Louis XIV - Palace of Versailles Louis XIV Print From the residences of the King to the Château de Versailles Up until his installation in the Château de Versailles on 6 May 1682, the King imposed frequent changes of residence on the Court. Louis XIV and his courtiers lived in the Palace of the Louvre, in the palaces of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Vincennes, Fontainebleau, and Versailles, then being transformed. The works were entrusted by royal patronage to illustrious artists such as André Le Nôtre and Louis Le Vau and the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart who drew up the plans of the Chapel, among many other buildings. In 1678, the construction of the Hall of Mirrors began, the greatest symbol of the powerful absolute monarchy. Providing sufficient room to accommodate the courtiers, the Château and its outlying buildings contributed to the domestication of the nobility. Under the watchful eye of the King, the Grandees no longer plotted; they lived either with the armed forces, or at the Court, careful to please and serve.

Intimidating, majestic and informed about everything by his spies, the King dominated. A King with a passionate interest in the arts The king was interested in a great variety of subjects and excelled in many fields. His contemporaries gave him credit as a good musician (he played the guitar), an excellent dancer and organiser of ballets, and a brilliant rider. He loved hunting, outings, fencing, putting on shows, and playing parlour games, billiards in particular. He surrounded himself with good judgement with the best artists of the period, including Molière, Lully and Racine. In the Château de Versailles, he had the Court playwright stage comedies, while the musician Jean-Baptiste Lully put on his operas and organised brilliant festivities. Palace of Versailles: Facts & History Palace of Versailles: Facts & History By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | August 14, 2013 07:03pm ET MORE The Palace of Versailles, the seat of French royalty, is about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Paris.

Credit: Worakit Sirijinda | Shutterstock The Palace of Versailles is the central part of a complex that housed the French government, most notably its royalty, during the reigns of Louis XIV (France’s famed “Sun King”), Louis XV and Louis XVI. After the French Revolution in 1789, it ceased to be a permanent royal residence. Located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southwest of Paris, it is beside the settlement of Versailles. Before the construction of the palace by Louis XIV, this settlement was little more than a hamlet but by the time of the revolution it had a population of more than 60,000 people, making it one of the largest urban centers in France. Before the revolution, the Versailles complex included the palace, gardens, a walled-in royal hunting ground, a smaller palatial structure known as the Grand (or Marble) Trianon and an estate used by Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI’s queen. Between the palace and the town there are also buildings that housed the war and foreign affairs ministries, residences for those not entitled to live in the palace, stables and a kennel, among other structures.

The palace was chock full of paintings and sculptures, ornately designed rooms (like the “Hall of Mirrors”) and even technological innovations — such as pressurized water fountains in its gardens that jetted water into the air — and an opera house with a mechanical device that allowed the orchestra pit to rise up to the stage, allowing it to be turned into a dance or banqueting hall. Overall, the palace was built to impress. “Versailles is a mirage, a sumptuous and theatrical entertainment. It is also a manifestation of glory and power imposed to a great extent by art, luxury, and magnificence,” writes Valérie Bajou, a modern-day curator at Versailles, in her book "Versailles" (Abrams, 2012). From hunting lodge to palace The first thing that attracted France’s kings to Versailles was its prolific game. Louis XIII, who lived 1601-1643, bought up land, built a chateau and went on hunting trips. At the time, much of the land around Versailles was uncultivated allowing wild animals to flourish.

The chateau Louis XIII built was little more than a hunting lodge having enough space to house the king and a small entourage. It was the “Sun King,” Louis XIV (1638-1715), a ruler who chose the sun as his emblem and believed in centralized government with the king at its center, who would radically transform Versailles making it the seat of France’s government by the time of his death. He ruled France for 72 years and in that time transformed Versailles by encompassing Louis XIII’s chateau with a palace that contained north and south wings, as well as nearby buildings housing ministries. A series of gardens, created in a formal style, stood to the west of the palace (one of them today is in the shape of a star) and contained sculptures as well as the pressurized fountains capable of launching water high into the air. Versailles features many fountains that were technological marvels for their time. Credit: Joan Quevado Fle Shutterstock “From the outset Louis attached a supreme importance to these water effects.

Their virtuosity formed the star turn of a tour of the gardens,” writes Tony Spawforth, a professor at Newcastle University, in his book "Versailles: A Biography of a Palace" (St. Martin’s Press, 2008). “The effects were the work of engineers whose machines made Versailles a hydraulic as much as an artistic wonder.” Unfortunately, Spawforth notes, problems supplying water meant that the fountains could only be turned on during special occasions. In addition a grand canal, constructed to the west of the garden and running about a mile long, was used for naval demonstrations and had gondolas, donated by the Republic of Venice, manned by gondoliers. As the French government moved into Versailles, and the king found himself swamped by work in his palace, he built himself the Grand (also called Marble) Trianon, a more modest palatial structure, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) to the northwest of the palace as a private retreat where only he and those invited could visit.

