Louis XIV: The Sun King

this video is made possible by Vince arrow watch's luxury handcrafted watches out fair prices you can check them out at vince arrow watches calm /bi graphics he was a king who's rain out strong even the sun louis xiv of france was one of history's major monarchs ruling with absolute power for nearly three-quarters of a century in europe the length of his rule is unmatched globally his reputation is nearly unparalleled under the Sun Kings watch the French experience the grand siècle or the great century the period Voltaire calls one of the great centuries of civilization art culture and fashion all flourished Versailles was built power was centralized along its borders France expanded becoming the undisputed focal point of European life but was there more to the reign of louis xiv than a shiny french utopia born into a time of civil strife Louie was a product of war he fought constantly against his neighbors against Protestants and against the world and even as his armies racked up victories they sowed the seeds of legrasse yet burrs bitter end what of the great towering figures of history this is the complex life of France's brightest royal star it was a dark and stormy night and no we're not cribbing lines from Snoopy's typewriter that is literally the story of louis xiv starts anyway it was a dark and stormy night and louis xiii was cursing his awful luck thanks to inclement weather the king of france had become trapped at the apartments of his wife and of austria this was a problem because louis xiii and anne detested one another more sin and arguing about the dishes kind of way this was a hatred that burned so bright it could probably have been seen from space as a result the raw couple hadn't produced a single air during their long marriage that all changed that stormy night trapped together louis xiii and and evidently put aside their differences by the time the Sun rose the next morning and was pregnant with the future king at least that's the official version the unofficial one is that Anne may have been canoodling with her confidants cardinal jules Mazarin and the dark and stormy night was a story concocted to save everyone a bit of embarrassment whatever the truth nine months later on September the fifth 1638 the future Sun King was born almost from the moment he emerged louis xiv was being force-fed evidence of his own importance and was a strict Catholic who told her son he was chosen by God to lead france ever giving him the nickname dude or given by God when Louie's brother Philippe was born two years later she made the boy wear dresses and referred to him as my little girl as if to remove any threat that he might pose to Louie's claim on the throne what the Louie's childhood was all pampered day for one thing ends belief in God's plan her son made her somewhat careless his mother the future king nearly drowns as a toddler because Anne wasn't paying attention for another thing Louie had been born into mid 17th century France and mid 17th century France was a society devouring itself rather than a unified nation 1640s France was badly fractured with many provinces under de facto control of not the crown but powerful Nobles when Louie the thirteenth died in 1643 and Cardinal Mazarin set at the Regency to rule in louis xiv name and tried to rein in the power of these nobles unfortunately those Nobles would rather burn the world than let their power decrease in 1648 France exploded into an ugly civil war known as the front this happens right in the middle of a war with Spain at the Front's height a Parisian mob stormed the royal palace baying for Louise blood luckily this particular mob was less interested in recreational decapitation than most Parisian mobs and as they left Louis alive after the boy pretended to be asleep still the incident badly scarred him for the rest of his life Louis would regard the French capital with utmost loathing by 1654 Mazarin had won the franz for the crown that same summer the Cardinal had 15 year-old Louis crowned King in a ceremony attended by almost no one not the Mazarin needed the crowds he was the real power behind the teenage King and everyone already knew it but Mazarin wasn't the cartoon villain you're probably expecting although he kept louis xiv on a short leash he also taught him the dark arts of politics how to manipulate people how to convince them your great idea was actually their great idea gifts that would serve the young King very well but Mazarin also gave the boy a gift that he was less happy with when Louie decided to marry Mazarin niece Mazarin was all like no you're actually gonna marry the Spanish princess to symbolically mark the end of this stupid war that we've been fighting just deal with it and that was how in 1660 louis xiv came to marry Maria Theresa of Spain a woman he hated only marginally less than his father had hated Anne but if this seems like an ignoble start for the king who would be the most celebrated in French history just know that it's not going to last less than nine months after his unwanted marriage Louis would be stepping out from behind Mazarin shadow and in to the blinding sunlight [Music] [Applause] on March the 9th 1661 Cardinal Mazarin departed for the great Catholic party in the sky the very next day bluie the 14th made a surprise announcement he would not be replacing Cardinal Mazarin with a new chief minister instead he would rule France as an absolute monarch this was one ballsy move in 17th century France last absolute monarch had been Henry the fourth whose rule had ended over fifty years ago this was like Helmut Kohl casually announcing in 1995 that Germany was going to revert to a military dictatorship how the hell would such a thing even be possible but knew he was adamant had been put on earth by God to rule France and by God well he was gonna rule the heck out of France the show he was serious Louis and paintings commissioned of himself as Roman emperors and Greek gods he declared himself Roy Saleh the Sun