Louis XIV (The Sun King of France)

King Louis XIV was born on September 5, 1638. “He ascended to the throne a few months before his fifth birthday, but did not assume actual personal control of the government until the death of his prime minister (Premier ministre), the Italian Jules Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661.” (source)

“Among many names, Louis the XIVth was also popularly known as The Sun King (in French le Roi Soleil) because of the idea that, just as the planets revolve around the Sun, so too should France and the court revolve around him. As a result, he was commonly associated with Apollo Helios, the Greco-Roman god of the Sun.” (source)

In 1660, the king married Maria Theresa. He was kind to her, but very unfaithful. He pursued his sister-in-law, then her maid-of-honor, then that maid’s friend, then the governess that friend hired for her children. The governess was Madame de Maintenon, and strangely enough, she became friends with the queen. In 1683, the queen died in her arms, and Madame de Maintenon secretly married Louis XIV. However, she could not become the queen. (source)

“In 1667 Louis XIV decided to move the royal household and government from Paris to Versailles. The center of his new palace was the hunting lodge his father had built in 1624. Built in a Boroque style, the Palace of Versailles was enlarged by architects Le Brun and Le Vau. King Louis XIV, the Sun King, had an enormous influence on the art and architecture of the time. Boroque architecture was fairly geometric which was ‘in keeping with the French political system—absolute monarchy personified by King Louis XIV.’ Because he is referred to as the Sun King, the architects gave the palace a room with ‘solar illusions.’ This Hall of Mirrors added to the elegant and majestic quality of the Boroque palace. Many years later in 1919, Germany ended the war by signing the Treaty of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors. Another characteristic element of the Boroque time period was the elaborate gardens. To enhance his Palace of Versailles, King Louis XIV hired landscape architect Andre Le Notre to design the Boroque gardens surrounding the large estate. Pools and fountains, which also bedeck the vast landscape, are other features relevant to Boroque style. In sum, the king’s influence on architecture of the time is extremely evident in the Palace of Versailles.” (source)


There was also quite a bit of war during the reign of Louis XIV. The Thirty Years War ended in 1648, and from 1648-1653, there was civil war and unrest. In 1658, England helped France defeat Spain. In 1667, there was the War of Devolution with Spain, from 1688-1697, the Nine Years War, and in 1701-1714, the War of the Spanish Succession. (source, Lewis 76)

Between 1701-1712, four of the king’s loved-ones died. He filled his final years with persecution of the Protestants, and on September 1, 1715, King Louis XIV died from gangrene. (McConville 20)

Works Cited

Lewis, W. H. The Splendid Century: Life in the France of Louis XIV. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press. 1953.

McConville, Brendan. The King’s Three Faces: The Rise and Fall of Royal America, 1688-1776. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. 2006.

The Early Development of Paris and London

Early Paris

Paris, originally a small fishing island, was founded over 2,000 years ago by the Gauls of the Parisii tribe. However, Rome had its eye on it. “The Roman conquest became final in 52 B.C., when Vercingetorix, who had succeeded in uniting the Gauls, was defeated [at] Alesia.” (Mokhtefi 4) “Julius Caesar's army took over the city in 52 B.C. and the Roman influence lingered well into the fifth century A.D. when the Frankish king Clovis I once again united his kingdom, and made Paris its capital. In 987 A.D. when Hugh Capet, Count of Paris, became the King of France, Paris' position as the hub of French government was secured.” (source) (source)

Also around 2,000 years ago, the small city of Londinium was founded by the Romans. The aggressive woman warrior Boadicea conquered the city in 61 A.D. but it was taken back some years later. (source, source)

When “William Duke of Normandy defeated the English king…it brought French control, language and culture to England, profoundly changing the language [and] making the English language what it is today. The Tudor Dynasty was established with the conquest of Henry over the French in 1485.” (source)

“In 1123 St. Bartholomew's Priory was founded in the city, and other monastic houses quickly followed…In 1176 the first stone London Bridge was built, mere yards from the original Roman bridge across the Thames.” (source) In France, “work on Notre Dame Cathedral was started in the 12th century (and finished 200 years later.)” (source)

“London, long the largest British town-did not replace Paris as the largest city in western Europe until the seventeenth century.” (Palliser 2)

Early Paris and early London had a lot in common. Though physical distance separated these two places, they both went through similar situations at the same times, though under different rulers and conditions.

Works Cited

Mokhtefi, Elaine. Paris: An Illustrated History. New York: Hippocrene Books. 2002.

Palliser, David M. Towns and Local Communities in Medieval and Early Modern England. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company. 2006.



St. Bartholomew's Priory and Notre Dame Cathedral

The Bubonic Plague

Most people have heard the children’s song “Ring Around the Rosy.” Little children sing it merrily, holding hands and turning about in a circle. When they reach the end of the song, the kids let go of each other and sit (or fall) down. However, most people don’t know that this song is actually about the Black Death. (Morbid little kindergarteners.) (Cantor 6)

“Ring around the rosy,
[refers to the rosy-red (or purple-ish) round rash marks on the skin —one of the first signs a person had the plague]
A pocket full of posies;
[one of the superstitious ways used by people in the Middle Ages to try and fend off the plague was to stuff their pockets with posies (flowers)]
Atischoo, atischoo,
[sneezing was also an early sign of the plague if it was a pneumonic plague; however, not all types of plague involved sneezing]
or, Ashes, ashes
[the dead were often cremated]
We all fall down.
[most of the people stricken with the plague died]” (source)

“The plague came to Europe in the fall of 1347. By 1350 it had largely passed out of western Europe. In the space of two years, one out of every three people was dead. Nothing like that has happened before or since. These general numbers disguise the uneven nature of the epidemic. Some areas suffered little, others suffered far more. Here are some examples. Between 45% and 75% of Florence died in a single year. One-third died in the first six months. Its entire economic system collapsed for a time. In Venice, which kept excellent records, 60% died over the course of 18 months: five hundred to six hundred a day at the height.” (source)



“Medical professionals calculated that dead bodies, poor ventilation, and the close quarters so common in medieval towns brought plague [besides the main cause of fleas on rats.] This led to government regulations, in particular, the decision to bury cadavers outside the town walls. Priests were told to keep sermons short and disperse congregations early.” (Gottfried 69) The people would burn the corpses, clothes, and bedding, then spray the bedroom with incense. Good smells were believed to help fight off disease.

“The disease struck and killed people with terrible speed. The Italian writer Boccaccio said its victims often ‘ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise.’” (source) “Symptoms [of the plague] include high fever, chills, headache, exhaustion, a skin rash and the namesake "buboes" — hideously enlarged and swollen lymph nodes.” (source)

“The Bubonic Plague continued to affect cities from time to time for hundreds of years. It still exists and is common among rodents. We have a cure for the disease, but occasionally people in isolated places still die from the Bubonic Plague.” (source)

Works Cited

Cantor, Norman. In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death & the World it Made. New York: The Free Press. 2001.

Gottfried, Robert S. The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe. New York: The Free Press. 1983.