Like the palace itself it had an abundant garden whose smells were said to overpower visitors “The tuberoses drive us away from Trianon every evening,” wrote Madame de Maintenon in a letter dated Aug. 8, 1689. “The excess of fragrance causes men and women to feel ill.” (Source: Versailles official website ) Scholars have suggested a number of factors that led Louis XIV to build a great palace complex at Versailles and move the French government there. It’s been noted that by keeping the king’s residence some distance from Paris, it offered him protection from any civil unrest going on in the city. It also forced the nobles to travel to Versailles and seek lodging in the palace, something that impeded their ability to build up regional power bases that could potentially challenge the king. Sparforth notes that the French Duke Saint-Simon (1675-1755) commented on how easy it was to see all the officials he needed because they were all located in one complex. Saint-Simon wrote that someone at Versailles “could see everyone he needed in the space of an hour,” something that would have taken much longer in Paris.

Inside the palace Spawforth notes that the palace contained about 350 living units varying in size, from multi-room apartments to spaces about the size of an alcove. The size and location of the room a person got depended on their rank and standing with the king. While the crown prince (known as the dauphin) got a sprawling apartment on the ground floor, a servant may have nothing more than a space in an attic or a makeshift room behind a staircase. The bedroom of Louis XIV, built on the upper floor and located centrally along the east-west axis of the palace, was the most important room and was the location of two important ceremonies where the king would wake up (lever) and go to sleep (coucher) surrounded by his courtiers. The king also had a ceremony for putting on and taking off his hunting boots. “The room where the king slept became the nucleus of the residence and, therefore, of the kingdom,” Bajou writes. The importance of the courtiers being at these ceremonies continued into the reigns of Louis XV and XVI.

Spawforth notes that a courtier in 1784 wrote that “most of the people who come to the court are persuaded that, to make their way there, they must show themselves everywhere, be absent as little possible at the king’s lever, removal of the boots, and coucher, show themselves assiduously at the dinners of the royal family ... in short, must ceaselessly work at having themselves noticed.” Complementing these court ceremonies was the beauty of the palace itself, which emphasized the achievements and power of the king. The king’s bedroom and apartment area were located close to the Hall of Mirrors. Spawforth writes that the hall has 30 tableaux that tell an “epic narrative” of what “Louis (XIV) as King of France aspired to be.” Victory in battle features prominently in these narratives with one example showing Louis with his army crossing the Rhine River in 1672. “Hair streaming, dressed in Roman style and holding a thunderbolt like a projectile, Louis sits godlike on a silver chariot pushed by Hercules while riding roughshod over female personifications of nearby enemy towns.” The design of the hall added to the effect.

“Viewing was to be helped by the famous wall of mirrors, which diffuses the daylight, except above the windows, where the detail is shadowy.” The Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. Kim Dyer (kimbis@aol.com) March 6, 1995 Visitor Accounts Nicole, 17, from Naples, FL, USA. wrote: Versailles is beautiful. I went with the baron collier marching band to Paris over the Christmas and new years break of 2000-2001. The gardens were beautiful and the palace itself was really neat. I especially liked the kings chapel that was at the beginning of the tour. The artwork was something to see, there were many depictions of either Greek or roman gods. The kings clock was also pretty neat. There were a few original tapestries and floor coverings in the palace and it is definably a place to visit. The hall of mirrors was also great. Another great palace to visit is the Louve. They have converted most of it into a museum and you can see many of great artworks there including the statue of Aphrodite (or Venus), Mona Lisa, and the Crown Jewels.

Ellen, 15, from Alaska, wrote: Versailles is so rich and beautiful that it is almost tiring! There are so many little cool things- for example, if you look at the floor in the hall of mirrors one way, the wood looks dark, then if you turn around, it is light! Jimmy, 14, from North Eastern, USA, wrote: Versailles is not a castle it is known as a palace that was used by the kings of France. One of the most famous who lived there was Louis XIV. Even though this is an enormous place it's not a chateau. Besides that fact this place is simply amazing but often hard to get through because it is so crowded but the art work in it is simply amazing. Kyle Walsh, 16, from Michigan USA, wrote: Versailles is an absolutely awesome palace. It is probably the best in the entire world. The building is not only massive, but every square foot is beautiful and you can really see the true power of the monarchs at the time. If you have the opportunity to go anywhere, go to Paris and make that little trip out to Versailles, because it is an experience you will never forget.

Don't hesitate to E-mail if you have more questions. Jenni Zhu, 13, from California, wrote: When I arrived in Paris, on Sep.9th, my first impulse was to visit the Chateau of Versailles, when my dad and his friend finally took my sister and I to the castle, I was so tooken back. The Chateau means a lot to me, I really liked the interior, the Hall of Mirrors and the Queen's Apartments, I think are the best in the main part. The gardens, when I went, was in the winter, but besides that, there was an storm of some sort and it destroyed the forests and gardens and broke the exterior of the Chateau the year before. But the majesty of the palace was overwhelming. Rachel Saincere Saint-Just, 15, from Paris France, wrote: Visiting Le Palace de Versailles was a stunning experience for me. So much feeling, memory, and history emerged from every gilded door of what was once a splendid home for the French nobility of my ancestry…something I had never felt before.