King this caused some rumblings among the nobles rumblings Louis would have been ill-advised to ignore including the fronds that Nobles had started eleven civil wars in the last four decades to paraphrase the old meme one did not simply declare oneself above the nobles without a fight but Louis did not want a fight no his plans for conquering the nobles involved using these subtle arts that Mazarin had taught him but first he needed a place to do it construction on the Palace of Versailles began in 1661 using as its core an old royal hunting lodge some 20 kilometers outside of Paris remember how he had said Louis hated Paris well Versailles was an expression of that hate 20 kilometers away may not sound like much but when your main form of transport is horse-drawn carriage it sure feels a lot longer and that was kind of the point Louis wanted to separate himself from the capital he also wanted to separate his court from any where the nobles might have allies if he could lure them away from their power bases if he could dazzle them with opulence if he could occupy their brains completely with Courtenay life well then they might not have enough time for civil war at first Louise clever plan it didn't quite pan out Nobles declared Versailles is a mistress without a Meritor way of saying that it looks like a building aside and there was nothing to do but the son didn't waver in his course although the court moved around endlessly in these days it kept coming back to Versailles and when it did Louis insured there was enough to occupy even the most Makaveli in mind there were hunting trips gambling parties of such extravagance that engravings were made and sent as how-to guides to the other courts of Europe even the clothing worn was time-consuming Louie decreed it must be French made at enormous cost and that only certain people could wear certain colors naturally this created competition among the nobles Illiad suit might otherwise have been discussing a big-budget sequel to the Fronde were instead scheming against one another of heard the right to wear blue with gold and Louie backed all this weird new etiquette with action Nobles who played by the rules found themselves getting showered with gold not literally that would be horrific while those who refused were suddenly staring at empty coffers just as an exclusive new club can attract members purely because it is exclusive the Sun Kings caught pulled in the nobles purely because being there demonstrated your nobility you can see this clearest in the weird rituals undertaken each day come morning all the nobles were expected to watch Louie get dressed with Sun even helping the King into his shirt but rather than punishments the act of dressing the King was a reward an expression of a Nobles closeness to power and closeness to power meant money before long Louie had the nobles where he wanted them fighting over objectively ridiculous ritual as well he floated serenely above it all like some kind of ancient Sun God it was the first big step on the road to legrasse siècle it wouldn't be the last [Music] while the great parties of a sigh may have been a way of dazzling the nobles like waving a light bulb in front of a bunch of moths wearing tiny powdered wigs that didn't mean the Sun King was all calculation and no fun one of the nicknames for this era was the reign of love and it wasn't meant in the sense of the love that a man has for a fine Cuban cigar throughout his reign the Sun King had so many affairs he practically made infidelity into a spectator sport there was Louise de la Valliere maid of honor to Louise sister-in-law Henriette of England who really started pretending to see as cover for one of his other Affairs and wound up sleeping with her anyway but he didn't just stop with sleeping with that Louise was elevated to the position of Kings official mistress which has to be the most French concept that we've ever heard and she was kept in luxury Versailles until her downfall that is louise was eventually deposed and replaced by Marquis de Montes for a woman a vast temper under which so cutting she caused abject terror burn off a lui who set her up in her own private apartments are joining his own so he could have sex with her three times a day habit that resulted in them having seven children Louise meanwhile was packed off to her convent to live out the rest of her life in isolation when she eventually died the King could barely manage a shrug of indifference but while the Marquis became Louise main lover she wasn't the only one that Henriette Rivlin we mentioned earlier a wife of Louise brother Philippe well Louis totally seduced her to not that Philippe likely minded as he was himself sneaking off a nighttime trysts with both man's men the Chevalier de Lorraine in fact this whole attitude of free love permeated the Sun Kings Court everyone were sleeping with everyone in a non-stop orgy of well orgies but if that sounds kind of fun to you just know that it was only for a tiny elite most of the regular folks of France was starving those working on the Versailles building site were barely making enough to afford food those who complained were thrown in jail so yes the great century was great for most people in the same way that the Great Depression was great for the average human ie not at all still it's not like new he was only playing mind games and making love despite having an adult schedule that would leave even Boris with an exhausted Johnson Louis found time to work eight hours a day on kingly stuff every day along with finance minister jean-baptiste Colbert he overhauled the economy building a network of canals roads and ports in a handful of years that transformed French life Louie was even slightly progressive for his time promoting ministers from the bourgeoisie at the expense of Nobles much to these same nobles hoorah but the Sun King wouldn't be respected today if he'd just spent time building roads and dropping his pants no getting to the top of the European Royals in the 