Louis XIV (seated) with his son le
Grand Dauphin (to the left), his
grandson Louis, Duke of Burgundy
(to the right), his great-grandson
Louis Duke of Anjou, and Madame
de Ventadour, Anjou's governess,
who commissioned this painting;
busts of Henry IV and Louis XIII are
in the background.
The Death of Louis XIV at the
Palace of Versailles, Thomas Jones
Barker, 1835-1840
The film, Le Roi Danse (2000; translated: The King Dances), directed by Gérard Corbiau, reveals Louis throughthe eyes of Jean-Baptiste Lully, his court musician.
Julian Sands portrayed Louis in Roland Jaffe's Vatel (2000).
Alan Rickman directed, co-wrote, and stars as Louis XIV in the film, A Little Chaos, which centres on constructionin the gardens of Versaille, at the time immediately before and after the death of Queen Maria Theresa.
The 2016 film The Death of Louis XIV, directed by Albert Serra, is set during the last two weeks of Louis XIV's lifebefore dying of gangrene, with the monarch played by Jean-Pierre Léaud.
Louis XIV is portrayed by Thierry Perkins-Lyautey in the British television film Charles II: The Power and thePassion.
The 15-year-old Louis XIV, as played by the Irish actor Robert Sheehan, is a major character of the short-livedhistorical fantasy series Young Blades from January to June 2005.
George Blagden portrays Louis XIV in the Canal+ series Versailles which aired for three seasons from 2015.
Emmanuel Moire portrayed Louis XIV in the 2005-07 Kamel Ouali musical Le Roi Soleil.
Despite the image of a healthy and virile king that Louis sought to project, evidence exists
to suggest that his health was not very good. He had many ailments: for example,
symptoms of diabetes, as confirmed in reports of suppurating periostitis in 1678, dental
abscesses in 1696, along with recurring boils, fainting spells, gout, dizziness, hot flushes,
and headaches.
From 1647 to 1711, the three chief physicians to the king (Antoine Vallot, Antoine
d'Aquin, and Guy-Crescent Fagon) recorded all of his health problems in the Journal de
Santé du Roi (Journal of the King's Health), a daily report of his health. On 18 November
1686, Louis underwent a painful operation for an anal fistula that was performed by the
surgeon Charles Felix de Tassy, who prepared a specially shaped curved scalpel for the
occasion. The wound took more than two months to heal.[124]
Louis died of gangrene at Versailles on 1 September 1715, four days before his 77th
birthday, after 72 years on the throne. Enduring much pain in his last days, he finally
"yielded up his soul without any effort, like a candle going out", while reciting the psalm
Deus, in adjutorium me festina (O Lord, make haste to help me).[125] His body was laid to
rest in Saint-Denis Basilica outside Paris. It remained there undisturbed for about 80 years
until revolutionaries exhumed and destroyed all of the remains found in the Basilica.[126]
In 1848, at Nuneham House, a piece of Louis's mummified heart, taken from his tomb and
kept in a silver locket by Lord Harcourt, Archbishop of York, was shown to the Dean of
Westminster, William Buckland, who ate a part of it.[127]
Cardinal Armand Gaston Maximilien de Rohan gave Last Rites (confession, viaticum, and
unction) to king Louis XIV.[128]
Louis outlived most of his immediate legitimate family. His last surviving legitimate son,
Louis, Dauphin of France, died in 1711. Barely a year later, the Duke of Burgundy, the
eldest of the Dauphin's three sons and then heir-apparent to Louis, followed his father.
Burgundy's elder son, Louis, Duke of Brittany, joined them a few weeks later. Thus, on his
deathbed, Louis's heir-apparent was his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis, Duke of Anjou, Burgundy's younger son.
Louis foresaw an underaged successor and sought to restrict the power of his nephew Philip II, Duke of Orléans, who, as his
closest surviving legitimate relative in France, would probably become regent to the prospective Louis XV. Accordingly, the king