7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7

not to alter its basic character. Except for 100 convinced

republicans, the members agreed to do so.

Cromwell dissolved Parliament in 1655 and faced a

Royalist insurrection. The uprising, however, fizzled out.

In the spring of 1657 Parliament voted to invite Cromwell

to become king, but he refused. Ever since the campaign

in Ireland, Cromwell’s health had been poor, and on

September 3, 1658, he died.

Louis XIV

(b. Sept. 5, 1638, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France—d. Sept. 1, 1715,

Versailles)

L

ouis XIV (also known as Louis the Great or the Sun

King) was king of France from 1643 to 1715 during one

of its most brilliant periods. He remains the symbol of

absolute monarchy of the classical age.

Louis was the son of Louis XIII and his Spanish

queen, Anne of Austria. He succeeded his father on May

14, 1643, at the age of four years and eight months. Louis

was nine years old when the nobles and the Paris

Parlement (a powerful law court), driven by hatred of the

prime minister Cardinal Jules Mazarin, rose against the

crown in 1648. This marked the beginning of the long

civil war known as the Fronde, in the course of which

Louis suffered poverty, misfortune, fear, humiliation,

cold, and hunger. These trials shaped the future charac-

ter, behaviour, and mode of thought of the young king.

He would never forgive either Paris, the nobles, or the

common people. In 1653 Mazarin was victorious over the

rebels and then proceeded to construct an extraordinary

administrative apparatus with Louis as his pupil. The

young king also acquired Mazarin’s partiality for the arts,

elegance, and display. Although he had been proclaimed