17th century meant one thing and one thing only it meant going to war and just before we get into that quick word from our sponsor today if you want to look like European nobility but don't have the unlimited budget of that group well let me tell you a little something about today's sponsor Vince Eric I'm wearing one right now this is the Vince Aero rogue but I've got a couple of others right here it's a little table next to me this is a chrono s and this is their take on a pilot watch they're all great-looking stuff for the chrono s I went for a nice blue background silver outside the pilot watch black strap black back black bezel looking good also this chrome OS is actually a 38 millimeter I've got a little wrist so they make different watches for different sizes so look it's a brand new year so why not start it off right put some confidence in your step with a great-looking watch I 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called there it wasn't for the public so the Sun King set about finding a reason in the mid 1660s Louis announced that his marriage to the Spanish Maria Theresa minced the Spanish Netherlands should for complicated dynastic reasons belong to him it was clearly the French King grasping at straws but it was also enough in May of 1667 Louie launched the war of devolution which should perhaps become known as the unprovoked invasion of Belgium although the French made great gains international pressure from England's forced them to mostly withdraw leaving the Spanish Netherlands in Spanish hands but despite this setback the war wasn't a failure for one thing the early French victories in the facts Louie had withdrawn under diplomatic pressure rather than in the face of great losses seriously boosted this popularity for another it cemented in many people's minds the idea that France had some sort of claim to the Spanish Netherlands now all he had to do was wait until the time was right and he could try again that time came sooner than anyone was expecting in 1670 Louis signed a secret treaty with charles ii of england playing on the facts they were both catholics to win over his former rival then in 1672 he launched his re invasion the new French attack on the Netherlands was so successful it's still known in Dutch history as RAM jaw or the year of disaster it didn't help that in 1674 the British joined on Louis side leaving the former Dutch Ally out to dry it wasn't until the Dutch leader William of Orange married charles the second's nice that england abandoned louis and the war ended by that time though knew he had gotten what he wanted the gains made by the French armies in the franco-dutch war effectively created the modern French Belgium border Louis snatched towns and cities from the Spanish Netherlands that would remain French till today although he hasn't delivered the hammer blow against the Dutch he was hoping for Louis returned from the war at the height of his powers in Paris he was given the nickname the great and people lined up to sing his praises finally it was here the zenith Louis had imagined when he became an absolute monarch all those years ago the Sun King at his noonday height but the king had forgotten what happens to the Sun after it reaches its highest point it always says louie xiv didn't know it yet but the son of his reign was already dipping towards the horizon from here on out it was going to be all downhill [Music] from one perspective the early 1680s should have been a time of triumph Louie in 1682 building work on Versailles was finally completed allowing the Sun King to permanently stationed is caught in the most opulent building on earth from another perspective though the course of the decade had already been set it'swell was already poisoned the trouble started in 1679 that here a police investigation revealed many members of the aristocracy had been visiting fortune tellers an illegal act they were also using potions taking part in black mass and trying to poison their rivals scores upon scores Versailles regulars were implicated most damaging for the King his mistress the Marquis de Montes pawn was revealed to have use love potions on him the fallout of the affair of the poisons was felt all across French society of course the Sun King changed tack ditching the party lifestyle and imposing sobriety and piety on his nobles and replacing the Marquis de Montes par with the sober and pious Mademoiselle de Monte on of course this was just for the eyes of the public behind the scenes everyone kept on gambling drinking and having affairs but it left a nasty taste in the mouth one that poisoned the public against Frances elites but if the affair of the poisons was a catastrophe Louie couldn't predict the next disaster that was of his own making way way back in 1598 Henry the fourth had signed the Edict of Nantes granting rights to the Protestants of France known as the Hyuga nose they numbered around 1 million most of them skilled artisans in the 80 plus years since that integrated into French society but when the extremely Catholic Louie looked at them he didn't see a group with a valuable skill set he saw outsiders invaders a swarm of good-for-nothings so the Sun King decided to do something about that in 1685 Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes replacing it with the Edict of Fontainebleau suddenly Tolerance was out and persecution and murder was in here we know churches were destroyed schools were closed Protestants were sent into internal exile and those who refused to go were executed it was a cruel senseless policy it was also a spectacular round goal as news of Louie's decrees spread outrage swept to the Protestant Nations refuge was offered for the Hyuga nose and in parts of the Holy Roman Empire in England it's actually from these fleeing humanoids that English gets the word refugee and that's not all England got of the tens of thousands of refugees that came to England almost all of them carried some vital skill France lost so many of its best craftspeople