Editing Louis XIV (section)

===Reputation===
According to [[Philippe de Courcillon]]'s ''Journal'', Louis on his deathbed advised his heir with these words: <blockquote>Do not follow the bad example which I have set you; I have often undertaken war too lightly and have sustained it for vanity. Do not imitate me, but be a peaceful prince, and may you apply yourself principally to the alleviation of the burdens of your subjects.{{Sfn|Bluche|1986|p=890}}</blockquote>

[[File:France 1552-1798.png|thumb|Territorial expansion of France under Louis{{Nbsp}}XIV (1643–1715) is depicted in orange.]]

Some historians point out that it was a customary demonstration of piety in those days to exaggerate one's sins. Thus they do not place much emphasis on Louis's deathbed declarations in assessing his accomplishments. Rather, they focus on military and diplomatic successes, such as how he placed a French prince on the Spanish throne. This, they contend, ended the threat of an aggressive Spain that historically interfered in domestic French politics. These historians also emphasise the effect of Louis's wars in expanding France's boundaries and creating more defensible frontiers that preserved France from invasion until the Revolution.{{Sfn|Bluche|1986|p=890}}

Arguably, Louis also applied himself indirectly to "the alleviation of the burdens of [his] subjects." For example, he patronised the arts, encouraged industry, fostered trade and commerce, and sponsored the founding of an overseas empire. Moreover, the significant reduction in civil wars and aristocratic rebellions during his reign are seen by these historians as the result of Louis's consolidation of royal authority over feudal elites. In their analysis, his early reforms centralised France and marked the birth of the modern French state. They regard the political and military victories as well as numerous cultural achievements as how Louis helped raise France to a preeminent position in Europe.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dunlop|2000|p=433}}, citing Montesquieu: "''Louis established the greatness of France by building Versailles and Marly''."</ref> Europe came to admire France for its military and cultural successes, power, and sophistication. Europeans generally began to emulate French manners, values, goods, and deportment. French became the universal language of the European elite.

Louis's detractors have argued that his considerable foreign, military and domestic expenditure impoverished and bankrupted France. His supporters, however, distinguish the state, which was impoverished, from France, which was not. As supporting evidence, they cite the literature of the time, such as the social commentary in [[Montesquieu]]'s ''[[Persian Letters]]''.{{Sfn|Bluche|1986|p=876}}

Alternatively, Louis's critics attribute the social upheaval culminating in the French Revolution to his failure to reform French institutions while the monarchy was still secure. Other scholars counter that there was little reason to reform institutions that largely worked well under Louis. They also maintain that events occurring almost 80 years after his death were not reasonably foreseeable to Louis and that in any case, his successors had sufficient time to initiate reforms of their own.{{Sfn|Bluche|1986|pp=506, 877–878}}

[[File:Marche du Roy accompagné des ses gardes passant sur le pont neuf et allant au Palais.JPG|thumb|Royal procession passing the [[Pont-Neuf]] under Louis&nbsp;XIV]]

Louis has often been criticised for his vanity. The memoirist [[Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon|Saint-Simon]], who claimed that Louis slighted him, criticised him thus: <blockquote>There was nothing he liked so much as flattery, or, to put it more plainly, adulation; the coarser and clumsier it was, the more he relished it.</blockquote> For his part, [[Voltaire]] saw Louis's vanity as the cause for his bellicosity:<blockquote>It is certain that he passionately wanted glory, rather than the conquests themselves. In the acquisition of Alsace and half of Flanders, and of all of Franche-Comté, what he really liked was the name he made for himself.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sommerville |first=J. P. |title=The wars of Louis XIV |url=http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/351/351-14.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120603010836/http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/351/351-14.htm |archive-date=3 June 2012 |access-date=4 May 2012 |website=History 351 – Seventeenth-Century Europe}}</ref></blockquote>

Nonetheless, Louis has also received praise. The anti-Bourbon [[Napoleon]] described him not only as "a great king", but also as "the only King of France worthy of the name".<ref>Napoleon Bonaparte, ''Napoleon's Notes on English History made on the Eve of the French Revolution'', illustrated from Contemporary Historians and referenced from the findings of Later Research by Henry Foljambe Hall. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1905, 258.</ref> [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Leibniz]], the German Protestant philosopher, commended him as "one of the greatest kings that ever was".{{Sfn|Bluche|1986|p=926}} And [[Lord Acton]] admired him as "by far the ablest man who was born in modern times on the steps of a throne".{{Sfn|Durant|Durant|1963|p=721}} The historian and philosopher Voltaire wrote: "His name can never be pronounced without respect and without summoning the image of an eternally memorable age".{{Sfn|Rogers Neill Sehnaoui|2013|p=4}} Voltaire's history, ''[[The Age of Louis&nbsp;XIV]]'', named Louis's reign as not only one of the four great ages in which reason and culture flourished, but the greatest ever.{{Sfn|Montoya|2013|p=47}}{{Sfn|Delon|2013|p=1227}}