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 that the greatest king, and the most virtuous, should be measured by the standard of Versailles!  And there is always this misfortune to fear.”

But the King, like many another great monarch, had dreamed a dream.  He was not satisfied with Paris as a residence.  So he told Colbert to make his dream of Versailles come true—­and Colbert had to find some way to pay the cost.

An irritating cause of the King’s purpose lay in the fact that he was incited by the splendors of the chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, built by his ill-fated minister, Fouquet.  Louis determined to surpass that mansion by one so much more elaborate as to crush it into insignificance.  Nicholas Fouquet had employed the most renowned masters of this period—­among them Louis Le Vau, the architect, Andre Le Notre, the landscape gardener, and Charles Lebrun, the decorator.  These were the men the King summoned to transform the modest hunting villa of his father.  At the truly gorgeous chateau of his minister, he had witnessed the full measure of their genius.  On August 17, 1661, Fouquet gave an elaborate fete to celebrate the completion of the chateau, which the King attended.  Within three weeks the host was a prisoner of State, accused of peculation in office.  Acting immediately upon his resolution to out-do the glories of Vaux-le-Vicomte, Louis engaged Le Notre to plan gardens and Le Vau to submit proposals for the enlargement and decoration of the chateau.  One of the first apartments completed was the chamber of the infant Dauphin—­heir to the throne, who was born in November, 1661.  Colbert reported in September, 1663, that in two years he had spent 1,500,000 pounds, and a good part of this sum was for the construction of the gardens.  Builders and decorators suggested one elaborate project after another, without regard to the cost, despite the protest of Colbert to the King that they were exceeding all estimates and provisions.  It was a paradise period for profiteers.

Versailles became a favorite retreat of the extravagant young sovereign.  He frequently drove out from Paris, and on sundry occasions gave splendid balls and dinners.