The Connell Guide to Louis

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Christened Louis-Dieudonn, meaning 'gift of God', Louis XIV came to the throne at the age of four and ruled France for 72 years, the longest reign of any monarch in European history. He took as his emblem the sun, believing France revolved round him as the planets revolved round the sun, and that he ruled by divine right. When the Sun King died, his reputation was in ruins, and he was widely seen as a warmonger who had inflicted decades of misery on Europe. Voltaire, however, believed the age of Louis XIV was on the great ages of the world, comparable only, if not superior to, ancient Athens or Augustan Rome.