that entire industry suffered it's thought that today the Edict of Fontainebleau set sectors of the economy back decades but from Louie's perspective it had an even worse effect over in the Netherlands the Protestant William of Orange was getting jumpy revoking the Edict of Nantes might be a warning sign Louis was going to invade again stop it off England had just coronated the storm she Catholic James the second without England on side in any future war William knew the Netherlands was lost so he decided to force England onto his side in November 1688 William of Orange sets sail at the head of a huge invasion force if you ever heard that 1066 was the last time Britain successfully was conquered that's only because William of oranges victory was so quick that everyone forgets it within weeks of Williams landing at Torbay James had been captured in the entire country turned pro orange the thing is Louie could have almost certainly stopped the Glorious Revolution had he done so he would have gained a catholic ally in james ii and a chance to crush the Protestant Dutch but Louie was simply too arrogant to believe that God wasn't on his side that England's Catholics wouldn't rise up and overthrow William by the time he realized what a geopolitical screw-up had just committed it was too late without a drop of blood being spilt William and his wife Mary were made joins monarchs of England's in January 1689 and just like that Catholicism in Britain went into terminal decline and just like that Louise fortunes went into terminal decline too [Music] on July the 1st 1690 a huge French force gathered in Ireland try and restore James the second to the English throne instead they were defeated in the bloody bitter Battle of the Boyne a protestant victory that remains hugely controversial in ireland but by then louis already had other troubles on his mind by 1690 france was embroiled in the war of the grand alliance the war of the grand alliance also known as the nine years war is one of those old-timey conflicts that super complicated to explain without restoring a whole new channel named war a graphics to walk us through it all since we don't have time for that just know it was in part triggered by the impending death of carlos ii of spain a Habsburg Carlos was soem bread's that he was incapable of siring an air that man's who would rule Spain next was an open question so new he tried to make the answer to that question France resulting in a long bloody inconclusive war that only petered out in 1697 Europe was exhausted what was the worst part well everyone was about to do it all over again three years after the war of the grand alliance ended Carlos died for real and Louis declared his own grandson Philip the new king of Spain to be fair to Louie a new grabbing the Spanish throne would lead to another European meltdown but he felt he had no choice what if one of his enemies grabs his instead so with a heavy heart Louis pressed the doomsday button on Legrand siècle for 13 years of fighting not followed were blessed the great century and more the crappy decade Frances forces were decimated territory was lost at the same time that France was suffering on the world stage the Sun King was suffering in private too as the war progressed Louie's son to have his grandsons his great-grandson and his great-granddaughter all passed away in public the energy of the Sun Kings early years faded away replaced by melancholy that seemed to turn everything a dull midwinter grey remarkably this misery actually won Louis public support it was said the king was carrying the nation's entire grief in this time of war when the war of Spanish Succession finally came to a close in 1714 the Sun King had almost faded away while a late surge by the French had allowed them to keep Louise grandson on the Spanish throne it still felt like a failure Philip excluded from the line of French succession meaning Louie's dream of a unified France and Spain could not be realized not that Louie had much longer left to dream anyway louis xiv fell deathly ill at versailles in august 1715 on his deathbed the song king famously confessed to his surviving great-grandson the future Louis the 15th that had gone to war for Vanity's sake and that his grandson shouldn't be like him then with his final breaths he declared I depart that the state will always remain the son King died on September the 1st 1715 at the moments the Sun set on his reign louis xiv had been on the throne for 72 years and a hundred and ten days when he first became king france had been a divided state the french monarchy a second-tier power now as dusk finally fell it was across a france that the height of its powers paris was the global center of fashion art culture but if Louis thought in his last moments that the story ended here he was wrong over the next 74 years the system of government Louis had set up would ossify into the ancien régime in 1789 it was this regime that was overthrown in the greatest European upheaval of all the French Revolution but that's for another video for now it's simply enough for us to bid farewell to Louie the fourteenth to perhaps the greatest French King to have ever lived he may have made mistakes he may have been an autocrat but the Sun Kings life is destined to forever shine throughout history visible even into the far distant future for a king as egotistical as new either 14th well that's exactly what he would have wanted so I really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below and don't forget to subscribe also why not check out another channel from me called Geographics if you enjoy this channel you'll enjoy that as well and thank you for watching [Music]

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Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler, Louis XIV, Louis XIV bio, Louis XIV story, Louis XIV biography, Louis XIV of france, story of Louis XIV

Id: JE_OlM1eAFo

Length: 24min 36sec (1476 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 27 2020