Mazarin Dies, Louis XIV Takes Power

March 9, 1661

Cardinal Mazarin, the last of the great minister-cardinals, died at Vincennes. The twenty-two-year-old Louis XIV stunned his council by announcing he would henceforth govern alone. When ministers asked to whom they should address their reports, he said to me. The age of personal monarchy had arrived, and for the next fifty-four years no minister would rule France except through the king's will.