Thugs by Micah D. Halpern

Author:Micah D. Halpern [Halpern, Micah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Christian Publishing
Published: 2018-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

4

LOUIS XIV

A Monarch’s Monarch

Born: 1638

Died: 1715

Ruled: 1643–1715

As tradition dictates, Louis became king of France when his father died. The crown was passed from the head of the thirteenth to the head of the fourteenth in 1643. But the crown was a little too large for the new king. He was barely five years old.

The kingdom belonged to Louis, but only when he came of age. Until then, France was to be governed by one of the great cardinals of the day—Cardinal Mazarin. Like Cardinal Richelieu before him, Mazarin was no ordinary man of the cloth. He was a master leader and a keen manipulator. He was a strategist who understood perfectly not only the games of church politics but also the games of national and international politics. He understood the dynamics of war. And better than anyone else,Mazarin—like Richelieu—understood the pope.

These were all issues far beyond the scope of even the most purebred and precocious wonder child.

Marazin led the country of France until his death when Louis, at long last, was deemed ready to rule one of the greatest powers in the world. And rule he did. The year was 1661. The king was twenty-three years old. The reign of Louis XIV lasted for seventy-two years; he personally ruled for fifty-four of those years. Louis XIV wore the crown longer than any other monarch in all of European history. The great French philosopher Descartes dubbed the seventeenth century the “century of Louis XIV.”

Louis XIV was a dictator of the highest order. Motivated by his ego and by vanity, he ruled France with an iron fist. He was also motivated by an obsessive need to be viewed by history in a particularly flattering light—a rather odd concern for a truly despotic leader, but Louis was no ordinary ruler.

Ego dictated most of King Louis’ decisions. He chose to go to war because he felt war was a good way to make a mark in history. With an ego that size, Louis naturally assumed France would emerge victorious and that the spoils would be his. Wars with Spain, Austria, and England were where his legacy was to lie.

Louis was dedicated to dominating the seas; he believed waterways would give France the advantage. Ultimately, the king’s thinking was correct, but the problem with his analysis at the time was that the great conflicts of France were not across the ocean or even the Mediterranean. France’s biggest conflicts were local—Denmark, Sweden, Poland. It was in the regional arena that the real and most significant future would rest.

The impact that Louis XIV, the Sun King, had on the culture of France is unparalleled. His influence reverberates even today. The king seized upon his own areas of interest and brought them to the world. Louis chose the symbol of the sun—as portrayed with the great Apollo, god of peace and the arts—to be his own emblem.

He was undaunted and determined. His birth long-awaited by his parents, Louis was heralded by France as a gift from God. He was an absolute ruler in part because he was so absolutely confident that the rule was his.

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