I confess - I love films about Angelica very much! When I first saw them on the big screen, I just fell in love with the dresses of the main character, especially the golden one, remember? And how easily Angelica ran in these luxurious toilets along the corridors of the Louvre, enchanted, fought and fell in love ... However, was the fashion of those years really so easy and charming?
So, the fashion of the time of the Sun King, as himself, not in the least embarrassed, called Louis XIV ...
Wife of Louis XI
Louis XIV did not receive a deep book education, but had extraordinary natural abilities and excellent taste. His penchant for luxury and entertainment made Versailles the most brilliant court in Europe and a trendsetter.
The ideals of beauty have changed. A male knight, a warrior, finally turned into a secular courtier. The obligatory training of a nobleman in dancing and music gives plasticity to his appearance. Brute physical strength is being replaced by other, highly valued qualities: intelligence, sharpness, grace. Manliness in the 17th century - this is the majesty of posture, and the gallant treatment of ladies.
With the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV, the ideals of male beauty changed. A handsome man is now called a man who is not capable of physical labor. A beautiful thin brush, unsuitable for work, but able to caress gently and delicately. A beautiful little foot, whose movements are like a light dance, barely able to walk and completely unable to step decisively and firmly.
The cost of the outfits became fantastic - for example, one of the costumes of Louis XIV had about 2 thousand diamonds and diamonds. Imitating the king, the courtiers tried to keep up with the fashion for luxurious robes and, if not surpass the Sun King himself, then at least not lose face in front of each other. No wonder the proverb of that time said: "The nobility wears its income on its shoulders." In the men's wardrobe, there were at least 30 suits according to the number of days in a month - and they were supposed to be changed daily.
By the end of the XVII century. Basically, there are three important components that make up men's clothing today - a frock coat, a vest and trousers.
The men's costume was complemented by silk or woolen stockings of white, blue, red color with embroidery and a pattern; bow tie; and wigs, which left a noticeable mark in the history of fashion. Rumor attributes their appearance to Louis XIV. In childhood and youth, he had beautiful hair - the envy of all fashionistas. Having gone bald due to illness, he ordered a wig for himself. Since then, wigs have become a mandatory costume accessory for 150 years!
A golden or reddish wig was combed into a parting in the middle; his two wings framed his face in beautifully laid rows of ringlets. At the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries. the wig takes on a pyramidal shape and is made from blond and then brown hair, which fell in long strands over the chest and back. The male head becomes like the head of a lion with a thick mane.
The wig, as it were, personified the greatness and inaccessibility of its owner. With such an abundance of hair on the head, they completely disappear from the face - even those tiny antennae that recently adorned the upper lip. Fashionistas of that time blushed and blackened their eyebrows so that they resembled ladies in their appearance.
The ideal of female beauty combined splendor and coquetry. A woman should be tall, with well-developed shoulders, breasts, hips, a very thin waist (with the help of a corset she was pulled up to 40 centimeters) and lush hair. The role of the costume in expressing the ideal of beauty is becoming greater than ever before.
By the way, the corset was very heavy (almost 1 kg, whalebone plates were sewn into it). Naturally, the whalebone trade became more and more profitable every day. The fashion for a thin waist sometimes led to the fact that other ladies fainted every day (I had to carry smelling salt with me), and sometimes to tragedy - the rigid frame of the corset pierced the liver.
Women wore complex, high (up to 50-60 centimeters) hairstyles supported by wire; rich lace fell from her hair. One of the most fashionable hairstyles of that time was called a la Fontange, in honor of the favorite of the Sun King. She remained in fashion until the death of Louis XIV.
Women's fashion in the second half of the 17th century. changed more often than men's, because its legislators were numerous favorites of Louis XIV. True, the ladies' wardrobe has one common feature - the desire to emphasize that part of the female body that the next favorite was more attractive or skillfully hide the less attractive one. This is the natural desire of an ambitious mistress, who is trying by all means available to extend her power at the royal court.
