What was King Louis XIV famous for?
Louis XIV is popularly known as The Sun King. He believed in the Divine Right of Kings, a theory which received one of its most classic expressions in “On the Duties of Kings”, a sermon preached by Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet in Louis’ presence in 1662. Louis was so impressed with Bossuet that in 1670, he appointed Bossuet as a tutor to Louis’ son and heir to the throne. For much of Louis’s reign, France was the leading power in Europe, engaging in three major wars. Louis XIV continued the work of his predecessors to create a centralized state governed from the capital, in order to sweep away the remnants of feudalism which had continued to persist in many parts of France. He succeeded in breaking the power of the provincial nobility, much of which had risen in revolt during his minority, and forced many leading nobles to live with him in his lavish Palace of Versailles. Consequently, he has long been considered the archetypal ‘absolute monarch’ of early modern Europe. Louis is reported to
