Louis XIV and the Germanies

Abstract

The relations between Louis XIV and Germany pose one of the most challenging problems of the seventeenth century. It is difficult to view these relations objectively; on either side of the Rhine we find opposing interpretations, at times motivated more by emotive national responses than by impartial investigation. From the French point of view some events are represented as splendid or at least respectable (the Imperial election of 1658, the use made of the League of the Rhine, and the Strasbourg coup of 1681), while others are held up as shameful examples of the use of force for political ends (the devastation of the Palatinate, the destruction of Speyer and Worms, and the burning of Heidelberg).¹

First published in XVII^e Siècle, nos 46–7 (1960) under the title ‘Louis XIV et Allemagne’.