Louis XIV de Bourbon (1638 – 1715) King of France and Navarre, Longest Ruling Monarch (72+ years) in European History, Eponym of the U.S. State of Louisianna

Louis abandoned Louvre Palace as the official home of the Bourbon monarchy for two reasons. Firstly, to take refuge from the increasingly hostile Parisian citizenry. Secondly, to take up residency in the grandly luxurious Palace of Versailles so he could start bonding with the French nobility, and they with each other.

Versailles became their permanent residence by monarchal decree. It was a smart move on Louis’ part that essentially reinstated and solidified the power of monarchy, which was on the wane due to the nobility’s revolt against the loss of their feudal power with the advent of a poweful federal government based in Paris. Cardinal Richelieu started that trend during the reign of Louis’ father, Louis XIII. France emerged from the royal communal experience as the foremost European political power during the Sun King’s reign.

With 210,000 square metres (2,260,421 sq ft) of floor space, Palais du Louvre maintains the number one position on the Guinness World Records list of the “world’s largest palaces”. King Francis I Valois (1494 – 1547) razed the former iteration of the royal residence and began building the current one in 1546. In comparison, Château de Versailles ranks #9 on the list, but #1 in terms of the total acreage of “Royal Estates” with over 2,014 acres of palace grounds.

Louis’ great-grandson Charles III de Bourbon, King of Spain, began building the Royal Palace of Caserta in 1752. He also contributed to the construction of the Royal Palace of Madrid built over the site of the fire-razed Alcázar.

The Sun King was an agnatic descendant of Hugh Capet (939 – 996) 1st “King of the Franks” and Clovis I Meroving (466 – 511) 1st King of Franks, 1st Christian Ruler of Gaul, Primogenitor of the Monarchy of France .

He-s ranked #190 in Hart’s Most Influential People in History – Top 500 List (125).

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

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