Women's dresses of those times were real works of art. They had to achieve one goal: to make the female body as attractive as possible by hiding all its ugly parts. Ideally - to please the king! Dresses were sewn from bright, juicy colors of fabrics, saturated dark tones. The ladies wore three skirts, one over the other: the first, the upper one, was a "shy", the second, a "minx", and the third, lower, a "secret". The bodice of the whalebone dress is tightened so that the woman begins to bend seductively forward. In general, corsets at that time began to look like outlandish paintings, bows, flowers were sewn on them, decorated with precious stones.
In France, it was considered quite natural that the king, if he is a healthy and normal man, has mistresses, as long as decency is observed. It should also be noted here that Louis never confused love affairs with state affairs. He did not allow women to interfere in politics, prudently measuring the boundaries of the influence of his favorites.
Among the numerous lovers of the king, three figures are usually distinguished. Former favorite in 1661-1667. the quiet and modest lady-in-waiting Louise de Lavalière, who gave birth four times to Louis, was perhaps the most devoted and most humiliated of all his mistresses. When she was no longer needed by the king, she retired to a monastery, where she spent the rest of her life.
Despite the fact that she was not very beautiful and limped a little, she managed to charm the young king with her good looks, natural grace and friendly disposition. Lavalier was distinguished by angelic modesty and chastity, which also left an imprint on the women's fashion of that time. It is to her that the ladies owe their desire to create comfortable home outfits, so necessary for family life.
In some way, the contrast in comparison with her was represented by Françoise-Athenais de Montespan, who "reigned" (p. 422) in 1667-1679. and bore the king six children. She was a beautiful and proud woman, already married.
So that her husband could not take her away from the court, Louis gave her the high court rank of sirintendante of the queen's court. Unlike Lavaliere, Montespan was not loved by the king's entourage: one of the highest church authorities in France, Bishop Bossuet, even demanded the removal of the favorite from the court. Montespan adored luxury and liked to give orders, but she also knew her place.
The period from 1667 to 1679, called the period of wasteful reeling, tall and stately, witty and arrogant, passionate and treacherous southern woman, with amazing forms and fiery eyes, Madame Francoise-Athenais de Montespan (1641-1707),
At that time, the costume was distinguished by complexity and splendor, decorative sophistication and excessive luxury: golden lace, golden brocade, golden embroideries, gold on gold, diamond on diamond. As the famous fashionista of that time, Madame de Sevigne, wrote: “All this is intertwined with gold, and all this is mixed with gold little things, and all together makes up a dress of extraordinary fabric. You had to be a magician to create such a work, to perform this unthinkable work. Such was the dress of the Marquise de Montespan.
Madame de Montespan with children
The time from 1677 to 1681 was determined by the tastes of Mademoiselle Marie-Angelique de Fontanges (1561-1681) - an impeccable beauty with light ash hair and huge light gray bottomless eyes, milky skin and naturally pink cheeks. The maiden Fontange captivated the king with her youth, freshness, as they would say today, incredible sex appeal, but certainly not with her mind, which was very limited. One of the ladies of the court, Liselotte von Pfalz, wrote that she was as lovely as an angel, from the tips of her toes to the roots of her hair. Even Madame de Montespan, who hated her fiercely, called Marie-Angelica a beautiful ... statue - her forms were so delightful.
At that time, the costume freed itself from the pretentious forms of the previous period, became more refined and simpler, but did not lose its flirtatiousness. And in general, everything connected with Fontange bore the imprint of an elegant game. It was Fontange, playing a peasant woman or a merchant, who made it mandatory to wear an apron (table). Purely decorative, but, as a rule, made of precious lace, it turned from purely plebeian clothing into a ceremonial "facade" of a female aristocratic dress.
Thanks to Fontange, a hairstyle named after her, “a la Fontange”, came into fashion. How interesting is the history of the emergence of this flirtatious hairstyle, so instructive is the fate of its beautiful creator.