The utmost care, material, luxury, taste, and thought was invested in every ornate and glimmering detail in this palace. When I visited the Summer Cottage of le former Archduchess of Austria, who's name was changed for the sake of our former court's etiquette, Maria Antonia, and the Grand Trianon, a blanket of serenity and comfort permeated through my nerves as I watched the blue ponds, lush green grasses, bright and joyous flowers, and all the color and life through the gardens and halls of the grand palace. Some tears streamed down my cheeks from the thought of the aristocracy being guillotined in the Pasta Le Crepe in front of jeering crowds of the Republic, after being escorted from their loved life at the court. Lana Clark, 17, from Michigan USA, wrote: Versailles is sooo beautiful compared to what we have here in the States. The castle itself was gorgeous, but my favorite part was walking around the gardens and seeing Marie Antoinette's little farmhouse. I went with a tour group in the summer, and everything was green. It was one of my favorite places in Paris.

Katrina, 20, from Matlock Washington, USA, wrote: Versailles, is a wonderful castle. It is beautiful and awe inspiring. But if you go to see it make sure that you schedule a lot of time to do so. It is large, and you won't want to miss anything. The fountains are great. It took so much water to run all of the fountains in Versailles that they only turned them on when the King went by. Now they run them one day a week. If you want to see them be sure to find out which day. Sharon, 42, from Arkansas, wrote: Versailles - too beautiful to really describe. Many beautiful things set in beautiful rooms. The walls and ceilings would be wanderfull to see even if there wasn't anything in them! You would really need to spend several days going through the whole place. The palace alone has many wonderful rooms to go through. Then the gardens with the fountains and statues is another great place to see. You really need to spend at least one day here! Deonte Kelly, 21, from London, England, wrote: I once visited Versailles, and when I went I didn't want to go back to London.

The castles interior was so precious that I can't even describe it. One place I did visit while in the castle was the Hall of Mirrors. It was extravagant. I've seen many castles before but none like this one. Although, Chambord's exterior and interior was magnificent. I commend the architects of this magnificent building Heather Allen, 17, from Kansas wrote: Versailles is an outstandingly beautiful place. However, the Trianons were not built by Marie-Antionette. She built the hamlets. The Trianons were constructed by Louis XIV's mistress Mme. Pompadour. She suggested that there should be a building in the French gardens and there was one built directly after. Heather, from USA wrote: I think that Versailles is the best castle that I went to while I was in France. It is not only astounding in size, but also very beautiful. You could explore the Versailles castle for days and find something new each time. I love Petite Trianon and Grande Trianon, which located away from the actual castle. They were built by Marie Antoinette. There is a cute miniature village there, with houses and everything.

Versailles is awesome and I would recommend it to anyone who will be in the area. Marc G, from Montreal wrote: Versailles is a magnificent palace. The first day I went there, the palace was closed, so I spent the whole day outside in the gardens. The gardens alone can take several days of exploration. They're magnificent. The inside's also spectacular. You could leave a comment if you were logged in. Last modified:: 2015/08/18 13:06 Louis XIV - Palace of Versailles Louis XIV Print The Sun King (1638-1715) The “Grand Century” of Louis XIV was marked by the image of an absolute Monarch and a powerful State. Installed in his royal functions at a very young age, and educated by Cardinal Mazarin, the Sun King built the foundations of absolutism around his own person. In 1682, he moved with his Court to the Château de Versailles, a palace that was a better symbol of his power and his influence in Europe. Known as “Louis-Dieudonné”, Louis XIV was born in 1638 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Crowned king at the age of 5 on the death of his father Louis XIII, the young sovereign received from his mother, Anne of Austria, and from Cardinal Mazarin, his godfather, a complete education. Mazarin was officially in charge of introducing him to politics. His mother ruled as Regent; it was the time of the Fronde (1648-1653), the rebellion of the upper nobility and the people of Paris against the monarch. The young Louis felt humiliated by the arrogance of these nobles and threatened in his capital: he would remember this. The royal family In 1660, Louis XIV married his first cousin Maria Theresa of Austria, the Spanish Infanta, in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Their union reinforced the reconciliation between France and Spain. The King and the Queen had six children. Only one survived, Louis de France. In 1683, the King secretly married Madame de Maintenon who succeeded his first ‘favourites’, Mademoiselle de La Vallière and Madame de Montespan, with whom he had several legitimate descendents.

Palace of Versailles, France – European Trips Follow Palace of Versailles, France Palace of Versailles is one of the must-visit sites in Paris, France. Also known simply as Versailles, it is actually a royal chateau that is located in the Ile-de-France region. The chateau itself is today located far away, around 20 kilometers, from the center of Paris. However, it is an important historical building which had been the center of France political power during the reign of Louis XIV. The palace is also the symbol of absolute monarchy by French people because it was the place where Louis XIV resided during his reign. History Palace of Versailles The earliest document where the name of Versailles was mentioned is a charter of the Abbey of Saint-Pere de Charters. Versailles came to people’s knowledge again in 11th century when it was developing into a country village with one castle and one church named Saint-Julien. The area kept developing and reached its peak the 16th century when Louis XIV officially made it as his official residence. Unfortunately, a war rose and when Louis XIV was forced to move out from the palace, the place was forgotten with only a handful of people living there.

