Louis XIV ascended to the throne at the age of four.
One of the interesting facts about Louis XIV is that he became emperor at the age of four. Louis XIII and Anne of Austria gave birth to Louis XIV on September 5, 1638, at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He was given the name Louis Dieudonné, which means "Louis gifted by God," and he held the traditional position of Dauphin in France. His parents had been married for 23 years when he was born. Between 1619 and 1631, his mother gave birth to four stillborn children. The most prominent people of his time saw him as a divine gift and his birth as a miraculous miracle.
On May 14, 1643, King Louis XIII of France fell away at the age of 41. His eldest son, Louis XIV, who was 4 years, and 8 months old at the time, became the next monarch. Because the young king was too immature to oversee his 19 million subjects, Louis XIV's mother, Anne, served as regent and named Cardinal Jules Mazarin, an Italian-born Frenchman, as vizier. The young king learned everything from talent and strength to history and art from Mazarin, who functioned as a sort of surrogate father to his godchild. At the time of his coronation in 1654, Louis XIV was just 15 years old, yet it was seven years after Mazarin's passing before he became the undisputed ruler of France. (History repeated when Louis XV, his 5-year-old grandson, became king after Louis XIV passed away.)