Once, in 1680, while hunting in the forests of Fontainebleau, a beauty, rushing on a horse, disheveled her hair in order to straighten it, not at all embarrassed, raised the hem of her skirt to her thigh in front of the whole taken aback court, took off the red garter from her stockings and coquettishly tied it up her beautiful hair. The bows of the lace garter are arranged like a ladder above the beauty's forehead. This unpretentious impromptu hairstyle fascinated the king, and he asked his beloved not to wear another. Naturally, the very next day, all the court ladies and maidens (if there were any) followed her example in the hope of the appropriate favor of the Sun King, and the “a la Fontange” hairstyle became fashionable for 30 years.
The construction of the fountain took a lot of time, which did not allow women not only to wash their hair, but even comb their hair daily. Even aristocrats did this once every 1-2 weeks, while the bourgeois women combed their hair even less often - once a month. Due to this, unpleasant insects - lice and fleas - become common in royal courts.
For some period, European beauties abandoned fountains when, in 1713, at a reception at Versailles, an Englishwoman, the Duchess of Shrewsbury, appeared before Louis XIV with smoothly combed hair. Immediately, a small, smooth hairstyle with rows of curls falling over the shoulders came into fashion. The popularity of small hairstyles persisted for quite some time, until the 70s of the 18th century.
The fate of the pretty Madame Fontange is tragic. On June 21, 1681, at the age of 22, she died of pneumonia, complicated by blood loss during childbirth. At one time, there were rumors about the poisoning of her jealous and domineering ex-favorite de Montespan, but we are not allowed to know how things really were ...
Unlike Henry IV, who went crazy at the age of 56 for the 17-year-old Charlotte de Montmorency, widowed at 45, Louis XIV suddenly began to strive for quiet family happiness. In the person of his third favorite, Francoise de Maintenon, who was three years older than him, the king found what he was looking for. Despite the fact that in 1683 Louis entered into a secret marriage with Françoise, his love was already the calm feeling of a man who foresaw old age. The beautiful, intelligent and pious widow of the famous poet Paul Scarron was apparently the only woman capable of influencing him.
With the "accession" of Maintenon in the costume, a tendency towards severity and moderation was revealed. For example, a very frank neckline from the time of Mrs. Montespan was replaced by an almost deaf dress. Under the influence of Maintenon, the king even introduced the morality police to combat an excessively deep neckline. The police on the street began to measure the depth of the neckline of gallant ladies with a ruler. The punishment was very original: the "guilty" had their hair cut off - a lot of material was required for wigs. Excessive tinsel in the form of lace and ribbons has disappeared.
In the 17th century, underwear - underpants - women, as you know, did not wear, considering it shameful.
But the shape and, in part, the depth of the cutout changed. Everything depended on the whim of another favorite. At first, in the time of Madame de La Valliere, the neckline had the shape of a shallow oval, then, when the turn of Madame de Montespan came, who, according to the enthusiastic reviews of flattering contemporaries, had breasts “in which one could drown,” the neckline became so shamelessly open and deep that the gentleman received comprehensive information about its contents.
Louis XIV was called the Sun King during his lifetime. It was under him that France became the capital of fashion. The king himself dictated the style of clothing and introduced certain items into fashion. His wigs, heels and canes were adopted by the entire civilized world, and his favorites immediately became style icons. The fashion of the Sun King went through 4 stages - from the light and relaxed attire of youth to the harsh, almost puritanical style of the sunset.
There are a lot of sources.
When we talk about Louis XIV, we immediately think of Versailles, where the Sun King preferred to live, a little far from Paris. And yet the king did not abandon his capital, so even today we can admire the magnificent architectural monuments created by the will of the mighty king! He also established new rules that greatly changed the lives of the Parisians. You are invited to the Paris of Louis XIV!
City to match Louis the Great
By creating Palace of Versailles , the king did not forget about the expansion Louvre- the royal residence of that period. Thus, we owe Louis XIV the magnificent colonnade of the Louvre, by the way, built by Claude Perrault (brother of the famous French storyteller)
As soon as the colonnade was completed, the construction of Les Invalides, a majestic hospital for the wounded soldiers of the royal army, began. At the same time, the Parisians saw the emergence of the Gates of Saint-Den and Saint-Martin (arches built on the royal road at the entrance to Paris). Finally, great Victory Square, designed by Jules Mansart, chief architect of the king, was built near Palais Royal in honor of his military victories.
