Sources
Everything on this site rests on these. Primary sources first, then the scholarship, then the images.
Primary sources
- Duc de Saint-Simon, Mémoires. The great memorialist of the court (1675–1755); indispensable and hostile — always read with his animus in mind. The standard Chéruel edition (Hachette, 1856–1858, 20 vols.); the Pléiade edition is the modern reference.
- Marquis de Dangeau, Journal. The court’s daybook (1684–1720); dry, exact, and the source for the deathbed scene of August 1715, including the Mémoire sur la mort de Louis XIV.
- Louis XIV, Mémoires pour l’instruction du Dauphin. The king’s political testament, 1661–1668; see the Mémoires question. Editions: Dreyss (1860, the scholarly textual study), Longnon (1923, 1927), Goubert (1992).
- Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV (1751). The founding heroic narrative — and the source of several reported maxims (chs. 26, 28). Written within living memory of the reign, but literary in method.
- Madame de Sévigné, Lettres. The unofficial chronicle of court and society.
- Fénelon, Lettre à Louis XIV (c. 1694). The anonymous indictment — conviction or calculation, it is the reign’s most famous internal critique.
- Archives: the Archives nationales (Paris), the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica), the Archives des Affaires étrangères, and the Archives du château de Versailles.
Scholarship (standard references)
- François Bluche, Louis XIV (1984; English translation 1990).
- Pierre Goubert, Louis XIV et vingt millions de Français (1966) — the social historian’s reign.
- Jean-Christian Petitfils, Louis XIV (1995; revised editions) — the modern standard biography.
- John B. Wolf, Louis XIV (1968) — the English-language classic.
- Olivier Chaline, Le règne de Louis XIV (2005).
- On the Mémoires: Charles Dreyss (1860), Edmon Esmonin (1927), Hall Bjornstad, “The Marginalization of the Mémoires of Louis XIV,” The European Legacy 17/6 (2012).
- On “L’état, c’est moi”: Pierre-Édouard Lémontey, Essai sur l’établissement monarchique de Louis XIV (1818) — the phrase’s origin; Olivier Chaline & Edmond Dziembowski on the invention’s afterlife.
Image provenance
Every real image on this site is a public-domain work or a Creative Commons–licensed photograph, listed below with its source and rights. AI-generated images are labeled as such everywhere they appear and are not listed here.
| File | What it is | Source | Rights |
|---|---|---|---|
| rigaud-1701.jpg | Hyacinthe Rigaud, Portrait of Louis XIV in coronation robes, 1701 (Louvre, INV 7492) | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain (artist d. 1743) |
| egmont-1654.jpg | Justus van Egmont, portrait of the young Louis XIV, 1654 | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| anne-egmont.jpg | Anne of Austria with her children, attr. Charles Beaubrun (formerly attr. Egmont) | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| sacre-reims-1654.jpg | The coronation at Reims, 1654 — engraving from the Almanach royal | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| equestrian-lebrun.jpg | Equestrian portrait of Louis XIV, after Charles Le Brun / van der Meulen | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| nanteuil-louis.jpg | Robert Nanteuil, engraved portrait of Louis XIV (BnF, btv1b531287600) | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain (artist d. 1678) |
| anne-rubens.jpg | Anne of Austria, after Rubens (Versailles, MV 3410) | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| medal-1643.jpg | Medal of Louis XIV, 1643, by Jean Mauger (1648–1712) | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| print-1900-accession.jpg | “The death of Louis XIII, 1643” — Imprimerie nationale print, 1900 (a later illustration) | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| hollar-medal.jpg | Wenceslas Hollar, medal of Louis XIV, engraving (artist d. 1677) | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| hall-of-mirrors.jpg | The Hall of Mirrors, Versailles — photograph | Wikimedia Commons | CC BY-SA (see file page for credit) |
| grand-appartement.jpg | Salon de Mercure, Grand Appartement du roi — photograph | Wikimedia Commons | CC BY-SA (see file page for credit) |
| versailles-aerial.jpg | Aerial view of the Versailles estate — photograph by ToucanWings | Wikimedia Commons | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
| charenton-1685.jpg | Demolition of the Protestant temple of Charenton, November 1685 — contemporary print | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| rhine-1672.jpg | Adam Frans van der Meulen, Louis XIV crossing the Rhine at Lobith, 12 June 1672 | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain (artist d. 1690) |
| villars-denain.jpg | Villars at Denain, 1712 | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| mazarin-vouet.jpg | Simon Vouet, portrait of Cardinal Mazarin (artist d. 1649) | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| colbert-lefebvre.jpg | Claude Lefebvre, portrait of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (artist d. 1675) | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| louvois.jpg | Jacob Ferdinand Voet, portrait of the Marquis de Louvois | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| maintenon.jpg | Portrait of Madame de Maintenon (MET) | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| grand-dauphin.jpg | Hyacinthe Rigaud, portrait of the Grand Dauphin | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| maria-theresa.jpg | Maria Theresa of Austria, attr. Charles Beaubrun | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| montespan.jpg | Madame de Montespan, studio of Pierre Mignard | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| philippe-monsieur.jpg | Portrait presumed to be Philippe, Duke of Orléans, circle of Mignard | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain (sitter ID uncertain — labeled) |
| lavalliere.jpg | Joseph Werner, Louise de La Vallière in Polish costume | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| pellisson.jpg | Portrait of Paul Pellisson-Fontanier, engraving | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| lebrun-louis.jpg | Louis XIV, after Charles Le Brun | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
| deathbed-1715.jpg | La chambre du trépas de Louis XIV — contemporary engraving of the death chamber, 1715 | Wikimedia Commons | Public domain |
See the image captions for credits and context. Illustrated character art is a dramatization.
Limitations
- Eighteenth-century memoirs (Saint-Simon above all) are partisan; this site cross-checks them against Dangeau’s daybook and the documentary record, and says so when it can’t.
- Some Commons files carry uploader-supplied attributions that cannot be independently verified (e.g., the “presumed” Philippe portrait); those are labeled as uncertain rather than silently trusted.
- Where the sources disagree on wording (the deathbed words to the heir), the site quotes the common core and flags the variation.
Source notes
See the image captions for credits and context. Illustrated character art is a dramatization.