Cold Open

It’s May 14th, 1643, at a royal residence near Paris, France.

Queen Anne snaps awake at the sound of church bells in the distance. It takes a moment for the 43-year-old to remember where she is—sitting in a chair next to the bed of her husband, King Louis XIII of France. Although Louis is two years younger than Anne, his health is failing, and doctors have predicted that his death is imminent. Anne has sat in vigil by Louis’s bed for days. But she’s so exhausted she must have drifted off to sleep.

Anne has more to worry about than just her husband’s illness. Their eldest child, who is also named Louis, is next in line to the throne—but he’s only four years old. And this is not a time for a boy king. France is nearly out of money, and the country’s nobles have spent the last few decades either fighting among themselves or quarreling with the king. It's such an unstable situation, that Anne fears an ambitious noble will attempt to seize the throne after her husband is gone.

She dips a cloth in a bowl of water and holds it to King Louis’s forehead. It seems to revive him a little.

He mutters weakly and lifts his hand off the bed as though grasping for something. Anne puts her ear close to his mouth to make out his words. He’s asking for his sword. Anne smiles sadly and strokes Louis’s forehead. Her husband has no need for a weapon now—but Anne fears her son might soon.

Later that day, King Louis XIII takes his final breath. Anne has little time to grieve. She immediately leaves the deathbed and assembles the court in the chambers of her young son. There, with France’s fractious nobles as her witnesses, she proclaims the four-year-old as France’s new ruler: Louis XIV.

Although he ascends to the throne in difficult circumstances, the new King Louis will rule for 72 years and his reign will transform France into the most powerful kingdom in Europe. Louis will go down in history as the renowned Sun King—a spectacular achievement considering his shaky grip on power when he became King of France as a four-year-old on May 14th, 1643.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is May 14th, 1643: Louis XIV Becomes King of France.

Act One

It’s near midnight on February 9th, 1651, in the Palais Royal in central Paris, eight years after the death of King Louis XIII.

France’s current king, the now 12-year-old Louis XIV, hurries into his chambers and climbs into a grand four-poster bed. A servant follows and pulls the sheets up to Louis’s neck. But this is no ordinary bedtime. Louis’s wide eyes watch as the servant snuffs out all but a single candle - then the man rushes across the room to a side chamber and disappears out of sight. And just as the servant exits, the door to Louis’s bed chamber flings open and Louis closes his eyes pretending to be asleep—but he’s petrified. Louis is convinced he’s about to be killed.

For the last eight years, France has been ruled in Louis’s name by a regent: his mother, Anne, with the help of her chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin. Anne and Mazarin made it their mission to replenish the royal treasury, which was almost empty when Louis came to the throne. To do this, they raised taxes to unprecedented levels, but that made the monarchy deeply unpopular, and earlier tonight, the growing unrest in Paris spread right to the king’s doorstep. Rioters overpowered guards and stormed into the royal palace, where they demanded an audience with the young king. The terrified Louis ran away to his bed in belief that the rioters wouldn't dare enter his private chambers. But he was wrong.

Now, shivering beneath the sheets, Louis keeps his eyes shut but listens carefully. Heavy, booted footsteps move around the king’s bedside. There are gruff voices and uncertain whispers. Louis can sense someone leaning over him, the warmth of the man’s breath on his cheek. Louis concentrates on breathing deeply as though he’s sleeping. He tries to keep his trembling body still. And after a moment, the figure retreats, the footsteps fade, and the bed chamber door closes.

After the rioters leave, Louis learns that they had no intention of killing him. Instead, they only wanted proof that he’s still alive. As rumors were circulating in Paris that Anne and Mazarin had seized the throne for themselves. But although these rioters had no murderous intentions toward Louis, the incident still leaves a mark on the young king. For the rest of his reign, he will carry a deep mistrust of Parisians, and he will become determined to ensure that his life is never at the mercy of a mob again.

*

It’s March 1661 in Paris, ten years after rioters broke into the Palais Royal.

Now 22 years old, Louis summons the country’s most powerful courtiers and noblemen to his throne room. Anticipation crackles in the air as they await a royal proclamation. A few days ago, France’s chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin died. Now, everyone wants to know who Louis will name as Mazarin’s successor.

But when the decree is read out, it stuns the assembled courtiers. Louis isn’t naming a chief minister at all - he is personally taking the reins of government.

Louis has spent the last 18 years being groomed to rule by various tutors and advisers. He’s studied French history, and he’s concluded that for centuries French nobles have restricted the power of the monarchy to serve their own interests. For Louis, taking charge of the country himself is the best way to secure the future of his royal line.

Although Louis’s announcement comes as a surprise to many, he soon proves up to the task of leading the kingdom. He increases the power of the monarchy and reforms taxation, swelling the royal treasury without creating the same unrest that his mother and Cardinal Mazarin did.

But next, Louis must decide what to spend his money on—and his eye soon settles on a hunting lodge built by his father at Versailles, twelve miles west of Paris. Louis has always enjoyed hunting parties at Versailles, but more than anything, it’s the location that appeals to him. Versailles is further away from Paris than his other royal houses, and ever since rioters broke into his bed chamber that night when he was a child, Louis has tried to put distance between himself and the potentially rebellious capital Paris.

With the perfect location in mind and plenty of cash on hand, Louis will order France’s finest builders to Versailles. There, they will transform the old hunting lodge into a royal palace so grand in scale that it will come to define King Louis’s entire reign.

Act Two

It’s summer 1678, at Versailles near Paris, fourteen years after construction began on a new royal palace.