In 1575, a Florentine named Albert de Gondi bought the area. After the purchase, he managed to invite Louis XIII, the future king at that time, to several hunting trips in surrounding forests. Apparently, Louis XII was very impressed with the site so that he ordered to construct a hunting lodge near the palace in 1624. After several years visiting the palace, Louis XIII decided to own the area by purchasing it from Gondi family and made some enlargements to the chateau. Inside Palace of Versailles Later, as we all know by now, Louis XIII’s predecessor, Louis XIV expanded the chateau and built the Versailles Palace. The architect hired was Louis Le Vau who was collaborated with artist Charles Le Brun to create the masterpiece. The Baroque style used for this palace then became a trend and as followed by many European palaces in that era. Andre le Notre was the gardener who was in charge of creating a charming garden for the palace. However, this first part of construction was still far from finish. Palace of Versailles Paris After the death of Le Veu, Louis XIV ordered the palace to be enlarged until three times of its size.

It was architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart who was given the royal task. The orangerie, the northern and southern wings, the Grand Trianon, and the Royal Chapel of Versailles were parts that were done under Hardouin-Manzart supervision. During the reign of next Louis, some additions such as the Petit Trianon and the opera were added. Versailles Today The Interior Palace de Versailles is a very big palace with some notable parts in it. Surely you need to take a thorough tour and see all parts of the palace. However, if somehow your schedule forces you to choose only some, here is the list of most notable rooms in the palace. The Hall of Mirrors The Hall of Mirrors was constructed during Louis XIV’s reign. It is said that this room is the most notable contribution of Louis XIV for the palace. The room contains seventeen mirror arches which are placed parallel to seventeen arcaded windows which look out to the famous Versailles garden. Since each mirror arch holds 22 mirrors, then the total mirrors in the room are 357. Now you know that the name of the room describes exactly just what you will find there.

The Hall of Mirrors Chapel of Versailles The chapel in Versailles was constructed from 1689 to 1710. Built in Baroque and Gothic styles, the chapel bears features that are similar to many cathedrals in that era. Colored marbles, gargoyles as exterior, and carved pillars are some features adopted by the chapel. Chapel of Versailles The Grand Apartment This apartment was Louis XIV’s apartment. By this only, the historical value of this apartment is already high. This is added by the facts that the apartment has a remarkably beautiful ceilings which were painted by Charles Le Brun and his team. Royal Opera This is the room where Louis XVI celebrated his wedding to Marie Antoinette. Made entirely from wood, the Royal Opera in Versailles is known as the most acoustically theater in the world. The Opera can hold around 700 audiences in it. The Garden If you have the chance to see the garden of Versailles, your eyes will be pleased with such a visual beauty. Located on 250 acres of land, the garden has numerous fountains which enhance its aesthetic and brings freshness for its visitors.

Try to visit the palace on Sunday since you will have the chance to see some fountains putting a show. One of the most notable fountains is the Fountain of Apollo where you can see the sun god driving a chariot of horses out of the surface. There is also Fountain of Latona which is dedicated to the goddess Latona. Palace of Versailles Garden Looking at its neat and amazing pattern, we all have to agree that Andre Le Notre had done a wonderful job in arranging paths, bushes, flowerbeds, and trees into various geometrical patterns. And if you think pathways are the only route available, you are wrong. There is also a canal built in the garden which is popularly known as the Grand Canal. Moreover, there are two small palaces in the garden, Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon. These palaces were built as escapes for he king from his daily routine. Palace of Versailles Address Versailles facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Versailles VERSAILLES VERSAILLES.

The seat of the French monarchy from 1682 to 1789, Louis XIV's chateau at Versailles had its origins in a modest hunting lodge built in 1623 for his father, Louis XIII. When Louis XIV (ruled 1643–1715) assumed personal control of the government in 1661, he embarked upon a building program at the site that continued almost unabated until his death. Versailles was first an intimate retreat for the king and then a royal residence for a still itinerant court before it became the permanent seat of the French royal family, court, and government in 1682. Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–1683), Louis XIV's indefatigable finance minister, was responsible for procuring the staggering sums needed to build the chateau that became the model for royal palaces across Europe . ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY Louis XIV's magnificent chateau evolved in three major phases. The Sun King first intended Versailles to be a retreat from the responsibilities of government.

