Versailles09 Louis XIV (1638 – 1715) ruled as King of France and of Navarre. He acceded to the throne on May 14, 1643, a few months before his fifth birthday, but did not assume actual personal control of the government until the death of his First Minister ("premier ministre"), Jules Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661. Louis would remain on the throne till his death just prior to his seventy-seventh birthday in 1715. The reign of Louis XIV, known as The Sun King or as Louis the Great, spanned seventy two years; the longest reign of any major European monarch. During that period of time he increased the power and influence of France in Europe, fighting three major wars (the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg and the War of the Spanish Succession) and two minor conflicts (the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions). Here he's dressed in the armor of a Roman Council.