#louis xiv of france

[classic-art-favourites]

Reception of Le Grand Conde at Versailles by Jean-Leon Gerome, 1878.

[lonelyqueenofhearts]

𝓜𝓪𝓻𝓲𝓮 𝓛𝓸𝓾𝓲𝓼𝓮 𝓭'𝓞𝓻𝓵𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓼

~Daughter of Philippe I of Orleans and Henrietta of England

~Niece to Louis XIV of France

~First wife of Charles II of Spain

[rabbitcruiser]

Louis XIV of France marched into Strasbourg unopposed on 30 September 1681 and proclaimed its annexation.

[willbashor]

[tianmicons]

[illustratus]

Le Roy Soleil (The Sun King) illustration by Maurice Leloir

Louis XIV in costume as Apollo in the Ballet de la Nuit

[livinginaglasspalace]

The Vying For Versailles MC on the hedonism path serves cunt. Every. Single. Day.

[bantarleton]

Reception of the Grand Condé at Versailles following his victory at Seneffe by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1878. The Grand Condé bows towards Louis XIV as laurel wreaths are laid in his path, while captured enemy flags are displayed on both sides of the stairs. The battle of Seneffe was one of the most brutal of the periods, with one French nobleman writing "we have lost so much by this victory that without the Te Deum and captured flags at Notre Dame, we would believe we had lost the battle."

[ancientorigins]

Up until the 19th century, Louis XIV's ingenious 17th-century cipher was so impenetrable that many important royal documents were effectively locked away in history. The Rossignol brothers, hailing from a long line of cryptologists, were the masterminds behind the Great Cipher, which French royalty used to safeguard diplomatic secrets.

The Rossignol code puzzled cryptologists for centuries. It wasn't until a French army officer took on the challenge head-on that he managed to crack the code after three arduous years of work. As a result, historians gained access to the web of political alliances and military strategies of the ‘Sun King’, Louis XIV himself.

[roehenstart]

Louis XIV of France. Circle of Pierre Mignard.

[royal-confessions]

“I believe that if Louis XIV were to wake up today, he would be horrified to discover that the most famous monument in France is the Eiffel Tower, not the Palace of Versailles. After all, he had dedicated his entire life to making the Palace of Versailles the most imposing in Europe. This would certainly shake his narcissism, since an iron tower would be more widely recognised worldwide than his magnificent palace.” - Text & Image Submitted by cenacevedo15

[wolfephoto]

The Royal Chapel - Palace of Versailles, France by John Wolfe Via Flickr: La Chapelle Royale, Château de Versailles, France

[mypepemateosus]

[grothesqua]

L'Apothéose d'Hercule (1736)

François Lemoyne, Salon d'Hercule, Versailles

[useless-catalanfacts]

Portrait of Louis XIV in Coronation Clothes (1701) by Jacint Rigau. Louvre Museum, Paris.

This is the most famous painting by the artist Jacint Rigau, though most of the time you'll see the artist credited as Hyacinthe Rigaud... Do you want to know what happened?

Jacint Rigau was born in Perpinyà (Northern Catalonia) in 1659. Perpinyà was a city like any other in Catalonia, where the population spoke the Catalan language. As was normal, he was named in their mother tongue, the Catalan name "Jacint" with his family's surname Rigau.

However, a few months after his birth, the part of Catalonia north of the Pyrenee mountain range was annexed by France. This part of Catalonia became known as "Northern Catalonia", and it's still part of France nowadays.

In April 1700, the king of France Louis XIV (seen in the portrait above) forbid the use of the Catalan language in public, saying that "the Catalan language [...] its use is repugnant and is in some way contrary to Our Authority, to the honor of the French Nation".

Jacint Rigau moved out of Northern Catalonia to go learn painting in Montpellier and later moved to work Paris for the French nobles. He became one of the most important painters of the time in France and so, as we saw at the beginning of the post, he was even commissioned the King's portrait.

Here's a few examples more of his work:

Self-portrait of the artist (1696), private collection.

Portrait of Marie Cadenne (1684), Musée des Beaux-arts de Caen.

Left: Louis of France, the Great Dauphin (1688), Versailles palace. Right: Louis of France, Duke of Bourgogne (1704), Versailles palace.

With the historical context and the discrimination against the Catalan language, it's no surprise that he had to translate his name to French. What might surprise you if you're not familiar with France's history of language discrimination is that, even now (2022), Northern Catalans aren't allowed to name their children in the Catalan language if it uses a graphy that doesn't exist in French. For example, you can't be called popular names like "Martí", "Víctor" or "Lídia" because of the excuse that "í" doesn't exist in French.

The official prohibition of using the Catalan language in public acts is also still active. Only some months ago, the French government sued the city council of the village Elna (Northern Catalonia) for having used Catalan alongside French in the city hall's meetings.

Now you know!

[tianmicons]