Between 1661 and 1668, the architect Louis Le Vau (1612–1670), the gardener AndréLeNôtre (1613–1700), and the painter Charles Le Brun (1619–1690) collaborated to create a palace suitable for the Sun King to entertain favored courtiers. When Louis XIV decided in 1668 that Versailles was to become a royal residence, able to house his full court for months at a time, he ordered extensive additions. Le Vau drew up plans to frame the Old Chateau in a terraced "envelope" of white stone. The envelope included state apartments for the king and queen, the salons of which were each dedicated to one of the seven planets known to orbit the sun. The king's own bedchamber, echoing the theme articulated in the chateau's gardens, depicted scenes from the myth of Apollo. Work on the chateau and its gardens was by no means complete when Louis XIV permanently installed his family, court, and government at Versailles in 1682.

Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646–1708) oversaw the final enlargement of the palace and adjacent buildings that would eventually house five thousand courtiers and as many government officials, guards, and servants. It was Mansart who designed the legendary Hall of Mirrors. Running almost the entire length of the chateau's western facade, the gallery was sheathed in mirrors, furnished with solid silver chandeliers, and crowned by ceiling panels by Le Brun that depicted pivotal episodes from the Sun King's life. Meanwhile, Le Nôtre continued to expand the gardens, adding grottoes, ornamental lakes, and a Grand Canal so vast the navy could perform maneuvers on it. Construction on Louis XIV's palace ceased only with the completion of the Chapel Royal in 1710. The exterior of Versailles changed little over the course of the eighteenth century. Louis XV (ruled 1715–1774) came to loathe his great-grandfather's formal palace and added little to it. Although he commissioned the Royal Opera designed by Jacques-Ange Gabriel (1698–1782), he was far more interested in increasing the privacy of his own apartments.

Louis XVI (ruled 1774–1792), the last of the Bourbons to rule at Versailles, also concentrated on interior renovations. His queen, Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), concerned herself with the Petit Trianon, a bucolic palace on the grounds of Versailles. After a revolutionary crowd triumphantly carried the ill-fated king and his family back to Paris in 1789, the chateau fell empty. The history of Versailles as the residence of the French kings officially ended in 1837, when Louis-Philippe declared that the royal chateau was to become a museum celebrating "all of France 's glories." TOWN OF VERSAILLES The fortunes of the town of Versailles waxed and waned with the presence of the court. Louis XIV razed the original village to make room for his chateau's grand avenues and parks. He rebuilt the town on a new site, decreed that it was to become "the most frequented and flourishing in the world," and strictly regulated even the colors of building materials and decorations for its houses.

With the court in permanent residence, Versailles became the administrative capital of France, the seat of all branches of government except the judicial. By the end of the seventeenth century, the town's population—swelled by those whose occupations or interests brought them to court—stood at over 30,000, and its inns could house hundreds more. With the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the court departed for Paris, and Versailles soon became a ghost town. It enjoyed a revival after 1722, when Louis XV returned to his great-grandfather's palace. Versailles lost its position as the administrative capital permanently in 1789 with the forced departure of Louis XVI for Paris. NOBLE LIFE AT COURT For many years, Versailles was seen as a gilded theater upon whose stage an all-powerful absolute monarch entertained a captive audience of domesticated aristocrats. Recent research has shown, however, that Louis XIV could not arbitrarily dominate his subjects. His rule was limited by the fundamental laws of the realm, tradition, and the practical difficulties of enforcing his will on an extended country of twenty million people.

Furthermore, without a police force or a standing army, the king relied upon his noble subjects to ensure order in the kingdom. Louis XIV's reign was consequently marked by cooperation with, rather than control over, the aristocracy. Similarly, the court of Versailles was a site of mutually satisfactory exchange between king and nobility. The king required the great nobles to attend court because he sought to ensure their loyalty. They came because they considered it their right and privilege and because they received social and material rewards for doing so. The vast majority of the French nobility did not live at Versailles. Only the grands, the highest-ranking French nobles, were in residence. Even at the peak of noble attendance, the ten thousand court nobles represented only 5 percent of the hereditary nobility. Attendance was on a system of quarters that entailed residences of three months, twice a year. The privileged among this number were granted rooms within the chateau itself (which contained 220 apartments and 450 surprisingly small rooms); the less fortunate lived in the town of Versailles or were forced to travel back and forth to Paris each day.

At the palace, the Sun King provided a continuous whirl of ballets, operas, fêtes, plays, and thrice-weekly gambling nights. While Louis XIV prevented members of the hereditary nobility from participating in affairs of state, courtiers did have more to do than attend entertainments, for many held offices in the royal households. The primary duty of every courtier, however, was to attend the king. Accompanying the king conferred prestige but, even more important, allowed nobles to gain access to royal patronage. To secure the allegiance of his nobility and to prevent anyone else from gaining too much influence and power, Louis XIV distributed all royal patronage personally—no chief minister had control over the treasury, the distribution of estates, or the assignment of lucrative church posts or military commands. Those nobles who did not attend court seldom received any reward. Louis was known to say, when solicited for a favor on behalf of a noble who did not come to Versailles as often as the king liked, "I do not know him." Louis XIV subjected his courtiers to a strict etiquette that governed their comportment, manners, and dress.

