The Sun King

The Sun King

"Money thus is the object of eminent possession." (Marx, 136)

The Versailles palace was built to impress. It was meant to be a symbol of power and omnipotence for the Sun King, Louis XIV, over France and subsequently over all of Europe. King Louis XIV wished to display that he was the unquestioned leader and the most powerful person in existence at that time and in the form of massive fountain sculptures, colossal marble columns, immense corridors and labyrinth-like gardens, he left no place for doubt.

In the mid 17th century, Nicholas Fouquet, Louis XIV's French finance minister, ordered the construction of a castle to be his new home, the castle of vaux-le-vicomte. He hired the best architects of that time and 3 years later, held a grand-opening party to celebrate his new citadel. King Louis XIV attended the party and was palpably offended by his inferior's gallant castle, feeling that it was a threat to his superiority. That same night, Fouquet was imprisoned for life on trumped up charges of embezzlement. Wealth and monetary potency were not enough for the Sun King. How could someone below his chain of command have a bigger and more prestigious home? Two years later, he gathered the same trio of architects that Fouquet had hired and ordered the construction of his very own palace with one priority: it had to be bigger and better than Fouqet's castle of Vaux-le-Vicomte. Today, the palace of Versailles is the world's largest royal domain covering a total area of 87,728,720 square feet.

The Sun King was jealous. He knew that his riches and his gold meant nothing if he was not perceived by the people as the absolute superior. His unlimited wealth was not enough to satisfy his hunger and as soon as the Versailles palace was erected, he was finally filled with victory. Does money equal power? Money might be able to buy you objects, it might be the "bond of bonds" and the "truly creative power" because it is "capable of buying all that the human heart longs for" (Marx 138), but is the "object of eminent possession" money or power? For the Sun King it was the latter.