Legendary Institutions
At the request of many scientists, Louis XIV and his faithful minister Colbert founded the Academy of Sciences in 1666. Immediately after it was decided to create Paris Observatory , which is equipped with quality instruments, will be of international importance in astronomy and is currently the oldest operating observatory in the world. A few years later, the Sun King wanted to unite the two troupes of Parisian theaters and the famous theater appeared by royal decree. Comedy France h.
Lighting improvement
Tired of the Court of Miracles (a quarter in medieval Paris, in which a marginal population lives) - Louis XIV created the post of "lieutenant general of the police of Paris", to which he appointed a certain Nicholas de la Reigny, who was responsible for the dispersal of marginalized and impoverished groups of people in Paris. The king also took seriously the state of the streets of the capital, so he organized a road service, as well as street lighting, consisting of 6500 lanterns illuminating the city until midnight!
The holiday that left its mark
Even if the biggest receptions are usually held at Versailles, the Sun King organizes for 15,000 people a luxurious horse parade (Carousel in French) between Louvre and Tuileries in honor of the birth of his first child, the Grand Dauphin. This parade gave its name to the current Carousel Place, adorned with the triumphal arch of the Carousel and overlooking the shops of the Louvre Carousel.
Louis ascended the throne at the age of 4. In the same year, the French army defeated the Spaniards at Rocroi, and after another 5 years the Thirty Years' War ended. Although the confrontation between France and Spain continued, Paris was in a better position. However, the internal situation of the country was not so prosperous. A civil war raged in France, the purpose of which was to limit the power of the king. Even then, young Louis promised himself that he would rule on his own.
An outstanding minister, Cardinal Mazarin, played an important role in the formation of Louis XIV. It was he who defeated the Fronde (political opposition) and concluded a favorable peace with Spain. Soon he died and the 18-year-old king took full power into his own hands.
The next political gesture was the transfer of the monarch to the Palace of Versailles, where he gathered the weight of the color of the nation. The residence of the king was striking in its splendor, and its remoteness from the capital protected Louis from the opposition. In addition, the monarch protected himself from the common people, which symbolized his absolute power.
Surrounding himself with the best representatives of the French nation, the king selected his ministers and did it quite successfully. For example, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, an outstanding financier. It was thanks to his efforts and talent that Louis had the means to conduct aggressive campaigns. However, not only money ensured the brilliant victories of the French army. The most talented minister of war, Louvois, and a number of devoted commanders selflessly fought for France and the king!
From 1672 to 1678, Louis was at war with Holland and, although the French had to retreat, an advantageous peace was concluded, as a result of which France annexed Franche-Comte and other cities in the Southern Netherlands. Later, Louis turned his attention to Germany and time after time acquired new frontier towns.
Being at the peak of his power, Louis almost completely subjugated the European monarchs, but they, under fear of his aggression, were forced to create new alliances. As a result of the wars of 1688 and 1689-1697, famine struck France, and after the war for the Spanish throne, the country was on the verge of foreign invasion. The forces of France were exhausted, and a new serious competitor appeared on the foreign political arena - Great Britain. However, this was of little interest to Louis. In 1715, at the age of 76, the Sun King left this world.
France in the era of the Sun King Louis XIV reached an unprecedented level of prosperity and greatness in the foreign policy arena. But how did court life develop in this era? What ideals underlay court culture? The amateur collected the main rules of secular behavior at the French court.
Think like a woman
We find it hard to believe, but in order to be successful with women, a man had to act like a woman! The ideals of female behavior proved so acceptable to French aristocrats that even French male nobles began to exploit those forms of behavior that had previously been typically feminine. The basis of the behavior of the aristocrat is the ideal of mutual subordination. During the dialogue, both parties had to be comfortable, so in the conversation, everyone had to leave the interlocutor in a winning position. The desire to prove one's case was relevant in the academic dispute at the university. If, after a conversation in a literary salon, you came out as a “winner”, you should know that you failed the test for “secularism” with a bang.
