He began to feel that France was his own personal possession and that Europe might be.
It was the combination of a great king with a small man which produced this composite being.

He had built Versailles, a palace unmatched since the Caesars.

He not only commanded the presence, but the obsequious presence of all that was illustrious and great at a time when France was in the full flower of her splendid genius.

Corneille, Racine, Moliere, if permitted to be, must pay him an almost idolatrous homage.

The beautiful Valliere was sent away, and de Montespan's reign had commenced.
But when Colbert died in 1685, Louis fell under an influence which was to be transforming.