced at the court, regulating all court life. Versailles became the center of all high society life, in which the tastes of Louis himself and his many favorites (Lavaliere, Montespan, Fontange) reigned. All the highest aristocracy coveted court positions, since living away from the court for a nobleman was a sign of strife or royal disgrace. "Absolutely without objection, - according to Saint-Simon, - Louis destroyed and eradicated every other force or authority in France, except those that came from him: reference to the law, to the right was considered a crime." This cult of the Sun-King, in which capable people were increasingly pushed aside by courtesans and intriguers, was bound to lead inevitably to the gradual decline of the entire edifice of the monarchy.

The king held back his desires less and less. In Metz, Breisach and Besancon, he established chambers of reunification (chambres de réunions) to seek the rights of the French crown to certain localities (September 30, 1681). The imperial city of Strasbourg was suddenly occupied by French troops in peacetime. Louis did the same with respect to the Dutch borders. In 1681, his fleet bombarded Tripoli, in 1684 - Algiers and Genoa. Finally, an alliance was formed between Holland, Spain and the emperor, forcing Louis in 1684 to conclude a 20-year truce in Regensburg and abandon further "reunions".

The central government of the state was carried out by the king with the help of various councils (conseils):

Council of Ministers (Conseil d "État)- considered issues of particular importance: foreign policy, military affairs, appointed the highest ranks of the regional administration, resolved conflicts of the judiciary. The council included state ministers with life salaries. The number of one-time members of the council never exceeded seven people. These were mainly secretaries of state, the comptroller-general of finance, and the chancellor. The king himself presided over the council. He was a permanent council.

Finance Council (Conseil royal des finances)- Considered fiscal issues, financial, as well as appeals against commissary orders. The council was created in 1661 and was initially chaired by the king himself. The council included the chancellor, the comptroller general, two state advisers and the quartermaster for financial affairs. He was a permanent council.

Postal Council (Conseil des dépêches)- reviewed general management issues, such as lists of all appointments. It was a permanent council. The Council of Trade was a temporary council established in 1700.

Spiritual Council (Conseil des conscience)- was also a temporary council in which the king conferred with his confessor on the replacement of spiritual positions.

State Council (Conseil des parties)- consisted of state advisers, quartermasters, in the meeting of which lawyers and managers of petitions took part. In the conditional hierarchy of councils, it was lower than the councils under the king (Council of Ministers, Finance, Postal and others, including temporary ones). He combined the functions of the cassation chamber and the highest administrative court, the source of precedents in the administrative law of France of those times. The Chancellor presided over the council. The council consisted of several departments: on awards, on matters from land holdings, salt tax, noble affairs, coats of arms and on various other issues, depending on the need.

Grand Council (Grand conseil)- a judicial institution which included four presidents and 27 advisers. He considered questions about bishoprics, church estates, hospitals, and was the last resort in civil cases.

In France, during the reign of Louis XIV, the first codification of commercial law was carried out and the Ordonance de Commerce - the Commercial Code (1673) was adopted. The significant merits of the Ordinance of 1673 are due to the fact that its publication was preceded by very serious preparatory work based on the opinions of knowledgeable persons. Savary was the chief worker, so this ordinance is often referred to as Savary's code.

He tried to destroy the political dependence of the clergy on the pope. Louis XIV even intended to form a French patriarchate independent of Rome. But, thanks to the influence of the famous Bishop of Moss, Bossuet, the French bishops refrained from breaking with Rome, and the views of the French hierarchy received official expression in the so-called. declaration of the Gallican clergy (declaration du clarge gallicane) of 1682

In matters of faith, the confessors of Louis XIV (Jesuits) made him an obedient instrument of the most ardent Catholic reaction, which was reflected in the merciless persecution of all individualistic movements among the church.

A number of harsh measures were taken against the Huguenots: churches were taken away from them, priests were deprived of the opportunity to baptize children according to the rules of their church, perform marriages and burials, and conduct worship. Even mixed marriages between Catholics and Protestants were forbidden.

