Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 32. Chapters: Louis XIV of France, Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Jean Bart, Francois-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg, Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendome, Claude Louis Hector de Villars, Camille d'Hostun, duc de Tallard, Nicolas Chalon du Ble, Rene de Froulay de Tesse, Henri de Massue, Earl of Galway, Francois de Neufville, duc de Villeroi, Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville, Louis Francois, duc de Boufflers, Alain Emmanuel de Coetlogon, Anne Jules de Noailles, Victor-Marie d'Estrees, Anne Hilarion de Tourville, Andre, marquis de Nesmond, Pierre de Montesquiou d'Artagnan, Philibert-Emmanuel de Froulay, chevalier de Tesse, Jacques Eleonor Rouxel de Grancey, Justin McCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel, Ferdinand de Marsin, John Barrett. Excerpt: Louis XIV (5 September 1638 - 1 September 1715), known as the Sun King (French: le Roi-Soleil), was King of France and of Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days. As such, it is one of the longest documented reigns of any European monarch. Louis began his personal rule of France in 1661 after the death of his prime minister, the Italian Cardinal Mazarin. An adherent of the theory of the divine right of kings, which advocates the divine origin and lack of temporal restraint of monarchical rule, Louis continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralized state governed from the capital. He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism persisting in parts of France and, by compelling the noble elite to inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles, succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many members of which had participated in the Fronde rebellion during Louis' minority. By these means he consolidated a system of absolute monarchical rule in France that endured until the French...