2 Louis Xiv

Louis became King of France at the age of five when his father died. In the beginning, he was too young to rule, so his mother helped him. Then at age 17, Louis ruled the country alone. He was king for 72 years. France became a powerful country with Louis as king. But Louis lived a life of luxury,which made people angry.

Louis built a huge palace at Versailles, near Paris. It took 40 years to finish it. At one time, 36,000 people worked on building the palace. The palace cost so much money that Louis did not let people talk about it. The gardens of the palace had 1,400 fountains. The fountains used a lot of water so they worked for only three hours at a time.

The fountains used water, but Louis did not! He hated to wash. He took only three baths in his life. He washed only one part of his body—the tip of the nose. Everyone in the palace had to do what the king did, so people washed only their noses!

Louis XIV had other unusual rules. He liked to keep the windows open at the palace. He wanted dozens of people around him when he got dressed. Also, only the king and queen could sit on chairs with arms. Everybody else had to sit on chairs with no arms.

Louis had problems sleeping. People say that he had 413 beds. He went from one bed to another until he fell asleep. But he had a good appetite.A normal dinner for Louis was four bowls of soup,two whole chickens, ham, lamb, a salad, cakes, fruit, and hard-boiled eggs. He also drank a lot of champagne because his doctor told him to. He lived to be 77 years old. When he died, doctors said his stomach was two times the size of a normal stomach.

Louis XIV was not always popular, but he was an important king in the history of France. He was so important that he was called “the Sun King.”