Issue
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Louis, Grand Dauphin
Marie Thérèse, Madame
Royale
Philippe Charles, Duke of
Anjou
Illegitimate :
Marie Anne, Princess of Conti
Louis, Count of Vermandois
Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine
Louis César, Count of Vexin
Louise Françoise, Princess of
Condé
Louise Marie Anne,
Mademoiselle de Tours
Louise, Baroness of La
Queue
Françoise Marie, Duchess of
Orléans
Louis Alexandre, Count of
Toulouse
Names
Louis-Dieudonné de France
House Bourbon
Father Louis XIII
Mother Anne of Austria
Religion Catholicism
Signature
Louis XIV as a young child,
unknown painter
Louis XIV was born on 5 September 1638 in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-
Laye, to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was named Louis Dieudonné
(Louis the God-given)[7] and bore the traditional title of French heirs apparent:
Dauphin.[8] At the time of his birth, his parents had been married for 23 years.
His mother had experienced four stillbirths between 1619 and 1631. Leading
contemporaries thus regarded him as a divine gift and his birth a miracle of
God.[9]
Louis's relationship with his mother was uncommonly affectionate for the time.
Contemporaries and eyewitnesses claimed that the Queen would spend all her
time with Louis.[10] Both were greatly interested in food and theatre, and it is
highly likely that Louis developed these interests through his close relationship
with his mother. This long-lasting and loving relationship can be evidenced by
excerpts in Louis's journal entries, such as:
"Nature was responsible for the first knots which tied me to my
mother. But attachments formed later by shared qualities of the
spirit are far more difficult to break than those formed merely by
blood."[11]
It was his mother who gave Louis his belief in the absolute and divine power of
his monarchical rule.[12]
During his childhood, he was taken care of by the governesses Françoise de
Lansac and Marie-Catherine de Senecey. In 1646, Nicolas V de Villeroy
became the young king's tutor. Louis XIV became friends with Villeroy's young
children, particularly François de Villeroy, and divided his time between the
Palais-Royal and the nearby Hotel de Villeroy.
Sensing imminent death in the spring of 1643, King Louis XIII decided to put his affairs in
order for his four-year-old son Louis XIV. Not trusting the judgement of his Spanish wife
Queen Anne, who would normally have become the sole regent of France, the king
decreed that a regency council would rule on his son's behalf, with Anne at its head.[13]
Louis XIII died on 14 May 1643. On 18 May[14] Queen Anne had her husband's will
annulled by the Parlement de Paris, a judicial body of nobles and high-ranking clergy,[15]
and she became sole regent. She exiled her husband's ministers Chavigny and Bouthilier
and appointed the Count of Brienne as her minister of foreign affairs.[16] Anne kept thedirection of religious policy strongly in hand until her son's majority in 1661.
She appointed Cardinal Mazarin as chief minister, giving him the daily administration of
policy. She continued the policies of her late husband and Cardinal Richelieu, despite their
persecution of her, in order to win absolute authority in France and victory abroad for her
son. Anne protected Mazarin by exiling her followers the Duke of Beaufort and Marie de
Rohan, who conspired against him in 1643.[17]
The best example of Anne's loyalty to France was her treatment of one of Richelieu's men,
the Chancellor Pierre Séguier. Séguier had brusquely interrogated Anne in 1637 (like a
"common criminal", as she recalled) following the discovery that she was giving military secrets to her father in Spain, and Anne
was virtually under house arrest for years. By keeping the effective Séguier in his post, Anne sacrificed her own feelings for the
interests of France and her son Louis.
Minority and the Fronde
Accession