The Sun King
As legend would have it, he once proclaimed, "L'État c'est moi !" ("I am the State").
Louis XIV, known as the Sun King, was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 5 September 1638 and passed away at Versailles on 1 September 1715. The son of Louix XIII and Anne of Austria, King of France from 1643 to 1715, he was crowned in Reims on 7 June 1654 and chose the sun as his emblem.
On 6 May 1682, Versailles became the official residence of the king and his court. Everything at the château was designed to evoke royal power and grandeur.
Louix XIV became the archetype of the absolute monarch and his 72-year reign was the longest in French history.
