These created in him a lifelong fear of rebellion, and a dislike of Paris, prompting him to spend more and more time in Versailles, southwest of Paris. When Mazarin died in , the year-old Louis decided to rule without a chief minister.
He regarded himself as an absolute monarch, with his power coming directly from God. He carefully cultivated his image and took the sun as his emblem. Between and , he built a magnificent palace at Versailles and moved his government there from Paris in In the early part of his reign, Louis worked with his finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to tighten central control over the country, reviving the use of regional royal officials, 'intendants' and carrying out other financial and administrative reorganisation.
Louis also expanded the French army and navy. Louis's reign was marked by aggressive French foreign policies. After the death of his father-in-law, Louis claimed part of the Spanish Netherlands and launched the War of Dutch Devolution Louis XIV had a brother named Philippe, who was two years younger. Not much more than a toddler, Louis XIV succeeded his father to the throne, becoming the leader of 19 million French subjects and a highly unstable government. Over the course of his childhood, Louis XIV was primed as a leader, receiving a practical education rather than a scholarly one.
In an attempt to overthrow the crown, they waged a civil war, called the Fronde, against its supporters. Throughout the long war, Louis XIV suffered many hardships, including poverty and starvation.
After the civil war ended, Mazarin began to build an elaborate administration as Louis XIV stood by and observed his mentor. The marriage ensured ratification of the peace treaty that Mazarin had sought to establish with Hapsburg Spain. It wasn't until Mazarin died in , when Louis XIV was in his 20s, that the young king finally took control of the French government. Upon assuming full responsibility for the kingdom, Louis XIV quickly set about reforming France according to his own vision.
His first goal as absolute monarch was to centralize and rein in control of France. During his reign, Louis XIV managed to improve France's disorganized system of taxation and limit formerly haphazard borrowing practices. He also conveniently declared members of nobility exempt from paying taxes, causing them to become even more fiscally dependent on the crown.
In implementing administrative reforms toward a more orderly and stable French government, Louis XIV forced provincial nobles to relinquish their former political influence. In so doing, he constructed a more centralized administration with the bourgeoisie, or middle class, as its foundation.
Along with his changes to the government, Louis XIV created a number of programs and institutes to infuse more of the arts into French culture. Louis XIV is notorious for his overbearing approach to foreign policy. In , he launched the invasion of the Spanish Netherlands, deeming it his wife's rightful inheritance. All of the furniture and furnishings concerned that had not accompanied the royal family to the Tuileries or had not been sent to the Furniture Store-House or requisitioned for various services were sold off over the course of almost a year, between 25 August and 11 August Painted by Hubert Robert in the late 18 th century, this painting depicts the installation of the central nave where a statue of Isis was set up.
Although the furniture and many of the works of art had been removed, the palace continued to be an attraction, with guided tours still being organised. In any case, it was not totally deserted because in it was designated as a Public Repository, i. It was on the basis of these seizures and whatever had not yet left the palace that the project was launched in to establish a museum, which, after a somewhat chaotic installation period, opened in A science room covering natural history and physical sciences was set up on the ground floor of the North Wing, while a library was established on the ground floor of the South Wing.
The State Apartments and the Queen's Apartments were used to display paintings, as well as vases and other collectibles, which were placed on marble tables. This last section underwent considerable change, becoming, in , the Special Museum of the French School. Dedicated solely to French painters past and present, it entailed a further exchange of works between the Paris museums and Versailles, with the latter having to relinquish paintings and antiques it still held from foreign schools in return for paintings and sculptures by French artists.
This short-lived museum, which opened in only to close its doors again in , helped make the connection between the paintings hanging on the walls and the painted ceilings in the apartments. The court left Versailles in October for Paris. It would never return. Opening in , the museum celebrated glorious events in the history of France from the Middle Ages to the start of the July Monarchy.
The king of the French wanted to be a reconciler; the major works he undertook in the Palace did away with former court spaces, but saved the building itself. The refurbishment continued after his departure, and Napoleon III went on to use the Palace as a venue for celebrations and to represent his power.
Here he received Queen Victoria for a sumptuous stay in The Palace had become an archetypal seat of power and continued to host the most important events in the history of France, such as the declaration of the German Empire, signed in following France's defeat at war by the Prussians.
The Palace took a long time to recover Similarly, the Third Republic was born in Versailles, as the Parliament took refuge here after the Commune. Between and fifteen presidential elections were voted on by Parliament meeting in Versailles.
The arrival of a young curatorial assistant in , and his subsequent appointment as curator in , enabled the Palace to showcase its former role as royal residence. During the horrors of the First World War, Versailles suffered anew. The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the First World War, and Versailles also suffered during this conflict which forced the Palace to close and its works to be protected.
But, like Paris, Versailles was not invaded and, all in all, life continued. Even though at a slower rhythm, the museum collections grew and visitors arrived, though fewer than before. The Palace spent the war years mobilising support for the national effort and assisting the wounded and the families of soldiers as much as possible. When it was chosen for the signing of the peace treaty in , Versailles once again became the centre of the world's attention.
Recalling the humiliation of , the Allies had the Germans sign in the same place where the German Empire had been declared Despite this resurgence of attention, the Palace suffered a lack of maintenance for several years, due to a crippling shortage of money to renovate it, and it began to show its age. Salvation came from across the Atlantic in the person of the billionaire John D. Rockefeller, who made two enormous donations to the Palace for its restoration.
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