In 1654, Louis XIV was 16 years old; he had already been king for 11 years. He ascended the throne of France a few months before his fifth birthday, in May 1643, following the premature death of his father, Louis XIII. France was then administered by his mother, the regent Anne of Austria, who was assisted by Cardinal Mazarin, Louis XIV's godfather and Prime Minister. Starting in 1648, a period of strong challenge to royal authority by the Parlements and nobility began: the Fronde. The king and his mother were forced to leave the capital twice; on February 8, 1651, they found themselves trapped in the Palais Royal, where they resided. Louis XIV would never forget this humiliation and would always distrust Paris thereafter. On September 7 of the same year, he reached the royal majority, at the age of 13. By the end of 1652, the Parlements and nobles were definitively brought back into line, and Louis XIV began to concentrate all powers in his hands: absolutism was underway. His coronation, in the cathedral of Reims, on June 7, 1654, was lavish: after a childhood marked by political turmoil and difficulties, the Sun King entered the spotlight. France was prosperous, well-administered; its public finances were in order. It was the most populous country in Europe. Louis XIV left the administration of the kingdom to Mazarin until the latter's death in 1661, then governed increasingly personally over the years. Married to Maria Theresa of Austria in 1660, he began to redevelop the Palace of Versailles around the same period. It would become the center of his court and his kingdom, from which French arts and culture would radiate throughout Europe with incomparable brilliance. French classicism would thus reach its peak in the second half of the "Grand Siècle" (17th century).

This commemorative coin superbly pays homage to this absolute monarch whose brilliant reign, the longest in French history (1643-1715), marked the end of the major noble, parliamentary, Protestant, and peasant revolts that shook France.