King of France from 1643 to 1715, Louis XIV was called "the Sun King" from the splendor of his court and his adoption of the rising sun as his personal emblem. His reign of 72 years was the longest of any European monarch and marked the height of French absolutism. Son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, he ascended the throne at the age of five. Hard-working and conscientious in his attention to affairs of state, Louis also had a remarkable ability to recognize ability in such others as Count Mazarin, Louvois, Vauban, Pomponne, and Colbert. While the various wars Louis pursued—The War of the Spanish Succession, The War of the League of Augsburg, the Fronde civil conflicts, and others—eventually exhausted France, Louis was always able to repel his enemies. Yet at the end of his life he conceded that "I have loved war too much." Louis loved the arts and encouraged Moliere, Le Brun, Mansart, and other artists. Louis is perhaps best remembered today for the magnificent palace he built at Versailles, and for the pithy statement that summed up his philosophy of absolute monarchical government: "L'etat c'est moi" (I am the state).

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