This precisely graded code meted out privileges according to a noble's position in the court hierarchy. It determined, for example, who was allowed wear a hat and when, and who could sit in the presence of the royal family. The sociologist Norbert Elias has famously argued that the intricate rules and rituals that governed the members of Louis XIV's court facilitated the creation of the modern centralized state. The ordered society of Versailles became the European ideal of the well-run state. Louis XIV performed the role of sacred kingship like an actor who never broke character. He calibrated his movements, gestures, and expressions at all times. The activities of his day—waking, dressing, socializing, eating—all followed a regimen so exacting that his every gesture took on a ritual status. This ceremonial elevated the status of the monarch at the same time that it limited access to him. The lever, the king's ceremonial awakening, serves as an example. During this daily "kingrise," six strictly designated sets of noblemen entered the royal bedchamber to dress the monarch. The highest-ranking noble present received the greatest privilege, that of handing the king his shirt.

Courtiers vied to attend the lever (or its evening counterpart, the coucher ) because it provided an opportunity to ask favors of the king. Those excluded could importune the monarch only as he traveled in his ritualized orbit from bedchamber to chapel to council chamber over the course of the day. Without a monarch dedicated to the public performance of monarchy, the court of Versailles could not function so effectively as an instrument of rule. Through force of personality (and a renowned capacity for hard work), Louis XIV created a court that was simultaneously an irresistible social center for the high nobility and a seat of government for his ministry. This system, however, was largely dependent on the personality and abilities of the ruler. Louis XIV tirelessly performed the rituals of kingship, but neither Louis XV nor Louis XVI was willing to maintain such strict ceremonial. They also proved less able to divert members of the high nobility away from affairs of state or to maintain as effective a control over their ministers and state policies. Over the course of the eighteenth century, the court of Versailles, which had once been a celebration of divinely appointed monarchy, instead came to represent a center of despotism.

See also Absolutism ; Colbert, Jean-Baptiste ; Court and Courtiers ; France ; Louis XIV (France) ; Louis XV (France) ; Louis XVI (France) ; Marie Antoinette ; Monarchy ; Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy . BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary Source Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy, duc de. Historical Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon: A Shortened Version. Edited and translated by Lucy Norton. 3 vols. New York , 1967. Secondary Sources Adamson, John, ed. The Princely Courts of Europe: Ritual, Politics, and Culture under the Ancien Régime, 1500–1750. London, 1999. Beik, William. Absolutism and Society in Seventeenth-Century France: State Power and Provincial Aristocracy in Languedoc. Cambridge, U.K., and New York, 1985. Damien, André. "Versailles, Capitale?" Revue des sciences morales & politiques 151 (1996): 21–38. Elias, Norbert.

The Court Society. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. New York, 1983. Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel. Saint-Simon and the Court of Louis XIV. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. Chicago , 2001. Mukerji, Chandra. Territorial Ambitions and the Gardens of Versailles. Cambridge, U.K., and New York, 1997. Newton, William B. L'espace du roi: La cour de France au château de Versailles, 1682–1789. Paris, 2000. Solnon, Jean-François. La cour de France. Paris, 1987. Lynn Wood Mollenauer Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA Louis XIV [See Family Tree] Louis also had many mistresses, including Louise de la Valliï¿½re, Franï¿½oise-Athï¿½naï¿½s, Marquise of Montespan, and Franï¿½oise Scarron (nï¿½e dï¿½Aubignï¿½), Madame de Maintenon the last of whom he secretly married after the death of Maria Theresa (1683). Thereafter, Louis lived a life of pious domesticity. Louis was always religious, attending mass every day, and was deeply suspicious both of Protestants and of the Jansenists (a Catholic Augustinian group). However, he had no real interest in theology, and his piety did not stop him adopting a practical - even mercenary - policy in regard to clerical appointments and church lands. Central administration Louis XIII had ruled through Cardinal Richelieu, and Cardinal Mazarin had acted as chief minister during the regency of Anne and Louis XIV's younger years. Immediately after Mazarin's death (March 1661), Louis XIV announced his attention of ruling personally without a chief minister.

He removed his mother, Anne of Austria from the Conseil dï¿½en Haut (High Council) and replaced powerful clergymen and nobles with bureaucrats drawn from the lesser nobility. Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de Belle-Isle, the superintendent of finances had expected to succeed Mazarin as principal minister. Instead, Louis XIV worked in concert with Jean-Baptiste Colbert to arrange Fouquet's downfall on charges of corruption. Colbert took over as finance minister. Hugues de Lionne became Louis' foreign minister and remained so until his death in 1671, when he was succeeded by Arnauld de Pomponne. Michel Le Tellier had been Louis XIV's minister of war since 1643, and he worked steadily to discipline and control the armed forces.

