The Personal Rule Begins

On March 9, 1661, the day after Cardinal Mazarin's death, Louis XIV announced to his stunned ministers that he would henceforth govern personally without a chief minister. This declaration, carefully prepared but dramatic in delivery, marked a fundamental shift in French governance. At twenty-two, the king who had endured the humiliations of the Fronde determined to exercise the absolute authority his predecessors had theoretically possessed.

Louis's preparation for personal rule had been thorough despite appearances of youthful frivolity. Mazarin had carefully educated his royal pupil in statecraft's realities. The king had observed council meetings, studied dispatches, and learned the European state system's complexities. His natural intelligence, prodigious memory, and enormous capacity for work equipped him for the demanding role he chose to play. Unlike many monarchs, Louis genuinely enjoyed the detailed administrative work that effective governance required.

The new system of government centered everything on the king's person. Louis established a rigid daily routine that transformed governance into ritual. The lever and coucher, where favored courtiers attended the king's rising and retiring, became occasions for distributing favor and gathering information. Council meetings followed invariable schedules, with different councils for different aspects of government. The king presided personally, listened carefully to discussion, and made final decisions. This system required enormous discipline but ensured that all authority flowed from the royal will.

The arrest of Nicolas Fouquet, the wealthy Superintendent of Finances, demonstrated Louis's determination to tolerate no rival powers. Fouquet's ostentatious display of wealth at his château of Vaux-le-Vicomte, surpassing royal residences, sealed his fate. His trial and life imprisonment sent clear messages: the king would brook no competition in magnificence, and even the highest officials remained subject to royal justice. The dismantling of Fouquet's artistic collection and the recruitment of his architects and artists for royal service showed Louis appropriating cultural capital along with political power.