Known as the “Sun King,” Louis XIV centralized power in the monarchy and reigned over a period of unprecedented prosperity in which France became the dominant power in Europe and a leader in the arts and sciences.

Absolute Monarchy King Louis XIV dubbed himself the Sun King because, as the central power in France, he believed that his subjects revolved around him the way the planets revolve around the sun. King Louis XIV was an absolute monarch because he answered only to God.

Louis XIV (1638-1715) was king of France from 1643 to 1715. He brought the French monarchy to its peak of absolute power and made France the dominant power in Europe. His reign is also associated with the greatest age of French culture and art.

Government control – by building the palace at Versailles and holding court there, Louis was able to control the policy-making in absolute France. The royal court served as his home, the meeting place for the state, and also a place where royal subjects would come to pay tribute to the King and attend parties.

This notion of divine right to rule led Louis to create himself in the image of a deity with indisputable power. He chose the sun as his sigil, after the Greek god Apollo, god of peace and art, giver of life, regulating everything with the rise and set of the sun. This suited Louis leadership style perfectly.

king of France

By these means he became one of the most powerful French monarchs and consolidated a system of absolute monarchy in France that endured until the French Revolution….

Shortly after the death of the French Queen Maria Theresa of Spain, wife of Louis XIV, in 1683, courtiers said that this woman could be the daughter, allegedly black, to whom the Queen gave birth in 1664.

Louis XIV called himself the “Sun King” and said “I am the state”. Sun king meant that the king is the center of the nation and has absolute power. I am a state, will also equal to that the king itself is a representative and the main of the state.

Louis XIV called himself the ‘Sun King’ and his reign is famous for the extension of absolute royal rule and the building of the palace at Versailles which seemed to summarise Louis XIV’s reign. Louis XIV’s education was thorough but had a major input of physical work so that he was seen to be a strong ruler.

Louis XIV strengthened the power of the monarchy by weakening the nobility, expanding the bureaucracy and army, and by creating new roles in the bureaucracy which allowed royal power to reach further into the provinces.

The upheaval was caused by widespread discontent with the French monarchy and the poor economic policies of King Louis XVI, who met his death by guillotine, as did his wife Marie Antoinette.

Claudine Masson was the daughter of Dr. Masson and Louis XIV’s personal doctor who later assumed the position herself.

Fabien Marchal is entirely fictional In reality, no woman every practised medicine at the court – Louis’ real doctor at this time was called Antoine Vallot.

Louis XIV refocused on the Spanish Netherlands and Rhineland, while the Allies led by William of Orange sought to limit French gains….Franco-Dutch War.

Dutch War, also called Franco-dutch War, (1672–78), the second war of conquest by Louis XIV of France, whose chief aim in the conflict was to establish French possession of the Spanish Netherlands after having forced the Dutch Republic’s acquiescence.

The war eventually resulted in a French victory, albeit an equivocal one, but Louis XIV failed to achieve his aims largely owing to his own inability to articulate a policy and his ministers’ and generals’ failure to execute the neatly planned strategy of 1672.

Treaties of Utrecht, also called Peace of Utrecht, (April 1713–September 1714), a series of treaties between France and other European powers (April 11, 1713 to Sept. 7, 1714) and another series between Spain and other powers (July 13, 1713 to June 26, 1714), concluding the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14).

The Treaty of Utrecht is a peace agreement signed in 1713 between England and France to end a war that began in Europe in 1701. France agreed to pay the British fur company in North America, the Hudson’s Bay Company, for losses they suffered during the war.