The basis of the behavior of an aristocrat is the ideal of mutual subordination
Honor Above All
The French court in the era of the Sun King is actively trying to revive the ideals of knightly honor and the worship of the Beautiful Lady. The courtyard seems to create an idyll of heavenly life, beautiful and impeccable.
Julie d'Angeanne, the eldest daughter of the famous society lady Catherine de Vivon, Marquise de Rambouillet, was a virgin for a very long time. Coldness and lack of passion was the norm. For many years, Charles de Saint-Maure sought the hand of the "incomparable Julie", who composed in her honor a collection of sixty-two madrigals, musical and poetic works. The patroness of theaters and fine arts, Julie married only at the age of 38.
Coldness and lack of passion was the norm
A woman in this era is a tastemaker. Julie herself was one of the centers around which the social life of the famous literary salon revolved. You could get famous in the salon only if women liked you. An aristocrat had to be able to read, talk about trifles, deal with trinkets in order to please a lady.
The perfect man
A man is, first of all, an interesting interlocutor. He must have had a broad outlook and a talent for communication. Perseverance and directness, as well as direct vulgar allusions of a sexual nature, were completely unacceptable. Already in the 17th century, aristocrats realized that women love their ears and used it in every possible way.
Aristocrats already in the 17th century realized that women love with their ears.
Life for show
Court culture is both social life and the home of the king. Even in the legends of Tristan and Isolde, we see how a faithful knight was obliged to spend the night in the chambers of his lord. Of course, in five centuries the situation has definitely changed, but the tradition itself has remained. The palace is a permanent, never-ending social reception. Only to greet the king in the morning the courtiers and close associates of the monarch gathered. The very communication of the sovereign with certain representatives of the elite could show who is now in honor with the king. And where there is favor and respect, there is power.
Talent as a social elevator
In the era of King Louis the Great, numerous secular and literary salons spread. The first of these, the Salon of Madame de Rambouillet, appeared around 1607. As a girl, Catherine de Vivon was brought up at the Italian court, communicating with the most educated and sophisticated people of her era. It was she who brought to France that court culture, which later began to spread throughout the kingdom.
In the era of Louis the Great, secular salons become widespread
It was possible to get into the salon of Rambouillet solely thanks to one's own intellect. Later, Madame de Rambouillet said that one of the poets, Vincent Voiture, was the son of a wine merchant from Angers. She said: “Do you really think that we accepted him because of his beautiful expression and good height? No. Only because he knew how to compose poems well. The origin here was completely unimportant.
Any talented artist, poet, musician could send a poem to some nobleman. The nobleman, in turn, could show this work to Madame de Rambouillet, and they could well meet. The enlightened nobles did not have any aristocratic prejudices.
A similar story will be repeated later with the famous 17th-century comedian Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known under the pseudonym Molière. In 1658, he and his troupe will be invited to Paris by the 18-year-old Monsieur, who is also Duke Philip I of Orleans, the younger brother of King Louis. From this moment, the active work of the court playwright will begin, because the king himself will provide them with the Petit Bourbon court theater.
The reign of the French monarch Louis XIV is called the Great, or Golden Age. Biography of the Sun King is half legends. A staunch supporter of absolutism and the divine origin of kings, he went down in history as the author of the phrase
"The state is me!"
The record for the longest stay of a monarch on the throne - 72 years - was not broken by any European king: only a few Roman emperors held power longer.
Childhood and youth
The appearance of the Dauphin, the heir of the Bourbon family, in the first days of September 1638, the people greeted with rejoicing. Royal parents - and - have been waiting for this event for 22 years, all this time the marriage remained childless. The birth of a child, besides a boy, was perceived by the French as a mercy from above, calling the Dauphin Louis-Dieudonnet (God-given).
Popular rejoicing and the happiness of parents did not make Louis' childhood happy. After 5 years, the father died, the mother and son moved to the Palais Royal, formerly the Richelieu Palace. The heir to the throne grew up in an ascetic environment: Cardinal Mazarin, the favorite of the ruler, pulled power, including the management of the treasury, over to himself. The stingy priest did not favor the little king: he did not allocate money for entertainment and study of the boy, Louis-Dieudonné had two dresses with patches in his wardrobe, the boy slept on leaky sheets.
