fjt_791822 - DAUPHINÉ - LOUIS, DAUPHIN (future LOUIS XIV) Naissance de Philippe d’Orléans 1641

DAUPHINÉ - LOUIS, DAUPHIN (future LOUIS XIV)

Louis XIV (1638-1715), eldest son of Louis XIII (1601-1643) and Anne of Austria (1601-1666), was born on September 5, 1638 and succeeded his father on May 14, 1643 under the regency of his mother who breaks his father's will and confirms Jules de Mazarin as prime minister. The Cabal des Importants, a conspiracy fomented by the Duchess of Chevreuse and the Duke of Beaufort, fails. On May 19, 1643, the Duke of Enghien won the victory of Rocroi over the Spaniards. The French beat the Imperials at Friborg on August 3, 1644 and on August 2, 1645 at Nordlingen. Mazarin opens his strong library of 40,000 volumes to the public and in 1648 founds the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. The French were defeated by the Spaniards at Armentières on June 4, 1647, then at Landrecies on June 28. At the beginning of 1648, the parliamentary Fronde began by refusing to register the decisions of the regent. Condé crushes the Spaniards at Lens on August 21, 1648. On October 24, the Treaty of Westphalia puts an end to the Thirty Years' War, France retains the Three Bishoprics and acquires Alsace.