The Protestant aristocracy was forced to convert to Catholicism so as not to lose their social advantages, and restrictive decrees were launched against Protestants from among other classes, culminating in the dragonades of 1683 and the repeal of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. These measures, despite severe penalties for emigration, forced more than 200 thousand Protestants to move to England, Holland and Germany. An uprising even broke out in the Cévennes. The growing piety of the king was supported by Madame de Maintenon, who, after the death of the queen (1683), was united with him by secret marriage.

In 1688, a new war broke out, the reason for which was the claims to the Palatinate, presented by Louis XIV on behalf of his daughter-in-law, Elisabeth-Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans, who was related to the Elector Charles-Ludwig, who had died shortly before that. Having entered into an alliance with the Elector of Cologne, Karl-Egon Furstemberg, Louis ordered his troops to occupy Bonn and attack the Palatinate, Baden, Württemberg and Trier.

The Marshal of France, the Duke of Luxembourg, defeated the Allies on July 1, 1690 at Fleurus; Marshal Catinat conquered Savoy, Vice-Admiral Tourville defeated the British-Dutch fleet at the Battle of Beachy Head, so that the French had an advantage even at sea for a short time.

In 1692, the French laid siege to Namur, Luxembourg gained the upper hand at the Battle of Steenkerken; on the other hand, on May 28, the French fleet was defeated at Cape La Hougue.

In 1693-1695, the preponderance began to lean towards the side of the allies; in 1695 the Duke de Luxembourg, a student of Turenne, died; in the same year a huge military tax was needed, and peace became a necessity for Louis. It took place at Ryswick in 1697, and for the first time Louis XIV had to confine himself to the status quo.

France was completely exhausted when, a few years later, the death of Charles II of Spain brought Louis to war with the European coalition. The War of the Spanish Succession, in which Louis wanted to win back the entire Spanish monarchy for his grandson Philip of Anjou, inflicted incurable wounds on the power of Louis. The old king, who personally led the struggle, held himself in the most difficult circumstances with dignity and firmness. According to the peace concluded in Utrecht and Rastatt in 1713 and 1714, he kept Spain proper for his grandson, but its Italian and Dutch possessions were lost, and England, by destroying the Franco-Spanish fleets and conquering a number of colonies, laid the foundation for her maritime dominion. The French monarchy did not have to recover until the very revolution from the defeats at Hochstadt and Turin, Ramilla and Malplaque. She languished under the weight of debts (up to 2 billion) and taxes, which caused local outbursts of discontent.

The family life of the elderly king at the end of his life was not at all a rosy picture. On April 13, 1711, his son, Grand Dauphin Louis (born in 1661), died; in February 1712 he was followed by the eldest son of the Dauphin, the Duke of Burgundy, and on March 8 of the same year, the eldest son of the latter, the infant Duke of Brittany. On March 4, 1714, the younger brother of the Duke of Burgundy, the Duke of Berry, died a few days later, so that, in addition to Philip V of Spain, the Bourbons had only one heir - the four-year-old great-grandson of the king, the second son of the Duke of Burgundy (later).

Even earlier, Louis legitimized his two sons from Madame de Montespan - the Duke of Maine and the Count of Toulouse, and gave them the name Bourbon. Now, in his will, he appointed them members of the regency council and declared their eventual right to succession to the throne. Louis himself remained active until the end of his life, firmly maintaining court etiquette and the decor of his “great century” was already beginning to fade.

Louis XIV died on September 1, 1715 at 8:15 am, surrounded by courtiers. Death came after several days of agony. The reign of Louis XIV lasted 72 years and 110 days.

The body of the king for 8 days was put up for parting in the Salon of Hercules in Versailles. On the night of the ninth day, the body was transported (taking the necessary measures so that the population did not arrange holidays along the funeral procession) to the basilica of the abbey of Saint-Denis, where Louis was buried in observance of all the rites of the Catholic Church laid down by the monarch.

In 1822, an equestrian statue (based on the model of Bosio) was erected to him in Paris, on the Place des Victories.

