Louis XIV

The Sun King reigned for seventy-two years, the longest reign in French history. Crowned in 1643, Louis XIV embodied, to the point of excess, the absolute monarchy of divine right.

Starting in 1682, he ruled from the château de Versailles, which he envisioned and shaped, and which became the model imitated by every court in Europe.

His reign, brilliant in its arts and military achievements, darkened toward the end: in 1685, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes stripped Protestants of all freedom of worship and drove tens of thousands of them into exile.