came to hunt in the vicinity of Versailles for the first time, he found
the suburban dwelling of his father attractive from the start. The
Gazette noted this visit, in 1651, and described the supper that the
royal boy shared with the officials of the chateau. Two months later the
King supped again at Versailles, and was so delighted with the estate and
the hunting to be had thereabouts that, thereafter, he made it a yearly
custom to visit Versailles once or twice in the hunting season, sometimes
with his brother, sometimes with his prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin.

Returning in 1652 from an interview at Corbeil with Charles II of
England, then seeking refuge in France, Louis XIV dined at Versailles
with his mother, Anne of Austria. In October, 1660, four months after
his marriage to Maria Theresa of Spain, he brought his young queen there.
The future of Versailles was assured. The King had decided to set his
star and make his palace home where his father had established a hunting
lodge.

The year 1661 was one of the most important in the history of the
monarch. On March fifteenth, eight days after the death of Mazarin, the
great Colbert was named Superintendent of Finances. It was he who was to
give to the reign of Louis XIV its definite direction; his name was to be
lastingly associated with the founding of the greater Versailles, and
with the construction of the Louvre, the Tuileries, Fontainebleau and
Saint-Germain. But Colbert's task in the enlargement of Versailles was
no easy one, nor did he approve of it. He opposed the young King's
purpose obstinately and expressed himself on the subject without reserve.
"Your majesty knows," he wrote to the King, "that, apart from brilliant
actions in war, nothing marks better the grandeur and genius of princes
than their buildings, and that posterity measures them by the standard of
the superb edifices that they erect during their lives. Oh, what a pity