Mazarin explained the economy civil war- Fronde. At the beginning of 1649, fleeing the rebels, the royal family left Paris and settled in a country residence 19 kilometers from the capital. Later, the fear and deprivation experienced were transformed into Louis XIV's love for absolute power and unheard of extravagance.
After 3 years, the unrest was suppressed, the unrest subsided, the cardinal who fled to Brussels returned to power. He did not let go of the reins of government until death, although Louis was considered the full-fledged heir to the throne since 1643: the mother, who became regent with her five-year-old son, voluntarily ceded power to Mazarin.
At the end of 1659, the war between France and Spain ended. The signed Treaty of the Pyrenees brought peace, which sealed the marriage of Louis XIV and the Princess of Spain. After 2 years, the cardinal died, and Louis XIV took the reins of government into his own hands. The 23-year-old monarch abolished the position of first minister, convened the Council of State and proclaimed:
“Do you think, gentlemen, that the state is you? The state is me.
Louis XIV made it clear that from now on he did not intend to share power. Even the mother, whom until recently Louis was afraid of, was given a place.
Beginning of the reign
The previously windy and prone to panache and revelry, the Dauphin surprised the court nobility and officials with a transformation. Ludovic filled in the gaps in education - he had previously barely been able to read and write. Naturally sane, the young emperor immediately delved into the essence of the problem and solved it.
Louis expressed himself clearly and concisely, devoted all his time to state affairs, but the arrogance and pride of the monarch turned out to be immeasurable. All royal residences seemed too modest to Louis, so in 1662 the Sun King turned a hunting lodge in the city of Versailles, 17 kilometers west of Paris, into a palace ensemble of unheard of scale and luxury. For 50 years, 12-14% of the state's annual expenditures were spent on its development.
For the first twenty years of his reign, the monarch lived in the Louvre, then in the Tuileries. The suburban castle of Versailles became the permanent residence of Louis XIV in 1682. After moving to the largest ensemble in Europe, Louis visited the capital for short trips.
The splendor of the royal apartments prompted Louis to establish cumbersome rules of etiquette that applied to even the smallest things. It took five servants for a thirsty Louis to drink a glass of water or wine. During a silent meal, only the monarch sat at the table, a chair was not offered even to the nobility. After dinner, Louis met with ministers and officials, and if he was ill, the Council in full force was invited to the royal bedchamber.
In the evening, Versailles opened for entertainment. The guests danced, treated themselves to delicious dishes, played cards, which Louis was addicted to. The salons of the palace were named according to which they were furnished. The dazzling Mirror Gallery was 72 meters long and 10 meters wide. Colored marble, floor-to-ceiling mirrors adorned the interior of the room, thousands of candles burned in gilded candelabra and girandoles, making silver furniture and stones in the adornments of ladies and gentlemen burn with fire.
At the court of the king, writers and artists enjoyed favor. Comedies and plays by Jean Racine and Pierre Corneille were staged at Versailles. On Shrove Tuesday, masquerades were held in the palace, and in summer the courtyard and servants went to the village of Trianon attached to the Versailles gardens. At midnight, Louis, after feeding the dogs, went to the bedchamber, where he went to bed after a long ritual and a dozen ceremonies.
Domestic politics
Louis XIV knew how to select capable ministers and officials. Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert strengthened the welfare of the third estate. Under him, trade and industry flourished, the fleet grew stronger. The Marquis de Louvois reformed the troops, and the marshal and military engineer, the Marquis de Vauban, built fortresses that became a UNESCO heritage. The Comte de Tonnerre, Secretary of State for Military Affairs, turned out to be a brilliant politician and diplomat.
The government under Louis the 14th was carried out by 7 councils. The heads of the provinces were appointed by Louis. They kept the dominions on alert in case of war, promoted fair justice, and kept the people in subjection to the monarch.
Cities were ruled by corporations or councils made up of burgomasters. The burden of the fiscal system fell on the shoulders of the petty bourgeois and peasants, which repeatedly led to uprisings and riots. Stormy unrest was caused by the introduction of a tax on stamped paper, which resulted in an uprising in Brittany and in the west of the state.
