8/30.- Chateau of Versailles, State Apartments, Mars Drawing room

One of King Louis XIV's most famous sentences is : 'L'Etat, c'est moi' (="I am the State"). And he really meant it. All the state affairs were controlled by the king himself. Powerful nobles were ignored, and only the ones who obeyed him were given the privilege to be part of the court. And he was not only the political leader, but the spiritual also. He swore to defend the Catholic faith. His campaigns against the Protestants, led to the emigration of 200,000 of them.

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