32-year-old architect Jules Hardoiun Mansart walks into a derelict room where a team of laborers is attacking a stone wall with sledgehammers. Jules nods his approval. This is just one of many walls that need to come down for Jules’s spectacular vision to become reality.

Versailles has changed beyond recognition since work began. Laborers have shifted thousands of tons of earth to flatten the ground. They’ve diverted rivers and cut down forests. And after more than a decade of work, the old hunting lodge has been enveloped by three grand new wings. Surrounding this palace are carefully manicured lawns, towering hedgerows, and spectacular fountains. Last year, Jules was appointed as the king’s architect with orders to begin the next and most important phase of construction: renovating the original hunting lodge to make it the centerpiece of the palace, by installing something called the Hall of Mirrors—a grand gallery with wide windows overlooking the gardens on one side, and mirrors made by skilled Venetian craftsmen on the other.

But as the Hall of Mirrors goes up, France is rocked by a scandal. In 1679, midwife Catherine Deshayes is arrested and charged with being a poisoner. Upon interrogation, Catherine incriminates several important courtiers who’ve used her services to kill their rivals. Some of the accused are wives of high-ranking nobles, and one is even the king’s own mistress. This scandal becomes known as the Affair of the Poisons and it sends shockwaves through French society. But no one is more outraged than Louis XIV, since the investigation reveals that even he himself was a target of attempted poisonings.

The Affair of the Poisons ends with Catherine and 35 other suspects being executed. It also spurs Louis to take his out-of-control nobles to task. In 1682, he officially relocates the royal court from Paris to Versailles —and Louis makes sure he isn’t the only one who moves into the new palace. He insists that his nobles and courtiers reside with him at Versailles rather than in their own homes. Housing the nobility under one roof means that Louis can keep potential rivals under constant surveillance. Royal officials intercept their mail. Palace staff listen in on their conversations. But few have the time to plot and scheme since daily life at the new palace is dominated by a highly regimented timetable of royal rituals. Soon, Louis becomes known as “the Sun King” because he’s the person everything else revolves around.

But although Louis cleverly puts an end to his nobles’ squabbles and plotting, he soon becomes caught up in an international conspiracy of his own. In 1700, the childless King of Spain falls ill. And just before the King dies, he bequeaths his crown to Louis’s grandson, Philip.

This is a huge prize for Louis. The Spanish throne doesn’t just bring control of Spain itself, but also the vast Spanish Empire that covers parts of Italy, the Netherlands, and the Americas.

But before Philip can accept the Spanish crown, Louis faces a tough decision. Prior to the Spanish king’s deathbed proposal, Louis had already agreed to split the Spanish Empire between his family and that of the Holy Roman Emperor, who rules much of central Europe. If Louis goes against his word and allows his royal house to seize the Spanish Empire in its entirety, the Holy Roman Empire will likely declare war.

But the prospect of uniting the thrones of Spain and France under one family is too enticing. Louis backs the claim of his grandson to rule all of the Spanish Empire, and Philip is soon crowned King Philip V of Spain. As expected Louis’s decision angers others in Europe - and not just the Holy Roman Emperor. He is joined in a Grand Alliance against Louis by England and the Dutch Republic, and soon Europe is at war.

This conflict will threaten Louis’s grip on France for the first time since he came to the throne sixty years earlier. The Grand Alliance will invade France, and the country will fall into panic as enemy armies advance on Versailles, intent on bringing an end to the long reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV.

Act Three

It’s early on July 24th, 1712, near the village of Denain, in France; twelve years after the War of the Spanish Succession began.

His legs aching French General Claude de Villars continues climbing to the top of a windmill. General de Villars is 59 years old, and he feels like an old man as he slogs up the steep wooden stairway. But he’s here at the crack of dawn to get a bird’s-eye view of the landscape—because it’s in this countryside that his army is about to make a last stand.

After suffering a number of defeats, the French army has been powerless to stop a combined Dutch and Austrian force from marching into northern France and ransacking French towns. Now, the invaders have occupied the village of Denain, only 130 miles from Versailles. And it’s General de Villars’ job to stop them before they reach the royal palace and depose King Louis XIV.

General de Villars reaches the top of the stairway, catches his breath and then steps onto a balcony. From here, he has an excellent view of the surrounding terrain, and he quickly decides on a battle plan. He can see several bridges over a nearby river he identifies as crucial points to seize before his enemy begins its counterattack.

So, over the next few hours, French troops carefully and silently take the bridges before moving into the village of Denain in a surprise attack. The Austrian and Dutch soldiers are pushed out of the village, but as they now can’t use the bridges to move across the river, they have only one way to go—back toward the border and away from Versailles. The Battle of Denain marks the first French victory for years, and it's a critical one. King Louis XIV and the Palace of Versailles are no longer under threat.

Two years after this battle, the War of the Spanish Succession comes to an end with a negotiated settlement that allows King Philip of Spain to remain on the throne. It’s a significant victory for Louis XIV considering how close he came to losing the war.

But Louis will not live to enjoy his success for long. He will die the following year at the age of 76, after more than seven decades on the throne. Louis will outlive his eldest son and his grandson, meaning that on his death the crown will skip two generations. Louis will be succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson, putting a child on the throne again, just like 72 years earlier when Louis XIV became King of France at the age of four on May 14th, 1643.

Outro

Next on History Daily. May 15th, 1940. Two brothers open a tiny Bar-B-Que restaurant in San Bernardino, California. Naming it after themselves, they call it McDonald’s.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Gabriel Gould

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Edited by Dorian Merina.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.