Under Louis XIV, the Commercial Code (Ordinance) was adopted. To prevent migration, the monarch issued an edict according to which the property of the French who left the country was taken away, and those citizens who entered the service of foreigners as shipbuilders were awaiting the death penalty at home.
Government offices under the Sun King were sold and inherited. In the last five years of the reign of Louis in Paris, 2.5 thousand positions were sold in the amount of 77 million livres. Officials were not paid from the treasury - they lived off taxes. For example, brokers received a fee on every barrel of wine sold or bought.
The Jesuits, the monarch's confessors, turned Louis into an instrument of Catholic reaction. Temples were taken away from opponents - the Huguenots, they were forbidden to baptize children and get married. Marriages between Catholics and Protestants were forbidden. Religious persecution forced 200,000 Protestants to move to neighboring England and Germany.
Foreign policy
Under Louis, France fought a lot and successfully. In 1667-68, Louis' army captured Flanders. After 4 years, a war broke out with neighboring Holland, to whose aid Spain and Denmark rushed. The Germans soon joined them. But the coalition lost, and Alsace, Lorraine and the Belgian lands went to France.
Since 1688, the series of military victories of Louis becomes more modest. Austria, Sweden, Holland and Spain, joined by the principalities of Germany, united in the League of Augsburg and opposed France.
In 1692, in the harbor of Cherbourg, the forces of the League defeated the French fleet. On land, Louis was victorious, but the war demanded more and more funds. The peasants rebelled against the increase in taxes, silver furniture from Versailles went to be melted down. The monarch asked for peace and made concessions: he returned Savoy, Luxembourg and Catalonia. Lorraine became independent.
The most debilitating was Louis's War of the Spanish Succession in 1701. England, Austria and Holland again united against the French. In 1707, the allies, having crossed the Alps, invaded the possessions of Louis with a 40,000-strong army. To find funds for the war, gold dishes from the palace were sent for remelting, famine began in the country. But the forces of the allies dried up, and in 1713 the French signed the Treaty of Utrecht with the British, and a year later in Rishtadt with the Austrians.
Personal life
Louis XIV is a king who tried to marry for love. But you can’t throw words out of a song - this is beyond the power of kings. 20-year-old Louis fell in love with the 18-year-old niece of Cardinal Mazarin, an educated girl Maria Mancini. But political expediency required France to conclude peace with the Spaniards, which could seal the marriage bond between Louis and Infanta Maria Theresa.
In vain did Louis beg the queen mother and the cardinal to let him marry Mary - he was forced to marry an unloved Spaniard. Maria was given in marriage to an Italian prince, and the wedding of Louis and Maria Theresa took place in Paris. But no one could force him to be faithful to the wife of the monarch - the list of women of Louis XIV with whom he had affairs is very impressive.
Soon after the marriage, the temperamental king noticed the wife of his brother, the Duke of Orleans, Henrietta. To divert suspicion from herself, a married lady introduced Louis to a 17-year-old maid of honor. The blond Louise de la Vallière limped, but she was sweet and liked the ladies' man Louis. A six-year romance with Louise culminated in the birth of four offspring, of which a son and a daughter survived to adulthood. In 1667, the king distanced himself from Louise, giving her the title of duchess.
The new favorite - the Marquise de Montespan - turned out to be the opposite of la Valliere: an ardent brunette with a lively and practical mind was with Louis XIV for 16 years. She looked through her fingers at the intrigues of the loving Louis. Two rivals of the Marquise gave birth to Louis by a child, but Montespan knew that the womanizer would return to her, who bore him eight children (four survived).
Montespan missed her rival, who was the governess of her children - the widow of the poet Scarron, the Marquise de Maintenon. An educated woman interested Louis with a sharp mind. He talked with her for hours and one day noticed that he was sad without the Marquise of Maintenon. After the death of his wife Maria Theresa, Louis XIV married Maintenon and changed: the monarch became religious, there was no trace of the former windiness.
