The 5 most interesting facts about Louis XIV

5. Louis XIV was not very tall

Louis XIV was small in stature. And as evidenced by the pictures, she often wore high wigs and high heels to increase her height. In fact, with the added inches, it is said that he appeared to be at least 7 feet tall.

4. Palace of Versailles

Louis XIV developed a dislike for Paris after being expelled from his palace during La Fronde. And he would eventually turn his childhood playground, a royal hunting lodge located just outside Paris, into a lavish monument of opulence. Not only the king and his court resided in this 700-room palace, but also the nobility and the thousands of employees it needed for maintenance. This structure helped to further establish the rule of the king, as it was the center of all political activity and a symbol of power.

3. Long reign

Like his great-grandson, Louis XIV was also very young when he became king after the death of his father. His government would begin at age 4 and continue for the next 72 years, making his reign the longest in the history of the French and European nation.

2. The nun of Moret

According to a nearly 350-year-old gossip, Queen Maria Teresa of Spain, the wife of King Louis XIV, gave birth to a son fathered by an African lover, a dwarf servant named Nabo. This girl was supposedly Louise Marie Therese, the Black Nun of Moret. The story was that after his birth, the public was told that the child had died at birth. But in reality she was secretly taken to live with a wet nurse in the countryside for several years before entering a convent in Moret. Moret’s Black Nun is mentioned in the memoirs of several members of the French royal court, including King Louis’s mistress, Madame De Montespan, as well as his second wife, Madame De Maintenon. The writer and philosopher Voltaire supposedly believed that she was the king’s daughter, since he had had at least one African mistress. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage also wrote a play about Moret’s Black Nun titled Les Meninas.

1. His successor was the second longest reigning king of France.

Plagued by family tragedy towards the end of his life, it seemed that Louis XIV would have no heir. His only son died of smallpox. The following year, his grandson, great-grandson and granddaughter would die of measles. Although he had two grandchildren left, one would die in a hunting accident and the other would be forced to renounce the thrown French in order to remain the ruler of Spain. As a result of this series of misfortunes, Louis XIV requested that one of his illegitimate sons be heir to his throne in the event that the last remaining member of his bloodline died out. However, this was not to be: his sickly great-grandson would live to become king at the tender age of 5 and would rule for 59 years as Louis XV.