The history of the nickname Sun King:

In France, the sun acted as a symbol of royal power and the king personally even before Louis XIV. The luminary became the personification of the monarch in poetry, solemn odes and court ballets. The first mention of solar emblems dates back to the reign of Henry III, it was used by the grandfather and father of Louis XIV, but only under him did solar symbolism become truly widespread.

At the age of twelve (1651), Louis XIV made his debut in the so-called "ballets de cour" - court ballets, which were staged annually during the carnival.

The carnival of the Baroque era is not just a holiday and entertainment, but an opportunity to play in the “inverted world”. For example, the king for several hours became a jester, an artist or a buffoon, at the same time, the jester could well afford to appear in the form of a king. In one of the ballet performances (“Ballet of the Night” by Jean-Baptiste Lully), young Louis had the opportunity to appear for the first time before his subjects in the form of the Rising Sun (1653), and then Apollo, the Sun God (1654).

When Louis XIV began to rule independently (1661), the court ballet genre was put at the service of state interests, helping the king not only create his representative image, but also manage the court society (however, like other arts). The roles in these productions were distributed only by the king and his friend, the Comte de Saint-Aignan. Princes of the blood and courtiers, dancing next to their sovereign, depicted various elements, planets and other beings and phenomena subject to the Sun. Louis himself continues to appear before his subjects in the form of the Sun, Apollo and other gods and heroes of Antiquity. The king left the stage only in 1670.

But the emergence of the nickname of the Sun King was preceded by another important cultural event of the Baroque era - the Tuileries Carousel of 1662. This is a festive carnival cavalcade, which is a cross between a sports festival (in the Middle Ages, these were tournaments) and a masquerade. In the 17th century, the Carousel was called "equestrian ballet", since this action was more like a performance with music, rich costumes and a fairly consistent script. On the Carousel of 1662, given in honor of the birth of the first-born of the royal couple, Louis XIV pranced in front of the audience on a horse dressed as a Roman emperor. In the hand of the king was a golden shield with the image of the Sun. This symbolized that this luminary protects the king and, with him, all of France.

According to the historian of the French Baroque F. Bossan, “it was on the Great Carousel of 1662 that, in a way, the Sun King was born. He was given his name not by politics and not by the victories of his armies, but by equestrian ballet.

Marriages and children of Louis XIV:

first wife: from June 9, 1660 Maria Theresa (1638-1683), Infanta of Spain, cousin of Louis XIV in two lines - both maternal and paternal.

children of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa:

Louis the Great Dauphin (1661-1711)
Anna Elizabeth (1662-1662)
Maria Anna (1664-1664)
Maria Theresa (1667-1672)
Philip (1668-1671)
Louis Francois (1672-1672).

Extramarital affair: Louise de La Baume Le Blanc (1644-1710), duchess de Lavalière

children of Louis XIV and Duchess de La Vallière:

Charles de La Baume Le Blanc (1663-1665)
Philippe de La Baume Le Blanc (1665-1666)
Marie-Anne de Bourbon (1666-1739), Mademoiselle de Blois
Louis de Bourbon (1667-1683), Comte de Vermandois.

Extramarital affair: Françoise-Athenais de Rochechouart de Mortemart (1641-1707), marquise de Montespan

children of Louis XIV and the Marquise de Montespan:

Louise-Francoise de Bourbon (1669-1672)
Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, Duke of Maine (1670-1736)
Louis Cesar de Bourbon (1672-1683)
Louise-Francoise de Bourbon (1673-1743), Mademoiselle de Nantes
Louise-Marie-Anne de Bourbon (1674-1681), Mademoiselle de Tours
Françoise-Marie de Bourbon (1677-1749), Mademoiselle de Blois
Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, Count of Toulouse (1678-1737).

Extramarital affair (1678-1680): Marie-Angelique de Scorail de Roussil(1661-1681), Duchess de Fontanges (N (1679-1679), stillborn child).

Extramarital affair: Claude de Ven(c.1638 - 8 September 1686), Mademoiselle des Hoyers: daughter of Louise de Maisonblanche (1676-1718).