Death
In the spring of 1711, the son of the monarch, the Dauphin Louis, died of smallpox. His son, the Duke of Burgundy, the grandson of the Sun King, was declared heir to the throne, but he also died a year later from a fever. The remaining child - the great-grandson of Louis XIV - inherited the title of dauphin, but fell ill with scarlet fever and died. Previously, Louis gave the surname Bourbon to two sons whom de Montespan bore him out of wedlock. In the will, they were listed as regents and could inherit the throne.
A series of deaths of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren undermined the health of Louis. The monarch became gloomy and sad, lost interest in state affairs, could lie in bed all day and grew decrepit. A fall from a horse during a hunt was fatal for the 77-year-old king: Louis injured his leg, gangrene began. The operation proposed by the doctors - amputation - he rejected. The monarch made the last orders at the end of August and died on September 1.
For 8 days they said goodbye to the deceased Louis in Versailles, on the ninth day the remains were transported to the basilica of the abbey of Saint-Denis and buried according to Catholic traditions. The reign of Louis XIV is over. The Sun King ruled for 72 years and 110 days.
Memory
More than a dozen films have been shot about the times of the Great Age. The first, The Iron Mask, directed by Allan Dwan, was released in 1929. In 1998, he played Louis XIV in the adventure film The Man in the Iron Mask. According to the film, it was not he who led France to prosperity, but the twin brother who took the throne.
In 2015, the French-Canadian series "Versailles" was released on the screens about the reign of Louis and the construction of the palace. The second season of the project was released in the spring of 2017, in the same year the filming of the third began.
Dozens of essays have been written about the life of Louis. His biography inspired the creation of novels, Anne and Serge Golon,.
- According to legend, the queen mother gave birth to twins, and Louis the 14th had a brother, whom he hid from prying eyes under a mask. Historians do not confirm the presence of a twin brother in Louis, but they do not categorically reject either. The king could hide a relative in order to avoid intrigues and not to stir up upheavals in society.
- The king had a younger brother - Philip of Orleans. The Dauphin did not seek to sit on the throne, being satisfied with the position that he had at court. The brothers sympathized with each other, Philip called Louis "little dad".
- There were legends about the Rabelaisian appetite of Louis XIV: the monarch ate as much provisions in one sitting as would be enough for dinner for the entire retinue. Even at night, the valet brought food to the monarch.
- Rumor has it that, in addition to good health, there were several reasons for Louis' exorbitant appetite. One of them - a tapeworm (tapeworm) lived in the body of the monarch, so Louis ate "for himself and for that guy." Evidence has been preserved in the reports of the court physicians.
- Doctors of the 17th century believed that a healthy intestine is an empty intestine, so Louis was regularly treated to laxatives. No wonder the Sun King went to the bathroom 14 to 18 times a day, indigestion and gas were a constant occurrence for him.
- Dac's court dentist believed that there was no greater breeding ground for infection than bad teeth. Therefore, he removed the teeth of the monarch with an unwavering hand until, by the age of 40, nothing remained in Louis's mouth. Removing the lower teeth, the doctor broke the monarch's jaw, and pulling the upper ones, pulled out a piece of the sky, which caused a hole in Louis. In order to disinfect, Daka burned the inflamed sky with a red-hot rod.
- At the court of Louis, perfumes and aromatic powders were used in huge quantities. The concepts of hygiene in the 17th century were different from the current ones: dukes and servants did not have the habit of washing. But the stench emanating from Louis has become a byword. One of the reasons is the unchewed food stuck in the hole made by the dentist in the sky of the king.
- The monarch adored luxury. In Versailles and other residences, Louis counted 500 beds, the king's wardrobe had a thousand wigs, and four dozen tailors sewed outfits for Louis.
- Louis XIV is credited with the authorship of high-heeled shoes with red soles, which became the prototype of the Louboutins sung by Sergei Shnurov. 10-centimeter heels added to the monarch (1.63 meters) height.
- The Sun King went down in history as the founder of the Grand Maniere, which characterizes the combination of classicism and baroque. Palace furniture in the style of Louis XIV is oversaturated with decorative elements, carvings, and gilding.