1 Sep 1715: French King Louis XIV dies

On this day in 1715, French “Sun King” Louis XIV died, ending his 72-year reign. (This is one of those years you should know off the top of your head.)

Some of the things you might know him for:

• Became king at 4 1/2 years old
• His mother was officially the regent, but the true power lay with Cardinal Jules Mazarin
• Mazarin defeated a revolt called the Fronde (1648-1653) during which Louis, on the run, suffered from starvation
• Married Princess Marie-Thérèse of Austria in 1660, allowing France to make peace with Hapsburg Spain; fully took the reins at age 21, when Mazarin died in 1661
• Invoked his absolute power by saying “L’état, c’est moi” (“I am the state”)
• Moved the capital from Paris to Versailles in 1682
• Revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685 (another year to remember), re-establishing Catholicism as the sole French religion
• Drove the country into debt in the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714), with the sole aim of preserving his grandson’s path to the Spanish crown

Image: Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743). Louis XIV (1701). Musée du Louvre.