His son, Franï¿½ois Michel Le Tellier, Marquis of Louvois, who became secretary of state for war in 1677, continued his father's attempts at reform until his death in 1691 At that point Louis-Franï¿½ois-Marie Le Tellier de Louvois, Marquis of Barbezieux took over the department; he was Louvois' son. Not to be outdone by the Le Tellier clan, the Colbert family provided four ministers apart from the "Great Colbert" (Jean-Baptiste). His brother Charles Colbert, Marquis of Croissy, was secretary of foreign affairs from 1679-96; his son, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis of Seignelay was briefly secretary of state for the navy before dying suddenly in 1690; Croissy's son, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis of Torcy, was minister of foreign affairs 1699-1715; finally, the Great Colbert's nephew, Nicolas Desmaretz was controller-general from 1709-15.

The Le Tellier and Colbert clans were linked by the marriage of the elder Le Tellier's sister to the Great Colbert's cousin. Jean-Baptiste Colbert, ("The Great Colbert") Jean-Baptiste Colbert was born in Rheims in 1619, the son of an incompetent businessman. Educated by the Jesuits, he went to work for Mazarin, and was soon made Intendant of Mazarin's household. He gained power by investigating Fouquet's financial misdeeds and recovering money for the crown. In 1665, he was made Controller General of Finance. He worked to reform and streamline the tax-collection system as well as to codify and unify French Law. In 1664 Colbert was appointed in addition to the Superintendancy of Buildings and Arts, and in 1669 to the secretaryship of the Navy. Colbert was obsessed with fostering the growth of the navy: - in 1661, the navy had only about 19 ships; by 1677 its numbers stood at 140. Although Colbert was domineering to his inferiors, he always groveled to Louis XIV.

Some historians have seen Colbert's policies as unimaginative and essentially bourgeois (despite his noble status and royal support); others have exalted his achievements and attributed his failures to the destructive effects of the wars that beset France after 1673. "Although the rationalization of state finances, the industrial initiatives and the stimulus to commerce were less positive and durable ï¿½ there still remain the merits of [Colbert's] legislative achievement, his success with the navy, the beginning of a considerable colonial empire and his unique role as an artistic patron" (Bluche). "There is indeed a large measure of truth in the contention that Colbert's mind never rose to the level of a general idea. Here was the perfect bureaucrat whose concern was with the way the machinery ran, rather than with the function it performed" (Wilson). Nobles and bureaucrats Louis XIV required that the greater nobles attend his court (at their own expense) and in return he gave them offices with fine titles but little power. The King wanted the nobles at court so that they could not build up independent power in the provinces. He wanted the administration staffed by competent officials, dependent on him for their tenure.

A noble commentator (the Duke of Saint-Simon) sneered at Louis XIV's administration as "Rï¿½gne de vile bourgeoisie" (the rule of the contemptible bourgeoisie). Colbert never had the financial resources to buy back all the hereditary offices and give the crown complete freedom of action, but he did reduce their number and the money spent on them. Colbert continued Richelieu's and Mazarin's policies of using centrally-appointed intendants to control hereditary officeholders. Louis XIV blamed the parlement of Paris for the Fronde, and set about reducing its powers. In 1673, he forced it to register edicts before it prepared remonstrances - this effectively stripped it of the power to hold up legislation. Louis also bullied the members of the local parlements, such as that of Languedoc, into subservience. These and the parlement of Paris retained some vestigial privileges, but ceased to be a real check on royal power. Finance Colbert did not restructure the system of taxation - but he did try hard to ensure that it was efficiently administered. When the war with Spain finally ended in 1659, direct taxation was reduced and many arrears written off.

Indirect taxation rose as France grew more prosperous. Like Richelieu before him, Colbert tried to encourage economic growth. He created state industries, protected French producers with high tariffs (especially from the Dutch), and established trading companies. Gobelins tapestry Colbert established state factories for luxury goods (the most famous was Les Gobelins). He also regulated every possible aspect of the private sector: - the innumerable guild ordinances and product rï¿½glements were meant to ensure high manufacturing standards, but they spawned a parasitic bureaucracy and cramped the free development of industry. Most of Colbert's economic projects failed, or succeeded only temporarily, but since the demands of war meant that Colbert's initial plans were never carried through, it is difficult to know whether those plans were inherently flawed. In 1682, Louis XIV moved into the Palace of Versailles. This immense and luxurious residence not only set the standard for royal palaces across Europe, it acted as a showpiece of the French monarch's power and grandeur. The French Academy had been founded in 1634; the Royal Academy of Painting was created in 1648. These tried to extend regulation to artistic creativity.

In 1666, Colbert established the Royal Academy of Science (Acadï¿½mie Royal des Sciences) to encourage scientific investigation. Unlike the informal, unofficial Royal Society of England, this was an institution of state, with a limited membership, salaried academicians, and required attendance. Louis XIV - the Sun King: Fontainebleau Fontainebleau Links Fontainebleau One of the most common and yet most contestable pieces of conventional wisdom is that the greatness of france is uniquely expressed in logic and clarity. To refute this, we need only evoke the palace of Fontainebleau. The beauty of this royal chï¿½teau and its extraordinary art collection, constantly associated with the Louvre and Versailles, is not derived from precision and harmony, but rather from the delightful surprises of incongruity. Fontainebleau - on the map Here is an interactive map powered by Google. You can click and play with it (zoom in / zoom out, move etc) We search in vain for the majesty imposed by a grand architectural design. The accidents of history and the whims of the various sovereigns caused the dissimilar buildings to multiply without any guiding geometry or logic.

