Louis XIV: Bad Person, or Cautionary Tale?

Louis XIV

     The War of the Spanish Succession, 1701-1714. Charles II was the ruler of Spain. Charles II had no children so there was no obvious heir to the Spanish throne. Louis XIV of France and Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I each had a rival candidate. If France ruled all of Spain it would become too powerful for the rest of Europe. Trade was also at stake. England and the Dutch supplied industrial goods for Spain, France would take a mercantilist mentality and monopolize that trade. The solution to this problem was partition. Partition plans were made for Spain, Charles II did not want a divided realm, but it solved the imbalance of power within Europe. The partition plan was to break up Spain’s territories so that Neither France nor the Holy Roman Empire could get too powerful by inheriting all of Spain. Louis favored the partition, Leopold did not.

     Louis XIV took Leopold I’s refusal as an annulment of the agreement and sent his candidate Philip V to Spain, since that was Charles II’s wishes according to his will. This pit France and Spain against the rest of the European powers. The War of the Spanish Succession.

     The turning point for Louis XIV was a battle. The Battle of Blenheim in 1704. Louis lost this battle, and he was known as undefeatable. After this, Louis XIV started taxing his people more and more, going as far as to put a fee on baptism and marriage. Eventually, his people were starved and poor, but they struggled on for years. In the end, France lost the war and Louis XIV was thought of as a wicked king who caused years of famine.

     While on his deathbed, Louis gave his five year old grandson advice. “My child you’re going to be a great king, do not imitate me in the taste that I’ve had for building or for war, try on the contrary to be at peace with your neighbors, render to God what you owe him, recognize the obligations you are under to him, make him honored by your subjects, try to comfort your people, which unhappily I have not done, my dear child I give you my benediction with all my heart.”

     So, was Louis XIV really a bad person? Louis was a ruler, he wanted to reach goals for his kingdom, and like all of us, for himself. When he got ambitious, which can be good, he also built a taste for building and for war. Louis’s failure was not in losing a battle, or for putting Philip V on Spain’s throne, but for putting his people through years of famine in the want for more. Louis knew his rights, he even agreed to the partition, but in the process of building a place, he blinded himself to the people. In reaching for your goals, you can lose sight of reality, in this case the reality was everyone feared an empire so large that Europe was willing to fight France to a breaking point. "We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality." ― Ayn Rand. Louis XIV passed on the knowledge that came with his failures to his grandson, like so many of us, he didn’t face reality or consequences until it was too late for him to fix his own life, and his consequences affected others too.