“King Louis XIV’S toilet was designed to look like a WOODEN THRONE. Legend has it that the famous FRENCH leader would RELIEVE himself while conducting COURT sessions.”

5,000 Awesome Facts National Geographic, fact #5 on toilets

King Louis XIV became king at the age of 4 following the death of his father and remained on the throne for 72 years, marking him as the longest-reigning French monarch in history, along with the “longest-reigning monarch of any extant European nation” according to history.com/news.

He was known for his style in furniture that was predominately massive and ornate and covered with “sculpture and..of gilded bronze”. They were based on the use of marquetry, which is an inlay of pieces of “ebony, copper, mother of pearl, and exotic woods of different colors in elaborate designs.” Wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_furniture.

He ruled without a chief minister in which he alone carried all the routine, monotonous affairs of government for the rest of his life. This included on “sitting in on council meetings, writing letters” and planning military strategy and hosting foreign representatives.

Because of this, he was sitting in a chair for over 8 hours a day, so it would only make sense to make his royal chair something of beauty and productivity.

King Louis XIV is an incredibly famous ruler, and his taste and style of furniture still is seen and sought after today. I don’t think we will find a leader in today’s age that will be seen with a wooden throne toilet at council meetings, but it was quite a brilliant idea that seemed to work for him at that time.