When we approach the chï¿½teau today. two long wings connected by a crop de logis with an impressive central staircase seem to announce an architectural organization of the most traditional order. However, this is only an illusion achieved following the original construction of the chï¿½teau by the replacement of the Francis I wing by an iron grillwork. The staircase, the famous "horseshoe", does not lead to an symmetrically organized structure, but rather to a perpendicular central building which presents on each side two architectural units so complete, that each could easily be taken for an independent chï¿½teau. The staircase leads to another courtyard, an oval formed by irregular buildings, itself surrounded by other courtyards, each of which seems to belong to a different edifice and which lead the eye towards diverse horizons, lake, park, lawns... It takes a few moments to recognize this oval courtyard as the remnants of a fortified medieval castle.

Gallery in Fontainebleau Fontainebleau "Horseshoe" Staircase Another relic of the Middle Ages is the powerful square tower, recognizable because of its proportions, but disguised by the decorative additions of subsequent centuries - a gallery here, a wing there - on the one facing the countryside. The eye loses itself in this maze of facades, courtyards, and gardens, all of different proportions and styles, and of a complexity which rivals that of the Hofburg in Vienna. Because of an allure which is both noble and pleasing to the eye, this disorder never offends. The poetry that belongs uniquely to Fontainebleau i born of this confusion. This incongruity was not artificially created by a taste for the picturesque, but rather by a eventful history which is tied to the history of France itself. The chï¿½teau's origins are lost in the distant past: Fontainebleau, situated on the edge of a great forest, was probably an early location for a fortified residence. The first written document concerning Fontainebleau is from 1137, and it was already a royal comminiquï¿½. Saint Louis ordered the founding of a convent nearby for the Trinitaires.

We know that Isabeau of Bavaria, wife of King Charles VI (1380-1422), ordered important construction to Fontainebleau; at that time a powerful fortress with a square donjon and four towers would have stood there. Francis I, upon his return from exile in Spain, was much taken with the site and began, particularly after 1527, to replace the old medieval structures by buildings more appropriate to his brilliant Renaissance court. At first he respected the original foundations, but soon rooms. galleries, canals, courtyards, and gardens multiplied. On the eve of the Wars of Religion, Fontainebleau was already a vast and unusual assemblage of surprises and luxury, celebrated throughout Europe. The period of religious wars was naturally hardly favorable for this sumptuous palace, where the most profane art glittered. But Henri IV made it his favorite residence. France is a changeable country, and each generation seems to turn its back on the previous generation's enthusiasms.

Louis XIII preferred to reside at Saint-Germain, and if Anne of Austria rediscovered Fontainebleau and commissioned Simon Vouet to create decorations their, Louis XIV returned to Saint-Germain before devoting all his energies to Versailles and later to Marly. It was not until Louis XV's time that Fontainebleau again found royal favor, and during his reign architects like Gabriel and painters like Boucher and Van Loo worked there. The Revolution at Fontainebleau removed rather than destroyed. Napoleon took possession of the chï¿½teau, where the presence of the Valouis persisted more than that of the recent Bourbons, and he made it a liveable residence. Louis-Philippe devoted himself to the return of Versailles to its former glory, but also restored Fontainebleau. During the Second Empire, the imperial court's preferred residence was the chï¿½teau of Compiï¿½gne, but the restorations at Fontainebleau continued and the charming theatre was added. This was the final important addition: with the fall of Napoleon III, the era of royal courts and ceremonial decoration ended, and the age of the Museum began.

© Elena Steingrad 2000 - the image of Louis XIV in the menu is taken from PC-Game "Versailles II" created by Cryo Interactive Entertainment. See the description of that game under "Software" for more information. since 26.11.07: Versailles et la cour de France. Versilles, résidence de Louis XIV. (Book, 1925) [WorldCat.org] The E-mail message field is required. Please enter the message. E-mail Message: I thought you might be interested in this item at Title: Versailles et la cour de France. Versilles, résidence de Louis XIV. Author: Pierre de Nolhac Publisher: Paris, L. Conard, 1925. OCLC:7053199 The ReCaptcha terms you entered were incorrect. Please try to match the 2 words shown in the window, or try the audio version. Versailles; résidence de Louis XIV. (Book, 1925) [WorldCat.org] The E-mail message field is required. Please enter the message.

E-mail Message: I thought you might be interested in this item at Title: Versailles; résidence de Louis XIV. Author: Pierre de Nolhac Publisher: Paris, Conard, 1925. OCLC:21028820 The ReCaptcha terms you entered were incorrect. Please try to match the 2 words shown in the window, or try the audio version.

Question: What was the name of Louis XIV's residence?
Answer: Palace of Versailles