Working assiduously on many files himself, he appointed a series of effective ministers who ran the government. After Mazarin’s death, Louis XIV began to assert his personal authority. Louis XIV became king at the age of 4, his mother Anne d’Autriche serving as regent under the direction of Cardinal Jules Mazarin. In the meantime, Philippe, duc d’Orléans, would govern the country as regent.įor much of the existence of the colony of New France, Louis XIV had been the monarch, the central figure of the society that depended on his distant mystique for political legitimacy, at least among the French settler population. His young great-grandson inherited the throne, but he had not reached the age to rule.
His son and grandson had pre-deceased him in 17, of smallpox and scarlet fever. When they arrived in September and October 1715 with their missives from the court, issued in the name of Louis XIV, no one in Canada knew that the king had died.Īt almost 77 years old, Louis XIV had outlived two of direct heirs. The last ships had left months earlier on their Atlantic crossing. But it took some time for the news to reach Canada.
In some quarters, it might even have been welcomed. Early September saw the death of the European monarch who had reigned the longest over the territory some call Canada.
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